Steven E. Jones: Difference between revisions

Steven Earl Jones (born March 25, 1949^[1]) is an American physicist. Among scientists, Jones became known for his long research on muon-catalyzed fusion and geo-fusion.^[2][3][4] Jones is also known for his association with 9/11 conspiracy theories.^[5][6] Jones has claimed that mere airplane crashes and fires could not have resulted in so rapid and complete a fall of the World Trade Center Towers and 7 World Trade Center, suggesting controlled demolition instead, based upon his own experiments.^[6][7] In late 2006, some time after Brigham Young University (BYU) officials placed him on paid leave, he elected to retire in an agreement with BYU.^[8] Jones continued research and writing following his early retirement from BYU, including a paper published in Europhysics News in August 2016.^[9]

Education

Jones earned his bachelor's degree in physics,

Around 1985, Jones became interested in anomalous concentrations of helium-3 and Tritium found in gases escaping from volcanoes. He hypothesized that metals and high pressures in the Earth's interior might make fusion more likely, and began a series of experiments on what he referred to as geo-fusion, or piezofusion, high-pressure fusion. To characterize the reactions, Jones designed and constructed a neutron counter that was capable of accurately measuring minuscule numbers of neutrons produced in his experiments. The counter indicated that a small amount of fusion was occurring. Jones claimed that the results indicate that fusion is at least possible, although the process was unlikely to be useful as an energy source.

Jones' interests extend to

Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann commenced their work at approximately the same time. Jones became aware of their work when they applied for research funding from the DOE, after which the DOE forwarded their proposal to Jones for peer review. When Jones realized that their work was similar, he and Pons and Fleischmann agreed to release their papers to Nature on the same day (March 24, 1989). However, Pons and Fleischmann announced their results at a press event the day before. Jones faxed his paper to Nature.^[16]

A New York Times article says that although peer reviewers were harshly critical of Pons' and Fleischmann's research, they did not apply such criticism to Jones' significantly more modest, theoretically supported findings. Although critics insisted that Jones' results were probably caused by experimental error,^[17] the majority of the reviewing physicists claimed that he was a careful scientist. Later research and experiments have supported Jones' metallic "cold fusion" (geo-fusion) reports.^[18]

In July 2013, Jones gave a poster talk at the 18th International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science at the University of Missouri, titled, 'Empirical Evidence for Two Distinct Effects: Low-level d-d Fusion in Metals and Anomalous Excess Heat'.^[19]

World Trade Center destruction controversy

On September 22, 2005 Jones presented his views on the

Jones subsequently presented the WTC research in lectures at Idaho State University, Utah Valley State College, University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Denver, the Utah Academy of Science, Sonoma State University, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.[23]^{[24][25][26][27][28][29]}

On September 7, 2006, Jones removed his paper from BYU's website at the request of administrators and was placed on paid leave.^[30] The university cited its concern about the "increasingly speculative and accusatory nature" of Jones' work and that perhaps Jones' research had "not been published in appropriate scientific venues" as reasons for putting him under review. The review was to have been conducted at three levels: BYU administration, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and the Physics Department.^[31] However, BYU discontinued the review.^[8] Some of Jones' colleagues also defended Jones' 9/11 work to varying degrees,^[32] and Project Censored lists his 9/11 research among the top mainstream media censored stories of 2007.^[33]

Jones' placement on paid leave drew criticism from the

Jones has been interviewed by mainstream news sources and has made a number of public appearances. Although Jones has urged caution in drawing conclusions,[35] some believe that his public comments have indicated a significant degree of certainty on the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center and the culpability of elements within the U.S. government.^[36] In one interview, Jones directly called into question the government's theory regarding the attacks and subsequent uncharacteristic total destruction of the buildings, stating that "we don't believe that 19 hijackers and a few others in a cave in Afghanistan pulled this off acting alone".^[37] His name is often mentioned in reporting about 9/11 conspiracy theories.^[38]

Jones has published several papers suggesting that the World Trade Center was demolished with explosives, but his 2005 paper, "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?" was his first paper on the topic and was considered controversial both for its content and its claims to scientific rigor.^[39] Jones' early critics included members of BYU's engineering faculty;^[40] shortly after he made his views public, the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the faculty of structural engineering issued statements in which they distanced themselves from Jones' work. They noted that Jones' "hypotheses and interpretations of evidence were being questioned by scholars and practitioners," and expressed doubts on whether they had been "submitted to relevant scientific venues that would ensure rigorous technical peer review."^[41] Jones further presented and defended his research before peers at the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters on 7 April 2006 at nearby Snow College.^[42] Jones maintained that the paper was peer-reviewed prior to publication within a book "9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out" by D.R. Griffin.^[43] The paper was published in the online "Journal of 9/11 Studies", a journal co-founded and co-edited by Jones for the purpose of "covering the whole of research related to 9/11/2001." The paper also appeared in a volume of essays edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott.^[44]

In April 2008, Jones, along with four other authors, published a letter in The Bentham Open Civil Engineering Journal, titled, 'Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction'.^[45] In August 2008, Jones, along with Kevin Ryan and James Gourley, published a peer-reviewed article in The Environmentalist, titled, 'Environmental anomalies at the World Trade Center: Evidence for energetic materials'.^[46]

In April 2009, Jones, along with

He is co-editor of Journal of 9/11 Studies.[65]

Jones is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has been described as "a devout Mormon."^[39] He currently serves as a full-time Senior Missionary in the New Jersey Morristown Mission of the Church.^[66]

Recognition and awards

• 1968,
  National Merit Scholar^[10]
• 1973–1978 Tuition Scholarship and Research Fellowship at Vanderbilt University
• 1989 Outstanding Young Scholar Award (BYU); Best of What's New for 1989 (Popular Science); Creativity Prize (Japanese Creativity Society)
• 1990 BYU Young Scholar Award; Annual Lecturer, BYU Chapter of Sigma Xi
• 2005 BYU Alcuin Award and Fellowship, for excellence in teaching
• 2011 A book published by Deseret Book Company and Brigham Young University declared that Jones " is a professor emeritus of physics, Brigham Young University".^[67]

References