Sean McCarthy of Steorn. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
The story of Steorn - an Irish company claiming that it has found a way to create 'free energy' - has been going on for a while, particularly since they placed an ad in the Economist asking for independent review of their system.
Earlier this week, the team - led by boss Sean McCarthy - arrived in London for what they said would be a public demonstration of the technology, which they're calling Orbo.
Except they didn't.
According to the demo website, "We are experiencing some technical difficulties with the demo unit in London. Our initial assessment indicates that this is probably due to the intense heat from the camera lighting. We have commenced a technical assessment and will provide an update later today."
That was yesterday.
For sheer entertainment value it's a great tale, and we've looked at it before. Steve Boggan first covered it last summer for us with a long feature, and I followed up when I met up with Sean McCarthy in London at Christmas (I blogged it too.
But while a rerun of the eternal perpetual motion myth might be fun to read about, even those being kind to Steorn can see that they're finding it tough to back up their claims. Another case of too good to be true?
Jack adds: Ben Goldacre covers Steorn in his Bad Science column today (Saturday, July 7): Perpetual motion goes into reverse.
