Japanese scientist claims breakthrough with cold fusion experiment

While recent attempts to create a perpetual motion machine somehow, inexplicably didn't pan out, a physics professor from Osaka University now claims to have made a scientific breakthrough of another sort, with him now touting nothing less than a supposedly successful demonstration of cold fusion. That was apparently done by forcing deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell containing a sample of palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide, which caused the deuterium to be absorbed by the palladium sample, resulting in a denser, or "pynco" deuterium, with deuterium nuclei that are close enough together to fuse. That process also supposedly resulted in a rise in temperature to about 70° Celsius, and a temperature in the center of the cell that remained "significantly warmer" than the cell wall for 50 hours after the test. Of course, there doesn't appear to be any other scientists ready to back up the experiment just yet, so you'll have to rely on your own armchair science expertise to get your hopes up or down accordingly on this one.

[Via Slashdot, thanks One]

[lance @ May 26th 2008 12:16PM]

first!
Yeah, ok I think while reading that I just got a head cold..fusion.

[Jon2309 @ May 26th 2008 12:21PM]

Absolutely no idea what that means, but cool!

Something to do with effective energy production?

[derX @ May 26th 2008 12:19PM]

If "first!" wasn't going to get you low ranked, the lame comment following it will.

D-D-DDDDOUBLE FAIL!

[UKNigel @ May 26th 2008 12:20PM]

Your procreation privilages have been revoked.

[Macfly @ May 26th 2008 12:34PM]

"...forcing deuterium gas under pressure into an evacuated cell containing a sample of palladium dispersed in zirconium oxide, which caused the deuterium to be absorbed by the palladium sample, resulting in a denser, or "pynco" deuterium, with deuterium nuclei that are close enough together to fuse..."

Now why did'nt I think of that!

[gt-racer @ May 26th 2008 6:30PM]

@uknigel- with "jokes" like that I can't imagine him ever using them.

[McFly @ May 26th 2008 10:47PM]

what?? your only two brain cells fused together??

[waiownsyou @ May 26th 2008 12:26PM]

And gas is reaching $4/gallon again... why?

[lance @ May 26th 2008 12:33PM]

Scandinavia is 8.35USD a gallon. So 4 is sounding cheap now huh? Norway makes it's own oil and it still cost that much. Welcome to the big scamboozle.

[Flashpoint @ May 26th 2008 12:55PM]

Had Jimmy Carter had his way - rather than the oil companies, we'd have taken numerous steps towards energy independence.

HYBRID VEHICLES won't help the world.

FUSION POWER is going to be what powers the future.

The oil companies have done everything in their power to prove that its impossible to create Fusion power because of numerous technological shortcomings but all that bullshit means nothing if we are willing to research and fund it.

Natural Fusion requires temperatures of 10 Million Kelvin to have Helium and Hydrogen fuse. So far, the SUN is the only place this happens. BUT, we can use strong electromagnets to help achieve the same results - or, research cold fusion for a safer, easier, less expensive solution.

I for one am waiting for a Fusion powered HEMI -C from Chrysler.

[Za @ May 26th 2008 1:05PM]

Actually, flashpoint, the Sun isn't the only star in the universe. There are a bunch of others where fusion also takes place. Also, fusion occurs in thermonuclear weapons. Just keeping it factually correct.

[Benny @ May 26th 2008 3:08PM]

In the UK we pay over $10 per gallon. Yay for tax!

[Josh @ May 26th 2008 3:11PM]

@Lance
Idiot. Their gas is that high due to taxes and fees. Talk much about things you know nothing about?

[BigD145 @ May 26th 2008 3:48PM]

Oil companies get subsidized by the government no matter how much they charge the consumer. They don't pay taxes on any profit and the tax you pay at the pump goes right back to them, instead of to roads. Roads get built on credit 10 years after they are needed. Now if cold fusion does pan out and gets put into vehicles, you'll have a new tax to pay out of your income to pay for roads with little to none of the funny business in corporate welfare.

