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Cold Fusion in a Breadbox Instead of a Bottle

Posted by Zonk on from the mmm-bread dept.

rawbytes writes "For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings. After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle and the subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusion seemed a bit beyond the pale. But that's all about to change. A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles (Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman) has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, it looks like the real thing." From the article: "Scientists have gotten fusion to occur in the laboratory before, but for the most part, they've tried to mimic conditions inside the sun by whipping hydrogen gas up to extreme temperatures or slamming atoms together in particle accelerators. Both of those options require huge energies and gigantic equipment, not the sort of stuff easily available to build a generator. Is there any way of getting protons close enough together for fusion to occur that doesnt require the energy output of a large city to make it happen? The answer, it turns out, is yes."

8 of 438 comments (clear)

  1. Dupe? by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 0, Redundant


    This story seems familiar somehow...

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    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

    1. Re:Dupe? by October_30th · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Indeed, and once again Daddypants was not reading his mail...

      --
      The owls are not what they seem
  2. Wow, we can do this at home!! by LM741N · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If you are an electronics, ham radio geek/nerd (haha, just joking) it appears that the typical junk box has enough stuff in it to repeat this experiment at home, especially if like me, you are interested in high voltage, Tesla coils, etc like me!

    Wow technology is getting so exciting 100 years later than Tesla!!

    Sincerely, Rob N3FT

  3. Oddly enough... by raygundan · · Score: 1, Redundant

    It is a Lithium Tantalite crystal. Perhaps marketing will rebrand it "Dilitium(tm)" once the system is workable outside the lab.

  4. Re:OMG by Cold+Fuzion · · Score: 0, Redundant

    :o

    Me too!

  5. Re:I'll believe it... by Rxke · · Score: 0, Redundant

    But... But... But...

    It has been posted multiple times on Slashdot, so it must be true? ;)

  6. I'm sure glad they included meta data in the text. by CFD339 · · Score: 0, Redundant


    "fusing two hydrogen nuclei together to get helium, famously powers our sun (good), as well as hydrogen bombs (bad)."

    Personally, I was confused as to which was good, and which bad. Excellent in depth reporting.

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
  7. Re:It's a triplet, actually... by Big+Mark · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Is this the first tripe article ever!