Purdue physicist found guilty of misconduct
Researcher Rusi P. Taleyarkhan, who says he produced tabletop fusion, falsely claimed that his findings had been independently replicated, a university panel finds.
A Purdue University physicist who claimed to have demonstrated a tabletop fusion process that could revolutionize energy production is guilty of research misconduct in asserting that his findings were independently reproduced, a university committee said Friday.
The panel did not investigate whether Rusi P. Taleyarkhan fabricated his widely publicized and highly controversial research but whether he intentionally misled the scientific community in claiming that his work had been independently replicated.
It has been six years since Taleyarkhan's original publication, and no one else has been able to duplicate his findings, said physicist Michael J. Saltmarsh, who is now retired from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and had tried unsuccessfully to replicate the work.
Taleyarkhan was using a well-known technique called sonoluminescence, in which sound waves are used to collapse bubbles in a liquid, creating very high concentrations of energy and light. The technique is already used for such purposes as catalyzing chemical reactions, cleaning badly contaminated surfaces, and melting fat during liposuction.
In a 2002 paper touted on the cover of the prestigious journal Science, Taleyarkhan reported that he had used sonoluminescence on acetone in which the hydrogen atoms had been replaced with deuterium. The high temperature and pressure, he said, produced nuclear fusion, generating neutrons and tritium.
The article was published over the vehement objections of several reviewers and was heavily criticized by other physicists.
While researchers tried to duplicate the experiment, Taleyarkhan set his postdoctoral fellow Yiban Xu to the task.
Xu observed the critical fusion products and prepared a paper that was submitted to Science under his name. The paper was rejected, in part because referees maintained that he could not have carried out the experiments alone.
According to the report by the Purdue committee -- composed of scientists from inside and outside the university -- Taleyarkhan asked master's candidate Adam Butt to review Xu's data. Butt's name was then added to the paper, even though he had not participated in the research.
That, said the panel, was clearly scientific misconduct because it was designed to give the appearance of a collaboration that had not occurred.
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