Dr. Doug Natelson's Email Conversation with Steorn

Dr. Natelson has posted his email correspondence with Steorn here. Some of the interesting parts are posted below. From Steorn's Email:

Please find attached a letter outlining the jury process and requesting information regarding your availability for a period of four consecutive days between November 1st and January 31st 2007.

These types of conversations and documents present evidence that the Jury process is really happening. From Dr. Natelson's reply, it seems that he was so busy that he didn't even get a chance to read the attached letter. I'm guessing the letter discussed the actual testing of the device. Steorn has made it clear that the jury will be able to test in this manner.

My apologies for the delayed response. Unfortunately, between
my academic and family obligations (which have both grown significantly
since I filled out the form on your website), I won't be able to
participate in your 'challenge'. Please pardon the inconvenience.

I wonder if Steorn consulted any high profile scientists about the jury process idea before moving forward with it. At the end of Dr. Natelson's email, he had this to say:

PS - I still don't understand the "jury" business anyway. Build and
demonstrate a couple of working units, and you can patent and publish
in the open literature.

Note that Dr. Natelson has updated his blog entry with these details. The comments are worth reading also if you have the time.

Steorn's Q1 Update

The Highlights:

• There are 22 Scientists on the Jury vs. the assumed 12
• The Jurors are reviewing the technology, and will start a test phase in the next couple of months
• A public demo will take place in July in London, with a webcast for the rest of the world
  

I'm really surprised that the test phase hasn't started yet. This whole process is taking entirely too long!

Dr. Doug Natelson's Adventure with Steorn

Today, skeptical points us to a blog entry by Dr. Doug Natelson, an associate professor at Rice University:

I actually did communicate with Steorn last fall; while the had some interest in talking to me, they did not come close to answering my questions about how their jury process was supposed to work (e.g., would scientists actually be able to play with the gadget in an off-site laboratory; did Steorn really mean that their machine produced energy, or were they trying to finesse conventional jargon by talking about "coefficients of performance greater than one" (which may mean nothing for a refrigerator, for example)). I'm willing to wager that they have not discovered a loophole in the first law of thermodynamics. It will be interesting to hear what they report, and whether any actual scientists would be willing to stand up and back Steorn's claims.

This got Sean's attention:

Interesting, I will pull the correspondence on this person (Doug) tomorrow (if they did in fact apply) and post back on the matter.

And Dr. Natelson replied on his blog:

They asked me; I declined. There isn't much correspondence - two emails from me, IIRC. Discussion was done over the phone. Believe me, I would love it if I were wrong - it'd be the biggest scientific news of the century. However, having an open mind doesn't mean believing everything people tell you uncritically.

Finally, Sean had this to say:

Well all our calls are recorded so I will check these also, I would not like to think that the guy was treated unfairly.

Both Sean and Dr. Natelson will most likely post more details tomorrow, including emails and possibly even the telephone conversations between the two.

In the News and in the Forums

Today the rest of the world heard a little bit about Steorn through Engadget and Digg. Both sites featured the news that Steorn will be releasing an update this Friday. My hunch is that the actual news will make an even bigger splash.

Also, in the forums today Sean had some more information to share:

I have always stated that the ONLY way to confirm we have what we claim to have is a full evaluation by experts, this is what the Jury are up to. The reason for the July demo will be addressed in the video update on Friday.

It's nice to know that we'll learn something new on Friday! Also, Sean made this comment in response to Kent767's inquiry about a major investor in Steorn:

The Patmore Group that is a Steorn shareholder is not an Irish company and hence you will not find them on cro.ie

If someone does dig up more information about the Patmore Group, we'd all be very interested in hearing about it. Some more notable quotes from Sean:

When the documentary is released I think that you get a greater understanding of why we felt that we had no other choice but to take this route, until then you can take my word for it, or not.

EarthTech International was brought up today in the forums. Here's what Sean had to say about the company:

I must state the I have a huge respect for EarthTech, we do have an NDA in place with them and I am sure we will discuss ways to work together. I should also point out that this is nothing more than an NDA and they have in no way endorsed our technology, I state this simply to let you know that we are very interested in getting their views on what we are doing.

Dr. Harold Puthoff is the CEO of ETI. We've seen that name floated around before, now we know that at least something is going on between the two companies.

And a final note, the Steorn's Orbo blog has moved to a new domain. All of us bloggers are careful not to upset Mr. McCarthy.

The Fence - By Spiritual Beggar

Wow... This is fantastic Spiritual Beggar. We'll see if there is any shift in movement to the left or right after this Friday!