Disputes over scientific research methods, long ignored by an uninterested public, made headlines earlier this year when a pair of University of Utah researchers claimed they had discovered a reaction that could provide the world with a virtually unlimited source of energy.

On March 23, B. Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced that they achieved "cold fusion" in a flask, and scientists around the world quickly rushed to their labs to attempt to verify the researchers' claims.

Fusion, the process that powers the sun, has been pegged for years as a possible solution to the world's energy problems because the huge amount of energy it produces is fueled primarily by hydrogen, which exists abundantly in water.

Before the Utah announcement, fusion was thought possible only at high temperatures and pressures like those found at the center of the sun. Researchers had tried for years to create such conditions with million-dollar equipment.

While those tests have succeeded in producing fusion reactions, so-called "hot fusion" has no commercial applications because of the high equipment costs involved. Hot fusion also yields less energy than is required to start the process.

So when Pons and Fleischmann claimed that they had achieved fusion at room temperature with relatively inexpensive equipment, the two scientists were cast in an unfamiliar role--that of celebrities.

The fusion discovery made its way onto the covers of dozens of newspapers and tabloids, and Pons and Fleischmann became as close to house-hold names as two research chemists could ever hope to be. Some observers credited them with the greatest discovery since fire, and others said they would soon be on the way to Oslo for a Nobel prize.

But Pons and Fleischmann's fame soon turned to infamy, as other scientists began to question the pair's experimental method and results.

Critics quickly pointed out that Pons and Fleischmann never used a control experiment, although controls are standard scientific practices expected even of first-year chemistry students. Without a control experiment, it was impossible to tell for sure if the heat generated in the experiment came from fusion or from a previously unknown chemical reaction.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that Pons and Fleischmann made the announcement at a news conference rather than through the established route of publication in a scientific journal. Some accused the pair of publicity-mongering at a time when they should have been publishing an accurate paper on their findings for peer review.

When the pair finally produced a report a few weeks after the announcement, it contained a full page of mistakes. Specifically, one of Pons' graduate students who helped write the report had his name "inadvertantly" left off the report.

"Their experimental method was pretty sloppy," said Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac F. Silvera, who is leading a Harvard team checking the fusion results. "And I don't like the idea of announcing in the press before publishing. It's not the way to do science."

Fusion occurs when two small atoms combine to form a larger atom, releasing energy. The Utah researchers reported that when they ran an electric current through a flask containing heavy water and palladium, a sharp increase in water temperature occurred. The pair claimed that atoms of deuterium (a form of hydrogen found in heavy water) entered the palladium and fused together into helium atoms.

Two Harvard teams joined scientists around the world in experiments designed to verify the claims of the Utah researchers.

Silvera leads a team in the Lyman Labs that is using a high-pressure diamond anvil to crush together a palladium and deuterium cell. Silvera says their first test, which failed to release heat or emit subatomic particles that are expected by-products of fusion, could have failed because of accidental leaking by the liquid deuterium.