[William Tell]

Physicist said: "The attractive idea behind sonoluminescence as a path to fusion is that a spherically convergent wavefront can produce some terribly extreme conditions. On paper, this can work, which is what keeps people looking and hoping."

Yes.

Unlike what seemed to be happening with cold fusion, the mechanism here seems to "make sense" physically. The suggested phenomenon can be expected under modified circumstances which might make the effect stronger.

I find myself wondering what would happen if one could generate such bubbles in mercury, for example. One would not expect luminescence through the mercury. This might enhance the temperature. It might take more energy to create a bubble of a certain size, but the increased mass of the mercury might result in a smaller volume at collapse.

Is there a way to introduce a source of hydrogen in a pool of mercury? Perhaps nuclear fission can be induced instead of fusion. There may be fission products which are much easier to detect at very tiny concentrations.

Semiconductors operate due to the very interesting things which happen at the interface between dissimilar materials. Perhaps even more interesting things would happen at the interface between a pool of mercury and water floating above it while sonic energy is introduced.

What fun.

[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?