Cold Fusion 101 IAP Course at MIT
I attended the 2014 cold fusion IAP course at MIT in Cambridge, MA put together by Dr. Peter Hagelstein and Dr. Mitchell Swartz. Complete films of those lectures as well as last year’s lectures from Jan 2013 are available on ColdfusionNow.org and on ColdFusionNow’s YouTube channel. Those lectures are a wellspring of pertinent information on Cold Fusion science and I highly recommend those of you interested in learning more about the technology of cold fusion, go and review those lectures.
2014 MIT Cold Fusion IAP (All Lectures)
Monday January 27 Day 1 FULL Lecture (Introduction to Cold Fusion Science and Current Research, Superwaves and Phonon Modes, Laser Assisted Cold Fusion, Palladium Deuteride Loading parameters, Failures to replicate Pons and Fleishman, and discussion of Skepticism in Cold Fusion) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Kg_Yp0ct8
Tuesday, January 28 Day 2 FULL lecture (Loading Parameters @24:49 Volmer-Taffel Regime, equations for Palladium Loading Models, Palladium Deuteride, superwaves and lattice interactions)
Wednesday, January 29 Day 3 FULL lecture (Inavertant Codeposition, Helium 4 Production, Zirconium Oxide Helium Dissipation) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFmzKVkgFtM
Thursday, January 30 Day 4 FULL lecture (Phonon Modes and Lattice Vibrations, Theories on Phonons, and Killing Models, Spin-Boson Model, Karabut Experiment with Collimated X-Ray Emissions)
Friday, January 31 Day 5 FULL lecture (Theories, Models, and more failed attempts at understand LENR Effects, Excess heat in NiH systems, Fukai Structure, Pantilli Experiment, more theory)
Dr. Mitchell Swartz says he originally got into Cold Fusion research at MIT in order to debunk it. Now after years of research he is teaching a course at MIT on Cold Fusion experiments, methods, and results, and works alongside Dr. Hagelstein who is the theoretical side of the team.
Scholarly Papers by Mitchell Swartz on Electrochemical Loading
Now for those of you who don’t know, Cold Fusion is based on the idea that if you load enough hydrogen or deuterium atoms inside a metal lattice, like Nickel or Palladium, they become so tightly packed close together, that they begin to fuse together. Two world renowned electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann were the first to claim the discovery of excess heat effects in cold fusion. Some of their colleagues thought that since their discovery was so important it might be a good idea to go public with an announcement through the mainstream media. That turned out to be a very bad idea? The media turned against Pons and Fleischmann and started a witch hunt within the scientific community. Pons and Fleischman were quickly “debunked” and the entire concept of Cold Fusion was labeled a “Fiasco” and even a “hoax”. Two primary studies in particular were successful in shifting mainstream scientific opinion against Cold Fusion forever. These two studies are also cited by the patent offices for refusing any and all patents on Cold Fusion related devices. Those are the MIT and Caltech studies commissioned by the DOE’s Energy Research Advisory Board report, a report that would determine the federal response to cold fusion and shape energy policy at the highest level of government.. (Read Remove Institutional Blocks for more.)
As some of you may know, Dr. Eugene Mallove wrote an article for the MIT Press in which he claims that MIT actually DID observe excess heat in their cells, and that they covered it up, in addition to holding a wake for Cold Fusion before their results from the lab were back. Dr. Mallove quit his position at MIT in outrage at the Cold Fusion circus of denial and ridicule.
It’s important to note that Dr. Peter Hagelstein’s position on the MIT results is much different than Mallove’s. Dr. Hagelstein claims there is no way the MIT experiments could have seen excess heat because their loading was not high enough. That is, they did not pack enough deuterium molecules inside their cathodes to reach the required reaction range.
