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Vol.89 No.158 USPS 045360 6 Pages
College Station, Texas
Friday, June 15,1990
Journal: Possible fraud haunts A&M fusion results
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Experiments at Texas A&M might have
oeen manipulated to give results support
ing the concept of cold fusion, according to
a prominent science journal to be published
today.
Science, published by the American As
sociation for the Advancement of Science
and one of the most widely read journals in
the world, said A&M hasn’t conducted a
formal investigation though fraud is widely
suspected.
‘The result is that after a year of experi
ments that most scientists view with a great
deal of skepticism anyway, A&M research
ers are still haunted by this specter of possi
ble fraud,” an article in the journal said.
John Fackler, dean of A&M’s College of
Science, said in an interview Thursday he
FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS
had no reason to believe fraud has occurred
and there were no plans to investigate cold
fusion experiments.
“I have no concrete evidence of anything
other than possibly fairly sloppy chemis
try,” he said.
Dr. John Bockris, one of the primary sci
entists in the cold fusion experiments, re
ferred all phone calls to University officials,
who released a vague statement on the
magazine article.
“The University has policies and proce
dures in place to determine the facts of any
question of scientific misconduct, while pro
tecting the reputation of any who may be
unjustly accused,” the statement said.
“Should any evidence of impropriety arise
from continued research efforts in this or
any other area of research, those policies
would then come into play.”
The University statement also said A&M
researchers will continue to conduct experi
ments in cold fusion and study the conflict
ing data coming from various laboratories
at A&M and elsewhere in the United States.
Cold fusion experiments in Bockris’ labo
ratory last year were among the first in the
world to report finding tritium, a form of
hydrogen that can be key evidence of a fu
sion reaction.
Fusion is the merger of hydrogen atoms
into helium with the release of substantial
energy.
It is the principal reaction of the sun and
of thermonuclear weapons, and is believed
by most scientists to take place on a substan
tial scale only when the hydrogen has been
heated to millions of degrees.
“Cold” fusion, in which the reaction
would take place and liberate energy in the
form of heat at ordinary temperatures,
would be a stunning scientific break
through — and mystery — if it really hap
pens.
Bockris reported the tritium within
weeks after Stanley Pons at the University
of Utah and his collegue Martin Fleisch-
mann announced to a stunned scientific
community they had achieved fusion in a
laboratory jar.
The Utah announcement set off a world
wide scramble to confirm the possibility of
cold fusion, but most experimenters could
not duplicate the Pons-Fleischmann results,
and the concept now has few supporters
among scientists.
Science said A&M’s quick findings of tri
tium gave early support of the Pons-
Fleischmann findings, and were instrumen
tal in a decision by the state of Utah to in
vest $5 million in cold fusion research.
A&M, the magazine said, received an ad
ditional $150,000 from the Electric Power
Research Institute.
Yet, Science said, “suspicions were raised
almost from the first that the tritium in the
A&M cells (experiments) was put there by
human hands.”
The magazine said some scientists had
suggested the tritium detected in the A&M
experiments was a result of someone delib
erately “spiking” the chemical analysis.
This could be done. Science said, by in
jecting tritiated water, which contains some
tritium atoms in place of hydrogen in the
water molecules, into the flasks of heavy
water, or deuterium oxide, that are used in
the cold fusion experiments. Deuterium is
See Cold fusion/Page 4
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By SEAN FRERKING
Of The Battalion Staff
2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty As They
Wanna Be” is just too nasty for some
record store owners in Bryan and
College Station.
•San Antonio reacts/Page 3
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In reaction to a request by San An
tonio police to remove the rap
group’s album from shelves of re
cord stores in San Antonio, Books
and Video, the parent company of
Hastings Music, has ordered all its
stores in Texas to stop selling the
"obscene” album.
Greg Smith, an assistant manager
at Hastings at Manor East Mall, said
the major reason for the removal of
the album is to protect store owners
and employees from possible legal
action.
“Personally, I don’t care for the
group,” Smith said. “Unfortunately,
I think the ban in San Antonio has a
certain degree of censorship to it.”
He said the government should
regulate obscenity in the music busi
ness with something similar to the
rating system used for movies.
“They’re arresting people in Mi
ami and banning the album in San
Antonio,” Smith said. “But they’re
not doing anything about any adult
pornographic magazines or comedy
albums by people like Andrew ‘Dice’
Clay.”
The album, which has brought 2
Live Crew into the national spot
light, has been labeled “obscene” by
a Florida judge and a San Antonio
assistant district attorney.
The “As Nasty As They Wanna
Be” version is said to contain overly
sexually explicit lyrics.
