Is there something called Cold Fusion If so what is it?

Answer 1

There are a couple of meanings. One of them is in reference to a particular claim; another is a more general (and much more widely accepted) term. First the particular: Two scientists in the 1980s, Pons and Fleischmann at the University of Utah, claimed to get excess heat out of a simple little electrochemical cell. Replicating their experiment seemed impossible and the current orthodoxy says they were deluded by temperature measurements that were done poorly. (Temperature measurements are frequently more difficult than they appear!)

They actually had a temperature spike which they 'assumed' to be from fusion in their equipment. Post analysis of the water in their cell indicated the presence of aluminum hydroxide. The problem is, there was no aluminum included in their experiment.

A laboratory assistant, tasked to watch the experiment in the evenings, later admitted he had accidentally dropped a small piece of aluminum foil into the cell. Aluminum introduced into an electrolysis cell will rapidly oxidize, generating excess heat and releasing large amounts of hydrogen gas. Their neutron detector just happened to record a neutron from spontaneous fission from natural uranium deposits in the earth at the same time the temperature spike occurred. These two errors together led them to believe they had discovered fusion at room temperature.

Nevertheless, this experiment has given rise to a whole field of scammers and true believers. A whole universe of cold-fusion literature exists on the internet. The other, more general, use of the term is to describe any kind of fusion that occurs at temperatures below millions of Kelvin. One such is muon-catalyzed fusion; there is little to no doubt in the scientific community that muon-catalyzed fusion is indeed fusion, nor that it can occur at room temperature or even below. It really is "cold fusion," though it isn't likely to ever be a power source unless an efficient low-energy way of producing muons is discovered. Unfortunately, due to the sensationalism of the Utah claim and the failure of a great many attempts to replicate the original Utah results, many people attempting to conduct serious research in the field are often dismissed out of hand (and this tends to lead towards a reluctance of such researchers to criticize other claims for fear of giving skeptics even more reason to dismiss it out of hand). What is cold fusion? : The answer above is incorrect. Cold fusion has been reproduced by over 1000 respected scientists in over 100,000 experiments. In 1989 alone, there are 90 referenced articles by different groups around the world that confirmed Pons and Fleichmens results. Only one MIT study claimed they proved Cold fusion does not work. It was found 4 years later that the MIT group falsified results and the groups was censured by the academic review board. Why would MIT and other Labs like MIT do this. They have Tokamak Hot fusion reactor, which is an enormous expense and big business. When Cold fusion exceeds thermodynamic break even, they will put hot fusion out of business, which I predict will never work.