A massive compilation of the experiments, notebooks, papers, presentations, and library of Edmund Storms was conducted by Dr. Thomas Grimshaw of the Energy Institute at University of Texas Austin. The intent was to preserve the earliest data sets of ground-breaking research in cold fusion/LENR for future review.
Since 1989, the field of condensed matter nuclear science has generated a host of experimental results without the benefit of mainstream support. Banned from publishing in science journals, many CMNS data sets have not been archived. Now, after three-decades of work, original LENR scientists are getting older, and there is an effort to preserve and archive their work for future review.
Thomas Grimshaw, Director of the LENR Research Documentation Project says, “Ed and I had been working on an initiative to open a new LENR laboratory in Santa Fe. As I was preparing a proposal for the lab and building a case for its support, I observed the depth and breath of Ed’s research materials. At that time funding was not available for the lab, so I approached Ed about doing a project to document his extensive LENR research record.”
“We both came to consider the initiative a “pilot project” for future efforts for other researchers. That’s the way we presented it at ICCF-21 last June. ”
A poster about the LENR Research Documentation Project was presented at ICCF-21 and a paper describing the process will be published in the Proceedings. See the article 29 Years of Cold Fusion Research
“It was a large effort, given the size of Ed’s research record,” says Grimshaw, “so we approached the task in a stepwise manner. First we collected the information, then we organized it using a LENR career timeline, and finally we documented each piece with memos and reports. “
The results became both historical record, and active research material.
” Well it was a revelation to me!” says Edmund Storms, a co-archivist in the project. “Tom made me realize that there may be some nuggets of gold in these mill tailings I’ve left behind.”
For many independent researchers in the CMNS field, the three-decades of work was conducted with little, if any, support. Research assistants and secretaries are still a rarity. Thus career-long experiments are often in scattered forms, some written files, data stored in old program formats – the digital revolution has changed data storage technologies several times over since 1989.
All of that disconnected media becomes intelligible when coalesced, and pictures can become patterns when seen with new eyes.
“It’s always true that when you’re doing research, you’re doing it in the the context of what you know at the time,” says Edmund Storms, “but over a period of time, your understanding changes, and it improves. “
“If you don’t go back and look at what you’ve gotten from nature in the past, and re-evaluate it, that new knowledge is not really being put to good use.”
“So the idea was, based upon what we understand today, go back through, and see if something that I saw in the past and ignored because I didn’t understand it, might be understandable today.”
Cold Fusion Research: Experiments, Explanations, and Related Scientific Contributions Draft Summary by Dr. Thomas Grimshaw Energy Institute The University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Edmund Storms Kiva Labs are listed in .pdfs here (minus primary data sets):
Projects such as these bring old data to the light of new perspective, but they also preserve a historical timeline in a unique field of science that might have easily disappeared before ever getting started, and Edmund Storms’ LENR work is just the first record to be made.
Thomas Grimshaw says, “I realized while working with Ed that he was perhaps the most knowledgeable and creative researcher in the field. It was also easy to see that if Ed left the field, the loss of this large research record would be a major blow not only to the field, but also potentially for humankind, given the importance of realizing the benefits of LENR as a clean, abundant, and cheap energy source.”
“Similar documentation projects are now underway with four other LENR investigators. And a generous grant has been received to support the effort with other researchers in the future.”
Now, as breakthrough nears, the story of cold fusion will be re-written with the words and record of the scientists who lived it, and projects like this one will provide the authoritative and irrefutable proof of their success.
