“Steorn presents Orbo, our free-energy technology that will power the future. You are watching a live broadcast of our device from London. Come and see it for yourself, we’re open daily from 11 to 7.”
So says the Steorn website that is currently showing the live demonstration of the ‘free-energy source’ in an art gallery in London.
Indeed, after some ‘technical difficulties’ this morning - the intense heat from camera lights apparently - the broadcast at the Kinetica Museum of kinetic art at Spitalfields Market in London has finally gone live this afternoon. Although what it is showing is not exactly clear.
The CEO of Steorn Sean McCarty told RTE news yesterday:
“Sceptics can view the device lifting a weight from four different camera angles online. Mr McCarthy said the company had decided against using the technology to illuminate a light-bulb as the use of wires would attract further suspicion from a scientific community that has already dismissed the device.”
Well, unfortunately that hasn’t happened yet. The whole thing seems a bit static.
This has been a story that has run since August 2006, after Steorn put an ad in the Economist challenging the global scientific community to verify its free, clean, and constant energy source. In the ad, however, they didn’t provide any technical details.
It did say the following though:
“we have developed a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy. Our technology has been independently validated by engineers and scientists — always behind closed doors, always off the record, always proven to work.”
Always proven to work? By Whom exactly? When was it proven? In which peer reviewed article did it appear? Can this be verified?
Well no, none of these questions were answered. That’s perhaps why they’re demonstrating it in an art gallery rather than a lab. But there you go.
Endgadget are keeping everyone updated on this, er, exciting scientific sideshow.
In the meantime, I noticed this in their wikipedia entry:
“The principle of conservation of energy is a fundamental law of physics which forms the basis of the first law of thermodynamics. If it operates as claimed, Steorn’s device would therefore be a perpetual motion machine of the first kind. Given the long history of hoaxes and measurement errors involving such perpetual motion devices, claims of this sort have hitherto been met with skepticism from the scientific community.”
Also, I was talking to Jim about this during lunch and he said he’s a friend who works for the Irish Patent Office. They’ve a special patent for any device that is based on breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Basically they’re given the standard patent for perpetual motion machines.
No doubt it was written up on an invisible typewriter. Speaking of the Simpsons, Jim also told me about this clip, which seems very relevant. Enjoy!
Of course, this is all over slashdot…
Update
It seems that the Orbo never even got off the blocks last week and all that was visible was a Perspex disk in a display case.
Amidst a blaze of derision, this press release was discovered:
“Further to Steorn’s announcement yesterday (5th July) regarding the technical difficulties experienced during the installation of its “Orbo†technology at the Kinentica Museum in London, Steorn has decided to postpone the demonstration until further notice.
Sean McCarthy CEO stated that “technical problems arose during the installation of the demonstration unit in the display case on Wednesday evening. These problems were primarily due to excessive heat from the lighting in the main display area. Attempts to replace those parts affected by the heat led to further failures and as a result we have to postpone the public demonstration until a future date.â€
He continued that “we apologise for the inconvenience caused to all the people who had made arrangements to visit the demonstration or were planning on viewing the demonstration online.â€
Meanwhile people just can’t help taking the piss.
The vid comes via Damien Mulley who suggests we all Digg it.
Meanwhile, Ben Goldacre wrote about Steorn on Saturday in his Bad Science column, in the Guardian. He rightly bemoans how the future is just not what it was supposed to be…
“Look, I’m with everyone else in the media, and indeed the world. I want fish oil pills to solve complex social problems in education. I want one injection to be a major reversible cause of autism. I want one invention to solve the world’s energy problems and I want my jetpack. It’s 2007 for god’s sake. Give me my jetpack, and give me my x-ray goggles. This future is rubbish.”
I don’t see much point in ridiculing Steorn. They seem to sincerely believe they have found something big, and on the off-chance that they are right, it would be nice not to have been one of the naysayers.
I’m not a scientist but I think that in science sincere belief doesn’t generally carry much weight. For example, how confident would an astronaut be if, when he asking about his chances of returning safely after a trip to the moon was told by a NASA engineer that it was his sincere belief that they were pretty good? Certainly, we should strive as much as possible to find alternative forms of energy, and they are there. But I also believe that there is no quick fix solution and that a substantial part of how we address this issue has to do with reducing energy consumption and energy waste. It’s a difficult and complex problem, which will require many different complex and multifaceted solutions.
There seems to be no doubting the sincerity of Steorn. However, a huge element of this story seems to be tied up in publicity - their Economist ad, this display in the Art Gallery – and very little with an attempt to prove in a verifiable way that this technology works. In fact, all we have since it was first mooted back in August is their word. So, as a skeptic, I refuse to suspend my disbelief.
I’m sceptical too. However, I think it’s pretty facile to ridicule them without checking out their bona fides. I’m not saying you are doing that, Donagh, but for example the bit you quote from Wikipaedia smacks of empty snideness to me. To paraphrase The Simpsons, I think cynicism is something dullards use when they want to sound clever.
I’ve been checking Steorn’s website every now and again over the past year, and according to themselves there is a confidential verification process going on. From what I’ve read I’m pretty sure they are neither scamsters nor hoaxers. That leads to me to two possible conclusions: they really have made a huge discovery, or they are deluding themselves.
They seem dead certain they have a working mechanism, but do not seek to explain how it works. If it does work, I strongly suspect that it does not violate Conservation of Energy to do so. If it does not work, this will go down as one of the most self-destructive examples of incompetence in the history of technological development.