Two members of the group were
arrested in Miami after giving a con
cert before an all-adult audience. A
Florida record store owner also was
arrested for selling the banned al
bum.
The group released an edited ver
sion of the album, “As Clean As
They Wanna Be,” which Hastings
still offers to the public.
Smith said the Hastings in Manor
East Mall still carries the “clean” ver
sion of the album, although they
have removed all objectional tapes,
compact discs, singles and albums by
the group from the store.
Bryan Lynch, a manager trainee
at Camelot records in Post Oak Mall,
said his store never carried the un
edited album, although the store
does sell the “clean” version.
We really never wanted to get in
volved in it,” Lynch said. “We’re a
family-oriented store, and the
obscene version by 2 Live Crew is
just too objectionable for our stan
dards.”
Lynch said he believes the album
should be able to be sold without
censorship, but he also said he
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See Rap album/Page 4
A&M student
dies in accident
A Texas A&M graduate stu
dent died Wednesday as the re
sult of a one-cat accident on
Highway 6 south of Navasota.
Raj-Kishore Saxena, a 27-year-
old A&M graduate student of fi
nance, died in a local hospital af
ter his car veered off Highway 6
and rolled over.
Saxena, who was from India, is
survived by his wife, Amita Sax
ena, an A&M student.
A memorial service for Saxena
will be held at 3:30 p.m. today in
the All Faiths Chapel.
Photo by ThomasJ. Lavin
Camp Adventurer Angie Frazer repels from the stairs outside
DeWare Field House Thursday afternoon with help from kine
siology instructor Kathy Craig.
A&M faculty plays key role
in super collider’s projects
By JULIE MYERS
Of The Battalion Staff
From the superconducting super
collider site selection to the readying
of new technology, Texas A&M fac
ulty have been intimately involved in
the SSC, an A&M physics professor
said.
“With the SSC, we have the good
fortune to see exciting spinoff tech
nologies emerging from the devel
opment of the SSC,” Dr. Peter McIn
tyre said.
The super collider, to be built in
Waxahachie, south of Dallas, is a 54-
mile underground ring where pro
tons directed by superconducting
magnets will be smashed together
and photographed by scientists
studying the fundamentals of mat
ter.
McIntyre said the SSC will be the
essential tool to probe the ultimate
energy frontier.
Technologies emerging from the
SSC development already are being
put into practice by universities, lab
oratories and industries in Texas,
McIntyre said.
These technologies include:
• Improved Medical Resonance
• S. Korea offers funds/Page 6
Imaging (MRI) being developed by
the Texas Accelerator Center and
the Texas Medical Center. This-
would increase the device’s ability to
produce a clearer picture of the hu
man body, reduce its cost and re
duce the biological hazards to MRI
operators caused by strong magnetic
fields, which cause headaches.
• The discovery and ongoing de
velopment at the University of
Houston of high-temperature su
perconductors, which would in
crease the cooling power and effi
ciency of refrigerator units.
• A compact accelerator system
for high-energy ion implantation of
metals being built by A&M scientists,
that can be used to manufacture arti
ficial hips and prostheses that do not
roduce friction when implanted in
umans.
Additionally, jet engines and tur
bines made using high-energy ion
implantation will not rust.
• Superferric magnets developed
by the Texas Accelerator Center for
the SSC, which are an ideal choice
for compact, low-cost synchrotron
light sources. Magnets of this kind
will help produce microchips which
are smaller than those already being
manufactured.
• X-ray disinfestation of food
(XDF) being developed by the Acce
lerator Technology Corporation,
which can remedy many food con
tamination problems, such as fruit
flies, salmonella, hepatitis, botulism
and other insect pests.
The process is safe and effective,
employs no radioisotopes and is ap
proved by the Food and Drug Ad
ministration.
• A Continuous Unitized Tun
neling System (CUTS), invented by
A&M civil engineers. Designed to
improve tunneling techniques for
the SSC, it will increase dramatically-
tunneling rates and reduce costs,
meaning better and cheaper sewers
and subways.
• Superconducting magnetic en
ergy storage being developed by the
Texas Accelerator Center, General
Dynamics and Bechtel Corporation,
which can be used to store electric
energy more efficiently and with less
cost than by other means.
See Collider/Page 4
Court OKs sobriety checkpoints
WASHINGTON (AP) — Police seeking to curb
drunken driving do not violate motorists’ privacy rights
by stopping them at sobriety checkpoints, the Supreme
Court ruled Thursday.
