A long, strange journey
It’s been a very bizarre trip for cold fusion.
Odd topic, no?
Well, actually no as I’ve covered it once before. At the time (March 2010) I was fresh off of watching a video clip that had infuriated me. 60 Minutes had interviewed several scientists who had been involved with the 1980s announcement by Fleischmann and Pons of their – several times now proven – findings with a room temperature fusion reaction. The general consensus was that maybe, just maybe, the science actually worked and “oh, by the way” Fleischmann and Pons were perhaps the victims of some world class backstabbing. The resigned look of both bitterness and “I freaking told you so” on Fleischmann’s face says everything.
But, looking back from where the field is now in 2012 does provide a little hope. Dubbed “Low Energy Nuclear Reaction” or LENR now, cold fusion is bubbling back up to the mainstream.
I started hearing about LENR on some fringe-y sites here and there via the work of Dr. Andrea Rossi. His E-Cat system caught my eye – and the eye of researchers, industrialists and politicians from Sweden to Massachusetts. Skeptical myself, you can imagine my surprise when I started seeing it pop up in financial network reports. And presidential candidate interviews. And most recently in a ringing endorsement from NASA:
We could really use this one, Universe. Please don’t let me down.