Cold Fusion Options

[Northpack]

Well, I thought about bringing this topic up here because I am curious how people at hydrogenaudio, whom I appreciate as technically competent, scientifically minded folks, would respond to the supposed recent developments in the field of Cold Fusion/Low Energy Nuclear Reactions. In case you don't know what I'm talking about - there's a series of articels at Wired covering the tantalizing events that took place during the last year. This is the most recent one:

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-1...ld-fusion-rival

Before you assert that Cold Fusion is physically impossible - there is a research history spanning 22 years since the discovery of Fleischmann and Pons back in 1989, covering hundreds of peer reviewed papers, showing loads of methodically solid, experimental evidence for the phenomenon. Although it is not understood entirely by now and reproducability is still an issue, there are several promising theoretical approaches, the most discussed being the Widom-Larson theory, which suggest that quantum mechanical coherence in metal hydride lattices is the precondition for the phenomenon. The NASA recently announced that they are conducting research based on this approach: http://technologygateway.nasa.gov/media/CC/lenr/lenr.html

Also, this "60 Minutes" episode from 2009 gives some good information for starters: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4955212n

For in-depth information I suggest that you first watch the comprehensive presentation of SRI's Michael McKubre at YouTube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtweR_qGHEc ) and then browse through the scientific papers avaiable at http://www.lenr-canr.org

Of course one has to evaluate the claims made by Rossi and Defkalion separately from the general evidence for Cold Fusion. However, knowing about this evidence at first gives their claims a very different background of plausibility, setting them far apart from "one more of those free energy scams".

If this would turn out to be true, it would the most worldshaking technical innovation since the utilization of fossile fuels - albeit a much more beneficial one.

This post has been edited by Northpack: Feb 4 2012, 10:54

[Northpack]

Interesting news: http://blog.newenergytimes.com/2012/02/14/...ful-e-cat-demo/

[Northpack]

Told you so

[kraut]

The analyses in our Report #3 show that the amount and rate of steam that was coming out of Rossi’s device didn’t match his claim of about 5,000 Watts - not by a long shot.

Instead, the steam coming out looked exactly like what you would expect to see coming out of a 1,000-Watt electric tea kettle. In fact, that’s about how much electricity was going into Rossi’s device. There is no ambiguity about the failure; all of the required data was available.

I guess that is enough evidence?

[Northpack]

I guess that is enough evidence?

That is no evidence at all but a quote from someone (Steven R. Krivit) who two years ago witnessed an inconclusive demonstration of an early type of reactor, was disappointed by what he saw (Rossi said he tried to spy him) and consequently became the most vocal - one could say obsessive - detractor of Rossi, up to the point of character assassination. Most long-time observers, even the sceptical, agree that Krivit is way over the top in his criticism and that he seems either to be on a personal crusade against Rossi or to follow some hidden agenda.

Whatsoever - that is yesteryears news and has nothing to do with the recently published third party verification.

Here is another article from today.

This post has been edited by Northpack: Today, 17:11