The State of Utah, which last year put $5 million into cold-fusion research, would like a progress report. But Pons didn’t show up to present his data at a “mandatory” review last week. Officials scheduled another review for Nov. 7–this one by four independent scientists. If Pons and/or his British colleague Martin Fleischmann don’t appear, they could Lose the state’s support. “We’re not asking them to prove cold fusion,” says Raymond Hixson, chairman of Utah’s Fusion Energy Advisory Council. “We just want them to come in and show us that science is being done in a sound manner.”

Only Pons’s lawyer claims to know where he is. His house is for sale, his phone has been disconnected and his children taken out of school. Fleischmann is under medical care in England.

After Pons and Fleischmann announced their achievement in March 1989, there was a flurry of excitement over the possibility of such a cheap, safe and abundant source of energy. But the scientific community was skeptical. Since then, hundreds of other labs have tried to duplicate the experiment–almost all without success. This new disappearing act may put cold-fusion research on ice.