Seriously thoughtful Cold Fusion - To Be Or Not To Be

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Just as an aside, I remember that when the cold fusion story broke, other scientists were talking about high temperature super-conductors. ("High temperature" here means just a few degrees above absolute zero). I wonder what happened to that line of research.

High-temperature superconductor research is alive and well. It certainly does NOT just mean "a few degrees above absolute zero", by the way; a very important class of materials are those which are superconductors above 77K - the boiling point of liquid nitrogen - since that is easily and cheaply available. There are now a number of materials available which superconduct above this temperature; most notably a substance called "yttrium barium copper oxide" or YBCO, which is a superconductor up to a temperature of 90K.

[Polyglot27]

Thanks for the info Harry. I did not realise that they have actually achieved temperatures of 90K. Impressive! I wonder if that is what they are using in the Large Hadron Collider?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Thanks for the info Harry. I did not realise that they have actually achieved temperatures of 90K. Impressive! I wonder if that is what they are using in the Large Hadron Collider?

I'll ask around and see if I can find out for you. It may not use anything "special" - its magnets are cooled by liquid helium, with which pretty much anything becomes a superconductor, so they may just be "normal" magnets.

[moz]

Originally Posted by wodin

I also remember reports of workers duplicating those results, but as the controversy swung to “that’s impossible” those reports seemed to disappear.

The problem isn't that no-one can duplicate the results, the article at the top of the thread covers that quiet nicely. Nor is it the lack of fusion byproducts, again, read the first post in the thread. The problem is that no-one can explain what's going on, or if it doesn't work for someone, explain why and how to fix the problem. So there's a common reaction of "if you can't reproduce it it's not science".

Thing is, much of what we call science now started in exactly this way - someone going "hey, that's odd" and trying to work out what's going on. Astronomy is the cliche example, the epicycle period consisted of revising the theory for each new observation until finally someone said "you know, this would be easier if we went heliocentric". Suddenly not only did new observations tend to fit the existing theory, but they could make predictions and they'd generally work out. These days the same thing is happening in particle physics, albeit more expensively.

Personally I'm willing to believe that there's something funny going on, and IMO that's all that is needed to justify further research.

Oh, and the energy output to date suggests that an AA battery is a much more dangerous weapon than a cold fusion rig. Well, unless you drop it on someone.

[pilotbob]

I just got a news letter from my electric company, Tampa Electric. They are going to be buying the full capacity of a 25-megawatt solar array that is being built in Polk County FL not far from here.

So, a new solar array to come on line in about 2011 and a new nuclear plant in the area to come on line I think around 2018.

The solar array is supposed to save Tampa Electric 1.45 million tons of Co2 over the 25 year contract. But, I'm not sure that means it will reduce what they create now. I assume this plant will give them extra capacity which is needed as new homes are build in and around the tampa bay area.

BOb