Pons and Fleischmann: How Cold Fusion Imploded in Six Weeks
In March 1989, two electrochemists announced they had achieved nuclear fusion in a tabletop electrolysis cell. By May, the world's top labs had failed to replicate. The episode is a case study in how a press conference can outrun the peer-review process.
What this story trains
The interplay between extraordinary claims, missing controls, and the social pressure to publish first. The cold-fusion story is mainly about replication failure, but the sub-plot is about how science self-corrects when the headlines outrun the paper.
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