[t3_slider @ May 26th 2008 6:59PM]

All you people whining about gas prices. Ridiculous. Canada holds the world's second-largest oil reserves (Saudi Arabia is first) and gas prices are higher here than in the US, which produces MUCH less. We're exporting it to the US and giving you lucky bastards a better deal than our own citizens. Gas is hovering around $1.26 per Litre -- figure it out. That's $4.77 per gallon. Get over yourselves. I paid almost $80 to fill up the tank of my ugly minivan. Insane.

[whatphone @ May 27th 2008 5:38AM]

@t3_slider

wow. $1.26 per litre.

UK = £1.16 per litre($2.32). and Diesel = £1.28 per litre (£2.52)

so... I wonder what will happen to the US economy once you hit that price?!

[avdesign4 @ May 27th 2008 10:57AM]

@za

I thought nuclear weapons relied on "Fission" or spliting of the atoms and chain reactions, unlike the topic here, "Fusion" which is where nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei with the simultaneous release of energy

[wmspider @ May 27th 2008 4:26PM]

@avdesign4
no, actually thermonuclear means getting energy/heat out of the atoms (or their core). What you mean is "atomic bomb". Ever heard of the "H-Bomb"? The "tsar bomba", an H-Bomb, had aproximately 3000x the power of the bomb over Hiroshima during WW2.

Connecting to the topic, if they are able to generate and control that amount of power efficiently, it would mean almost unlimited power. I just hope this is not just a joke...

[d840 @ May 27th 2008 4:47PM]

@avdesign4

You are somewhat correct. The first atomic weapons used were fission-based (Hiroshima & Nagasaki), but then we started working on the hydrogen bomb, which was fusion-based and something like 100x more powerful. Fusion is much harder to control, which is why we only have fission power plants (besides experimental fusion plants, but they have yet to have a positive energy yield).

An interesting development is Internal Confinement Fusion(ICF), which uses powerful lasers to initiate a fusion reaction. A power plant based on ICF called HiPER is slated to begin construction between 2010 - 2013, and if successful, will produce more energy than it takes to initiate the reaction. For more info, see "http://www.hiperlaser.org/".

[Oinquer @ May 26th 2008 1:21PM]

ill have 4 of those

[Ron Smith @ May 26th 2008 12:30PM]

You say cold fusion, All I hear is bull sh*t.

[Osa @ May 26th 2008 12:33PM]

I don't think this is bullshit, the article says that quite a few physicists were at the demonstration

[the_fozz @ May 26th 2008 1:06PM]

@ Ron Smith: and people like you is why cold fusion research can't get funding.

[andres @ May 26th 2008 2:38PM]

thats because a bull shit in your ear right before i said it

[jaggeddreams1185 @ May 26th 2008 12:31PM]

the entire article is posted on Physicsworld.com

[derX @ May 26th 2008 12:36PM]

Including a link that actually is of use...how rare. Then again, how many people would spam for physics?

Anyway, went to the page and saw this title, "Astronomers watch as star dies." First thing I thought: sadistic, much?

Regardless, thanks for the link.

[Chris Anderson @ May 26th 2008 12:31PM]

I love fusion. Jazz-fusion, that is.

[geraldmc @ May 26th 2008 3:16PM]

jazz-fusion leaves me cold.

[James Sonne @ May 26th 2008 12:35PM]

Palladium/Platinum adsorbs large amounts Hydrogen/Deuterium at room temperature, a well known exothermic chemical reaction. Has nothing to do with cold fusion. Quantum mechanics rule out cold fusion, as the energy required to overcome the repulsive force of the fusion of nuclei can only occur at extremely high temperatures, i.e. supernova hot.

[Fred L. Carney @ May 26th 2008 12:59PM]

Fusion is indicated by the presence of Helium-4 found after the test completed. I can only assume they found enough to raise eyebrows.

[James Sonne @ May 26th 2008 1:52PM]

Helium-4 is a drastically unfavored product of Deuterium fusion, Tritium would have been the primary product (99%) of fusion in the stated reaction. Also, if the fusion reaction occurred, neutrinos and gamma-rays would have been emitted. The article states that no radioactivity was detected. Fusion in the stated circumstances is impossible without radioactivity.

[Josh @ May 26th 2008 3:15PM]

You seem to be quite the expert on something that no one know how to do. Is it just possible that you could not know all there is to know about something that is still an unknown procedure?

