http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=342064&rel_no=1
Rethinking Alternative Energy Some potentially powerful sources not getting attention Sebastian Baciu (SebastianB) Alternative energy sources have been gaining increasing attention as of late, both in the media and with the public at large. Environmental issues even managed to sneak their way into the U.S. president's recently delivered State of the Union speech. Clearly the result of our dependence on fossil fuels, this focus on alternative energy sources has yielded some interesting results that have not all obtained the same amount of publicity. Cold fusion, despite its somewhat scandalous debut in a 1989 experiment, has managed to remain fairly concealed from the public at large despite the enormous prospects this technology demonstrates. Fusion, the process by which two nuclei are forced together to form a heavier nucleus (thereby releasing energy) normally requires enormous amounts of energy and heat in order to take place, and often, the energy and heat released from the reaction are rarely equivalent. Cold fusion on the other hand can take place at room temperature and pressure and has the same potential to produce energy as normal fusion. While not currently a commercially viable option for producing energy, cold fusion has the potential (albeit vague and distant) of being one of the most efficient forms of alternative energy. Cold Fusion, initially "discovered" in 1989 by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, was heavily publicized and announced amid much hype and fanfare. The excitement quickly died down however, primarily due to problems many scientists had replicating the experiments as well as the exaggerated manner in which it was announced. In 2000 however, renowned author Sir Arthur C. Clarke urged for cold fusion research and experiments to again be considered seriously among the scientific community, due to promising experimental results from a number of institutions. As it turns out, cold fusion was not as completely forgotten as it first seemed. Among some of those still supporting cold fusion research is the U.S. Department of Defense, the French and Italian governments, as well as a handful of small private investors (venture capital firms in particular). Most major recent research in cold fusion has taken place either in the south of France at a research laboratory partially sponsored Toyota or at SRI International in northern California. While no research has yet pointed to cold fusion as being a definite possibility or a permanent to solution to the energy crisis, a sufficient number of people are convinced that it is a possibility, enough in fact for there to be an annual cold fusion conference. While most of the researchers participating are often older and have a stable career (many younger researchers fled the cold fusion research field years ago, amid the initial scandal it caused), we at least have some assurance this important field isn't being completely ignored.
