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Fire from Ice: Searching for the Truth Behind the Cold Fusion Furor
Discusses the furor over the announcement that scientists had succeeded in producing controlled nuclear fusion at ordinary temperatures, describes the further research that has been done, and argues that cold fusion may still eventually be perfected
352 pages, Hardcover
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