Blacklight Power

The WSJ has an article this morning on the unusual story of Blacklight Power. The private company has raised $50 million to develop what could be a revolutionary scientific concept. Unfortunately, everyone else thinks it’s bunk:

Blacklight Power is a Cranbury, N.J., company run by medical doctor Randell Mills, who claims to have discovered what he calls “hydrinos,” a previously unknown form of hydrogen in which electrons move to a lower state of energy than previously thought possible but still manage to kick off power. Dr. Mills says his discovery will end the reliance on fossil fuels and even “replace fire.”
But hydrinos as described by Dr. Mills violate the laws of quantum physics — the rules of how atoms behave — and therefore can’t be, modern physics holds. And a number of prominent scientists, including Nobel laureates, have criticized Dr. Mills’s theory.
Yet some financial firms, businesses and even notable names from the military community have given Blacklight a total of nearly $50 million. Their investment comes at a time when high oil and natural-gas prices have placed greater emphasis on alternative forms of energy. The company is closely held, but Dr. Mills says he would consider a public offering of stock.
“The physics that he uses is utter nonsense,” Robert Park, a University of Maryland professor and spokesman for the American Physical Society, which represents more than 40,000 physicists, says of Dr. Mills.
Dr. Mills counters that Mr. Park represents an entrenched physics establishment that fears losing billions in academic funding and having its work discredited.

The Journal’s article is only for subscribers, but here’s another article on BlackLight. Also, here’s a blog on alternative energy investments run by the hoster of this site.
I don’t know anything about BlackLight’s research, and it seems highly suspicious. Nevertheless, I’m going to raise my rating to “near-term outperform.” Just in case.

Posted by on January 9th, 2006 at 9:50 am


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