Posted on 01/10/2006 6:15:20 PM PST by PatrickHenry
Perhaps the most amusing, and telling aspect of the heady
Pons-Fleishman days was that the proponents were reportedly
running their tests with no provision for shielding from any
likely radiation from the supposed reactions, whereas the
skeptics trying to duplicate were using shielding just in
case they were mistaken.
Had P-F been correct, we'd likely now have "too cheap to
meter" energy, and a bunch of dead champions of same.
Mme Curie was severely radiated before the danger was known. They don't even let shoe stores have those foot x-ray machines anymore; it's too bad, that was great fun.
[Blast a liquid with waves of ultrasound and tiny bubbles of gas are created, which release a burst of heat and light when they implode. The core of the bubble reaches 15,000° C]
This is not a rehash of that cold fusion baloney.
But creating localized very high temperatures is relatively easy to do if you only want to create microscopic amounts of fusion reactions. The difficult part is using the fusion to make significant amounts of heat in a controlled process that can be used to generate electricity.
From what I can tell, peer review was done but some people who figured themselves as naturals to be in the loop weren't.
On the extreme edge of my memories as a yoot. When those shoes fit, they really fit.
This means there results produce fusion at a rate somewhere less than double, but on average closer to what happens when the beaker just sits on the desk.
They used to make wristwatches with radium dials. Glow in the dark all night. The watches weren't particularly dangerous, but they aren't available generally anymore. Something about the people that painted the radium on there.
While I still have my attention; Those flouroscopes were continously on. You could see your own toes wiggle. Even so, I'd end up with second hand as long as they'd fit; as my deformed toes to this day can attest. Kids these days think they have it tough?
If they do achieve fusion, an expected result would be an intense neutron radiation field (as well as gamma radiation).
The fusion reaction between two deuterium atoms is:
D + D yields Helium-3 plus a neutron and gamma radiation
I love it - a physicist named Putterman.
NCSU used to have a physicist in Materials Science named Scattergood and a plant patholigist named Weed.
You can get watches with tiny tritium gas lamps. They use those on night sights and emergency exit signs.
The physicist involved believes this will not be a power source. But it could be an inexpensive source for neutrons that can be used in other applications. It's morew about the science of fusion than about energy production.
"On the extreme edge of my memories as a yoot. When those shoes fit, they really fit."
Sure, but were they matching the shoes to the feet or trimming the feet to match the shoes?
They're fairly regular. Here's another one from 2 months ago.
If I can thread poach a little...There is a major project by FReepers and others regarding protein folding and distributed computing. The effort is dedicated to Ronald Reagan.
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=36120
FReepers are ranked nationally (top 566 and growing) in our efforts to help this massive science project. Please join us if you would like to contribute. Here is one of several threads that can help point you to start donating your unused CPUs if you are interested.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1554097/posts
Seems very questionable if it is non-replicable and there was a selective peer review.
Thanks for the ping.
I thought this thread was going to have something to do with intel chips inside Macs now.
Thanks for the ping!
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