The Cold Fusion Institute at the University of Utah is to close at the
end of this month. The institute was established two years ago in a flush
of enthusiasm after two chemists working at Utah, Stanley Pons and Martin
Fleischmann, claimed to have observed cold fusion ‘in a test tube’. The
state of Utah set aside $5 million to fund the institute for two years.
The idea was that the institute would then be self-supporting.
That no longer looks possible. This week Hugo Rossi, dean of the college
of science at the university, said: ‘The university has decided, I think
appropriately, not to ask for more funds in the absence of any evidence
that the institute would become self-financing.’