This is very important. Experiment trumps theory in science, and there are many scientists from all over the world risking their careers and reputations to claim positive results in cold fusion experiments. But when those early MIT and Caltech replications failed to reproduce the effect, those experiments were cited as complete proof that no such effect indeed existed. At MIT last week this team of scientists carefully laid out the FACTS regarding Cold Fusion and explained that according to their experiments you don’t ever see excess heat until you get over 90% D to Pd loading ratio. It maxes out at around 95% loading. Caltech and MIT never got above 80%, so this is why their experiments failed to produce any excess heat.
If this is true, then these are possibly the most epic scientific failures in modern technological history. The Caltech scientists who when told that their loading was not high enough, by other scientists in the field, even had the nerve to reply “the loading is plenty high! There is no effect!” (from an argument with Bob Huggins) and while critics and skeptics like to call Cold Fusion “pathological science”, in light of recent evidence it seems that their denial is the only thing that is “pathological”.
Well, if there really IS an effect, as more and more evidence seems to be piling up that Cold Fusion effects ARE real, that would mean that these scientists who ridiculed and mocked Cold Fusion back in the 80’s and 90’s and even today can be blamed for setting all of our technology back 20 years. Just imagine that today we might have hover boards, flying cars, and a booming space tourism business, had history gone a bit differently. And don’t laugh, there was a guy from Terrafugia at the IAP course last week at MIT, and he is serious about using cold fusion power to build flying cars.
This is a serious business.
TerraFugia.com
While others are dreaming up ideas on what to do with cold fusion once we get the science nailed down, Dr. Hagelstein and Dr. Swartz are busy nailing down that science! They have begun to compile a list of conditions which enhance the production of excess heat in Cold Fusion experiments, and also a list of things that will kill the reaction or cause it to stop producing excess heat. For example applying an external magnetic field and shining an infra-red laser on the cathode have been shown to enhance the production of excess heat.
PROGRESS ON DUAL LASER EXPERIMENTS – Dennis G. Letts, Dennis Cravens, and Peter L. Hagelstein
Things like cracking or brittleness caused by defects in the metal or by loading too quickly cause the deuterium to leak out and not maintain sufficient loading thus killing the reaction. They have also determined that the reactions are occurring at the surface of the materials possibly through an effect of the surface plasmons. So to maximize the effect you need to maximize surface area. But as you do that you also produce a lot of Helium4 fusion product which needs to be dissipated from the system, so what they have done is to use Deuterated Palladium nanomaterial suspended like chocolate chips inside a cookie dough of Zirconium Oxide. This, is the basic design behind Micthell Swartz? NANOR technology, which uses nanomaterials to maximize Cold Fusion reaction rates and efficiency. His best NANORs put out 14 times excess power, which is a very huge deal.
And though the NANORs may not look all too impressive (basically just a copper wire) This is quite possibly the beginning of the largest technological breakthrough that our generation will witness. One teaspoon of water has the fusion fuel energy of an entire gallon of gasoline. In the future you’ll be able to fill your car’s gas tank with one gallon of water and drive 55,000 miles.
The Cold Fusion revolution will render Coal, Gas, and Nuclear fuels obsolete. Completely decimating a multi-billion dollar industry and freeing humanity from the economic restraints of rising energy costs, and meter based centralized distribution systems. The future these corporate energy mega-giants fear most will be one built on decentralized, off-the-grid home power and heating systems based on Cold Fusion water-powered technology. No wonder there is so much top level resistance to the idea.
Cold Fusion is real, this group at MIT claims to have nailed down most of the science behind how to get it working reliably and consistently, and it?s about to make a comeback and completely change everything, if it weren’t for all the unfounded doubts about it’s validity.
The original MIT and Caltech studies FAILED to replicate the Cold Fusion excess heat effect because they did not achieve high enough loading in their cathodes. That claim alone should make the entire scientific community questions those studies and want to go redo the experiments with better quality Palladium and achieve 95% loading.
There is a reason that they call it “RE-Search” in science, because you find out what changed, what factors are the key essential elements to getting something to work, and you re-search by doing experiments. You don’t just do one or two experiments and then give up on the most promising energy source ever to be allegedly discovered in the history of science & technology.
