Monday, January 23, 2006

The dream of free-energy is still alive!

Get out your teleporting suit Rachna!
 

Science News Online

Thermonuclear Squeeze: Altered method extends bubble-fusion claim

Peter Weiss

A technique that some scientists claim generates thermonuclear fusion in a benchtop apparatus works even without its controversial neutron trigger. So say the researchers who, since 2002, have reported that nuclear-fusion reactions can occur in a vat of chilled solvent agitated by ultrasound (SN: 3/6/04, p. 149: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040306/fob5.asp). If this method of sparking fusion proves to be valid—a big if, critics insist—it could lead to a remarkably simple, cheap, inexhaustible power source.

Fusion reactions take place in the vat because clusters of bubbles form and then violently collapse, explains nuclear engineer and team leader Rusi P. Taleyarkhan of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. A neutron or another energetic particle triggers a bubble to form in a low-pressure trough of the ultrasound waves, he says. Then, high pressure from the wave crushes the orb to an enormous density and temperature that fuse some atomic nuclei of the bubble's gas.

Taleyarkhan and his colleagues have measured neutron emissions as a sign of fusion reactions. Because the group had used neutron pulses to trigger the process, other researchers have been skeptical of its neutron readings.

In an upcoming Physical Review Letters, Taleyarkhan's team presents evidence of fusion in bubbles initiated by a uranium-based trigger that emits alpha particles instead of neutrons. "We got away from the idea of using neutrons to produce neutrons," Taleyarkhan notes.

Nonetheless, the findings still face intense skepticism. Criticisms range from doubts about experimental procedures to quarrels with interpretations of the data. "I simply do not find the results significant and/or believable," comments physicist Dan Shapira of Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory.

Critics note that Taleyarkhan's team admits in its report that its experimental outcomes vary greatly, many of them producing no evidence of fusion. Yet to D. Felipe Gaitan of Impulse Devices in Grass Valley, Calif., the uneven outcomes are encouraging. They "could explain our inability, and that of other researchers so far, to replicate [Taleyarkhan's] results consistently," says Gaitan. Impulse Devices plans to commercialize bubble fusion.

Lawrence A. Crum of the University of Washington in Seattle says that the new work "increases the credibility" of bubble fusion. But "unless it's reproduced in someone else's lab, I'm not going to believe it," he adds.

Taleyarkhan claims that his team's findings were independently verified last year by other Purdue researchers, whom he guided. Other physicists are unconvinced.

A welcome consequence of the latest results, Crum adds, is that other researchers should find the uranium-based triggering method easier to reproduce than the neutron one. So, he says, the new work "is an important step toward determining if the results of Rusi's experiments are true."


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References:

Shapiro, D., and M. Saltmarsh. 2002. Nuclear fusion in collapsing bubbles—is it there? An attempt to repeat the observation of nuclear emissions from sonoluminescence. Physical Review Letters 89(Sept. 2):104302. Abstract available at http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v89/e104302.

Taleyarkhan, R.P., et al. In press. Nuclear emissions during self-nucleated acoustic cavitation. Physical Review Letters.

Taleyarkhan, R.P., et al. 2004. Additional evidence of nuclear emissions during acoustic cavitation. Physical Review E 69():036109. Abstract available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.69.036109.

Taleyarkhan, R.P., et al. 2002. Evidence for nuclear emissions during acoustic cavitation. Science 295(March 8):1868-1873. Available at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/295/5561/1868.

Xu, Y., and A. Butt. 2005. Confirmatory experiments for nuclear emissions during acoustic cavitation. Nuclear Engineering and Design 235:1317-1324.

Further Readings:

Weiss, P. 2005. Brutal bubbles: Collapsing orbs rip apart atoms. Science News 167(March 5):147. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050305/fob1.asp.

______. 2004. Bubble fusion: Once-maligned claim rebounds. Science News 165(March 6):149. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040306/fob5.asp.

______. 2002. Violent chemistry saps sonobubble energy. Science News 162(Aug. 24):125. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020824/note15.asp.

______. 2002. Star in a jar? Hints of nuclear fusion found—maybe. Science News 161(March 9):147. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020309/fob1.asp.

Sources:

Lawrence A. Crum
Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound
Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington
1013 NE 40th Street
Seattle, WA 98105

D. Felipe Gaitlin
Impulse Devices, Inc.
Grass Valley Corporate & Research Office
13366 Grass Valley Avenue, Unit H
Grass Valley, CA 95945

Dan Shapira
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
P.O. Box 2008
Mailstop Code 6368
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6368

Rusi P. Taleyarkhan
School of Nuclear Engineering
400 Central Drive
Purdue University
W. Lafayette, IN 47907-2017



http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060121/fob7.asp

From Science NewsVol. 169, No. 3, Jan. 21, 2006, p. 38.

Copyright (c) 2006 Science Service. All rights reserved.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh! Nobody believes them. Nobody believed our teleportation theories either. We will see who has the last laugh. Ha!

Jo said...

:) LOL!

Jo said...

when is this promised new post going to be published friend?