What happened to Cold Fusion ?

Cold Fusion – introduced in 1989 by Fleischmann and Pons as fusion of deuterium from heavy water on palladium. However, most scientists could not reproduce the effect. Scientists expected to measure  particles such as neutrons, gamma rays or tritium as evidence for nuclear fusion, but did not find any, or too little, therefore excluding the ocurrence of a nuclear reaction. Soon thereafter it was denounced as pathetic science. The US patent office rejected all patent application in the field, and most peer reviewed journals refused publications of cold fusion papers.

However, today 23 years later, the experimental evidence for excess heat associated with nuclear reactions initiated at low temperatures is robust. In this blog, we will report on the latest developments on a regular basis.

So, what is the evidence for LENR (low energy nuclear reactions, see references) ?  Hundreds of papers have reported excess heat. Reproducibility has been improved, yet not to a satisfactory level. The reaction products from nuclear reactions, helium-4 has been correlated with the heat released, transmutation of elements – only possible by means of nuclear reactions – have been found. Still, the lack of reproducibility due to lack of control of the materials, involvement of special active zones and special catalysts, lack of understanding of  this  new the reaction mechanism in LENR, and lack of a comprehensive and widely accepted theoretical explanation are a major concern.

The following video (8 parts) is a presentation of  pioneer scientist Mike McKubre explaining the progress of the last 22 years in the science of cold fusion, or better say LENR. see What Happened to Cold Fusion? (Pt 1 of 8) Cafe Scientifique Silicon Valley, 10/11/11

The slides from this presentations can be downloaded here

Christian Schumacher

Dr. Christian Schumacher is the founder and managing director of StepChange Innovations GmbH, a technology development and consulting firm based in Germany. He has more than 20 years of experience in the chemical industry with global players such as Hoechst AG and DyStar Textilfarben GmbH as head of R&D, senior regional business manager Asia Pacific, head of e-commerce, head of marketing services, new product development manager and R&D chemist.

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