Although long sought after as a solution to energy problems, so called "cold fusion" has led to claims that have been less than convincing. But three scientists from UCLA have managed on a desktop to do small scale
room temperature fusion, which could be the beginning of a revolution in environmentally friendly energy creation.
The results, to be published in Thursday's issue of Nature, conform to standard physics, and are therefore much more convincing and simple to confirm independently.
Unfortunately, current techniques only generate small amounts of energy, actually less than is required as input, so there is much work to be done before we have a revolution that will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. But some potential future applications of the technology are expected to include cancer therapy, rocket propulsion, and (I kid you not!)...
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...portable neutron generators that could be used for oil well drilling...
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If you ask me, there's something wrong when the ultimate potential source of energy is being applied to oil well drilling!
(via Slashdot)