Cold Fusion? Unpossible. Cold Fission? Wait... what?

[Kraven Kor]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23803/

Interesting read, though I only understood about half of it.

[Nyrath]

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23803/

Translation:

Researchers: Look, we've found even more evidence of possible Sonofusion! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonofusion). We may soon see Chain Reaction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_Reaction_%28film%29).

Other scientists: Not so fast. We find this a little hard to swallow, especially since it flies in the face of decades of research. If you are going to convince us, you'll need more than a few vaguely anomalous readings in an experiment conducted at the limits of measurability.

Researchers go away, dejected, then:
[a] they spend the rest of their careers fruitlessly trying to prove it
[b] they are abducted by DARPA-NSA, a foreign power, or a supervillain to develop sonofusion power plants in secret
[c] they suffer unfortunate fatal "accidents" while assassins hired by the Oil Companies nonchalantly walk away, whistling.

[Kraven Kor]

Then they make a movie about it starring Val Kilmer? ;)

[Barton]

From article:

Thorium decays by emitting alpha particles. Pomp and pals say that Cardone and co placed their detector underneath the glass vessel containing the thorium solution. "We note that the range of the emitted particles in glass is in the order of tens of micrometers and that it thus would be impossible for particles . . . to penetrate the vessel."

Translate: the researchers placed the detector under glass and the thickness of the glass would block alpha particles, suggesting they are getting false readings.
Looks like another false cold fusion story.

[director13]

Then they make a movie about it starring Val Kilmer? ;)


Watch it after "Adventures in Babysitting" and "Leaving Las Vegas" for unintentional hilarity!

[DusterBoy]

Then they make a movie about it starring Val Kilmer? ;)

Try Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz