Cold Fusion: The Making of a Scientific Controversy [Paperback]

F. David Peat (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Peat ( Superstrings and the Theory of Everything ) here probes the background of the cold fusion furor that broke out early this year when chemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Utah announced that they had sustained a fusion reaction of hydrogen isotopes in a test tube. If verified, their discovery promises the world a limitless supply of cheap energy. Previously, fusion was thought possible only at temperatures found in the heart of the sun. However, other scientists have been unable to confirm Pons and Fleischmann's results, casting considerable doubt on cold fusion. Peat, who remains an agnostic on whether cold fusion is real, does, however, limn what an energy-rich world might look like in this competent, readable account of a highly controversial issue in contemporary science.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA-- A well-written, informative book that is an excellent source for a term paper on science, the politics of science, or the relationship of science to government and society. The announcement of the achievement of "cold fusion" by chemists at the University of Utah in March 1989 was the source of tremendous excitement in the scientific world and the beginning of a vast and unusual controversy surrounding the ensuing attempts to verify their claim. Cold Fusion is not only a summary of these events, but also a comprehensive summary of the science of cold and hot fusion, the history of fusion research, and the political and social impact of energy technology development. The science is ably presented without dilution or oversimplication in spite of the complexity of the topic. It is objective to a fault, as Peat makes little attempt to distinguish between the validity of sources of the observations reported. The book is thorough as a source of facts on this issue up to midsummer 1989, and it also summarizes the possible separate pathways for the future of cold fusion that further research will dicate.
- Douglas Stickle, University of Texas
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Contemporary Books; Revised edition (September 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809240858
• ISBN-13: 978-0809240852
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,060,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my Amazon page. One of the most enjoyable tasks of my life has been writing books. Or rather lying in bed dreaming about what I want to write tomorrow then jumping out of bed in the morning and rushing to my computer to get it all down before I forget! And what a pleasure it was to see my latest book in print "A Flickering Reality" which was such a joy to write because it combined by interests in the changing nature of reality along with the chance to revisit so many films I had enjoyed in the past along with some very new ones.

I was born and grew up in Liverpool. My father was an electrician and when his apprentice announced that he would quit to go to Germany with his band my father told him, "George Harrison, one day you'll come crawling on your hands and knees to get your job back." I was also a little annoyed when my closest friend, Dot, told me she was seeing a really fascinating student at art college - John Lennon!

After university I moved to Canada to carry out research in theoretical physics. Then while on a sabbatical with Roger Penrose I met the physicist David Bohm and began a friendship that lasted until his death. Indeed, we were working on a second book together when he died.

I had also been involved in documentaries for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and was responsible for a twenty one-hour series on the development of physics in the 20th century. After leaving the National Research Council of Canada I turned to writing both books and plays for radio and the stage. I also made contact with Native American groups which ended up as a circle of Native Elders and Western Scientists sponsored by the Fetzer Institute. Some these experiences found themselves in "Blackfoot Physics".

From Ottawa we moved briefly, and totally by chance, to the medieval hilltop village of Pari in Tuscany, and from there moved to London so I could write
"Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm". In London I made contact with the artists Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley and ended up organizing a weekend where artists and scientists could meet and talk informally.

From London I moved back to Pari and in 2000 opened the Pari Center for New Learning in order to run courses and conferences and have writers and artists come to visit for a month or so. Pari has also been an ideal place in which to reflect and write and to meet new people. It has also been a time when I have developed my idea of Gentle Action which can be found at www.gentleaction.org and well as in my book "Gentle Action: Bringing creative change to a turbulent world".

My latest book is "A Flickering Reality: Cinema and the Nature of Reality". The shows how everthing from Freud and Jung, quantum theory and chaos theory, the neurosciences and postmodernism have changed the way we look at ourselves and the world, and the most direct way to experience this is via films. I also have a blog on this at http://aflickeringreality.blogspot.com.

If you'd like to learn more then why not buy my biography, "Pathways of Chance" or look at my website www.fdavidpeat.com or www.paricenter.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helium 4 and Energy, January 11, 2006

By 

Golden Lion "Reader" (North Ogden, Ut United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cold Fusion: The Making of a Scientific Controversy (Hardcover)

Two speeding nuclei do not have the speed to over the barrier between them. Hydrogen is composed of an one proton with one electron circling. Water or H2O has two protons with two electrons circling. Deuterium has one proton and one neutron and one electron. Heavy water is composed of two deutrerium nuclei and one oxygen for a total of two protons and two neutrons and two electrons. A very rare isotope called tritium has one proton and two neutrons with a orbiting electron. Possible fusion reaction combinations requiring temperatures between 45-400 million degrees celius 1. deutrerium plus tritum producing helium 4 and a neutron 2. deuterium and helium 3 producing helium 4 and a proton 3. deuterium and deutrium producing either helium 3 and a neutron or tritium and a proton. The problem is getting nuclei close enough together because like charges repel each other.

Quantum tunneling occurrs the nuclei jump through the repulsion barrier between the two nuclei. Quantum uncertainty suggests that there is always a finite but small probability that the nucleus will find itself in another location, at the other side of the barrier that separates them. This is how nuclei in high temperature plasm interact. If they can get close enough for a long enough time, they are able to complete the process by tunneling through the repulsive forces and fuse.

University of Utah, Martin Fleischmann and Stanely Pons announced they had obtained nuclear fusion at room temperature. Fleischmann and Pons experiment cell begins with a rare metal called Palladium. Palladium has the ability to absorb hydrogen, a piece of palladium can absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. As hydrogen enter the palladium atoms, they give up their other electrons. They hydrogen atomes are packed together. Fleischman and Pons needed an additional force to get the deuterium nuclei closer together. They realized the most practical way was by using an electrolytic cell. The current caused the oxygen and deuterium to separate; the hydrogen leaves behind its electron and the hydrogen and oxygen become a positively charged nucleus. If the electrolysis conditions were right the deuterium would not boil off but enter into the palladium. Pushing up the voltage one the cell would increasing the electrical pressuring on the deuterium nuclei crowding them even more tightly into the electrode. Pons and Fleischman were estimating with the voltage they were using, they were achieving a pressure equivalent to 100 trillion trillion times that of atmospheric. The conditions inside the palladium rod equivalent to that of a core star. The idea was that deutrium had to be pumped into the negative palladum electrode until the deutrium nuclei were held so close that quantum tunneling would all them to fuse. Fleischmann and Pons argued the fusion reaction carried out with palladium was the reaction deutrium plus deutrium equals Helium 4 and energy, no neutron emissions and no radiation, just pure energy. The fusion reaction promised a totally clean form of nuclear energy with the need to worry about radiation.

Nuclear fusion offerred an unlimited source of clean energy. Fleischmann and Ponns budget was personally financed for a couple hundred thousand dollars, whereas, high power nuclear fusion costs exceeded $10 million requiring powerful lasers and electromagnets. The Deutertium and Palladium experiment had produced a 60 fold increase in heat and persisted over a 100 hours. To help understand the signficance of fusion energy lets look at the requirements to run a 1,000 megawatt generator for a year. The 1,000 megawatt power generator would take 20,000 railcars of coal for the year and an oil fire station would require a similar volume of oil. A single railcar of uranium will power a nuclear fission reactor for a year. However, one auto car full of water would power a nuclear fusion generator for a year.