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14 Years Later, Cold Fusion Still Gets The Cold Shoulder

Posted by timothy on from the bravery-misplaced dept.

segment writes "It has been 14 years since two little-known electrochemists announced what sounded like the biggest physics breakthrough since Enrico Fermi produced a nuclear chain reaction on a squash court in Chicago. Using a tabletop setup, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, of the University of Utah, said they had induced deuterium nuclei to fuse inside metal electrodes, producing measurable quantities of heat. That was the opening bell for one of the craziest periods in science. Cold fusion, if real, promised to solve the world's energy problems forever. Scientists around the world dropped what they were doing to try to replicate the astounding claim." The linked AP story (carried on SFGate.com) is about the Tenth International Conference on Cold Fusion, which took place in the last week of August.

17 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. Re:fp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I, for one, welcome our new fp overlord.

  2. Squash Court by joebolte · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    First Comment?
    I walked by th very site mentioned in the posting a minute ago and there was very clearly a tennis court there. Hah!

  3. cold fusion is a great programmingenvironment thou by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    first post ;)

  4. Re:FIRST POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    No it isn't

  5. cold fusion? by Keltus · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    heh, when I saw the article I thought it was about the Cold Fusion programming language

  6. SCOX's new business plan? by linuxislandsucks · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    finally a new business planbthat matches SCOX's CEO FUD tactics..Cold Fusion!

    --
    Don't Tread on OpenSource
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Coldfusion by revividus · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    I use Coldfusion at work, and while I would possibly choose other methods of web application development if it were up to me, it still remains a good, solid Web application development tool, which is easy to learn and quite powerful.

    It runs fine on linux, as well!

    --

    philcrissman.com.

  9. Not so, I'm running it right now... by Art+Tatum · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Voila. Seriously, just because you guys are all perl or PHP bigots...

  10. Re: If Real.. by planarian · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    A six-pack of Colt 45?

  11. Help me! by craw · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I cannot understand this because I do not understand chemistry. For instance, I do not know why my chemistry teachers gave me a zero when I said that the formula for water was:

    H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O

    That's right, isn't it?

  12. Re:FIRST POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    YOU FAIL IT!!!

  13. Re:"Still gets the cold shoulder" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Yes, it was a combined PHP, JSP, and ASP conspiracy damnit!!! Macromedia was framed!

  14. So do your part by jerde · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Not happy with the stories on /.? Have you submitted any yourself?

    Do your part to help. Complaining doesn't fix anything...

    - Peter

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    INsigNIFICANT
  15. What's the point of submitting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Anything NOT on the guys list get rejected! I think that might have been his point...

    Timothy only accepts submissions about Brit 'achievements'

    Michael only accepts submissions about Australian 'achievements'

    Some Other Mod only accepts submissions about New Zealand 'achievements'

    The rest of them? Just reread the list in the original post...

  16. when cold fusion grows up by greenguy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I've heard many times that Zope is what Cold Fusion wants to be when it grows up. Sounds like it's growing up now.

    Oh, wait, did you mean the other cold fusion?

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
  17. Of course Cold Fusion is getting the cold shoulder by BitwizeGHC · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I mean, even PHP is better than that Cold Fusion stuff. And the world's moved to Java servlets anyway. Where you been?

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    N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!