Cold Fusion

[richardland]

What's the latest on Cold Fusion. Pons and Fleichmann started the ball rolling, quickly discredited, all goes quiet and yet there are dozens of research facilities all over the world still working on it. Your thoughts please.

[heathfield]

Mixed opinions, but the US has eased off on its anti approach according to this report

[Zevon]

There is no mystery, there are much more facilities working on cures for canvcer and AIDS and there all quiet. Scientific research is basically walking down alleys blindfolded hoping to find something useful, or like finding a needel in a haystack but you might need to invent a way to get hold of the haystack or you might need to find the haystack.

Stuff takes time and the less we know the longer it takes, we know pretty much nothing about cold fusion.

Globally scientists have been looking at superconductors for nearly a century for industrial and commercial properties and are still faced with the same problems, namely temperatures for type I and type II superconductors and low threshold currents for High temperature superconductors.

Also keep in mind that even when things are discovered they often aren't reported in the press unless they have a use in real life. The press haven't ever reported on decades of laser research, but once laser pointers were found to be dangerous the whole situation changed. We only hear news and news is only what most people would feel that they need to know, a lab achieving cold fusion would get a few column inches until it was industrially/commercially applicable. Just the way it is.

[richardland]

Thankyou heathfield for the link, very interesting.

Zevon what were you referring to in your phrase "Scientific research is basically walking down alleys blindfolded hoping to find something useful...." - All scientific research or just cold fusion research?

[Gef]

Impossible.

[jake-the-peg]

Funding research on cold fusion is a little like playing the lottery.

There is an almost infintessimally small chance that you could win the jackpot and be rich beyond the dreadms of averice and save the world.

People get blinded to the odds by the rewards.

However like the lottery there is a much better chance that you might win a smaller-prize. There may be some odd science going on that's worth looking at and may have some practical spin offs.

The problem with cold fusion is it's Occam's razor at work. What is more likely? that large amounts of atomic or quantum science need to be re-written possibly involving previously undiscovered forces? or that a few scientists have made some errors measuring tiny measurements?

Personally I wouldn't place my retirement fund on palladium futures quite yet!

At least not until someone has a readilly reproducible affect that's been independantly verified by at least 2 other groups

[richardland]

Thanks all for your very interesting answers. Food for thought.

Ged can you be a little bit more specific - To what are you referring the word "impossible"?