Look at how much we continue to spend on the search for Dark Matter, and we still haven’t found any Dark Matter… and Dark Matter doesn’t even have any practical real world applications. Hmmm… So if your theory predicts something that there is absolutely zero experimental evidence for, you spend hundreds of Millions to search for it… But when an experiment or series of experiments (like Pons & Fleischmann, et. al.) find experimental evidence for something that disagrees with your text book theories, the scientific community starts a witch hunt to shun the evidence, discredit the experimentalists, and blacklist the topic from all accepted discussions… Weird. Why is that? How could that be?
Well it might have something to do with the fact that Cold Fusion directly threatens all of the biggest, most profitable, and political institutions on the entire planet… namely, the Oil Companies and the Big Banks. Which, in case you haven’t been paying attention the past 100 years, pretty much run the show.
I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the science of Cold Fusion and where the field is currently at today in 2014 to go watch those lectures I posted on ColdFusionNow.org . There are 5 lectures total which are 3 hours long each, and plenty of reference papers on the slides to look up and keep you busy for a while. These lectures are an amazing resource for information.
Superwaves and coherent phonons in superlattices
Superwaves have been shown to boost Cold Fusion effects and increase chances of positive results.
For example the Energetics Team found traces of super waves within the active phonon modes in Palladium Deuteride Cold Fusion cells. There is much speculation among theorists in the field that trick to understanding the cold fusion mechanism lies in the phonon interactions and degrees of freedom, which allow the ordinary 24 MeV gammas to dissipate into the lattice structure via superwaves incited in the active phonon modes.
Collimated X-Ray Emissions and what they indicate
Another very interesting point brought up in the class was the issue of Collimated X-ray emissions in the Karabut and Gozzi Experiments
Edmund Storms: What is Cold Fusion and Why Should You Care?
Huizenga’s “Three Miracles of Cold Fusion”
John Huizenga wrote a scathing book denouncing cold fusion research in 1993. He was a professor of chemistry and physics at the University of Rochester, a Department of Energy-funded hot fusion research laboratory. He was also chairman of the 1989 Department of Energy cold fusion evaluation panel that decided cold fusion research was not an area of science worthy of government funding. He mocked cold fusion by alluding to its unexplained characteristics as “miracles.” Huizenga’s three miracles of fusion were:
Miracle #1: the mystery of how the Coulomb barrier is penetrated
Miracle #2: the lack of strong neutron emissions
Miracle #3: the lack of strong emission of gamma or x-rays
I asked Dr. Peter Hagelstein what he thought about Huzienga’s 3 Miracles, this was his repy:
For Huizenga’s three miracles, probably more discussion is required than I can do here. But perhaps I can start.
I take the point of view that Huizenga’s three miracles simply do not go far enough in capturing the challenges faced by theory in connection with excess heat in the Fleischmann-Pons experiment.
Huizenga’s miracles focus on the conjecture that excess heat is based on a reaction where two deuterons combine in some way to make a He-4 nucleus. In the early days it was not clear what reaction should be focused on, but subsequent experimentation on the correlation between gas phase He-4 and excess energy suggests that this conjecture seems consistent with experiment (but even today not proven).
The first miracle concerns how one overcomes the Coulomb barrier. When Huizenga proposed his three miracles, this issue was referenced against the calculations that had been done for molecular D2. Koonin and many others had proposed this problem as relevant to the fusion of two deuterons in PdD. At issue in this is that the rate for fusion in the molecule by tunneling is very slow (one would have to wait on the order of 10**64 second for the D2 molecule in vacuum to fuse.
