The end of the first quarter is fast approaching, when Steorn has stated they will release an update on the progress of the “jury” of scientists evaluating their technology, as well as some basic specs (unfortunately, no blueprints yet – not until the jury validation process is complete, says Sean). Just a few developments this week to report.

According to a forum post by Crank, the developer’s club (SPDC) has been running through the first section of the physics tutorial that Steorn is putting together (for the eventual intended audience of companies and individuals who want to develop Orbo-based products). They haven’t been given any Orbo-specific meat yet, but are working on various projects such as ideas for designing a do-it-yourself “Orbo kit”. Sean has been away from the forum for the week, supposedly hard at work on the demonstration device that will be unveiled in July.

Finally, the blog Free Energy Tracker broke an interesting story today based on an anonymous tip. Back in November when the “Jury of 12” scientists were chosen to examine the Steorn technology, it seems that one of the selected scientists made mention of it at a Physics related meeting at the college where he teaches. Well, the minutes of that meeting were posted on the web and (given that this is not a hoax) we now know the identity of one of the jurors. Jeff Bechtold is a physics professor at Austin Community College in Texas. While that in itself isn’t very impressive (nothing against community college professors, I’ve been one myself – but they’re generally not world class scientists), he may also be listed as an author on several published papers. While the papers that come up for “J Bechtold” on the topic of astrophysics belong to a Jill Bechtold at the University of Arizona, the “J Bechtold” who authored a number of papers on superconductivity in the ’80s, and who was then based at the University of Houston, may well be our man. (Disclaimer: please don’t harass the poor fellow, he’s under an non-disclosure agreement.)

What’s most interesting about this is that it’s a sign that the jury process is for real. Up until now, we’ve only had the word from Steorn to support that. If Steorn were faking the whole thing to perpetrate a hoax or bilk more money out of investors, they wouldn’t need to involve actual physics professors — fictional professors are much more easily persuaded.