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First Superconducting Transistor Created
holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports that the first working superconducting transistor has been created, by researchers at the University of Geneva. Field effect transistors with zero electrical resistance would allow much faster operations. Only drawback is they need to be supercooled, something that may be addressed by improving the materials used."
I don't even understand the appeal of "cold" fusion. Sure, you can take some hydrogen and fuse it and out pops some helium, but if that process doesn't create a ton of heat, what's the point, other than to fill some balloons?
Take standard fission plants now, the fission isn't AT ALL the point, it's just a way to make heat which makes steam which drives turbines. If fission didn't create a lot of heat, there would be no point to using it in a reactor. The reason for wanting to use fusion is it doesn't make radioactive byproducts and there is a ton of hydrogen in the ocean. Depending on how far you take the reaction you end up with anything from helium to iron, and in the future the fusion process may very well be controlled and stopped prior to iron just to end up with useful elements, some of which are rather rare on earth, such as Beryllium.
Bottom line, "cold" fusion is not only almost certainly impossible, even if it were possible, it's utterly useless.