A small Dublin-based company which took out a £75,000 advertisement in the Economist magazine last month seeking 12 scientists to verify its belief that it has developed technology that produces "free energy", claims to have received almost 5,000 expressions of interest from individuals around the world.
The deadline for applications from scientists for the so-called "Steorn challenge" closed at midnight last night. According to Steorn's website, it had received more than 4,970 applications by yesterday evening.
However Richard Walshe, marketing manager with the company, acknowledged that a significant number of these applications may not be genuine. "We've had a quite a few 'John Travoltas' applying. So far we have written back to certainly 2,500 people, perhaps even more."
This was with a view to asking them to verify that they wished to be signed up and to outline their credentials to test the technology, Mr Walsh said.
He declined to say how much the research would cost the company, as it was "important that we don't second-guess the process".
Steorn says its technology is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy.
It is offering to fully fund the research, on the condition that the scientists in question agree to publish the results of their findings. It anticipates that testing will begin before the new year.
