Fusion In Sonoluminescence (Again)?

srhuston writes "According to a story at the NY Times (first born child req'd, yadda yadda), 'Scientists are again claiming they have made a Sun in a jar, offering perhaps a revolutionary energy source, and this time even some skeptics find the evidence intriguing enough to call for a closer look.' This has been covered here before (First, second, third) but it looks like they claim that the latest round of experiments, using better detectors, 'offer more convincing data that the phenomenon is real'." The scientists involved come from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Purdue University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Russian Academy of Science; here's their press release.

Comments

Well...

[TheSpoom]

All I want to know is when I can throw garbage in the gas tank of a DeLorean to fuel it.

Re:Well...

[Shimmer]

Beautiful. Only on Slashdot could a comment about Back to the Future in a discussion about fusion be labeled "informative".

Re:Well...

[garcia]

I empty cans of beer into my tank all the time to fuel myself. I guess we haven't figured that piece of Mr. Fusion out yet ;)

Canned Sunshine

[tbase]

This is news? We've had canned sunshine in our gift shops here in Florida for years!

Re:Canned Sunshine

[tbase]

They're related... only the people who have sampled the bottled moonshine actually buy the canned sunshine. :-)

A SUN in a jar?

[AtariAmarok]

A SUN in a jar? If you think Darl is bad, just wait to see the look on Scott McNealy's face once everyone starts creating his server in their mayonaise jars.

double entendre

[Spyffe]

they have made a Sun in a jar

In Soviet Java, Sun .jars YOU!

Cold fusion will always be with us

[ChiralSoftware]

It is the perpetual motion of the nuclear age. It works even better than zero-point energy and has replaced the 200mpg carburetor..

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Do you have Wireless-Enabled Hosting(tm)?

Weekly Schedule

[rsmith-mac]

Well, at least this finally fills that ugly hole on Wednesday in the Slashdot weekly schedule:

Monday: Patch Windows
Tuesday: Stop SCO's latest plan
Wednesday: Invent Fusion
Thursday: Patch Linux
Friday: Watch LoTR while patching Windows

Since they got Fusion out of the way early today, I think I have a little time to go bash Infinium Labs some more. Tally ho!

I'll believe it when...

[Anonymous Coward]

...people standing around said jar start dieing.

Re:I'll believe it when...

[dillon_rinker]

It's a simple typo, you insensitive clod. He meant "dieting." See, unlimited free energy implies life extension, and if you're going to live for a thousand years, you'd want to look GOOD!

Or maybe he meant "dining" - you know, joining together in a celebratory feast. I guess that would mean they already look good and don't have to worry about it?

It's possible he meant "dicing" - either chopping up meat for their dinner, or chopping up celery for their diet. Or maybe rolling a d20 (Save vs Poison or take 10d6 of damage from radiation.)

Hypothetically, the word could be "diving" but that would obviously be ridiculous.

Sorry, thought this was an Episode 3 item.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was so hoping this was an item about "the son of Jar Jar". My bad. "Meesa so sorry."

In other news,

[stevesliva]

In other news today, Hell has frozen over. Satan responded to the sudden freeze by noting, "Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Russian Academy of Science collaborating on nuclear research? Who would've thought it possible?"

obligatore simpsons quote

[cur3]

Young lady, in this house we obey the second law of thermodynamics!

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

$discovery is really cool. Once again, $scienceFictionAuthor was a visionary when he wrote about this concept in $book. I hope that we can come up with some practical applications using $discovery soon.

$wittySig

"Sun in a jar"

[radiumhahn]

I though Sunny Delight was "Sun in a jar"

Re:Energy

[etLux]

The *real* problem is forgetting to hide the little battery in the bottom of the apparatus.

Without that, they usually don't work very well.

I bet that radioactive bubbly acetone...

[Anonymous Coward]

...tastes better than Bud.

Re:Energy

[Thud457]

You can also accomplish the same thing with a 75 cent roll of wintergreen Lifesavers.

In a darkened room,

1. Put lifesaver between teeth.
2. Bite.

You better believe it.....

[abcxyz]

"Neutrons are slippery little rascals," he said. "They can fool you. They can bounce and show up around corners you don't expect."

Yep, ran into three of them on the way to lunch this afternoon at the corner of Hargett and Fayetteville St.........

Oh! Ok, I'll check in the garage...

[dark-br]

From the HOWTO:

Equipment (required):

* sinus generator:
any function generator working around 25 kHz, adjustable to +/- 1 Hz (+/- 10 Hz may work, too)
* amplifier:
nearly any kind of audio amplifier will do. If you're not sure, measure the saturation voltage: 40 V peak-to-peak should be enough.
* 2-trace oscilloscope
* 2 piezoceramic Transducers (drivers):
around d=16 mm in diameter, h=8 mm thick
* piezoceramic pill-transducer (microphone):
around 3 mm in diameter, 1 mm thick
* three finger clamp
* laboratory stand
* flask:
take a 100 ml Pyrex/Duran spherical flask, diameter 65 mm, with a small neck. An industrial one has poor optical quality, so better take a free blown one.
* coil(s): around 20 mH, see text
* resistors: 1M, 10k, 1R
* coaxial cable
* quick-drying epoxy glue
* an eyedropper or a syringe (one of those little do-it-yourself subcutaneous is very good)
* degassed distilled water:
o Pyrex/Duran Erlenmeyer flask (0.5 or 1 l) and airtight stopper with pipe, rubber hose and clamp to close it
or
o aluminium/highgrade steel drinking bottle (0.5 or 1 l) with screw cap; one of those found in camping stores, a bare one without varnish
* a bubble ;-)

Oh! Ok, I'll check in the garage...

Re:Incorrect

[Eccles]

Unfortunately, it's getting the reaction to generate more energy than it consumes, is the problem.

Actually, they solved that problem in the 50's. It's controlling that reaction that is rather more difficult...

Good News, Bad News

[StefanJ]

Good News:
Piping hot coffee or soup in seconds.

Bad News:
Everything metal in kitchen becomes mildly radioactive from neutron bombardment.

Good News:
Rats, mice, cockroaches hate the sound of a sonofusor in operation, emptying cities of vermin.

Bad News:
Sound also drives dogs into a frenzy of mindless leg-humping. Except Boston Terriers, whose tightly sutured little skulls explode.

Good News:
Leads to development of ultra-efficient (but low thrust) rocket motor that uses water as a reaction mass.

Bad News:
All water outside of Mars orbit turn out to be owned by Capella OmniVolatile GMBH, who charge a heavy fee, payable in increasingly rare Boston Terriers.

Stefan Jones

Re:Energy

[scotch]

... require very large (read: industrial) bits of equipment ....

If you had meant us to read very large as industrial, why didn't you just write industrial?

Just curious (read: baffled (read: confused) by this common (read: prevelant on slashdot (read: idiot funhouse)) idiom (read (read: interpet and understand writing): little bit of stupidity (read: you)).

Think, McFly, think.

[StarKruzr]

"and how did he manage to generate 1.21 gigawatts of electricity with only a steam engine? A giant capacitor?"

A FLUX capacitor.

DUH.

Re:Energy

[Rubyflame]

Mod parent (read: immediate ancestor) up (read: -1 times the gravity vector).

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