Fleischman, Martin

Born in Karlovy Vary in 1927 ^[5] . His father Hans Fleischmann (1889–1939) was a lawyer, and his mother, Margarita Fleischman (1899–1985), was the daughter of a high-ranking Austrian civilian official ^[6] . Since Hans Fleischman was of Jewish origin in order to avoid Nazi persecution , the family left their own castle and moved to the Netherlands and then to England in 1938 ^[5] . Shortly after the move, Fleischman's father passed away. Martin lived with his mother for a while in a rented cottage in Rustington ( Sussex ). He received his primary education at Worthing High School for Boys. During World War II, he served in the Czech Air Force Pilot Training Group. After graduation, Martin moved to London to get a bachelor 's degree in chemistry and go to graduate school at Imperial College London . His thesis was devoted to the diffusion of electrogenerated hydrogen through palladium foil . In 1951, Fleischman received a doctorate degree . As a student, he met Sheila, his future wife, with whom he then lived in marriage for 62 years ^[6] .

Electrochemistry (1950s – 1983)

Fleischmann's professional career was focused almost exclusively on fundamental electrochemistry. Martin continued to teach at the University of Durham ^[5] , which in 1963 became the newly created University of Newcastle ^[7] . In 1967, Fleischmann became a professor of electrochemistry at the University of Southampton ^[8] , working at the Department of Chemistry, Faraday ^[5] . From 1970 to 1972, Martin was elected President of the International Society of Electrochemists ^[9] . In 1973, together with Patrick J. Hendra and Hey James McQuillian, he played an important role in discovering the effect of surface Raman scattering (SERS), for which the University of Southampton was awarded the honorary badge of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2013 ^{[4] [10]} . In the 1980s, Fleischmann developed an ultra-micro electrode ^[11] . In 1979, the Royal Society of London, he was awarded a medal in electrochemistry and thermodynamics . In 1982, Fleischman left the University of Southampton, and in 1983 he left teaching. In the same year, he received the title of honorary professor at the University of Southampton ^[9] , and in 1985 the “Olin Palladium” award from the electrochemical society. In 1986, Fleischmann was elected to the Royal Society of London ^{[12] [13]} .

Scholarships, prizes and awards

• President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (1970-1972) ^{[12] [13]} ;
• Medal of Electrochemistry and Thermodynamics of the Royal Society of Chemistry (1979) ^[13] ;
• Member of the Royal Society of London (1986) ^{[12] [13]} ;
• The Olin Palladium Prize of the Electrochemical Society (1986) ^[14] .

Cold nuclear fusion (1983–1992)

Fleischman confessed to Stanley Pons that he may have found what he thought was a way of creating nuclear fusion at room temperature ^[8] . From 1983 to 1989, he and Pons spent $ 100,000 on self-financing experiments at the University of Utah ^{[5] [8]} . Fleischman wanted to publish an article first in a journal with a dubious reputation and discussed with the team that did a similar job at another university the possibility of joint publication ^{[15] [16]} . Details are unknown, but it seems that the University of Utah wanted to establish a priority over the discovery and its patents by public announcement before publication ^{[15] [16]} . In an interview with the program “ 60 minutes ” on April 19, 2009, Fleischmann said that a public statement was the idea of ​​the university, and he himself regrets this ^[17] . This decision subsequently caused serious criticism of Fleischmann and Pons and was perceived as a violation of the usual order of publication of scientific results ^[16] .

On March 23, 1989, the press conference announced the receipt of a “stable nuclear fusion reaction” ^[18] , which was called cold nuclear fusion ^{[19] [20]} by the press - a result that had previously been considered unattainable. On March 26, Fleischman warned in The Wall Street Journal that others should not try again until a publication appears two weeks later in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. But this did not stop the hundreds of scientists who had already started working in their laboratories at the moment when they heard about it in the news ^[21] , and most often they could not reproduce the effects ^[22] . Those who were unable to reproduce the results criticized the authors for fraudulent ^{[22] [23]} , sloppy ^{[22] [24] [25]} and unethical work ^[22] , incomplete ^[24] , unreproducible ^[26] and inaccurate ^[26] results and erroneous interpretations ^[27] . When the article was published, both electrochemists and physicists called it "sloppy" and "uninformative." It was also said that if Fleishman and Pons were waiting for the publication of their newspaper, most problems could have been avoided ^{[15] [28]} . Fleischmann and Pons sued the Italian journalist, who published very harsh criticism against them. However, the judge rejected the claim, saying that the criticism was appropriate, given the behavior of scientists, the lack of evidence since the first announcement, the lack of interest shown by the scientific community and that the criticism is an expression of the “right to a journalistic message” ^{[29] [30]} .

