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posted by janrinok on Friday December 09 2016, @11:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the before-their-time dept.

An experiment that earned Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann widespread ridicule in 1989 wasn't necessarily bogus

A surprising opportunity to explore something new in chemistry and physics has emerged. In March 1989, electrochemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, at the University of Utah, announced that they had "established a sustained nuclear fusion reaction" at room temperature. By nearly all accounts, the event was a fiasco. The fundamental reason was that the products of their experiments looked nothing like deuterium-deuterium (D+D) fusion.

In the following weeks, Caltech chemist Nathan Lewis sharply criticized Fleischmann and Pons in a symposium, a press release, a one-man press conference at the American Physical Society meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, and during his oral presentation at the APS meeting. Despite Lewis' prominence in the media spotlight, he never published a peer-reviewed critique of the peer-reviewed Fleischmann-Pons papers, and for good reason. Lewis' critique of the Fleischmann-Pons experiment was based on wrong guesses and assumptions.

Richard Petrasso, a physicist at MIT, took Fleischmann and Pons to task for their claimed gamma-ray peak. Petrasso and the MIT team, after accusing Fleischmann and Pons of fraud in the Boston Herald, later published a sound and well-deserved peer-reviewed critique of what had become multiple versions of the claimed peak.

From this dubious beginning, to the surprise of many people, a new field of nuclear research has emerged: It offers unexplored opportunities for the scientific community. Data show that changes to atomic nuclei, including observed shifts in the abundance of isotopes, can occur without high-energy accelerators or nuclear reactors. For a century, this has been considered impossible. In hindsight, glimpses of the new phenomena were visible 27 years ago.

[...] Hidden in the confusion are many scientific reports, some of them published in respectable peer-reviewed journals, showing a wide variety of experimental evidence, including transmutations of elements. Reports also show that LENRs (Low Energy Nuclear Reactors) can produce local surface temperatures of 4,000-5,000 K and boil metals (palladium, nickel and tungsten) in small numbers of scattered microscopic sites on the surfaces of laboratory devices.

For nearly three decades, researchers in the field have not observed the emission of dangerous radiation. Heavy shielding has not been necessary. The Widom-Larsen theory offers a plausible explanation—localized conversion of gamma radiation to infrared radiation. The implication is that immense technological opportunities may exist if a practical source of energy can be developed from these laboratory curiosities.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @11:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @11:59PM (#439493)

    To say "the Navy has been researching it" is like saying "NASA has been researching the EM-drive", which is to say, no. Because some guys working at a Navy facility were conducting "experiments" in their spare time isn't the same thing as the Navy providing research funding for it.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:08AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:08AM (#439498) Journal

    LENR and emdrive are actually a Navy-NASA collaboration. They will combine the two technologies to make flying ships, and formally merge the agencies.

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    • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:36AM

      by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:36AM (#439507)

      With EM-Drive propulsion, of course.

      --
      "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
      • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:39AM

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:39AM (#439510)

        Blah, that was supposed to say "With EM-Drive propulsion, anything is possible, of course."

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        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:50AM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 10 2016, @12:50AM (#439515) Journal

          Anything is possible with...

          _ o _ _ _ _   _ o _ _   _ _ _ _ _

          Mod up the post to buy a letter.

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          • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:01AM

            by edIII (791) on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:01AM (#439518)

            OK, you little extortionist, my curiosity was piqued :)

            You owe me a letter.....

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            • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:02AM

              by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:02AM (#439519) Journal

              You get to pick the letter.

              _ o _ _ _ _   _ o _ _   _ _ _ _ _

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              • (Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:09AM

                by edIII (791) on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:09AM (#439525)

                Ooooh, bonus!

                _ o _ _ _ _   _ o _ _   ? _ _ _ _

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                Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
                • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:12AM

                  by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 10 2016, @01:12AM (#439527) Journal

                  _ o _ _ _ _   _ o _ _   T _ _ _ _

                  I meant pick a letter of the alphabet, but alright.

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                  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:17AM

                    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:17AM (#439562)

                    I enjoy how this is far more difficult than intended.

                    R

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                    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
                    • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:51AM

                      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:51AM (#439568) Journal

                      _ o _ _ _ _   _ o _ _   T R _ _ _

                      it's coming together

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                      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:25AM

                        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:25AM (#439586)

                        I know (answer at end of post).
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                        DONALD JOHN TRUMP

                        Fuck him, fuck you and fuck 2016.

                      • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Saturday December 10 2016, @08:08PM

                        by Unixnut (5779) on Saturday December 10 2016, @08:08PM (#439785)

                        I have to say, this is one of the most impressive and novel attempts at Karma whoring I have ever seen.

                        I tip my hat to thee, sir!

                      • (Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday December 11 2016, @07:01AM

                        by Marand (1081) on Sunday December 11 2016, @07:01AM (#439922) Journal

                        So what happens if you get downmodded? Do you take away a letter? ;)