This Water's for Burning. (September 15, 2007)

Autumn doesn't officially come to the United States until the autumnal equinox so the silly season is still on; in fact the following item this week  from Bob Park's What's New indicates its rampant:

WARNING! TURN OFF THE RADAR BEFORE THE OCEAN IGNITES.

 All week long I've been getting URLs, for which I'm grateful, about some guy in Erie, PA who discovered a way to burn salt water. It's an AP story, but the warning signs are all there: Described as a "cancer researcher," the protagonist built an RF generator with the idea of killing cancers by heating metallic nanoparticles injected into the cancer. I guarantee that it's possible to kill cancers with RF, along with the host. Anyway, he's not exactly a cancer researcher, he's a retired TV station engineer who discovered that retirement sucks - but that's been discovered before. He then decided to see if his RF generator would desalinate water, but when he tried the water caught on fire. He needed a scientist. Instead, he found Rustum Roy, an emeritus chemistry professor at Penn State, who called it "the most remarkable discovery in water science in 100 years." That would include "polywater," which Roy fell for 40 years ago. Roy said that RF weakens chemical bonds, releasing hydrogen which burns. It's the Bush "hydrogen initiative" fallacy again (WN 31 Jan 03) . Must I now lecture a chemistry professor on thermodynamics? More energy is needed to free hydrogen than you get by burning it. The story was shunned by major news outlets, except, of course, Fox News, which did point out that Rustum Roy is also "a specialist in holistic medicine and Christian sexuality."