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Page added on November 30, 2011
How to Make Cold Fusion Work: Use Unobtainium
In my last post I said I’d steer clear of the whole cold fusion thing until something interesting happens. Well, in the last week something interesting has happened …
Once again, let me do a quick recap: An Italian inventor, Andrea Rossi, claims to have created a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction, or LENR, device (otherwise called a “cold fusion” device) called the Energy Catlyzer or E-Cat. All an E-Cat system requires is hydrogen gas passing over nickel powder in the presence of an undisclosed catalyst and, it is claimed, the device will generate a significant amount of energy in the form of heat.
To date, there have been several demonstrations of E-Cat devices but as none of the test setups were examined by independent acknowledged experts under scientific conditions, the results, while ostensibly promising, have been definitely inconclusive.
While everyone understands what unlimited, incredibly cheap energy would mean some people miss an aspect of what Rossi is promising that makes the E-Cat an even more remarkable invention: As far as can be determined, at least from what Rossi has revealed, the E-Cat has no downside. None at all. It is completely green (there’s no radiation, no particulate matter output, no CO2 overhead), it’s cheap to build, and it’s cheap to run.
Now, you could imagine this device to be cheap to build and cheap to run but with a pollution problem or maybe cheap to build with no pollution problem but expensive to run or perhaps expensive to build but cheap to run and non-polluting? But all three?! That would be miraculous.
This means the E-Cat must be made of Unobtainium.
Unobtainium is an old engineering joke; it refers to a material that doesn’t exist in this universe (such as the stuff you’d use to make, say, an invisibility cloak).
I must digress for a moment and point out that in the software world the characteristics of Unobtainium code are that it should be run fast, be cheap, and be reliable. It is universally understood that you can have any two of the three (fast and cheap but not reliable or cheap and reliable but not fast or reliable and fast but not cheap) but never have all three at the same time.
A profile such as the E-Cat’s that makes it appear the device is made from Unobtainium and that such a thing has been hyped for the last year or so warrants serious attention. Thus, reports Cold Fusion News, Cambridge Physicist Brian Josephson, a Nobel Prize winner, has offered to evaluate the E-Cat.
This is great! A really serious independent scientist wants to check the E-Cat out. If anything would settle the question of whether the E-Cat does as claimed, having Josephson evaluate it would be the answer.
Alas, Rossi isn’t interested primarily (he claims) because he fears that in so doing, his trade secret, the mystery catalyst, would be revealed.
Here we have serious scientists trying to figure out what’s going on but the rogue inventor doesn’t want to submit his invention to real scrutiny while the world sits on the sidelines waits to see what is real and what isn’t.
As I’ve said before, I want Rossi to be right. I want him to have The Answer and for us see the world transformed but we’re still watching a three ring circus and the star act, the E-Cat, has only been heard roaring … we have yet to see its claws and measure their length (yeah, I know; the metaphor could be better but work with me people, work with me …).
So, is this an example of someone claiming to have Unobtanium which they really can’t possibly have or is the E-Cat real? And if your answer is the latter then how can you be sure when neither you nor Professor Josephson have seen the science?
8 Comments on "How to Make Cold Fusion Work: Use Unobtainium"
BillT on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 1:38 am
There will be a lot of fakers and cheats and liars in the last days of oil as they try to fleece the sheep and get rich. Nothing is perfect and anyone claiming that from the outset is asking to be ridiculed. This is just another dream that will never pan out. The ‘possible’ proof, useful prototype, and manufacture is comfortably many years in the future. About like saying…”Be good and donate your tithes now and you will go to Heaven after you die…lol.
Oakley on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 4:45 am
Rossi could not do much more to make himself look suspicious. The idea that someone could figure out his “secret ingredient” by monitoring the energy input and the energy output is an absurdity.
He has never run the device for more than a few hours at best, and we only have his word about the input and output.
The burden of proof is always on he who makes a claim, and so far Rossi has proved nothing.
My bet is that he and his device are bogus.
Harquebus on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 8:35 am
TANSTAAFL
Ham on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 8:38 am
I recommend Dave’s Insanity Sauce.
Works well on cheese on toast.
John Orr on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 12:36 pm
Anyone know what sort of deal Rossi wants???
If I was a government and tests looked anyway positive I would take a risk with him, the amount each government wastes in basic country running would still have lots of more cash to waste on something else!!!
Something needs tried for the future kids.
BillT on Thu, 1st Dec 2011 2:53 pm
John, you are proof that one is born every minute….This is a sucker bet.
You, as a tax payer, are already feeding these pigs with subsidies for all kinds of stupid and impossible energy sources like biofuels. None are more than scams to fleece anyone they can, for as long as they can.
If you want to help the future generations, stop using oil. Stop buying anything except real necessities. Stop supporting the ‘consumer’ society.
John Orr on Fri, 2nd Dec 2011 12:20 am
Bill, I’ve allready cut back on everything because I can’t afford to waste money!
But to currently survive I can’t “STOP” buying oil, necessities need oil’s energy.
You seem to want to sit in a hut by the river wrapped up in a bear skin for the rest of your life, fishing for doom, when you can no longer get oil perhaps you might like to burn some biofuel in your lamp.
Currently there is no one answer to replace the energy in oil on such a global scale.
What’s wrong with offering the bloke a deal, and I don’t know the extent of positive facts other than in the article above, if it works / progresses within a time frame he keeps the deal, if it dosen’t he gets nothing, other than a hut beside you.
I would like to do think positive than negitive, after all years ago we used to communicate with drums….now I can communicate you instantly by web!
At least your proof a negitive thinker is also born every minute.
Anyway, I think it’s a subject that needs more research.
Cheers
BillT on Fri, 2nd Dec 2011 1:18 am
Just saying that anyone concerned about their grand kids should do all they can to conserve the shrinking oil supply. I cut back a bit more every year. From a 2,800 sf house to a 240 sf condo. From two cars to no cars. From 900 kwh per month electric use to 400. I buy a PC every 5 years and don’t own any of that techno junk. I AM concerned about my grand kids and my great grand kids. You can live a good life without consuming so much and by doing more for yourself, like growing your food. You soon will be anyway.