Nano-scientist's dark secret

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 4 February | Nick Green

[Flightdeck]

Actually, the Germanium is just doped into the silicon. the most Ge that goes in is about 10^15 atoms per square centimeter. That sounds like a lot, but it is waaay less than 1% of the bulk.

[the invisib1e hand]

This guy was not only a crook, but also an idiot. If other scientists can't reproduce it, then it ain't going to be long before they start looking at you carefully.

that won't keep promoters and politicians from hustling it, though.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Has there ever been any suggestion that Pons and Fleishman were purposely fabricating their results?

Yes, from the first. Primarily because some of their graphs of neutron flux supposedly changed (to fit the theory better) between meetings.

[Flightdeck]

"Nanotechnology is the construction of things atom-by-atom using molecular machines in massively parralel systems to construct large and small scale objects/"

Not to split hairs, but that's not exactly correct. I work in the nanoscale heat-transfer field, and we don't really get down to the atomic level. Nano is 10^-9 meter, and most nanofabrication is done between 20 (way lower limit) to 1000 nanometers. An atom of silicon runs an Angstrom or so across (10^-10 m), which is 200 to 10,000 times smaller. It took IBM a couple weeks to put together the famous picture of 'I B M' in clumps of atoms (not individual atoms). I can positively tell you that we don't have the capability of individual atomic manipulation right now, definitely not on a massively parallel scale whatever that book says.

[Brett66]

The book explored the implications of a mature nanotechnology with assembler factories cranking out large-scale objects. It touched a little on the pre-assembler attempts at manipulating atoms. Fascinating read.....

[Dont Mention the War]

He was only in his early 30s

Here's the problem. Society is obsessed with youth, and for reasons I'll never understand, people tend to more readily accept outlandish claims from wünderkinds than from those who have worked hard and proven themselves for decades.

[StriperSniper]

If she grabbed me, I'd give her a few nanites. ;-)

[Flightdeck]

I am fascinated by the possibilities myself. Sometimes the popularizers go a little overboard in the books in order to sell more copies. Unfortunately, the pace lags a little behind the expectations, including the National Science Foundation expectations which has pumped so much money into so many different nano-specialties. A fun, quick read is Richard Feynman's article "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom". J. MEMS Vol. 1, Issue 1. If you read it, keep in mind it was 1959 when he gave the lecture. The prescience is amazing.

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html

[_Jim]

Actually, the Germanium is just ...

BACK before silicon transistor fabrication was a reality - the choice of material was Ge ... it wasn't until Gordon Teal (first with Bell Labs then with TI - "Texas Instruments" in Dallas, Texas) perfected his 'techniques' (first with Ge then with Si) that Silicon became a 'player' on the technological front.

www.pbs.org/transistor/science/events/silicont1.html

Teal's first 'grown' Ge devices were 'doped' using Gallium and Antimony which were added to the molten Ge as the 'seed' was slowly withdrawn; Gallium was added to turn the melt into P-type (and form the 'base' region) and as the layer of P-type formed on the ever-lengthening crystal they added antimony to 'change' back to N-type Ge for the transistor's other element ...

www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/junctw.html

Then there is ion implantation process which is another thing entirely; this was what I was exposed to in a GaAs process 'fab' ...

[Flightdeck]

I sit corrected. Thanks for the info.

[Karnex420]

http://www.technologynews.info/000961.html

Pons and Fleishman are fine. They've taken their work to France. Pity.

[citizen]

Not to be too picky but the first text is copyright 1991, the second text is copyright 1986.

Are the predictions in these texts consistent with current research?

[William Tell]

Thanks for the link.

I believe that I read previously that the sonoluminesence created during the collapse of these bubbles indicated high temperatures which might be consistent with conditions needed for nuclear fusion.

These results seem to confirm not only the possibility but the probability that fusion is taking place. I didn't see a link to the actual results.

Pons and Fleishman may find themselves forever honored by references to the "Pons-Fleishman" effect if it is proven that their observations were indicative of fusion.

From an article on the web: In the late nineteen-twenties, two German scientists, F. Paneth and K. Peters, reported the transformation of hydrogen into helium by spontaneous nuclear catalysis when hydrogen is absorbed by finely divided palladium at room temperature. These authors later acknowledged that the helium they measured was due to background from the air."

There was even a fellow who filed a patent application which was later denied for such a process at roughly that same time.

If Pons and Fleishman were not using ultrasonics to encourage the reaction, if any, then their claim to fame will be rather limited, I think. I can't remember now the details of their setup. Somewhere I have a stack of paper almost a foot high printed off the web during the excitement they generated.

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Yes, it could be hugh. I'm series.