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Whatever happened to cold fusion? 17 Whatever happened to cold fusion? 17 THE ‘X’ CHRONICLES THE ‘X’ CHRONICLES WAYBACK MACHINE WAYBACK MACHINE ARTICLE FROM 1999..... ARTICLE FROM 1999..... Whatever happened to Whatever happened to cold fusion? cold fusion? by by David Voss David Voss Most physicists can probably remember where they were when they first heard of Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann. On 23 March 1989 the two electrochemists grabbed the world's attention by announcing at a press conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, that they had observed controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar. The excess heat measured in the experiment offered the promise of a new power source for the planet, as well as huge financial rewards. However, it is clear that world energy production has not been affected in any way by cold fusion. No experiment has so far convinced the sceptics that cold fusion is real, and most of the big funding sources, which threw money at quick experiments in the early days of cold fusion, have pulled out. Retired particle physicist Douglas Morrison, one of the more persistent critics of cold fusion, says that after ten years there is "less science, fewer scientists, fewer funds, [although there are] more potential investors". But cold fusion is not dead and buried. A dedicated circle of enthusiasts has kept the Soon after they announced their findings, game. flame alive to varying degrees, carrying out laboratories around the world tried but failed to Work on cold fusion continued in jury-rigged experiments in garages and replicate their results. In the rush to duplicate several countries, notably Japan, and this was basements, and one or two more conventional the cold-fusion results, chemists began often cited by cold-fusion believers as evidence institutions still have an interest. Although attempting nuclear physics, and physicists tried that that US would be left in the dust when the governments such as those of the US and Japan to be electrochemists. In the months that new world energy order finally dawned. But in have officially pulled out, the cold-fusion followed many labs rushed into experiments, 1997 Japan's government finally gave up. And faithful say that several government agencies and hastily announced confirmation of cold in 1998 IMRA was closed, having spent are still giving money to the field, including the fusion before they had carried out adequate something like £12m on cold-fusion work. Then US Department of Defense. And the Italian and controls. They then had to make equally speedy in March 1998 something of a milestone may French governments are still supporting retractions when the experiments did not have been reached. The University of Utah research in a small number of labs, according to succeed. finally gave up its struggle to obtain worldwide one cold-fusion insider. Eventually, a group at the Massachusetts patents on Pons and Fleischmann's work, Fusion on a lab bench Institute of Technology (MIT) found serious having been legally bound to pursue patents A couple of palladium electrodes in heavy water flaws in the gamma-ray spectra that Pons and until last year. The rights now revert to Pons and and any high-school kid could do it, it was said. Fleischmann offered as proof. This was to be Fleischmann themselves, should they choose to Pons, in the chemistry department at the the death knell, and the final nails in the coffin continue the pursuit of patents. University of Utah, and his mentor Martin of cold fusion were hammered in by a US Sporadic reports have continued to Fleischmann, of Southampton University in the Department of Energy panel that concluded in trickle in from various small research efforts, UK, claimed at the press conference in 1989 October 1989 that there was nothing to cold but in each case the results have proved erratic that they had fused deuterium nuclei using fusion. This in turn spawned bitter accusations or impossible for other groups to replicate. It routine electrochemical techniques on their lab that hot-fusion physicists and particle physicists appeared to be a classic case of what the Nobel bench. This was a huge claim to make - nuclear were out to get the cold-fusion community. chemist Irving Langmuir called "pathological fusion had been thought possible only at The University of Utah continued to science", in which the results are always near temperatures in excess of a million degrees, press forward with a cold-fusion research the limit of detectability and the proponents when nuclei could overcome Coulomb institute, but that lab was eventually disbanded always have an ad hoc answer as to why. Yet the repulsion. The only cold fusion that had been in 1991 when it failed to replicate the earlier defenders of cold fusion have soldiered on, a detected until then was the kind mediated by results. Pons and Fleischmann departed in 1992 number of them merging with a network of muons, seen in accelerator experiments in the for the south of France, where the Technova conspiracy theorists, psychic spoon-benders, 1950s, and then only at minuscule rates. company, a subsidiary of the Toyota car UFO enthusiasts and believers in other exotic Indeed, questions were soon raised company, funded a new laboratory called physical phenomena outside the ken of science. about the reliability of Pons and Fleischmann's IMRA. As time went on, all but the diehards nuclear measurements, given their lack of gave up, and the major reputable labs lost experience in quantitative isotope analysis. interest and dropped out of the experimental Continued on Page 18