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Steven E. Jones

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Steven Earl Jones is a professor of physics at Brigham Young University. His research includes nuclear fusion and solar energy. In the 1980s Jones popularized the term cold fusion, but his experimental work was significantly different from the more controversial cold fusion experiments of Pons and Fleischmann.

In late 2005, Jones became notable for his support of the hypothesis that the World Trade Center was destroyed by controlled demolition, a common feature of the conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Education

In 1973, Jones earned his bachelors degree in physics, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University, and his Ph.D. in physics from Vanderbilt University in 1978. Jones conducted his Ph.D. research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (from 1974 to 1977), and post-doctoral research at Cornell University and the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility.

Research interests and background

Jones conducted research at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, in Arco, Idaho, from 1979 to 1985, where he was a senior engineering specialist. He was the principal investigator for experimental Muon-catalyzed fusion from 1982 to 1991 for the U.S. Department of Energy, Division of Advanced Energy Projects. From 1990 to 1993, Jones researched fusion in condensed matter physics and deuterium, for the U.S. Department of Energy and for the Electric Power Research Institute.

Jones has also been a collaborator in several experiments, including experiments at TRIUMF (Vancouver, British Columbia), The National High Energy Laboratory, KEK (Tsukuba, Japan), and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Oxford University.

Jones specializes in Metal-catalyzed fusion, Archaeometry and Solar energy.

Jones has written a paper entitled "Behold My Hands: Evidence for Christ's Visit in Ancient America" in which he used archeological evidence to support the claims of Joseph Smith Jr. (founder of the Latter Day Saint movement) that Jesus had visited the Native Americans after his Resurrection, an event chronicled in the Book of Mormon. The evidence pointed to is Mayan depictions of deities which have stigmata like markings on their hands.

Cold fusion

In the mid-1980s, Jones and other BYU scientists worked on what he then referred to as Cold Nuclear Fusion in a Scientific American article, but is today known as muon-catalyzed fusion to avoid confusion. Muon-catalyzed fusion was a field of some interest in the 1980s, but its low energy output appears to be unavoidable and the field has since fallen from interest.

Around 1985 Jones then became interested in the anomalous production of helium-3 found in the gasses escaping from volcanoes. He hypothesized that the high pressures in the Earth's interior might make fusion more likely, and began a series of experiments on what he referred to as piezofusion, or high-pressure fusion. His experiments initially used a diamond anvil to create high pressures, but he later moved on to an apparatus similar to the one also used by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. In order to characterize the reactions, Jones designed and built a neutron counter able to accurately measure the tiny numbers of neutrons being produced in his experiments. The counter suggested a small amount of fusion was going on. Jones said the result suggested at least the possibility of fusion, though the process was unlikely to be useful as an energy source.

Pons and Fleischmann (P&F) started their work around the same time. Their work was brought to Jones' attention when they applied for research funding from the Department of Energy and they passed their proposal along to Jones for peer review. Realizing their work was very similar, Jones and P&F agreed to release their papers to Nature on the same day, March 24, 1987. However, P&F announced their results at a press event the day before. Jones faxed his paper to Nature.

A New York Times article says that while peer reviewers were quite critical of Pons and Fleishchmann's research they did not apply such criticism to Jones' much more modest, theoretically supported findings. Although critics insisted that his results likely stemmed from experimental error, most of the reviewing physicists indicated that he was a careful scientist. Indeed, more recent research and experiments confirmed his findings.

WTC collapse hypothesis

Jones has written a paper regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks, entitled "Why Indeed did the WTC Buildings Collapse?". In this paper, he outlines the basis of a hypothesis that the World Trade Center was brought down, not by impact damage and fires, but by controlled demolition using pre-positioned cutter-charges and thermite. After presenting "thirteen reasons to challenge government-sponsored reports and investigate the controlled-demolition hypothesis", he argues that his hypothesis is better able to explain the observed facts of the collapses than the government's investigation. He stops short of claiming that the WTC was brought down by demolition, but calls for further analysis of this possibility. He also calls for the release of all the data that was used in the government investigation.

Criticism

Engineers who have studied the collapses have dismissed controlled demolition as a "non-issue" and said that Jones' paper contains "nothing to debunk." It has not been published in a scientific journal, and many question whether it had been properly vetted by other experts in the field.

The BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences issued a statement in which they distanced themselves from Jones' research. A similar statement was issued by BYU's structural engineering faculty. The statements noted that Jones' hypotheses and interpretations of evidence were being questioned by scholars and practitioners, and that his analyses and hypotheses had not been "submitted to relevant scientific venues that would ensure rigorous technical peer review.". Before it was finally published, however, two physicist and two other scholars had reviewed the paper.

D. Allan Firmage, Professor Emeritus, Civil Engineering, BYU, has remarked that he finds the thesis that planted explosives had caused the collapse of the Towers, "very unreliable." Emphasising his experience as "a practicing structural engineer of 57 continuous years", Firmage characterized Jones' ideas as "very disturbing."

In August 2006, Jones also came under criticism from other 9/11 conspiracy theorists, including two former members of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" Morgan Reynolds and Judy Wood. They stated: "Steven E. Jones, BYU physicist, rocketed to the top of the 9/11 research ladder based on position and credentials. But nearly a year later, his contributions range from irrelevant to redundant to misleading to wrong. He has not turned up a single item of value. The majority of what Jones says is political and his physics is egregiously wrong, deceptive, nonexistent and shallow." They also describe his belief that airplanes hit the World Trade Center towers as "gullible" and point out that his rejection of the so-called "no planes theory" is not based on physics. However, like Steven Jones, most in the 9/11 truth movement do not endorse any "no planes theory, but refute it and describe it as disinformation."

Affiliations

Jones is Co-Chair of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which according to the organization itself is "a non-partisan association of faculty, students, and scholars, in fields as diverse as history, science, military affairs, psychology, and philosophy, dedicated to exposing falsehoods and to revealing truths behind 9/11." Jones is also the editor of the Journal Of 9/11 Studies.

Jones is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Jones has been described as "a devout Mormon and, until recently, a faithful supporter of George W. Bush."

Recognition and awards

  • 1968, David O. McKay Scholarship at BYU; National Merit Scholar
  • 1973-1978 Tuition Scholarship and Research Fellowship at Vanderbilt University
  • 1989 Outstanding Young Scholar Award (BYU); Best of What's New for 1989 (Popular Science); Creativity Prize (Japanese Creativity Society)
  • 1990 BYU Young Scholar Award; Annual Lecturer, BYU Chapter of Sigma Xi

References

  1. "Frequently Asked Questions About The Field of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions". A Subset of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. New Energy Times. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  2. Pope, Justin (2006-08-06). "9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Thriving". ABC News > U.S. ABCNews Internet Ventures. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
  3. Brigham Young University: Steven E. Jones's CV
  4. "Steven E. Jones' biography at BYU". Retrieved 2006-08-03.
  5. Jones, Steven E. "Behold My Hands: Evidence for Christ's Visit in Ancient America". Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  6. Jones’s manuscript on history of cold fusion at BYU, Ludwik Kowalski, March 5, 2004
  7. Browne, Malcolm W. (1989). "Physicists Debunk Claim Of a New Kind of Fusion". Science. The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
  8. Czerski, K. and Huke, A. and Biller, A. and Heide, P. and Hoeft, M. and Ruprecht, G. (2001). "Enhancement of the electron screening effect for d+ d fusion reactions in metallic environments" (PDF). Europhysics Letters. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |filetype= ignored (|format= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Volume 54, number 4, pages 449-455
  9. Jones, Steven E. "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?". Retrieved 2006-07-27. Also published in 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out (Olive Branch Press, 2006), edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott.
  10. ^ Gravois, John (June 23, 2006). "Professors of Paranoia? Academics give a scholarly stamp to 9/11 conspiracy theories". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2006-07-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  11. McIlvain, Ryan (December 5, 2005). "Censor rumors quelled". Retrieved 2006-07-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  12. "D. Allan Firmage". Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Brigham Young University. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  13. "Refuting 9/11 Conspiracy Theory". Letter to the Editor. April 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  14. Reynolds, Morgan. "The Trouble with Steven E. Jones' 9/11 Research". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. Hoffman, Jim. "Boulder Weekly Trots Out Morgan Reynolds' Trojan Horse". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  16. "Scholars for 9/11 Truth - Who Are We?". Retrieved 2006-08-04.
  17. "Journal of 9/11 Studies". Retrieved 2006-08-06.
  18. Brigham Young University: Steven E. Jones's CV

See also

External links

Links covering Professor Jones' 9/11 research

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