Death of a Cold Fusion Proponent

Eugene Mallove, a science writer who for the past 15 years had dedicated himself to advancing the case for cold fusion, was murdered Friday in an apparent robbery. Mallove, 56, was founder and president of the New Energy Foundation and editor in chief of its magazine, Infinite Energy. He was previously chief science writer at the MIT News Office. He left MIT largely because his point of view on cold fusion was vehemently opposed by most scientists at the Institute.

One of my first assignments when I joined Technology Review was to work on a piece Mallove had written in which he vigorously defended the proposition that cold fusion was a real scientific phenomenon and not, as many scientists claimed, an artifact of experimental error or even a fraud. Although the magazine ultimately chose not to publish his article, I vividly remember Mallove’s passion and commitment to the cause of advancing what he firmly believed was a world-changing technology. For most of the past 15 years, the cause that he espoused has been rejected by most mainstream physicists. In the past year, however, some stances have softened, and the U.S. Department of Energy recently decided to take another look at the validity of cold fusion.