On the subject of the world’s energy crisis, I am 99.999% certain we will devastate the globe unless some sort of huge technological breakthrough is made. Joe Public could not give a rat’s ass about environmental science, and never will. Worrying about global warming etc is for nerds.
And things like Live Earth certainly do not help the cause of making him care. I am a worried citizen of Earth, but Live Earth made me inclined to leave the fridge door open just to spite the posturing windbags.
Some very good points here. I think the snideness - and my piece does have the tone of pre-emptive ridicule although masked slightly by a vague ‘let wait and see’ attitude – comes from people trying to protect themselves against getting fooled.
Steorn have been cursed by this invention, one which they happened upon while recycling close circuit cameras, I understand. This is because it involves the holy grail of science. They could have ignored it, which is unlikely considering that they are a commercial company, or they could have tried to get a paper published in a respected scientific journal. They didn’t. Instead, they contacted the media.
This is a similar case to the scientist who believed, very sincerely, that sun spots were responsible for global warming. He did his research, he published his paper, and it got shot down through peer review. However, rather then going back to the lab and investigating the matter further, he instead contacted journalists.
In the Irish Times, no less, I read a feature article* (not a review) about the book he published last year with a journalist who has been writing very suspect stuff about the ‘real’ causes of global warming, as propagated in that documentary The Great Global Warming Scandal.
On the opposite page to the feature The Irish Times decided to publish a highly accredited Irish scientist’s response. The net result of this of course, is that the Irish Times were getting caught up in the lie, ‘well there are two sides to every story’. When it comes to global warming there’s not, just as there’s not two sides to the argument about whether the Holocaust happened or not.
I hope Steorn’s invention works, who wouldn’t? But ultimately I think the snideness on the Net and elsewhere comes from the fact that this thing has been swallowed unquestioningly by the media, so they feel there’s a need to counter balance it.
Steorn issued press releases to all the media outlets and they were repeated without question. RTE provided coverage, as did loads of other outlets. However, as Ben Goldacre said in his Bad Science column in the Guardian on Saturday, there was complete silence from the various media outlets when this thing didn’t work. It wasn’t reported at all, because it wasn’t in their interests to do so.
On the exclusively geek interest of Global warming, you’re exactly right. Joe Public merely considers it an inconvenience, no matter how true it may turn out to be. And I 110% agree with you about the Live Earth thing. The world would have been a far far better place without it.
Let’s hope that Al Gore doesn’t seek nomination to be US President, because if he gets in he’d probably make them an annual event. Oh Lord, will no one think of the children?
Thanks for the excellent comment Mr. Tagomi
*It was more like an advertorial than feature article to be honest.
To be fair to Steorn, they claim that they spent three years trying to get reputable scientists to test their technology and go public in a peer-reviewed journal about it, but could get nobody to agree to do so. Their story is that going public was a last resort. On the face of it the tactic worked, because they have a panel of scientists now committed to going public with their findings.
God, wouldn’t it be great if they really had something. We’d be in space in force within a few years. Economic expansion would be hugely boosted, with many of the drawbacks eliminated.
Gore is a strange man. I really wish he had been president on Sept 11. We’d be living in a far different world today. But if Live Earth is his idea of making a difference, I wish he would just disappear.
To be fair to Steorn, they claim that they spent three years trying to get reputable scientists to test their technology and go public in a peer-reviewed journal about it, but could get nobody to agree to do so.
I feel like one of those actors who do toothpaste ads, as they always begin them by saying ‘I’m not a dentist, but’. Well, I’m not a scientist but the above comment would suggest to me that there’s the answer to all this. If they couldn’t get verification from scientists in a peer review situation why did they pursue it. Oh, that’s right, scientists are very sniffy about looking at technology that challenges the laws of thermodynamics. Its just them and their recalcitrant ways. Sorry if this sounds sarcastic, and I’m aware that science is not always beyond reproach.
Scouring the global to get a bunch of scientists using an ad in a international distributed magazine, when you couldn’t find them using the normal channels that every other scientist or lab has to use doesn’t fill me with confidence.
God, wouldn’t it be great if they really had something. We’d be in space in force within a few years. Looking for another planet to colonize
Gore is a strange man. I really wish he had been president on Sept 11. We’d be living in a far different world today.
That Al Gore is coming across as some sort of folk hero shows how fucked up the world has become.
I’ve made an animation of the orbo, its a nice little machine but it ain’t gonna work.
http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=np9lLom16Nk
Nice animation Paul and it shows us what the machine is supposed to look like, especially as no one got to see it working. As Mr Tagomi said, its a pity that it didn’t. If only internet perpetuated skepticism and withering distain could be harnessed as an energy source…
All you snide buffoons are in for a rude awakening. I was at teh final Demo in Dublin on Saturday and a private session on Sunday and was able to turn the device in my hands. it is a remarkable piece of engineering. Hats off to the engineers of Steorn. Tomorrow, Wed Feb 4th, the first of the scientists come to test the rig with their own equipment. Of course none of this is covered by so-called “Dublin Opinion” . As Dubliner my opinion of this vile snideness of yours is making me sick. Get off your cowardly asses and get down to the waterways centre! But I forget - this demo is for intelligent engineers and developers. Not air-head hacks like you.
Thanks Aodh, I’m delighted with this comment. An insult from you is a treat indeed.
And I believe reaction to it has been huge.