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Table Top Fusion Courtesy of Tiny Bubbles
Erik Baard writes: "The peer-reviewed journal Science is carrying a cover story about the possibility of table top fusion. Not cold fusion, mind you, but the apparatus might look that way to some. Oak Ridge and other labs say they have gotten the fingerprints of fusion (neutron production) from collapsing bubbles in liquid, a process that heats a local area to temperatures as hot as the surface of the sun, and releases photons.
The disputes are already here -- notably from Dr. Robert Park of the American Physical Society and from critical reviewers who say they haven't repeated the neutron production. But the authors say the critics didn't calibrate their equipment correctly. Articles regarding the discovery can be found on
Eureka Alert " CD: Looks legit, but Pons and Fleishman (and the University of Utah for that matter) talked a good game. I suppose I'll belive in tabletop fusion when a generator comes atached to my next laptop. The author of this post also has a longer article up at the Village Voice
Isn't this story about 28 days premature?
In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
I want my Mr. Fusion!
hopefully they'll come out with a clear casemod for it. . .
Find out about my new childrens book: SS Death Camp Criminal Batallion Go To Monte Carlo For The Massacre
Ah...so that explains why soda pop explodes when placed next to my subwoofer. Now, I wonder which brand of soda will produce the highest nuclear yield. Talk about energy drinks...
RD
THE CRACKPOT INDEX by John Baez
A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.
-5 point starting credit.
1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false.
2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous.
3 points for every statement that is logically inconsistent.
5 points for each such statement that is adhered to despite careful correction.
5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment.
5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards).
5 points for each mention of "Einstien", "Hawkins" or "Feynmann".
10 points for each claim that quantum mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).
10 points for pointing out that you have gone to school, as if this were evidence of sanity.
10 points for beginning the description of your theory by saying how long you have been working on it.
10 points for mailing your theory to someone you don't know personally and asking them not to tell anyone else about it, for fear that your ideas will be stolen.
10 points for offering prize money to anyone who proves and/or finds any flaws in your theory.
10 points for each statement along the lines of "I'm not good at math, but my theory is conceptually right, so all I need is for someone to express it in terms of equations".
10 points for arguing that a current well-established theory is "only a theory", as if this were somehow a point against it.
10 points for arguing that while a current well-established theory predicts phenomena correctly, it doesn't explain "why" they occur, or fails to provide a "mechanism".
10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Einstein, or claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).
10 points for claiming that your work is on the cutting edge of a "paradigm shift".
20 points for suggesting that you deserve a Nobel prize.
20 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Newton or claim that classical mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence).
20 points for every use of science fiction works or myths as if they were fact.
20 points for defending yourself by bringing up (real or imagined) ridicule accorded to your past theories.
20 points for each use of the phrase "hidebound reactionary".
20 points for each use of the phrase "self-appointed defender of the orthodoxy".
30 points for suggesting that a famous figure secretly disbelieved in a theory which he or she publicly supported. (E.g., that Feynman was a closet opponent of special relativity, as deduced by reading between the lines in his freshman physics textbooks.)
30 points for suggesting that Einstein, in his later years, was groping his way towards the ideas you now advocate.
30 points for claiming that your theories were developed by an extraterrestrial civilization (without good evidence).
40 points for comparing those who argue against your ideas to Nazis, stormtroopers, or brownshirts.
40 points for claiming that the "scientific establishment" is engaged in a "conspiracy" to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame, or suchlike.
40 points for comparing yourself to Galileo, suggesting that a modern-day Inquisition is hard at work on your case, and so on.
40 points for claiming that when your theory is finally appreciated, present-day science will be seen for the sham it truly is. (30 more points for fantasizing about show trials in which scientists who mocked your theories will be forced to recant.)
50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions.
If you don't get a lot of those pesky neturons, it'd be fun to tinker with one of these in the garage. What's deuterium go for these days?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Ok, initial comment on this story has been very negative, but... The original Pons et. al. findings also claimed neutron production. So do those results all indicate experimental error or log-book-cooking that would make Michael Fastow weep with fatherly pride? Ever heard this one? ...whatever that means... and it's just the tech hasn't caught up to make an observation? Is it just possible that it's a matter of technology to produce tabletop/cold fusion? Heat treating the metal or something? High temp superconducting seems to still be a alot of hit or miss experimentation. Why would cold fusion be so different a technology from that?
Q: What does a neutrino detector actually detect?
A: The presence of funding.
Theorists were convinced that neutrinos would be observed jumping from tau to mu versions
Or am I just a clever troll?
ceci n'est pas un 'sig'
Warning: Do not fuse your dog to anything. If you do decide to fuse a cat, use a strong superglue or firm adhesive to ensure they don't escape and claw your head off. Because it doesn't take Einstein to tell you, Cats = Evil^2.
A Dean drive generates reactionless force of a special type. To measure this force, we use a special unit, the Bathroom Scale pound. BS pounds are whatever my bathroom scale measures. My bathroom scale seems to be more sensitive than Dean's. When I stand still on it, I weigh about 195 BS pounds. If I shake my arms at the right speed, my weight drops to 175 BS pounds. That is better than .1 BS G thrust. I suspect a carefully tuned counter-weighted drill motor can do far better.
So when I finally get my device perfected and my paper published, some mean professor is going to explain that measurement equipment may produce incorrect readings in certain situations. That it isn't enough to get the reading you want, you actually have to show you got a valid reading.
For those who want to duplicate my experiments so far, get an aged Health-O-Meter spring scale. Other types of scale have some weird reality field around them that interferes with crack pot physics.
In the "nice to have" section, it mentions a laser.
Well, der, I think this is obvious. Its always nice to have a laser. You could put this on basicaly any list of "nice to haves" for anything:
"Me and my girl named bimbo . . . limbo . . . spam" - Captain Beefheart.
I have flourescent light tubes in my ceiling. Surely there must be some nifty and dangerous "experiments" I can do if there really are such high temperatures inside.
Please tell.
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Nanotube technology is big now
logically inconsistent! 3 points!
My coffee cup is clearly fused to the Ikea bookshelf beside my computer.
Trust those Nordic types to always be one step ahead! Next they're going to be inventing, like, operating systems, or something, on their tabletops!
- undoware.ca
Don't these science guys go to the movies?
The solution to desktop fusion is simple:
You take P and F's deuterium electrolysis experiment and stick it inside a sonoluminescence vessel.
The electrolysis produces the bubbles, the sound waves batter them so hard that fusion is created within them.
Hell, if Keanau Reeves can do it in the movie Chain Reaction then surely these researcher types can manage it.
(big fat grin)