[James Sonne @ May 26th 2008 3:38PM]

Except it is a well known reaction of palladium and nothing new or unknown at all ... just misinterpreted by a few researchers. I'm sure you can read about it on that Wikipedia website. The presence of helium can be explained by the simple fact that, if palladium adsorbs hydrogen, it can also adsorb helium prior to the test and be displaced upon the introduction of hydrogen. The paper doesn't seem to state how much helium was found, but I could have missed it.

[white_ultras @ May 26th 2008 3:46PM]

Chemist would see the exotermic reaction there.. obviously, Japanese scientist however claims "fusion", ok, so where is your neutrons and other radiation resulting from fusion, huh?? I mean Japanese even named some building after that scientist, better hope he really has found something or Japanese science would hit new cold-crackpot-low here.

[john @ May 26th 2008 4:16PM]

To bastardize a quote:

"Discussing whether or not this is fusion is about as interesting as discussing whether or not submarines swim"

Why does it matter whether or not this is actually FUSION? What matters is: does the energy output make it a viable power source?

If yes: good! figure out how to commercialize it!

If no: then it's of academic interest only if it really is fusion (because then it's just yet another form of non-practical fusion), or of anecdotal evidence if it's not really fusion (so we can tell more "cold fusion" jokes) ... either way, nothing to be either excited nor snarky about.


(the original quote is from Dykstra: "discussing whether or not computers can think is about as interesting as discussing whether or not submarines can swim" -- what (pragmatically/practically) matters is what class of problems can be solved by computers, not whether or not they're actually/literally "thinking" and conscious as they solve them)

[LarryLarryLarry @ May 27th 2008 12:28AM]

Answer: No. Palladium is incredibly expensive, deuterium is very expensive to extract from seawater. Those are the two things you need to raise the temperature up to 70C, which is not useless, but you can't possibly do anything with that temperature to pay for the materials and processing.

It's clearly not fusion, but even if it was, it would be totally useless from a practical standpoint.

[Wwhat @ May 27th 2008 7:35AM]

It happened in korea btw, that the government named things after a scientist (and gave him awards), who then turned out to be a fool with bogus results, it would not be the first time.

[Fray @ May 28th 2008 12:41PM]

The problem is that they already took the exothermic properties of palladium into account and its producing 100 times as much heat as can created by normal hydrogen absorption reactions.

Call it a deuterium fuel cell if it makes you feel better the truth is this technology promises to be hundreds of times more efficient than the fuel cells used in the current generation of hydrogen powered electric cars.

[rodan32 @ May 26th 2008 12:40PM]

Now, where can I get some deuterium?

[Yevon @ May 26th 2008 12:46PM]

Walmart. Aisle 9.

[waiownsyou @ May 26th 2008 12:48PM]

Why, at any Class-M planet, of course.

[Xepol @ May 26th 2008 12:53PM]

Just start sifting seawater and take out the heavier hydrogen molecules - I like to create a pile of em on the beach each and every time I go!

Next time I think I'll build a sand castle deuterium processing plant and use the spare time to hunt for clams.

[simon @ May 26th 2008 1:01PM]

Xepol,
Thanks for the yuk yuks! Made my morning. I think I have to go to the beach now.

Simon

[Jeebus @ May 26th 2008 3:35PM]

http://www.artchemicals.com/Deuterium-Oxide-100-Atom-D-07mL-Spectum-Branded-P18356C578.aspx

[gotsmart @ May 26th 2008 12:44PM]

That looks like two milkshake blenders immersed in a coffee percolator.

Mmm... milkshake...

[tony @ May 26th 2008 1:19PM]

I drink your milkshake.

[Mr.Tech @ May 26th 2008 2:38PM]

For some reason that sounds soo wrong

[Jamie @ May 26th 2008 4:06PM]

My milkshakes. Let me show you them!

[Xepol @ May 26th 2008 12:54PM]

While the idea is kinda cool, what the heck use is cold fusion? Aside from making heavier elements, don't you kinda need it to be hot, to create steam and drive a generator?

Just me who has a problem with that, huh?

[pfromg @ May 26th 2008 1:04PM]

cold fusion is about getting more out than you put in (energy that is) , without melting the planet.
So cold simply means doing it without sun like temperatures.