Atomic fusion in a cup? - It's hard to believe -

The Globe and Mail ^ | March 7, 2004 | Stephan Strauss

[kennedy]

[Diogenesis]

Some of the the expts by Pons were done in Utah.

Also, Jones appeared at the ICCF-10 meeting this year and again confirmed cold fusion
(including in volcanoes [see link above]).

[theFIRMbss]

> I find myself wondering what would happen if one could generate such bubbles in mercury, for example

Were you wondering,
perhaps, if alchemists played
with crucibles and

mercury so much
that maybe centuries back
they saw hints of this?

[Truth29]

index bump

[Physicist]

Pons and Fleischmann were at the University of Utah. Steven Jones did his work at Brigham Young University.

[Darksheare]

If it works, it'd be great.
And yes, it is weird that I even remembered the term sonoluminescence let alone pulled it outta my skull to type it!
I read an article about it some months ago, but don't remember exact the particulars.

Will wait to see what the final verdict is on it.
This will be interesting.

[Fred Hayek]

"The expected reacction is: Two deuterium atoms fuse to per form an atom of helium-3 plus a neutron and gamma radiation."

Thus did they use a scintillation detector connected to a multichannel analyzer? This would identify the peaks in the gamma spectrum - there would be an identifiable spectrum, in the neighborhood of MeV's. There would also be a considerable fast neutron flux as well. And yes, enough to fry them. So when I hear the fusion claims again I thought of the Fleischmann/Pons scam.

[July 4th]

Granted, this is not a "new" idea either. It's already been portrayed in the film Chain Reaction with Morgan Freeman and Keanu Reeves. (1996)

[Darksheare]

Never saw the movie.
*chuckle*

Saw a video clip once about sonoluminescence.
They had this tube of fluid, I'm assuming it was the solvent they mention in the article as such wasn't offered during the clip, and this really thin needle dumps a really tiny bubble into the middle of the tube.
No sooner do they move the tube than the bubble starts glowing, and a faint flashing pulsing effect is seen.
They said something about the ultrasonic bombardment of the tube keeps the buubble from moving or somethign like that.
And that it implodes and glows.
Pretty cool.
Still weird that I have this coming out of my skull, as I usually can put info in, just not get it back out.

[punster]

Good point.

[July 4th]

I want one!

[Wonder Warthog]

I stand corrected. My "mental connection" with Fleischmann has always been associated with his long tenure in Britain. I hadn't registered that he and Pons were at Utah at the time of "cold fusion".

[Diogenesis]

Wonder Warthog, fwiw, Fleischmann was not in Utah with Pons, but in Southampton UK.

Physicist, could you explain how kT near room temperature
can supply sufficient energy to attain the neutron emission manifold
located a more than an MeV about the excited 4-He(*) state?

[Diogenesis]

That obviously should be "... located more than MeV above the excited 4-He(*) state?"

[theFIRMbss]

>Granted, this is not a "new" idea either

And, let's remember, an Establishment writer put out this strange book and its central theme is that high-ranking Nazis cut a post-war deal with the US Feds around weird technology that they called "the Bell" which somehow involved glowing liquids, strange sounds and some radiation . . .

[blam]

I sent this article to my son (PhD physics) and below is his reply. I had forgotten that we had spoken about this earlier.

"I was excited about this line of research when you asked me about it some time ago. Not only is it possible, but it seems relatively easy and in the domain of our current science and technology to understand. (Such as, we can use sophisticated laser pulsing techniques to know exactly what is the chemical/physical environment within the collapsing bubble...) If it is valid, it would take some time before real good gov't money is thrown at it because of the overall skepticism and the difficulty to make practical.

The ability to take relatively cool coherent energy and channel into a very small point to acheive high energy densities and temperatures is exactly the type of mechanism that can make fusion possible. Although I haven't done the calculation nor read the articles, I presume the energies involved are high enough...

Amazing stuff. I think I will look into and do some calculations to see if it's really making sense.

[WillL]

Okay, so when will "fusion-in-a-cup" be available to the general public?