Cold Fusion - History

History

Nuclear fusion occurs at temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees. Speculations that nuclear fusion might happen at temperatures much lower than that seen in normal "hot" fusion nuclear reactions in the context of electrochemical loading of hydrogen in palladium and other similar metals have been suggested from time to time for nearly 100 years. In 1989, a claim by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) that such cold fusion had been observed caused a brief media sensation before other scientists began heavily criticizing their claim as being incorrect after many failed to replicate the excess heat. Since the initial announcement, cold fusion research has continued by a small community of committed researchers convinced that such reactions do happen and hoping to gain wider recognition for their experimental evidence.

Read more about this topic:  Cold Fusion

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.
    Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)