The second miracle has to do with the branching ratio. Normally one observes p + t and n + He-3 as products from deuteron-deuteron fusion, while He-4 + 24 MeV gamma occurs infrequently (with a probability less than 10**(-6) at low energy). Huizenga’s point was that He-4 was not a primary product of deuteron-deuteron fusion, so one would need to argue for a mechanism that would suppress the normal p + t and n + He-3 channels, and favor the He-4 channel. As the theory for incoherent deuteron-deuteron reactions is pretty straightforward as nuclear reactions goes, this is of course impossible.
The third miracle has to do with the absence of the 24 MeV gamma, which is known to accompany He-4 production when it occurs in incoherent deuteron-deuteron fusion reactions. Conservation of energy and momentum requires that the gamma takes up most of the reaction energy. Huizenga argued that since it was not observed, then its absence would require an explanation. Of course, no explanation is possible, since once a 24 MeV gamma is produced much of the time it will find its way out of the cathode.
I contend that Huizenga’s third miracle does not go far enough. Not only are there no gammas in amounts commensurate with the energy measured. There are no energetic nuclear particles of any sort present in amount commensurate with the energy produced. Huizenga should have gone much further!
From my perspective there is a fourth issue. Simply put, condensed matter physics and nuclear physics as understood in science then, and also now, does not predict the effect. Excess heat in the F&P experiment presents a fundamental challenge to both disciplines. We requrie a fundamental revision in our understanding of physics to account for the effect.
Theoretical science is still waiting for someone to come up with a bullet-proof LENR theory, which can explain all the given phenomena. Hagelstein covers this topic in Monday and Tuesday’s lectures from the 2014 Cold Fusion IAP course.
Peter Hagelstein says that the 24 MeV Gammas are most likely fractionated and released though other degrees of freedom within the metal, such as the phonon modes. This is the best model he has come up with thus far, to expain Huzienga’s Miracles.
Claim: They are simply measuring Heat Wrong…
One of the mose common counter-claims leveled against Cold Fusion research are the claims that they are measuring energy incorrectly. Here we will discuss various type of Calorimetry used in Cold Fusion and what the best methods are for measuring heat in Cold Fusion Sysyems.
Dr. Melvin Miles, a former university chemistry professor and Navy researcher, has performed several studies on the calorimetry of MIT and CalTech finding major mistakes in experimental procedure and heat measurement. The most recent analysis was published in the Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science and co-authored by Dr. Peter Hagelstein, an MIT electrical-engineering professor, and the lone cold fusion researcher on the campus. [.pdf]
Isoperibolic Calorimetry
“Isoperibolic Calorimetric Measurements of the Fleischmann-Pons Effect” [.pdf] Melvin H. Miles and Martin Fleischmann
Ohmic Controls
Melvin Miles on the Accuracy of Cold Fusion Calorimetry
Melvin Miles is an Expert in Calorimetry
LENR – Low Energy Nuclear Reactions
Cold Fusion, although virtually ignored by mainstream academic research, has continued underground through the efforts of brave and dedicated scientists. I am now pleased to bring you the technological and theoretical breakthrough we’ve all been waiting for… Clean, virtually inexhaustible energy in the form of sea water! Let the Cold Fusion Revolution begin!
1 Teaspoon of Heavy Water has the energy content of 300 Gallons of Gasoline. You could go 55 million miles on a gallon. There is enough deuterium fusion fuel in the top 1 foot of seawater in the San Francisco Bay to supply all of mankind’s projected energy needs for the next 50-100 years… And you wonder why the Federal Reserve Corporation has been suppressing it… Since their petro-dollars and their power is backed by Oil.
