Indian scientist claims holy grail of physics

THE TIMES OF INDIA ^ | TUESDAY, MARCH 05, 2002 9:04:47 PM | CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA

[Madiuq]

WASHINGTON: An Indian-American scientist with the IIT imprimatur has, along with several American colleagues, caused a stir in the world scientific community by claiming to have achieved nuclear fusion in a small table top experiment.

If it is proved right and authenticated by peers, such a fusion – the same principle that fuels the sun – could be the source of cheap, clean and limitless energy, and could change the world.

Scientists have worked for decades in this direction and the possibility that a team might have cracked the problem is considered so remote that the announcement, to be reported in the journal Science later this week, has been greeted with scepticism in the academic community.

Leading the research team making a stab at what is considered the holy grail in the world of physics is Rusi Taleyarkhan, a senior scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Richard Lahey, a professor of engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

Taleyarkhan earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and came to the United States in 1977, earning a master's degrees in nuclear engineering and business administration and later a doctorate in nuclear engineering, also from Rensselaer. He considers Dr Lahey, who is also close to India and has consulted with the Indian nuclear establishment, his mentor.

Achieving sustainable nuclear fusion would be a scientific milestone, if not manna. Unlike nuclear fission, splits heavy atoms like uranium and releases some of the excess energy stored as mass in the uranium atoms, fusion joins together light atoms, such as hydrogen, in a reaction that creates a third heavier atom and converts some of the original atoms’ mass into energy.

Because fissionable elements are rare, complex and dangerous, often producing radioactive wastes, scientists have long sought to exploit more readily available elements like hydrogen.

In their article, Taleyarkhan and Lahey report that by blasting liquid acetone (which has deuterium, a heavy hydrogen isotope) with ultrasound, they cause bubbles in the acetone to collapse with such ferocity that they briefly reach temperatures of several million degrees like in the sun. This enabled hydrogen atoms to fuse together and release bursts of energy.

The experiment produced only minuscule amounts of energy, but the scientists feel it might be possible to enlarge the process to a commercially-viable scale. The experiment’s entire apparatus is well within the bounds of “table-top physics,” about “the size of three coffee cups stacked one on top of the other,” says Dr Taleyarkhan.

But many experts scoffed at the claim, although it came with some caveats and a cautionary note from Science magazine editors. Some of them questioned the sustainability of the experiment on a larger scale while others said the work could be contaminated or the researchers may have been fooled by false evidence.

Science writers recalled a similar 1989 hoopla over “cold fusion” that roiled the world of physics before being dismissed as dud. But Taleyarekhan and Lahey say the contretemps was very much on their mind and the experiment had been reviewed extensively before reporting it in Science.

“Of course Mother Nature does throw googlies at us, but we believe it can be scaled and are optimistically cautious,” Dr Taleyarkhan told this correspondent in an interview Tuesday from his lab in Oakridge. “Such a process also has applications other than mass energy production, such as food radiation and chemical synthesis.”

The journal Science itself was non-committal. "In this instance, we see no good reason for suppressing the paper, and even less for attempts to discredit in advance. The premature critics of the result, and those who believe in it, would both do well to cool it, and wait for the scientific process to do its work," it said in an editorial comment.

Dr Taleyarkhan’s has impressive scientific pedigree and credentials. He has been the group leader and program manager in the Engineering and Technology Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

One of his more remarkable inventions is a rifle that can be adjusted so its user fires bullets at varying speeds. The US government has shown great interest in the project because such a non-lethal weapon can be used effectively for peace-keeping, riot-control, and school security.

Son of a prominent Parsi clan of Mumbai, Dr Taleyarkhan’s larger family includes luminaries such as the late Bobby Talyarekhan, the famous radio broadcaster, and Homi Taleyarkhan, a former diplomat. He is married to Navaz Rusi and they have three children, Pervin, Manaz and Meher.

[DallasMike]

I regard simple fusion as the "philosophers' stone".

I see it as something more like The Big Enchilada, with a little El Dorado thrown in for good measure.

[ml/nj]

Would it not be a scream if India at one stroke impoverished the Muslim world forever.

While your comment does suggest a delightful irony, I think you should reread the article:

Leading the research team making a stab at what is considered the holy grail in the world of physics is Rusi Taleyarkhan, a senior scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and Richard Lahey, a professor of engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

These are American institutions.

ML/NJ (RPI '68)

[Ciexyz]

Interesting. Bump.