In 2009, Michael McCubre, from his attempt to repeat the Fleischmann-Pons effect, concluded that there is “heat production corresponding to nuclear but not chemical energy or the known effect of lattice storage” ^[31] . This was a continuation of the work carried out in 1990–1994 ^[32] .

Late years (1992–2012)

In 1992, Fleischmann and Pons moved to France to continue their work in the IMRA laboratory (part of Technova Corporation, a subsidiary of Toyota ). However, in 1995, Fleischman resigned and returned to England ^{[33] [34]} . He co-authored researchers from the US Navy ^{[35] [36]} and the Italian National Laboratories (INFN and ENEA) ^[37] further work on cold fusion problems. In March 2006, the Solar Energy Limited division of D2Fusion Inc announced in a press release that Fleischman, who was 79 at the time, would be the senior supervisor ^[38] .

Fleischman died at home on August 3, 2012 in Tisbury ( Wiltshire ) for natural reasons. He suffered from Parkinson’s disease , diabetes and heart disease ^[3] . He has a son Nicholas and daughters Vanessa and Charlotte ^{[6] [39]} .

Leading the Faraday Electrochemistry Department, Martin Fleischmann and Graham Hills created the now-famous electrochemistry research group at the University of Southampton in the late 1960s ^[6] . Fleischmann prepared more than 272 scientific papers and book chapters in the field of electrochemistry ^[6] . His contribution to the fundamental theory:

• Potentiostat design;
• micro electrodes ;
• Electrochemical nucleation;
• Raman spectroscopy with surface amplification;
• On-site X-ray methods;
• Organic Electrochemistry;
• Electrochemical engineering;
• Biological electrodes;
• Corrosion .

• Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, Stanley; Anderson, Mark W .; Li, Lian Jun; Hawkins, Marvin. Calorimetry of the palladium-deuterium-heavy water system (Eng.) // Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry : journal. - 1990. - Vol. 287 , no. 2 - P. 293-348 . - DOI : 10.1016 / 0022-0728 (90) 80009-U .
• Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, Stanley. Calorimetry of LiOD-D ₂ O Electrochemical Cells, 'RH Wilson et al., Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Vol. 332, (1992) (Eng.) // Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry : journal. - 1992. - Vol. 332 . - p . 33-53 . - DOI : 10.1016 / 0022-0728 (92) 80339-6 .
• Fleischmann, Martin; Pons, S. Calorimetry of the Pd-D2O system: from simplicity // Physics Letters A : journal. - 1993. - Vol. 176 , no. 1-2 . - P. 118-129 . - DOI : 10.1016 / 0375-9601 (93) 90327-V . - .

• Pletcher D., Tian Z.-Q., Williams D. Developments in Electrochemistry: Science Inspired by Martin Fleischmann . - Chichester: John Wiley & Sons , 2014. - 392 p. - ISBN 978-1-11869-434-3 .
• Ball P. Martin Fleischmann (1927–2012) // Nature : journal. - Nature Publishing Group , 2012. - Vol. 489, no. 7414. - P. 34-39. - ISSN 0028-0836 . - DOI : 10.1038 / 489034a . - PMID 22955604 .
• Derek Pletcher, Zhong-Qun Tian, ​​David E. Williams. The development of electrochemistry: a science inspired by Martin Fleischmann = Developments in Electrochemistry: Science Inspired by Martin Fleischmann. - 2014. - ISBN 9781118694435 , 9781118694404. - DOI : 10.1002 / 9781118694404 .
• SIMON, Bart. Undead Science: Science and Science of the Cold Fusion / Rutgers University Press . - illustrated. - New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. - ISBN 0-8135-3154-3 .
• SHAMOO, Adil E. Shamoo. Responsible Conduct of Research / Adil E. Shamoo SHAMOO, David B. Resnik. - 2, illustrated. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. - ISBN 0-19-514846-0 .

• Interview: Fusion in a cold climate , 2009, New Scientist
• The Believers movie official website
• Archived December 1, 2006. by David Voss
• Charles Platt. What If Cold Fusion Is Real? (Neopr.) Wired (November 1998). The appeal date is March 12, 2018. Archived November 12, 2016.
• Brooke Adams. Martin Fleischmann, co-discoverer of 'cold fusion,' is dead . The Salt Lake Tribune (August 6, 2012). The appeal date is March 12, 2018. Archived September 14, 2016.