Low Energy Nuclear Reactions

Character and Role of Theory Storms’ view of where and how low energy nuclear reactions (LENR) occur has been called a theory, so we begin with an examination of the character of a scientific theory. A compact summary about theory in any science is available in Wikipedia: “A scientific theory is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. Scientists create scientific theories from hypotheses that have been corroborated through the scientific method, then gather evidence to test their accuracy. As with all forms of scientific knowledge, scientific theories. . .aim for predictive and explanatory force.” The Wikipedia article continues, “The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain, which is measured by its ability to make falsifiable predictions with respect to those phenomena. Theories are improved as more evidence is gathered, so that accuracy in prediction improves over time. . .Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous and comprehensive form of scientific knowledge. This is significantly different from the word ‘theory’ in common usage, which implies that something is unproven or speculative.” Scientific theories are unavoidably quantitative. Notice the emphasis on “accuracy” in the above discussion of theory. There is a sequence of steps for the development and testing of a theory. An idea comes first. Then, equations that embody the notion must be written down. Computational evaluation of those equations then yields values that can be compared with past measurements or used to design experiments to test the theory, possibly falsifying it. We will compare Storms’ idea about where and how LENR occur with these aspects of theories after a brief synopsis of the current status of LENR and a summary of Storms’ viewpoints on the sites and dynamics of LENR.