Assisi - City of Peace [UPDATE #1 - Part 2: The spirit of research]

Part one:

Several weeks back, the project was asked if a representative could attend a 1 day meeting in Assisi, Umbria, Italy. For those that might be interested, this is the birthplace of saint Francis (Francesco), the patron saint of the environment and animals. The current pope took the name Francis in his honour.

The town of Assisi is a recognised UNESCO world heritage site and is seen as "the City of Peace". This week marked 100 years since the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo which is often cited as the trigger that set in motion the first world war, the formation of the Federal reserve, the modern era of fiat money that has enabled so much environmental degredation, the second world war, the cold war and a whole lot of other nonsense.

For much of this year, Assisi is running a campaign "No more WARS, no more WALLS" as you can see in this poster.

The coincident thing is that it is over 25 years since falling of the Berlin wall and the discovery of Pons and Fleischmann which is the inspiration for pretty much all of the work into LENR, including our own.

We were invited to receive a logo that had previously been made public "Live Open Science for Peace" which featured a monument in Assisi. That would have been nice, but what was particularly interesting to the members of the project was that it was a chance to see Celani in person again, as well as another person we had attempted to replicate - Alberto Carpinteri, that of piezo LENR. In addition, there would be Ubaldo Mastromatteo of ST Micro Electronics and the opportunity to have his take on things was too good to pass up.

In the end, it was decided that since Bob was not doing any active experimentation and was closest, it would be most economical for him to go if he could spare the time.

Apparently he had a hell of a journey to get there, but had allowed himself a day to recover before the meeting and so, after sleeping for most of it, he ventured into the beautiful city where he proceeded to loose 20 euros from his shorts pocket somewhere between the castle on the top of the hill and the basilica of St. Francis. He never saw what was meant to be his dinner again - but in re-tracing his steps he found this a few streets up from the main square.

A door? Who cares about a door? Take a closer look...

In English that is

Andrea Rossi Nursing Home

Bob decided that was worth loosing 20 euros for.

UPDATE #1: Part 2: The spirit of research

The main event on the 28/06/14 was a conference, held in the “Room of Conciliation” on the main square in Assisi, the theme of the day was "Innovation and Research on the paths of matter and of the Spirit". Essentially, the speakers were presenting their science in the context of the protection of creation.

     

The event was hosted by the charismatic Claudio Pace who did an excellent job keeping a tight rein on proceedings. There were really interesting presentations on a range of science subjects that all referenced the environment or sought to protect it.

The first was by Francesco Bindella, a professor that spends nearly half his year in Brazil working on protecting the environment and helping communities there.

Alberto Carpinteri, from Turin, presented an updated presentation on the emission of neutrons corresponding to seismic events and the possibility that this accounts for the elements we see on earth today and how that led to conditions for life. In keeping with the theme of the day, he referred to research that correlated the accounts of the extreme earthquake at the time of Jesus' death to a massive sustained Neutron burst.

Alberto Carpinteri, Ing. Nuclear, University of Turin

Ing. Franco Cotana from Perugia University presented a fascinating report on their research into what could make the smart eco-cities of the future. Of particular interest was a cost effective ambient energy harvesting tower.

     
Franco Cotana, Ing. University of Perugia

Physicist Ubaldo Mastromatteo presented an attempted replication of the physicist-priest Don Carlo Borghi's 1960s experiment. The purpose is to show that a Neutron could be formed from compressed Hydrogen atom (Proton and Electron), a process that might be considered one of the first steps towards finding a new form of clean energy.

     
Ubaldo Mastromatteo, ST Micro Electronics (Retired, April 2014), showed he had some serious kit for plasma work

The engineer Domenico Capodilupo completed the presentations by discussing legislation and the need to transform waste into resources, citing the novel use of iron slag in road building and construction in the UK. This technology produces better, longer lasting roads out of what is normally a waste product that needs to find landfill. Additionally, it reduces the need for quarrying and processing aggregate for road construction so protecting the environment.

The announcement

After the presentations had concluded, Bob was asked, in his capacity as representative of the MFMP, to come and accept artwork from an Umbrian artist, Robert Lance which featured a monument of Assisi and the words “Live open science for peace”, an image of which we had previously been made aware of.

Then a little later, completely out of the blue, after being asked to stand in line, Prof. Francesco Bindella proceeded to formally announce that he had nominated the MFMP and Francesco Celani (of the National Institute of nuclear Physics in Frascati) for the Nobel peace prize! Like what? For What?

The MFMP has not been nominated for any discovery, which is just as well, as we are only trying to replicate others. The nomination is for the inclusive concept of Live Open Science, the way anyone can get involved and the way we publish our process and data so that it is protected from loss and able to be shared and stimulating at the same time. It could be argued that any time a nation has a significant technological advantage over others, there is a risk that subjugation and war can ensue. By tackling, discovering and sharing key technological discoveries in a collaborative and open way, the chances for disruptive imbalances should be reduced.

The theme is apparently is so dear to Pope Francis, that just days before this announcement, he had spoken to the Vatican observatory about the necessity to share scientific knowledge as the basis for peace.

Bob said that it all felt a little weird but apparently this is how people get to hear of nominees before a winner is announced. Essentially only people of certain standing can make a nomination, if it is considered valid in a category and more importantly accepted, then only the nominator can request permission from the committee to release the information into the public domain. If they get permission, they can say who they nominated. That is what happened.

After the announcement: Claudio Pace, Bob Greenyer (representing MFMP), Prof. Francesco Celani, Prof. Francesco Bindella

Looking into the facts there are well over 40 other organisations, let alone 100s of individuals in line for the same category, so chances are slim.

For the field, it is a shame it is not about LENR, but there could be some opportunity to let people know about the research field owing to this announcement.

Acceptance speech

Bob was asked to give a speech on behalf of the MFMP - he says he had been struggling to think of something polite and insightful to say, that a group of super intelligent Italians would connect with - he had no idea how much time he had and because hardly anyone understood English in the room, Ubaldo Mastromatteo was assigned as translator, one phrase at a time. This is what he tried to say...

“My father used to speak in proverbs. What he used to say was, where there is smoke there is fire. Well, that's the old fire and as we have seen today, in a number of cases, with the New Fire, there are things that tell us that it may exist. Carpinteri showed one, which is the piezo-nuclear reactions, and Mitsubishi were awarded, after more than one decade, a patent for transmutations. So essentially, regarding the question of “does LENR exist”, there is no doubt now that it does. It's whether we can see excess heat is the question we're pursuing. An answer to this question has been sought for more than a quarter of a century and we hope that, with what Francesco enabled in helping us start the Live Open Science process, it will help us find this treasure very much faster, like a whole community looking for truffles in the wood.”

He was cut short before he could give thanks so...

Thankyou

We would like to thank all of the participants of the conference, the townspeople of Assisi for accommodating it, to Robert Lance for his artwork and Claudio Pace and his team for organising the event and keeping it running smoothly. We would like that thank again, Francesco Celani for letting us test his research, a courageous act that has led to our being able to test the claims of others more recently too.

We would also like to extend special gratitude to Prof. Francesco Bindella for putting the Live Open Science process forward for the consideration of the Nobel committee.

Last we'd like to thank all the donors, collaborators and contributors that have supported and encouraged us to get this far.

In the next part, we'll report on what Francesco Celani announced... in the late session...