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Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor
Offering the prospect of clean, safe, and unlimited energy, nuclear fusion has long been the shining hope for a world disastrously dependent on dwindling supplies of fossil fuels. Two generations of the brightest scientific minds and billions of dollars have been devoted to designing and building experimental reactors that mimic the unimaginably extreme temperatures and pressures needed to produce nuclear reactions akin to those that power the Sun and the stars. Then, suddenly, in the spring of 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, research chemists at the University of Utah, made an announcement that rocked the scientific world and made front-page news for months to follow. Their claim to have achieved nuclear fusion in a simple tabletop experiment and at room temperature defied sacrosanct conventional physical theories. And the scientific establishment would not take that challenge of cold fusion lying down. Within hours, even as the press was proclaiming a possible new era of unlimited clean energy, cries of disbelief and accusations of scientific misconduct and even fraud were heard from within professional circles. Researchers in laboratories around the world mobilized in an unprecedented effort to explain Pons and Fleischmanns experiments. A mountain of confusing, seemingly contradictory results began to pile up. Soon, leading scientific journals were regularly publishing cold fusion obituaries, and bitter editorials questioning the methods and motives of the cold fusion pioneers. Cold fusion was dead. . . or was it? Almost unnoticed, a steadfast group of hundreds of optimistic researchers around the world continues to search for a solution to the tantalizing cold fusion enigma. In Fire from Ice, astronautical engineer and well-known author, Eugene Mallove, sheds a new and very different light on the cold fusion confusion. Based on personal interviews with many of the people involved, as well as his firsthand experiences in laboratories and scientific conferences, he offers a unique insiders view of that divisive controversy, while at the same time clearly explaining the relevant science and technology. And Dr. Mallove convincingly argues that cold fusion may yet prove to be real. A story of scientific ambition and professional rivalry, political intrigue and hard science, Fire from Ice is the fascinating account of one of the most intense and momentous scientific controversies of all time.
259 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 25, 2024
This is a dated and to a degree woke statement on Fusion in general and Cold Fusion aka Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions. It started with a lot of politics and has much history through-out. In fact, the entire book has very little science and/or explanation of cold fusion technology except for stories of arguments about how it might work. From at least one of these stories I got some insight into solid-state containment of fusion components and containment of fusion outputs making the Pons Fleishman Cold Fusion progenitor product almost aneutronic outputs of the ordinary lethal radiation emission of normal (hot) Fusion. It is a story everyone concerned about Science Freedom should read.
December 14, 2015
Dating back to 1991, this book provides an overview of the Pons and Fleischmann announcement of their discovery of a new mechanism of cold fusion, and of the events over the following two years.
While most researchers had difficulty duplicating their results, many were able to show excess heat generation - greater than could be possible through chemical processes - and / or tritium or neutron production.
Known hot fusion reactions show high neutron or gamma ray production. Neither were seen in the cold fusion experiments.
The lack of known fusion products and the difficulty in replicating the Pons and Fleischmann experiments led to heavy skepticism in the press, but also in the scientific community.
A number of other mechanisms of cold fusion are known, including muon-catalyzed fusion. None have been shown to generate a usable net gain in energy, however.
Theories as to the mechanism have been proposed and while they suggest further experimentation, the timeframe of the book does not cover much activity in this area.
A number of companies are purportedly pursuing cold fusion, but it would appear that many are charlatans, increasing the uncertainty.
However, progress in cold fusion research has been slow. As Mallove points out this has not been unusual with complex mechanisms and was typical of transistors and high temperature superconductivity.
Many of the principals that appear in the book are no longer active in the field. Some, such as Peter Haglestein continue to be active in pursuing advances in the area. Significant conferences, such as the 2015 cold fusion conference in Italy feature presentations by well qualified researchers.
The book is well written and gives a perspective that is still of interest 25 years later.
While most researchers had difficulty duplicating their results, many were able to show excess heat generation - greater than could be possible through chemical processes - and / or tritium or neutron production.
Known hot fusion reactions show high neutron or gamma ray production. Neither were seen in the cold fusion experiments.
The lack of known fusion products and the difficulty in replicating the Pons and Fleischmann experiments led to heavy skepticism in the press, but also in the scientific community.
A number of other mechanisms of cold fusion are known, including muon-catalyzed fusion. None have been shown to generate a usable net gain in energy, however.
Theories as to the mechanism have been proposed and while they suggest further experimentation, the timeframe of the book does not cover much activity in this area.
A number of companies are purportedly pursuing cold fusion, but it would appear that many are charlatans, increasing the uncertainty.
However, progress in cold fusion research has been slow. As Mallove points out this has not been unusual with complex mechanisms and was typical of transistors and high temperature superconductivity.
Many of the principals that appear in the book are no longer active in the field. Some, such as Peter Haglestein continue to be active in pursuing advances in the area. Significant conferences, such as the 2015 cold fusion conference in Italy feature presentations by well qualified researchers.
The book is well written and gives a perspective that is still of interest 25 years later.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews