Cold fusion

Cold fusion is a hypothesis about nuclear fusion at room temperature and normal pressure. Nuclear fusion is how many nuclei, the center of an atom, containing protons and neutrons, are forced together to form a heavier nucleus (singular of nuclei) and during that process, energy is released. Some scientists hope that this may be Earth's future energy source, but most scientists do not agree.


In 1989 two scientists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, published a paper in Nature, a reputable science journal, claiming to have created cold fusion. This was a very important story at the time. Other scientists were not able to repeat their experiments. This is why cold fusion is not generally accepted by scientists at the moment. Several dozen scientists are still working on cold fusion research. They publish in peer-reviewed journals and other academic sources regularly, but most are not convinced.

At the time, Cold fusion caused a large disruption in the scientific community, culminating on May 1st 1989 at a session of the American Physical Society where some scientists who unable to reproduce the original results successfully cast Cold fusion out of mainstream science.

 References 

 Other websites 

 Barnhart et al. (2009) "Technology Forecast: Worldwide Research on Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions Increasing and Gaining Acceptance," Defense Analysis Report DIA-08-0911-003, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
 Marwan, Jan and Krivit, Steven B., eds., Low energy nuclear reactions sourcebook (American Chemical Society/Oxford University Press, 2008; )
 Kitamura, A. et al. (2009) "Anomalous effects in charging of Pd powders with high density hydrogen isotopes" Physics Letters A 373(35):3109-12 doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2009.06.061
 Kim, Y.E. (2009) "Theory of Bose–Einstein condensation mechanism for deuteron-induced nuclear reactions in micro/nano-scale metal grains and particles," Naturwissenschaften 96(7):803-11.
 Szpak S, Mosier-Boss PA, Gordon FE (2007) "Further evidence of nuclear reactions in the Pd–D lattice: emission of charged particles" Naturwissenschaften, vol. 94 pp. 511–514.

Category:Nuclear energy