An Italian scientist at the University of Bologna recently announced to the world that he has successfully achieved cold fusion – a process that physics says is impossible – but if it were proven achievable it would provide the world with vast amounts of safe, cheap energy. Nuclear fusion is the process of combining, under very specific circumstances, two atomic nuclei into one heavier atomic nuclei, releasing an enormous amount of energy in the process. The scientist in question, Andrea Rossi, is being greeted by the scientific community with nothing less than skepticism — perhaps because everyone in history who has claimed to achieve the process has been proven to be unsuccessful.
Andrea Rossi calls his cold fusion machine the E-Cat machine and he claims that it fuses nickel and hydrogen nuclei at room temperature. In addition to skepticism from physicists around the world, the United States Department of Energy the U.S. Patent Office say that the basic laws of physics prove that cold fusion is impossible. Rossi claims that his machine provides just a small amount of energy for the nickel and hydrogen nuclei to fuse and in return gives off a much larger amount of energy.
The scientific community is asking Rossi to let his machine be removed from his laboratory in order to be tested by the greater physics world. To that Rossi says, “We have nothing to say, just to make plans that work properly and let those facts win against the scepticism.”
Energy experts and scientists are not mincing their words in response to Rossi’s confidence in his machine, energy consultant Jonathan Koomey told the Daily Mail, the E-Cat experiment, “Should be treated as a hoax until independent scientists are able to replicate these results.”
Outside testing will surely be done on Rossi’s machine to see if he’s achieved the impossible. If he has, it could mean great things for the world of renewable energy — and it could be the end of disasters caused by existing nuclear power plants.
Via The Daily Mail