Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion

This book is excellent. It describes in amazing detail the events leading up to and following the "Cold Fusion" news conference. It's the story of how two scientists fooled themselves into believing that they were onto something so big that they had to claim credit for it -- fast. And it's the story of how the least qualified researchers quickly "confirmed" Cold Fusion, and how the best qualified researchers found nothing. If you're interested in how science is done, both well and poorly, read this book.

I strongly recommend this book. Taubes carries the reader through complex issues with wit and clarity. Some of his deadpan observations are hilarious. (Even though Pons and Fleischmann hadn't tried to measure neutrons, they should have known their apparatus wasn't producing enough of them to be consistent with their claims of nuclear fusion. "They weren't dead, for instance.")Although it's primarily written in the style of fly-on-the-wall journalism, "Cold Fusion" is also a meditation on human frailties and on the differences between good and bad science. But fundamentally, it is a tragic story of people getting lost in circumstances beyond their control.

The author does an excellent job in chronicling the saga and travail of cold fusion. The "lessons learned" are applicable to numerous technical fields, particularly where conclusions are drawn far ahead of substantiating evidence and critical peer review.