India’s Top Scientists Advise Government to revive cold fusion research:
http://www.indianewspost.com/sci-tech/40503-cold_fusion_offers_best_way_to_generate_power_scientist.html
Cold Fusion is real power generation source:
http://www.nature.com/nindia/2008/080117/full/nindia.2008.77.html
Cold Fusion NOW!
http://coldfusionnow.org/
US NAVY Report on Cold Fusion:
http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sti/publications/pubs/tr/1696/tr1696.pdf
Wired Science article on US Navy Cold Fusion:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/08/cold_fusion
Some important information about Steven E. Jones’ involvement in cold fusion research (Very helpful Information):
http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/cf/131history.html
The Obama Speech can be found here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-discussion-jobs-and-economy-charlotte-north-carolina
Cold Fusion Links:
http://www.newenergytimes.com/v2/reports/ColdFusionHistory.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/17/60minutes/main4952167.shtml
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323110450.htm
http://www.livescience.com/technology/090323-cold-fusion.html
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/6726-could-cold-fusion-really-workr/
http://www.dailytech.com/Navy+Heats+Up+Cold+Fusion+Hopes/article7168.htm
http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/cf/319galileo.html
Widom Larsen
The Widom-Larsen Ultra-Low-Momentum Neutron Catalyzed Theory of Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions.
The Theory and work of Frank Znidarsic:
“Znidarsic’s Constant” 1,094,000 m/s – is the key to Cold Fusion and has many other practical applications of atomic resonance effects for control over the natural forces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant
Frank Znidarsic’s latest versions of his papers:
The Quantization of Energy: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46167299
Control of the Natural Forces: http://www.scribd.com/doc/46167516
Here is a summary of Frank’s work written for scientists: http://www.scribd.com/doc/42057333/The-Transitional-Quantum-State-of-Matter (if you want to show this theory to a physicist or scientist, this is the paper to print out and give to them)
Frank’s Papers:
1) The duality of Matter and Waves:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34365659
2) Reconciling Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33043355/
3) Control of the Natural Forces
http://www.scribd.com/doc/25455268/Control-of-the-Natural-Forces
Znidarsic’s Constant on Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1094000+m%2Fs
Frank Znidarsic’s Website with all the info:
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/zpt/
Chapter 7 on Frank’s website details some important steps such as deriving the Schrodinger Equation from Znidarsic’s Constant. It also shows exactly what gravity is, and where it comes from. http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/zpt/chapter7.html
Important stuff to know about magnetic fields:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwells_equations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokes%27_theorem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday
Muon Catalyzed Fusion
The Theory of Steven E. Jones
I met Steven E. Jones when he came to Boston in 2007 to speak at a 9/11 Tea Party event in Fanuel Hall. It was the first public disclosure of the finding of the “red chips” which were later tested and found to be thermitically reactive. This was a landmank discovery which led Kevin Ryan (whom I also met at that same conference) to begin research the WTC Tenants and Security companies who may have been responsible for rigging the buildings prior to 9/11.
But many years before Steven E. Jones, began looking through WTC Dust samples to look for any evidence the Government might be ignoring, he was involved in Cold Fusion Research and the Pons and Fleishman Scandal that shocked the nation.
Many have accused Steven E. Jones of contributing to the downfall of Cold Fusion.
I recommend those people to also read Dr. Steven Jones’ side of the story as well.
Wikipedia Article on Muon Catalyzed Fusion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muon-catalyzed_fusion)
Cold Fusion Technologies
Current Research and Commercial Production
A few Companies are currently engage in large scale commercial production of cold fusion power systems:
Andrea Rossi’s E-Cat
Defkalion Energy
Updates on Rossi, Defkalion, and Anticipations http://coldfusionnow.org/waiting-for-the-works-updates-on-rossi-defkalion-and-anticipations/
Fractal Crystals and Nanoreactor Design
Through experiments scientists have determined that the active fusion environment is actually at the surface of the cathodes, so in order to maximize reation rates one must also maximize surface area. One method for doing this is through the use of fractals such as the Menger Sponge.
Robert Smith talks about fractal reactor designs including the menger sponge in this video.
Mitchell Swartz’s PHUSOR Technology uses metamaterials to acheive it’s effects, and Nathan Cohen spoke at the MIT CF/LANR Colloquium in March 2014 about using fractal crystals and fractal metamaterials to build more efficient cold fusion reactors. It’s clear that the cold fusion reactors of the future will utilize something very similar.