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The E-Cat, or Energy Catalyser, is an alleged cold fusion reactor invented by Andrea Rossi. While many researchers claim to have produced small quantities of excess heat using nickel and hydrogen, Rossi claims he can produce kilowatts and his technology is ready for industry. Rossi’s claims are far-fetched, but the E-Cat refuses to go away. Now it appears to have been not only verified, but replicated. Should we start taking Rossi seriously?

Rossi’s style is striptease: punters are led on with big promises, followed by obsessive secrecy and occasional fleeting glimpses. He addresses the world only via statements in idiosyncratic English in the comments section of his web page, the grandly and misleadingly-titled Journal of Nuclear Physics. Scientists have never been allowed to examine the E-Cat, details of the supposed physics have never been revealed, and even the identities of his US business partners were only discovered by online sleuthing.

Given his keep-’em-waiting approach, few believed Rossi’s repeated assertions over the years that an independent scientific study of the E-Cat really was on the way. […]