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Steven E. Jones

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Steven E. Jones

Steven Earl Jones is a professor of physics at Brigham Young University and 9/11 conspiracy theorist. 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.

Since late 2005, Jones has been defending the hypothesis that the collapse of the World Trade Center was due to a controlled demolition, a common feature of conspiracy theories surrounding the September 11, 2001 attacks. On September 7, 2006, he was placed on paid leave while his university reviewed the scientific basis of his work in this area. Six weeks later, before the review would have been made, Jones elected to retire from BYU. On October 20, 2006 Steven Jones and BYU finalized a retirement package.

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 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) 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. Other research and experiments confirmed his findings.

WTC collapse controversy

At a department seminar held on September 22, 2005, Jones presented the substance of the paper that would become "Why Indeed did the WTC Buildings Collapse?". His hypothesis is that on September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center towers and Seven World Trade Center collapsed as a result of controlled demolition, not the impact of the airplanes that hit them or the fires that followed. The paper does not claim to prove this hypothesis, but calls for further scientific investigation to test it along with the release of all relevant data by the government. Shortly after the seminar Jones made the paper available on the website of the physics department of Brigham Young University. It would eventually be published in a book of essays critical of the official version of the September 11, 2001 attacks, 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott.

Jones has been interviewed by mainstream news sources and has made a number of public appearances, including the 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Symposium, which was held in Los Angeles on June 24-25, 2006. While Jones has urged caution in drawing conclusions, his public comments have suggested a considerable degree of certainty about both the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center and the culpability of agents working within the U.S. government. In an article published on September 5, 2006, Jones told The Guardian that the attacks were an "inside job". His name is often mentioned in reporting about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

The paper has been the center of controversy both for its content and its claims to scientific rigour. Engineers have dismissed the controlled demolition hypothesis with reference to the consensus that has formed in the engineering community about the collapses. Jones's early critics included members of BYU's engineering faculty and shortly after he made his views public, the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the faculty of structural engineering issued statements in which they distanced themselves from Jones' research. They noted that Jones' "hypotheses and interpretations of evidence were being questioned by scholars and practitioners", and expressed doubts about whether they had been "submitted to relevant scientific venues that would ensure rigorous technical peer review."

While Jones has always maintained that the paper was peer-reviewed prior to publication, doubts about this remain. On Thursday, September 7, 2006, Jones removed his paper from BYU's website at the request of administrators and was placed on paid leave. The university cited its concern about the "increasingly speculative and accusatory nature" of Jones's work and the fact it had "not been published in appropriate scientific venues" as reasons for putting him under review. The review supposed to be three-tiered, with the school's administration, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Physics Department involved. This action has drawn fresh criticism from the American Association of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Both organizations are long time critics of BYU's record on academic freedom.

Elected retirement from BYU

Jones and Brigham Young University finalized a retirement package on the October 20, 2006, six weeks after the school placed the physicist on paid leave to review his statements and research on the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

"I am electing to retire so that I can spend more time speaking and conducting research of my own choosing," Jones said in a statement released by the university.

Jones' retirement is effective January 1, 2007. He hasn't decided what he'll do next, though he has received a feeler from another school and intends to keep talking about the September 11, 2001 attacks. BYU abandoned its review of Jones's 9/11-related work after the agreement about retirement was reached. The review, which was expected to last the rest of the semester, was still in the early stages.

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 co-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. Pope, Justin (2006-08-06). "9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Thriving". ABC News > U.S. ABCNews Internet Ventures. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
  2. "9/11 Conspiracy Theorist to Leave Brigham Young". AP/Washington Post. October 22, 2006.
  3. "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.
  4. Pope, Justin (2006-08-06). "9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Thriving". ABC News > U.S. ABCNews Internet Ventures. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
  5. ^ Walch, Tad (2006-09-8). "BYU places '9/11 truth' professor on paid leave". Deseret Morning News. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Sullivan, Will (2006-09-11). "BYU takes on a 9/11 conspiracy professor". U.S.News & World Report. www.usnews.com.
  7. ^ Walch, Tad (2006-10-21). "BYU professor in dispute over 9/11 will retire". Deseret Morning News. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. Brigham Young University: Steven E. Jones's CV
  9. "Steven E. Jones' biography at BYU". Retrieved 2006-08-03.
  10. Jones, Steven E. "Behold My Hands: Evidence for Christ's Visit in Ancient America". Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  11. Jones’s manuscript on history of cold fusion at BYU, Ludwik Kowalski, March 5, 2004
  12. Browne, Malcolm W. (1989). "Physicists Debunk Claim Of a New Kind of Fusion". Science. The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
  13. 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. pp. 449–455, Volume 54, number 4. ...the observed enhancement of the electron screening in metal targets can, in tendency, explain the small neutron production rates observed in the cold-fusion experiment of Jones . {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |filetype= ignored (|format= suggested) (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 16 (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. Jones, Steven E. "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?" in Griffin, David Ray and Peter Dale Scott, eds. 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out. Olive Branch Press, 2006. A version of the paper has also been published online in the Journal of 9/11 Studies, vol 3.
  15. Griffin, David Ray and Peter Dale Scott, eds. 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out. Olive Branch Press, 2006.
  16. "9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda" Press Release
  17. Jones, Steven E. (July 18, 2006). "Answers to Objections and Questions" (pdf). Retrieved 2006-08-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  18. "Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job'". London Daily Mail. 2006-09-06. Retrieved 2006-09-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. "Who really blew up the twin towers?". The Guardian. September 5, 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-09. {{cite news}}: Text "Education Guardian" ignored (help)
  20. "2 U.S. Reports Seek to Counter Conspiracy Theories About 9/11". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-09-06.
  21. ^ 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)
  22. Bazant, Zdenek P. and Mathieu Verdure. "Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions" in Journal of Engineering Mechanics ASCE, in press. PDF
  23. "Refuting 9/11 Conspiracy Theory". Letter to the Editor. April 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  24. McIlvain, Ryan (December 5, 2005). "Censor rumors quelled". Retrieved 2006-07-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  25. Walch, Tad (September 9, 2006). "Controversy dogs Y.'s Jones". Deseretnews. Retrieved 2006-09-09.
  26. McFarland, Sheena (September 8, 2006). "BYU prof on paid leave for 9/11 theory". The Salt Lake Tribune.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  27. http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,645200780,00.html
  28. "Scholars for 9/11 Truth - Who Are We?". Retrieved 2006-08-04.
  29. "Journal of 9/11 Studies". Retrieved 2006-08-06.
  30. Brigham Young University: Steven E. Jones's CV

See also

External links

Links covering Professor Jones' 9/11 research

Categories: