Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumThe quantum fusion hypothesis
For nearly 25 years now, the idea that it might be possible to extract unlimited amounts of energy from the nucleus of a hydrogen atom at low temperatures has been pretty much in disrepute. Fortunately however, a few scientists kept plugging away on just how one could get heat from the nucleus of a hydrogen atom. Now their efforts seem to be paying off. In recent months numerous respected scientists have been reporting at scientific gatherings that they are seeing increasing amounts of heat, which can only be coming from nuclear reactions, during experiments with hydrogen loaded into nickel and palladium under the proper conditions.
There have been so many of these reports by reliable and respected scientists that it has become absurd to claim that the phenomenon is fraudulent or that all these scientists are mistaken in their observations. Currently there are at least six different organizations around the world saying they have a commercially useful heat-producing device under development which they will be demonstrating soon.
This situation however seems to be changing following a lengthy interview with a fellow out in Berkeley, California by the name of Robert Godes of Brillouin Energy. He has been working in this field for the last ten years and says that he not only has a reliable heat-producing device, but also understands the physics behind it – which he calls the Quantum Fusion Hypothesis. He says that this theory of just how low-energy nuclear reactions work has allowed the development of a device which produces heat immediately and reliably. Most interestingly, Godes says he has shared his insights with scientists at the Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratories and SRI International, one of the leading US laboratories investigating the phenomenon. He says that both have verified that his theory does indeed work and that they can now produce heat from hydrogen every time they try.
What seems to be happening in this new kind of fusion is that when hydrogen is "loaded" into nickel or palladium and subjected to the proper kind of an electromagnetic pulse, the hydrogen nucleus which is a positively charged proton acquires an electron which turns it into a low energy free neutron. Now a low energy free neutron is something very nice to have for it quickly combines with other protons to form deuterium, tritium and finally quadrium. The quadrium only lasts for an instant before undergoing a process called beta decay turning it into helium. This is where Einstein and E = MC2 comes in. The beta decay of quadrium results in a loss of mass which is turned into heat. If all this pans out as claimed, it could be one of the most important secrets of nature that has ever been discovered, for our energy problems are over.
If this turns out to be true, it could be the ghastliest news imaginable for biosphere of this planet, including the humans who are part of it.
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TheWraith
(24,331 posts)This "article"--which is actually an op-ed for the Falls Church News Press, a weekly paper in Virginia with a circulation of ~30,000--or the way it's being used here to justify the drumbeat of doom, doom, doom...
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)http://brillouinenergy.com/Docs/Brillouin_Second_Round_Data.pdf
Knock yourself out.
Regarding my opinion - feel free to reject it and hold your own instead if you wish. It's just an Internet opinion, there are billions of them out there.
Henryman
(188 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)It looks to me as though mass is maintained, while some small part of it is turned into energy by E=MC2. Maybe the answer to your question is in the PDFs I linked above?
I'd love to believe it's bogus, but I'm getting an itchy intuition that says it may not be. They may only have a hypothesis and not a theory yet, but something's brewing.
immoderate
(20,885 posts)I'm in the middle. I think cold fusion is possible, but I doubt they've found it -- yet. 
This looks somewhat more promising as there are claims of replication.
Waiting for a real boiler. 
--imm
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)I'd have to ask why (regarding your conclusion)? Please speak in as non-technical terms as possible. Thanks.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)The crisis that humanity finds itself in right now has many, many components. Climate change, peak oil, pervasive chemical pollution, the depletion of ground water and soil fertility, shifting rainfall patterns, species extinctions due to human activity (overhunting, overfishing and habitat destruction), economic and financial instability, etc.
Only two of these issues would be directly addressed by fusion power: CO2 production and oil depletion. The rest of the problems we face exist irrespective of the source or nature of the energy we use. That's because those problems are caused by human activity, which is driven by exosomatic energy. The production of huge amounts of energy, even if it is CO2-free, enables commensurately huge levels of human activity. This activity is a direct threat to non-human life that is already being pressured severely by our existing activity levels. As more and more species are driven into extinction as a result of our actions, it's only a matter of tiume until we eliminate a keystone species - one that is fundamentally important to either us or the biosphere in general. At that point it's game over.
As a result I'm in favour of dealing with our problems by cutting back human activity levels while moving towards less impactful forms of energy like wind power. The concern I have is that fusion power like this will produce too much energy too cheaply, and in using it we may drive the planet past the point where it can sustain some or all life.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Sounds a lot like thinning out the human population ... I hope I'm mistaken, but if not, that is truly a scary thought.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)I don't think it will be because of anything humans do, though decisions to forego childbearing could become much more common.
I think that the earth's long-term carrying capacity for humans is about one billion people, so sooner or later our population will have to come down to that level, in one way or another. My best guess is it will be due to a combination of fertility reductions along with mortality increases due to food shortages and a rise in diseases. My guess is that it will happen over the next century or so.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)No one gets out of here alive.
All we have to do is quit making so many babies and the overpopulation of humans will cease in a matter of a few years.
The only other option that can determined is that a mass die-off will occur and that is what is really scary.
One way is an intelligent and reasoned process, the other is mass murder.
Which would be your choice?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Famines and disease have depopulated areas of the globe quite naturally for hundreds of millenia. I agree that deciding not to have babies would be a more pleasant path down the hill, but "murder" seems a bit strong.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)We know the outcome if we attempt to continue on this course; Causing a certain and determined death.
Which is pretty much what causing a murder means, eh?
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)It would be right up there alongside the ecocide we're already committing.
pscot
(21,024 posts)and other religious fundamentalists who would deny women control over their own bodies.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)But it is more of a mindset that needs the proper education everywhere before the reality can really be acquired.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)to believe every press release that I read, but I think a magic bullet technology could get our species over the hump.
Maybe the third world is going to come up to "our" level or "we're" going to go down to "their" level, but either way, the planet is hosed.
Seven billion people can't drive cars, use coal power, and shop for cheap plastic crap at the Wal-Mart, but neither can seven billion people become subsistence farmers who supplement their diets with poached wild animals.
In my perfect world, in 200 years we'd have about a billion people living simple lives in small areas of the planet, and "using" the rest of the planet in ways that are "sustainable." For example, I would like to see a large area of the Great Plains set aside as a "natural area" with bison and native plants, with some kind of rotational grazing, mowing, and limited cropping system. In order to avoid overt resource exploitation, we need a "magic" energy source. Fusion energy with solar could provide this "magic" energy.
pscot
(21,024 posts)the fabulous Turkey Digester that was going to solve our energy problems.
longship
(40,416 posts)It is at least a theoretical framework which can be tested. I imagine if it has at least some plausibility that such tests will happen.
But, I would caution cheerleaders for this to relax a bit. One peer reviewed paper does not validate new science. The only authority in science is nature herself. People can be wrong, nature never is.
Cold fusion is a hypothesis which has been pretty much debunked -- Pons and Fleischman went nowhere. But if there is a plausible mechanism that might lead the way to important new physics something might have been missed.
Frankly I am very skeptical about this. It is unlikely with what we know about fusion that this could have been missed. However, as I am no expert here, I just don't know for sure. I suspect that either this will show a way forward or it will be torn apart by either fatal theoretical flaws or lack of experimental validation.
Cold fusion, it seems to me, has a variety of problems at the very basis of physics. If it were possible we would probably have seen these variances prior to these claims.
But, as I indicated, I am no expert. (Mere BS in physics). We are just going to have to let the physicists sort this out.
eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)"Now a low energy free neutron is something very nice to have for it quickly combines with other protons to form deuterium, tritium and finally quadrium. The quadrium only lasts for an instant before undergoing a process called beta decay turning it into helium."
Low-energy neutrons do not "quickly combine" with protons. This is not how either deuterium or tritium is formed, and "quadrium" -- not a standard term -- does not β-decay to He-4, but loses a neutron (duh!) to form H-3.
The very name "quantum fusion" sends up a red flag, since *everything* at the subatomic level is "quantum", including every form of fusion ! This article is just a big word salad made from snippets of scientific terminology.
This topic will vanish when the pool of gullible investors is exhausted.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)The thing that interests me, more than the specifics of his claim, is the fact that multiple apparently independent sources are reporting apparently similar observations. That suggests to me that something is afoot.
eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)By which I mean peer-reviewed **published** results.
Google can't find much of anything about Robert Godes that wasn't written by Robert Godes, or taken from an interview of Robert Godes.
Smells like another Elchin Khalilov.
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)I was worried there for a minute.
FogerRox
(13,211 posts)I dont doubt that low order reactions can occur. A practical way to generate 500 gigs, no way.
NickB79
(19,236 posts)As others have pointed out, there's virtually nothing on him that hasn't been written by himself.
Dead_Parrot
(14,478 posts)
FogerRox
(13,211 posts)Polywell fusion at EMC2, Tri Alpha out of UCB, Focus Fusion out of NJ, are all looking at Proton Boron 11 fusion. All 3 projects undergo some level of peer review and receive real funding.
All this is by Godes is his own version of the so called Rossi LENR E-cat.
Real science attracts real money, bullshit attracts flies.