Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
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Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#2> "The Google team explored three experimental set-ups that have been proposed to generate cold fusion — two involving palladium and hydrogen, and one involving metallic powders and hydrogen. None found evidence of fusion. The results have been published across 12 papers over the past 2 years: 9 in peer-reviewed journals and 3 on the arXiv preprint server."
It seems obvious to me that you can't achieve fusion using a catalyst. Catalysts are great if you're doing chemistry, but nuclear fusion is a lot different. You've got to force two positively charged nuclei to merge and I just don't see how a catalyst could accomplish that. That it didn't work for them seems to vindicate my casual dismissal, but I'm left wondering why they thought it worth trying in the first place. What were they thinking of that I haven't?
> "Trevithick recruited 30 researchers who had no strong opinions on cold fusion."
Surely 'having an open mind' about cold fusion is itself a "strong opinion" about cold fusion.
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#3Looks like research has been going on from 2015. I wonder why Google decided to keep this a secret... and I wonder how many such long-term projects exist.
Maybe it's the possible upside that motivated the secrecy
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#4Looks like research has been going on from 2015. I wonder why Google decided to keep this a secret... and I wonder how many such long-term projects exist. Maybe it's the possible upside that motivated the secrecy
Unlikely. More probably, they kept it quiet because there’s still a stigma around the work.
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#5Looks like research has been going on from 2015. I wonder why Google decided to keep this a secret... and I wonder how many such long-term projects exist. Maybe it's the possible upside that motivated the secrecy
One reason was probably the "taboo-ness" of the research. Reference Mr. Close's comments in the article. Attitudes like his hinder scientific advancement.
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#6> "The Google team explored three experimental set-ups that have been proposed to generate cold fusion — two involving palladium and hydrogen, and one involving metallic powders and hydrogen. None found evidence of fusion. The results have been published across 12 papers over the past 2 years: 9 in peer-reviewed journals and 3 on the arXiv preprint server." It seems obvious to me that you can't achieve fusion using a…
>Surely 'having an open mind' about cold fusion is itself a "strong opinion" about cold fusion.
A cynical reading might be: "30 researchers whose opinions on cold fusion were not strong enough for them to speak up at the job interview and thus forfeit the job".
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#7> "The Google team explored three experimental set-ups that have been proposed to generate cold fusion — two involving palladium and hydrogen, and one involving metallic powders and hydrogen. None found evidence of fusion. The results have been published across 12 papers over the past 2 years: 9 in peer-reviewed journals and 3 on the arXiv preprint server." It seems obvious to me that you can't achieve fusion using a…
It's not a chemical catalyst, but the idea of muon-catalysed cold fusion has been around since the late 50s. I think I first read about it as a child in the appendix of Arthur C Clarke's "2061" novel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon-catalyzed_fusion
Is that an open mind or parallel thinking? It's an interesting idea anyway, but seems no way to efficiently create enough muons / u- mesons.
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#8> "The Google team explored three experimental set-ups that have been proposed to generate cold fusion — two involving palladium and hydrogen, and one involving metallic powders and hydrogen. None found evidence of fusion. The results have been published across 12 papers over the past 2 years: 9 in peer-reviewed journals and 3 on the arXiv preprint server." It seems obvious to me that you can't achieve fusion using a…
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Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#9This seems to be in keeping with Google's "Moon Shot" philosophy — investing in some projects with potentially high payoff, but low probability of success.
If Tesla were pursuing a project like this, they'd probably announce that they were expecting all their cars to ship with cold fusion reactors by 2020 — and then start hiring a team ;-)
Re: Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
#10This seems to be in keeping with Google's "Moon Shot" philosophy — investing in some projects with potentially high payoff, but low probability of success. If Tesla were pursuing a project like this, they'd probably announce that they were expecting all their cars to ship with cold fusion reactors by 2020 — and then start hiring a team ;-)
There's an Iron Man story arc lone from a few years ago where Tony Stark starts a car company using his repulsor batteries as the energy supply..