The
cold fusion phenomenon was introduced to the world in a press
conference in Utah in 1989. This news conference created a media
spectacle unlike any newly introduced science had ever seen. Since
that time, the words cold fusion have taken hold in the public
mind and become synonymous with claims of achieving the
impossible, whether in the miraculous or in the fraudulent sense.
Cold fusion has gained marketing status as a rock band, a frozen
energy bar and computer software. Its popular appeal as the holy
grail of energy has even become subject matter for several science
fiction movies.
As
a global village, we face desperate times. The world needs an
alternative energy source to supply our ravenous and dramatically
increasing energy consumption. Fifteen years ago, cold fusion
presented an ideal solution that offered both clean energy from an
abundant source and the end of environmental pollutants. More than
ever before, scientists working in this field feel optimistic that
this energy will be harvested one day and that the spigots of the
fossil fuel age can be slowly turned off.
The
science skeptics of 1989 decided that cold fusion was
impossible. According to standard nuclear physics theory, they are
right. Since the early 1950s, hot fusion scientists and
engineers have spent $16 billion on fusion research using massive
building-sized systems and standard nuclear theories. The idea
that nuclear reactions could occur with a beaker of heavy water, a
pinch of salt, two electrodes and a battery seemed quite
inconceivable to them.
Yet
some, having contemplated a more open-minded and optimistic view,
have labored to reproduce the astonishing claims in their own
laboratories. Fifteen years later, a body of experimental evidence
from established researchers worldwide has begun to bend
bookshelves. Paradoxically, at the same time, U.S. cold fusion
laboratories both large and small are grossly neglected and
inadequately equipped to investigate this new science more
fully.
As
in the early reports 15 years ago, a large body of experiments now
demonstrate unexplained levels of heat which surpass the amount of
energy used in the experiment. Reports continue to show low levels
of tritium and verifiable amounts of helium-4, both products of a
nuclear reaction. These were the first hints of a new paradigm of
which today's orthodox nuclear scientists are exceedingly
skeptical: the transmutation of elements in a science domain other
than high-energy physics.
Having
evolved, the field of cold fusion now comprises a broad variety of
experiments and theories. Many of these may represent not fusion
but, more precisely, low energy nuclear reactions, also known as
LENR effects. Ardent experimenters have developed numerous
techniques to stimulate low energy nuclear reactions, and several
theories have emerged, some of which challenge the basic precepts
of traditional atomic physics. Scientists and laypeople alike who
study cold fusion today still pinch themselves with disbelief, and
they wonder how this low energy realm could occur within nature's
mysterious atomic world.
For
all these reasons and more, cold fusion presents potential risks
and rewards like no other energy source, past or present. Its
nature and experimental findings have been grossly misinterpreted,
misconstrued and maligned. This book attempts to set the record
straight. Several dozen cold fusion scientists have contributed
information about their research - so many that we can safely say
not only that this is an accurate history and depiction of the
field but also that it represents the voice of the cold fusion
community. In an endeavor to educate and safely nurture the
emergence of this new energy source, The Rebirth of Cold Fusion
presents a hopeful and exciting chronicle of astounding facts and
events that explore the world of cold fusion.
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