20 Years After Cold Fusion Debut, Another Team Claims Success 373
New Scientist is reporting that twenty years to the day since the initial announcement of a cold fusion discovery another Utah-based team is trying again. This announcement is being taken a little more seriously than the original, although some might say it is just more available wishful thinking. "Some researchers in the cold fusion field agree. 'In my view [it's] a cold fusion effect,' says Peter Hagelstein, also at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Others, though, are not convinced. Steven Krivit, editor of the New Energy Times, has been following the cold fusion debate for many years and also spoke at the ACS conference. 'Their hypothesis as to a fusion mechanism I think is on thin ice ... you get into physics fantasies rather quickly and this is an unfortunate distraction from their excellent empirical work,' he told New Scientist. Krivit thinks cold fusion remains science fiction. Like many in the field, he prefers to categorize the work as evidence of 'low-energy nuclear reactions,' and says it can be explained without relying on nuclear fusion."
Hey don't knock it (Score:5, Funny)
It's better than string theory.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
They've done it! (Score:4, Funny)
Second time lucky... right? right?!?!
Huzzah! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Because while its motion may remain so perpetually, it still needs something to get it spinning :D
That's right! Modernize the scam with "Add-Ons"!
I have proof that it's real.... (Score:5, Funny)
Now Pamela Mosier-Boss and colleagues...
Now, if all of you remember from college, ALL of the physical effects were named after folks with obscure last names. There was never the Jones effect, or the Wang principle, it was always something the like "Heisenberg Principle" or something. Now, we'll have the Mosier-Boss effect to study. See? If she was named Jones, then it would definitely have been a fake because physical and chemical phenomena are never named after common surnames.
QED.
Nuclear battery explosions? (Score:4, Funny)
Nuclear laptop battery explosions? And that wasn't in the Slashdot summary? You're slipping!
Re:I have proof that it's real.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Do or Do Not, There is No Try. (Score:2, Funny)
Sorry, but anyone can try to achieve cold fusion, just as you can try to build a perpetual motion machine. Call me when you've actually achieved something.
This may seem harsh, but:
1. I don't think they have in any sense tried to call you
2. If they are successful in their experiments, I still don't think they'll want to call you.
In summary: I doubt you interest them in the any way what so ever. Sorry.
Re:Some objectivity needed (Score:5, Funny)
If they pull a rabbit out of a deuterium tank, that's going to be one seriously pissed off rabbit.
Cold Fusion hypothesis on thin ice (Score:3, Funny)
They're really skating around the weakness of their evidence. They are bound to be given the cold shoulder from the scientific community. They may need to cool their heels for a bit.
Re:I have proof that it's real.... (Score:5, Funny)
>or the Wang principle
Well, only if you ignore the adult DVD of the same name.
Re:Agreed, TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Funny)
You clearly fail to understand how "light bulbs" really work. They should really be called Darksuckers. See, what they do is you turn them on, and they suck all the dark out of the immediate area. Once the dark is sucked out, you can see in the area. The more powerful they are, the more Dark they can suck.
Of course, they can't STORE the Dark that they suck in. It has to come out somewhere. That's why the clouds coming out of power plants are usually black - they're chock-full of all the Dark that's been transmitted back down the lines to the power plant. If the clouds are coming up white, then there's not much Dark in them, which means it's probably daytime and more people are keeping their Darksuckers turned off.
It's the same thing as your air conditioner unit, which is just a giant Heatsucker unit that sucks heat out of your home and dumps it back outside...
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Some objectivity needed (Score:5, Funny)
Oh lord, bless this thy hand grenade...
Re:Some objectivity needed (Score:5, Funny)
If they pull a rabbit out of a deuterium tank, they should probably rerun the experiment without putting the rabbit in first...
Unless, of course, the rabbit is the necessary catalyst.
Re:bad science question (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe they were talking about nuclear power plants.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
To make the joke funny.
Re:Agreed, TANSTAAFL (Score:3, Funny)
They are, in fact, LSDs -- Light-Sucking Diodes.
Have you been eating any ?
Re:Fool me once (Score:3, Funny)
If it smells like chicken, and tastes like chicken then yes, it could very-well BE chicken... but it could also just be grilled frog.
Re:Agreed, TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:4, Funny)
If it's perpetual motion, why does it need power? :)
Because it's HUNGRY. This is known as Sinistar(tm) Syndrome, coward. Beware. *RAWWWWRRRR!!!!*
Re:Read the DOE Report on 'Cold Fusion' =They fund (Score:4, Funny)
Not necessarily. Back in the day people had no idea how beer was made (and it wasn't always directly repeatable) but somehow the fermenting process started and beer was formed. Only later did scientists realize it was free flying yeast that got into the vats of mash that were out in the open.
Free flying? Ever notice that most of the beer and bread makers of old were women?
Better idea (Score:5, Funny)
Along with cold fusion, we can throw intelligent design in there as well,... ;-)
Plus, look at the bright side: If enough Slashdotters catch on to this, it'll dilute the term "Sy Fy" enough and ruin the trademark that the network is seeking,... ;-)
Re:Agreed, TANSTAAFL (Score:3, Funny)
I think "Cold" could possibly refer to the not-being-as-hot-as-the-heart-of-our-sun temperature range. Everything's relative, except absolute zero.
OK, but it would have to be hot relative to the surroundings in order to gain any worthwhile energy. I would say it would have to be really really hot.
"Worthwhile energy" can come from anything hot enough to boil water - the trick with fusion is doing it in a way that doesn't obliterate the machine that is attempting to get useful work out of the boiling water.
Re:Well... (Score:3, Funny)
the 80s are notorious for many things, but humour is not one of them.