[Francohio]

Soon, suitcase sized device will be available to provide HVAC, light, and endless hot coffee in every room for an entire motel and several 7-11 stores.

[Dan Day]

I thought that the "holy grail" was unified field theory. I regard simple fusion as the "philosophers' stone".

An even *bigger* "holy grail" would be to discover a way to get around the law of conservation of energy (okay, "mass-energy"), thus getting "free" energy out of "nothing".

But portable fusion would be stunning.

[Jesse]

Calling all physicists... I'm having trouble understanding how, even theoretically, bubbles induced by ultrasound could create such temperatures or pressures on this scale. Still seems to me spittin' in the wind to overcome the repulsive force of the nucleus. Unless these bubbles collapse near lightspeed, where is the energy coming from?

[El Gato]

I thought the holy grail of physics was the equation that linked all forces together. What was it called?

Grand Unified Theory (GUT)

[JasonC]

The force between two atoms is tiny compared to all macroscopic forces. It is only adding up a lot of them (more than 20 orders of magnitude worth) that results in powerful effects. The difficulty is getting any atoms to have enough of the abundant energy macro forces can provide, rather than that energy spreading out over many, many atoms, each with relatively little.

If the energy of each atom is below a threshold level, they all bounce off one another due to electromagnetic forces. If any collide forcefully enough, they can penetrate the repulsion of the EM, down to the distance at which the attractive nuclear forces outweigh the EM repulsion. Then you get a net energy release, because the fused nuclei are a lower rest energy state (marginally lower mass) than seperated.

So, the hard to believe part is the claim that they have found a way to get a fairly high portion of the available macro force, to dump into a relatively small portion of the atom population. That is what they claim the ultrasound and collapsing bubbles are doing. Imagine a "spectrum" of the "temperatures" of individual atoms. They want a long "tail" at the high energy end. Most moving slowly, a few moving very fast.

Whether it is true, I don't pretend to know. Of course on its face it is not very likely. It is at least as likely that they just measured the energy budget incorrectly, and no energy release from fusion was going on. (E.g. if they measured the energy input from the ultrasound just slightly wrong, it could look like a net energy release was occurring, when it wasn't).

It is also possible, even if they are right in their claims, that only a tiny portion of the atoms can be pushed to high enough energies in the manner they found, with the result being the whole thing can't scale up to any meaningful macroscopic energy source. In that case it would still be of theoretical interest, but not anything directly practical.

[tjg]

Nice.

[farmfriend]

How many times will this story get posted?

[NilesJo]

Wouldn't fusion events be accompanied by a measurable release of characteristic neutrons?

[blam]

I don't know. Here's the reply from my son when I asked him about this.

"The same effect that creates somoluminence could create fusion. This is not the cold fusion of Pons and Fleischman though. I believe the ultrasonication of certain fluids with bubbles causes the bubbles to collapse at such high energy as to create luminence, I recall reading that some calculations have it that at that point, the temperature can be as hot as the sun - so yes that could be fusion. I'd be very optimistic about the possibility, although being able to use it may take some more time."

[TheLooseThread]

"Of course Mother Nature does throw googlies at us, but we believe it can be scaled and are optimistically cautious,..."

Hey, who ran this thing thru babel fish?

[ccmay]

Hey, who ran this thing thru babel fish?

Googlies are a screwy pitch in the game of cricket, sort of like a knuckleball. Or maybe a curveball: "Mother Nature throws us some curveballs" would be a very good translation of what he said.

-ccm

[Future Snake Eater]

Yeah, I'd say it's hard to decide which breakthrough would be more revolutionary. Cold fusion would allow for practically limitless energy to...do what we're already doing, just cheaper...However, the Unified Field Theorem would allow for all kinds of crazy stuff that most of us can't even imagine. But then we'd need more energy...

[boris]

"An even *bigger* "holy grail" would be to discover a way to get around the law of conservation of energy (okay, "mass-energy"), thus getting "free" energy out of "nothing"."

While you are at it, better revise the Laws of Thermodynamics, too. Repealing energy conservation would definitely call for some serious blue-pencil on these.

--Boris

[boris]

Sounds like sonoluminescence, ho hum.

Known for years; nobody can figure out how to extract useful energy from it.

[syriacus]

This article and the replies are very interesting and informative. Thank you, all.

[B. A. Conservative]

Franklin Roosevelt solved that problem in 1932 when he re-invented the Democratic Party.

[American in Israel]

Would it not be a scream if India at one stroke impoverished the Muslim world forever.

Fitting even.