USN: strong evidence of cold fusion found

[m21sniper]

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Researchers at a US Navy laboratory have unveiled what they say is "significant" evidence of cold fusion, a potential energy source that has many skeptics in the scientific community.

The scientists on Monday described what they called the first clear visual evidence that low-energy nuclear reaction (LENR), or cold fusion devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists say are indicative of nuclear reactions.

"Our finding is very significant," said analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss of the US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, California.

"To our knowledge, this is the first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from a LENR device," added the study's co-author in a statement.

The study's results were presented at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The city is also the site of an infamous presentation on cold fusion 20 years ago by Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons that sent shockwaves across the world.

Despite their claim to cold fusion discovery, the Fleishmann-Pons study soon fell into discredit after other researchers were unable to reproduce the results.

Scientists have been working for years to produce cold fusion reactions, a potentially cheap, limitless and environmentally-clean source of energy.

Paul Padley, a physicist at Rice University who reviewed Mosier-Boss's published work, said the study did not provide a plausible explanation of how cold fusion could take place in the conditions described.

"It fails to provide a theoretical rationale to explain how fusion could occur at room temperatures. And in its analysis, the research paper fails to exclude other sources for the production of neutrons," he told the Houston Chronicle.

"The whole point of fusion is, you?re bringing things of like charge together. As we all know, like things repel, and you have to overcome that repulsion somehow."

But Steven Krivit, editor of the New Energy Times, said the study was "big" and could open a new scientific field.

The neutrons produced in the experiments "may not be caused by fusion but perhaps some new, unknown nuclear process," added Krivit, who has monitored cold fusion studies for the past 20 years.

"We're talking about a new field of science that's a hybrid between chemistry and physics."

[Hugh R]

Yeah right, get back to me in a month..

[IROC]

A good example of the scientific method at work. This study will be heavily scrutinized. This subject (cold fusion) is a good example of the complete lack of an evil scientific conspiracy to cover up findings and present science to the public as "fact" with no rationale to back it up (as has been suggested for other scientific subjects on PPOT)...

[Jim Richards]

+1 Mike. It's going to be looked at six ways from Sunday to see if the claims hold up. My guess is that it won't stand the scrutiny. IMO, SPAWAR is not a likely source of ground-breaking particle physics research. But, who knows...

[Arizona_928]

I had a teacher tell me about this in when i was in 7th grade, i though he was crazy and never took anything he said seriously...

[dhoward]

Jesus dislikes cold-fusion...

[Zeke]

I think the speed and the quantity are the keys here. There's probably "cold fusion" occurring naturally in the ocean and in the atmosphere. I know nothing, just mouthing off.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by IROC

A good example of the scientific method at work. This study will be heavily scrutinized. This subject (cold fusion) is a good example of the complete lack of an evil scientific conspiracy to cover up findings and present science to the public as "fact" with no rationale to back it up (as has been suggested for other scientific subjects on PPOT)...

Not by me.

[sammyg2]

It is also produced in the Jeffrey tubes, but that's from the dilithium crystals.

[dhoward]

[sammyg2]

Seriously, around 1984 I was doing some work at Lawrence Livermore labs. There was a big ole shiny thing in the next room and I asked one of the scientist types what it was. He told me it was a mock-up of a fusion reactor to be put in orbit.
I asked if it worked, and he said no, not yet. It's just a mock-up. Note that he didn't say anything about cold fusion, just fusion.

Why would they make a mock-up of something unless they thought it was feasible? Were they just burning up grant money? Was the guy yanking my chain? Who knows.

At the time they had mistakenly given me my father's security clearance which was significantly higher than what I should have had (I'm named after my father and he had a very high clearance, he spent much of his career developing experimental weapon delivery systems).

There was quite a bit of interviews when they discovered the mistake.

[kaisen]

So he was sammyg1?

[70SATMan]

samualf1

The kid always gets the nickname unless he's a 3rd or 4th. Then it's the nickname plus the middle name.

[RWebb]

ONR would be very careful before they put out a press release...

[Jim Sims]

The words of a former group leader of mine (I was in a controlled thermonuclear research division at the time of the first cold fusion hysteria): "Why aren't they dead from the neutron flux?"

[HardDrive]

It would be a landmark in human history, but....errrr....show me the money.

Think of the geo-political havoc this could bring.

[crb07]

Cold Fusion does exists, Al Gore invented it shortly after he invented the Internet.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by 70SATMan

samualf1

The kid always gets the nickname unless he's a 3rd or 4th. Then it's the nickname plus the middle name.

You nailed it. My real name's Gerald the second and Sam is a nickname.
Back when I was a little kid and the dinosours were still around my dad started calling me sam spade (old guys know who that is). The name stuck.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by crb07

Cold Fusion does exists, Al Gore invented it shortly after he invented the Internet.

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by RWebb

ONR would be very careful before they put out a press release...

That's what i'm thinking.