1. Like almost anyone who remembers the cold fusion craze and fallout (hehe) of the late 80s and early 90s, I'm extremely skeptical.<p>2. The fact that this comes from researchers from the US Navy does lend it some credence, but I'm still very skeptical.<p>3. The reporting in this article is a good example of how the whole "fair and balanced" approach to reporting sometimes backfires when it comes to science reporting.<p><i>Paul Padley, a physicist at Rice University who reviewed Mosier-Boss's published work, said the study did not provide a plausible explanation of how cold fusion could take place in the conditions described.<p>...<p>But Steven Krivit, editor of the New Energy Times, said the study was "big" and could open a new scientific field.<p>The neutrons produced in the experiments "may not be caused by fusion but perhaps some new, unknown nuclear process," added Krivit, who has monitored cold fusion studies for the past 20 years.</i><p>So in most people's mind, there's this struggle and controversy within the scientific community about this topic, but one of these sources is quite a bit more credible than the other, at least to me.<p>This has been a primary tactic of the "Intelligent Design" and the anti-climate-change groups for quite some time.
I'm optimistic about practical fusion in the near future, which is unusual for me because I'm pessimistic about most new technologies. There is almost certainly a way to initiate fusion reactions with much less equipment than the NIF (which is still a worthwhile project). I don't know how soon it'll happen, but long before our 200-year supply of coal runs out. And then lots of people will feel silly for working on electrical energy conservation, which turned out to be pointless. I think I'll turn on some more lights.
We have been able to produce neutrons from fusion reactions for a while now, this is nothing new. The real breakthrough will be when someone finds a way to make a net positive energy reaction (where you produce more than you consume). Another problem with this article is that its anemic on details, especially that tidbit at the bottom.
Is this at all related to the Polywell fusion generator? I see no mention.
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywell</a>
> "We're talking about a new field of science that's a hybrid between chemistry and physics."<p>I already saw articles about that in Russian magazine "Technic for youngers" ("Техника - молодёжи"/"Tehnika - molodeji") about 20 years ago. A man (I cannot find article) experimented with middle energy range (around 0.1MeV) nuclear reactions. He used modified welding machine to generate high power, which he used to fuse alloy of metals. Then he analysed results and found new metals and non-metals in alloy. He created theory about stable nuclear fractions, similar to chemistry, which can be transmitted between nucleus at much lower energies than typical nuclear reaction without damaging of nucleus.<p>However, magazine was very popular due to science fiction. ;-)