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Via the Daily Tech, we learn of a new journal article (and talk video) on a zero-electronics measurement of nuclear particle emissions from a "cold fusion" device. Apparently, previous measurements were criticized as due to electronic noise.
Using procedures that are commonly used in the area of nuclear physics, we have detected the emission of energetic particles during the electrolysis of heavy water on Pd electrodes prepared by codeposition in cells placed in either an external electric or magnetic field. Such energetic particles can only originate from nuclear reactions.
This would be a great topic for a disagreement case study, looking at the meta reasons people give for dismissing each others’ opinions here. At least on the surface, this paper and the work it cites appear to be careful work, worthy of attention.
Added: Cold fusion was the first topic of the 1989 corporate prediction market I helped create. This reminds us to be wary of trying to settle bets too quickly – some disputes just take a long time to resolve.
Added 12May: I just now got my 5May New Scientist article on this in the mail. Sigh.
Cold Fusion Continues
The biggest problem with CF: they've had 25 years and have yet to produce a generator that could power my desktop lava lamp.
If I had that kind of job performance as an engineer, I would've been shown the door a long time ago. And I'd be lucky if the boss didn't bounce my framed diploma off the back of my head on the way out.
I like that last paragraph and I've definitely seen it in action in my career. I'm no expert on cold fusion, either, but here's my $0.02: the best way to shut the critics up is to produce something useful. Isn't that what it's really all about? We're 25 years down the road and all we have are scientific papers to argue about. If cold fusion were a viable technology, it would be in use in industry.
25 years down the road and nothing is working, so the cold fusion folks are reduced to whining about how people are biased and the scientific community won't give them a fair shot. That's all a lot of crap. If you have a good product, it will sell itself. Valid science doesn't need some quasi-religious awakening in order for people to believe in it. If cold fusion is such a great thing, why hasn't anybody built a building and used a cold-fusion reactor to completely power it off-the-grid. That would shut up the skeptics, why don't they go do that?!?! Instead, I have to read a bunch of whining about how I'm so bad, mean, and ignorant for not believing in it like some cosmic Billy Burke.