Posted on 03/22/2010 9:18:00 AM PDT by Ben Mugged
A potential new energy source so controversial that people once regarded it as junk science is moving closer to acceptance by the mainstream scientific community. That's the conclusion of the organizer of one of the largest scientific sessions on the topic -- "cold fusion" -- being held here for the next two days in the Moscone Center during the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"Years ago, many scientists were afraid to speak about 'cold fusion' to a mainstream audience," said Jan Marwan, Ph.D., the internationally known expert who organized the symposium. Marwan heads the research firm, Dr. Marwan Chemie in Berlin, Germany. Entitled "New Energy Technology," the symposium will include nearly 50 presentations describing the latest discoveries on the topic.
The presentations describe invention of an inexpensive new measuring device that could enable more labs to begin cold fusion research; indications that cold fusion may occur naturally in certain bacteria; progress toward a battery based on cold fusion; and a range of other topics. Marwan noted that many of the presentations suggest that cold fusion is real, with a potential to contribute to energy supplies in the 21st Century.
"Now most of the scientists are no longer afraid and most of the cold fusion researchers are attracted to the ACS meeting," Marwan said. "I've also noticed that the field is gaining new researchers from universities that had previously not pursued cold fusion research. More and more people are becoming interested in it. There's still some resistance to this field. But we just have to keep on as we have done so far, exploring cold fusion step by step, and that will make it a successful alternative energy source. With time and patience, I'm really optimistic we can do this!"
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
“Acceptance by the scientific community” ain’t what it used to be.
SnakeDoc
Interesting.
The technology used to control the experiments now days is much more advanced than when we started in the 80s.
I am surprised to see it on going. Maybe there is something (not necesarily fusion) going on here.
Why do they insist on calling a dogmatic, monolithic lack of thinking "science"?
I’ll accept it when they actually make it work.
And when it “actually works”,
I guarantee someone on the left will decry its “environmental impact” and get it banned.
Belief in UFO and alien beings is pretty widely accepted but that doesnt make it any more of a reality.
There would be nothing “controversial” about cold fusion if someone actually came up with a procedure which could be replicated. Until someone does it is a perpetual motion scheme.
THe US NAvy revisited the research secretly and they found some interesting things happening. The academic community thenmtook a second look. Paradigm shifts are a biatch.
When a consensus is reached, then it will be a reality.
Yup. 100%
It’s better science than polywater. They just don’t have a good theory to explain the excess heat. Some scientists can replicate it; others have failed to replicate. The *only* thing that the replicators had in common in the U.S. were that none of them were on the East or West Coasts. They were (and are) independently getting similar results.
Better than string theory. Better record-keeping than Mendel (who fudged his results). But without a unifying theory, without a major coastal university replicating, and with only 20-30% replicating of those who try, it is still difficult to explain the positive results.
It’s still in Art Bell land. But the good Art Bell land, not the UFOs gave me a ride and all they left me was pancakes (yes, this is cited in numerous UFO books as proof).
“When a consensus is reached, then it will be a reality.”
When someone develops a workable, useful method of capturing the excess energy, it will become a reality.
I once attended a conference on OTH radar at SRI. They are nice, gracious people. They also thought Uri Geller could use psychokinesis to bend spoons.
I'll accept cold fusion when James Randi supports it.
I dunno. That reads an awful lot like someone quoting a press release.
I remember heaing that the Navy had become involved. Their research is quite good.
Nah, PHP blows away Cold Fusion.
It's been done (several different ways, actually), both in the US (Navy SPAWAR labs) and in Japan.
“When a consensus is reached, then it will be a reality.”
Consensus has nothing to do with reality. The universe doesn’t agree to be a certain way; it simply is. When continental drift theory was proposed (forerunner of plate tectonics theory), geologists’ consensus that the theory was BS didn’t make the “drying apple” theory reality.
Cold fusion may or may not be a reality. Experiments and mathematics will provide the window to know which is correct.
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