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Scientist Creates Cold Fusion For The Fist Time in Decades
gidmodo.com ^ | May 24, 2008 | unknown

Posted on 06/01/2008 12:18:07 AM PDT by spyone

Cold Fusion, the act of producing a nuclear reaction at room temperature, has long been relegated to science fiction after researchers were unable to recreate the experiment that first "discovered" the phenomenon. But a Japanese scientist was supposedly able to start a cold fusion reaction earlier this week, which—if the results are real—could revolutionize the way we gather energy.

Yoshiaki Arata, a highly respected physicist in Japan, demonstrated a low-energy nuclear reaction at Osaka University on Thursday. In front of a live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios, Arata and a co-professor Yue-Chang Zhang, produced excess heat and helium atoms from deuterium gas.

Arata used pressure to force deuterium gas into an evacuated cell that contained a palladium and zirconium oxide mix (ZrO2-Pd). Arata said that the mix caused the deuterium's nuclei to fuse, raising the temperature in the cell and keeping the center of the cell warm for 50 hours.

Arata's experiment would mark the first time anyone has witnessed cold fusion since 1989, when Martin Fleishmann and Stanely Pons supposedly observed excess heat during electrolysis of heavy water with palladium electrodes. When they and other researchers were unable to make it work again, cold fusion became synonymous with bad science.

But the method Arata showed was "highly reproducible," according to eye witnesses of the event. If nobody calls this demonstration out as a sham, Arata might have finally found the holy grail of cheap and abundant energy—nuclear power, without its destructive heat. [Physicsworld via Slashdot]

1:


TOPICS: Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arata; coldfusion; mrfusion; physics; scientists
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Here's hoping!
1 posted on 06/01/2008 12:18:08 AM PDT by spyone
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To: spyone

And another source:
http://physicsworld.com/blog/2008/05/coldfusion_demonstration_a_suc_1.html


2 posted on 06/01/2008 12:20:25 AM PDT by spyone
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To: spyone

<”Arata used pressure to force deuterium gas into an evacuated cell...”>

How much energy was required to exert the pressure?

Did the resultant energy generated by the “cold fusion” process exceed that of the energy required to produce the pressure?

If not, why is this event being hailed as though it is some kind of breakthrough?


3 posted on 06/01/2008 12:28:43 AM PDT by SatinDoll (Desperately desiring a conservative government.)
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To: spyone

So, if this is the real deal:

1. Would it completely solve the energy crunch?

2. How long until practical applications come on line?


4 posted on 06/01/2008 12:31:41 AM PDT by kms61
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To: spyone

Is this the same guy that video taped aliens looking in his window?


5 posted on 06/01/2008 12:34:05 AM PDT by Jeff Gordon ("An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last." Churchill)
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To: spyone

And how!

Genius is where you find it. I’ve suspected that the next big wave of science was about due.


6 posted on 06/01/2008 12:39:34 AM PDT by Ronin (Is there some PC rule on FR that says that when an evil man gets sick, we must pretend he was saint?)
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To: spyone

“In front of live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios” strongly suggests that this is a sham. If it were real, he would first show it to nuclear physicists, not the gullible press.


7 posted on 06/01/2008 12:51:42 AM PDT by 1955Ford
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To: kms61
1.Yes

2.Forever.....they didn't do it.

8 posted on 06/01/2008 12:52:08 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny
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To: Ronin

I saw the same thing on Mr. Wizard years ago, ‘cept the outcome looked like a little volcano thingy.


9 posted on 06/01/2008 12:53:41 AM PDT by at bay ("We actually did an evil......" Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google)
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To: SatinDoll

Because if this is true, and that’s a big if, nuclear fussion at room temperatures has never been achieved/confirmed before. The normal pressures involved are extreme, as in nuclear fission bomb...


10 posted on 06/01/2008 1:05:13 AM PDT by DB
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To: Psycho_Bunny

Where did the helium come from?


11 posted on 06/01/2008 1:06:33 AM PDT by DB
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To: 1955Ford
“In front of live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios” strongly suggests that this is a sham. If it were real, he would first show it to nuclear physicists, not the gullible press.

Big bingo on that one.

12 posted on 06/01/2008 1:07:26 AM PDT by eclecticEel (You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.)
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To: 1955Ford

God knows, I’d love to see it but....

Total isolation fom exterior power, and whatever lights up a single incandescent 100 watt bulb. Until I see that, my money is on Uncle Fester of the Addams Family


13 posted on 06/01/2008 1:11:56 AM PDT by barkeep (Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc)
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To: Ronin
I’ve suspected that the next big wave of science was about due.

I will agree with that!

14 posted on 06/01/2008 1:16:17 AM PDT by lafroste (gravity is not a force. See my profile to read my novel absolutely free (I know, beyond shameless))
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To: DB
Where did the helium come from?

Probably a natural gas well. That's where most terrestrial Helium comes from.

15 posted on 06/01/2008 1:40:19 AM PDT by FredZarguna (Why _was_ the Blind Imam blind, anyway?)
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To: spyone
He's too late.

A Brazilian man has already invented light bulbs that require no electricity.

16 posted on 06/01/2008 2:51:59 AM PDT by Bon mots
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To: spyone
If you are interested in this type of science, this is an interesting short film on Hutchison.

Film.

17 posted on 06/01/2008 3:00:23 AM PDT by Bon mots
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To: spyone

I don’t believe it.


18 posted on 06/01/2008 3:26:10 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: 1955Ford

“In front of live audience, including reporters from six major newspapers and two TV studios”

Yes, but can he do it in front of James Randi?

19 posted on 06/01/2008 3:38:31 AM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (Hillary to Obama: Arkancide happens.)
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To: DB; samtheman

If the cold fusion process detailed here produces more energy than the process itself requires, then fine; this just might be something important.

But if the amount of energy this process needed to exert great pressure exceeds the amount of energy generated by the cold fusion process itself, then it is a bust.


20 posted on 06/01/2008 3:44:23 AM PDT by SatinDoll (Desperately desiring a conservative government.)
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