MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Re: How will scientists react to free energy finding in Ireland?

Date: Tue Aug 22 03:50:48 2006
Posted By: Samuel Silverstein, Lecturer in physics
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1156022358.Ph
Message:

Hi,

There is so much that could be written about this that I have had a hard time finding a good starting point. I've finally settled on the simplest:

There is no free energy machine. There is nothing to see here.

Steorn is a small company with less than 20 employees that started out in 2000 as an e-commerce management firm whose business never took off. They switched their focus to microgenerator development and said in May this year that they were seeking additional private investment.

Two months later they have announced that they have invented a free energy machine, and communicated their achievment to the science community in the noted scientific journal...The Economist?

Scientists rarely look to The Economist for news on scientific breakthroughs. Investors, on the other hand, often look there for ideas on where to invest money. Steorn's media blitz is a transparent move to attract new investment money.

How do I know this? Well, to begin with this is hardly the first time someone has claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine or free energy device. Since such machines would violate well-tested principles of thermodynamics (as well as electrodynamics in Steorn's case), it is not surprising that none of these has ever worked.

Furthermore, I see in Steorn's slick presentations some clear trademarks of dishonest claims, playing on the time-worn stereotype of the outsider battling the "scientific establishment". Begin with their claim on their website:

“We are under no illusions that there will be a lot of cynicism out there about our proposition, as it currently challenges one of the basic principles of physics. However, the implications of our technology go far beyond scientific curiosity: addressing many urgent global needs including security of energy supply and zero emission energy production. In order for these benefits to be achieved, we need the public validation and endorsement of the scientific community”.

The implication clearly is that they are fighting the beliefs of "orthodox science" to bring benefits of their new technology to the world. But think about it for a moment...if they have a working device that does what they say, then why do they need scientists to verify it? If free energy is a fact, then it is a fact no matter what a scientist says. They should just demonstrate the device to prospective customers, go into production and sell the things at a handsome profit. With rising energy costs, there should be tons of customers eager to reap the benefits of free electrical power.

No, the only explanation for this is that there is no working device that does what they claim. This would also explain why they have not shown any pictures or video of the devices, or published any of their results in an actual peer-reviewed, scientific journal.

So forget questions about string theory, loop quantum gravity, twistor theory. The explanations are far more simple and mundane.

Skeptic Calladus covers this topic (taking it much further) in his August 19 blog entry.


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