The 6-3 decision upheld Michigan’s checkpoint pro
gram and, by extension, similar operations in most
states. ’
“The balance of the state’s interest in preventing
drunken driving ... and the degree of intrusion upon
individual motorists who are briefly stopped weighs in
favor of the state program,” Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist wrote for the court.
The three dissenters said the decision sacrificed indi
vidual liberty in tavor oi a police tactic that might not
make any difference in the fight against drunken driv
ing.
The sobriety-checkpoint ruling was hailed by various
groups seeking greater crackdowns on drunken driv
ers, but was denounced by the American Civil Liberties
Union.
Mickey Sadoff, national president of Mothers
Against Drunk Driving, called the decision “a great vic
tory for all of us who care about the safety of our loved
ones on the highways.”
The chairman of the National Transportation Safety
Board, also applauded the ruling but said, “More needs
to be done.”
A&M scientists say animal testing furthers medical progress
Graphic by Richard Ellis
By MIKE LUMAN
Of The Battalion Staff
With animal rights activism on the
rise, some Texas A&M scien
tists defend the need for animals in
the laboratory.
Secretary of Health and Human
Services Louis Sullivan, with an indi
rect reference to a Texas Tech Uni
versity scientist whose lab animals
were stolen, recently blasted animal
rights extremists for disrupting im
portant research.
Dr. Elvin Smith, a professor of
medical physiology in the A&M Col
lege of Medicine, said animals do not
suffer and are essential to medical
advancement.
“Every single medical advance in
the past 100 years has depended on
animal testing,” Smith said.
“There are no alternatives to ani
mal testing if we are to continue to
make progress against disease,” he
said. “It’s that simple.”
Dr. John A. Shadduck, dean of
the A&M College of Veterinary
Medicine, said the quality of life en
joyed today could not have been
achieved without animal research.
“You can’t get answers to funda
mental and important questions
about human and animal health and
improving health without doing
some animal experiments,” Shad-
duck said.
Dr. Gary Joiner, director of the
campus laboratory animal care pro
gram, agreed.
“I think animal research plays a
valuable role in improvement of the
quality of life for people,” Joiner
said.
The researchers said animal
rights activism is on the rise and had
some criticism aimed at the activists.
According to an Associated Press
story, break-ins and thefts by animal
rights extremists have cost the na
tion’s medical schools $6.5 million
during the past five years.
A bill by Rep. Charles Stenholm,
D-Stamford, that makes it a federal
crime to steal animals from research
facilities and farm lots was scheduled
to be discussed by a House agricul
ture subcommittee this week.
The three A&M scientists said ac
tivism at the University has not
reached the level of that at Texas
Tech.
Smith said a film that showed ani
mal experiments in progress was
taken by activists from the Texas
Tech lab.
He said the activists added narra
tion that claimed the animals were
being tortured.
“It is nothing but a bold-faced lie,”
Smith said. “They have deliberately
lied to the large constituency of ani
mal welfare people.”
Joiner had a similar view.
“There has been a great deal of
distortion of the truth about pain
and suffering in laboratories that I
think has caused some people to join
these animal rights organizations,”
Joiner said.
“I think a lot of naive people have
been sucked into the (animal rights)
movement who don’t really under
stand what it’s all about.
“If I felt that there was anything
going on like what they’re talking
about, I would have absolutely no
part of it,” he said.
Shadduck said federal laws pre
vent animal suffering.
“We have an enormous number
of rules and regulations to follow,”
he said.
Smith said laboratory animals are
given the same anesthetics used on
humans and therefore do not suffer.
“The written federal require
ments for the care of animals during
experiments actually exceeds the re
quirements for the care of humans
in a hospital,” Smith said.
Joiner said a federal inspector
from the U.S. Department of Agri
culture visits A&M’s 20 animal test
ing sites at least once a year.
Shadduck said a researcher will be
investigated and punished if found
not following proper procedure.
He also said A&M has been visited
by various animal rights groups.
“We don’t have anything we are
ashamed of,” Shadduck said.
Smith said many animal rights
groups claim they are not against re
search, only cruelty.
“That goes against their litera
ture, though,” he said. “What anti-
experimental groups believe, from
looking at their literature, is that ani
mals have absolutely equal rights
with humans.
“They argue animal experimenta
tion is worthless and cruel and that
no advances have been made in the
treatment of humans by using ex
perimental animals,” Smith said.
“That just won’t sell.”
He said two people die of heart
disease every minute and that ani
mal research is the most probable
hope of solving this and other prob
lems.
Joiner said about 80 percent of
the animals used are rats and mice.
Phone calls to the Houston Ani
mal Rights Team, an activist group,
were not returned.