Cold fusion -- 10th anniversary update.

Its been 10 years since Drs. Pons and Fleishmann set the scientific world on end with their claim to producing fusion at room temperature with a simple tabletop apparatus. Not only did their news send physicists scrambling for their lobs to run their own experiments {frequently without reproduction of the purported results), but they also met instant criticism for first announcing their results to the media via a press conference, rather then publishing their findings in scientific journals so that the scientific community could hove a chance to confirm or disprove the experiment.

The procedure that Pans and Fleischmann reported consisted of sending a current through platinum and palladium electrodes into an electrolyte of lithium compounds dissolved in heavy water -- water in which normal hydrogen is replaced with a heavier hydrogen isotope, deuterium. The chemists believed fusion occurred as the result of deuterium nuclei fusing to form helium or tritium with release of energy in the form of heat. Pons and Fleischmann determined that the excess heat had a higher energy than the electrical current imposed to operate the cell.

Initial acceptance of the possibility of cold fusion quickly changed to skepticism. Many scientists who failed to repeat the experiment complained that there was insufficient detail in the paper published after the first announcement. The paper did not present raw data, but only derived values calculated in on obscure way. However, other scientists have claimed confirming evidence and same enthusiasts continue to produce encouraging if inconclusive results. Cold fusion proponents insist that the problems of repeatability and other shortcomings are a natural consequence of dealing with a developing technology and that the critics will be silenced when commercial products appear.

There are still a number of researchers Internationally pursuing cold fusion as a kind of grail, with no clear end in sight. And there are other experiments under development, such as the new tokomak lab at UCLA, which may hold the key to other sources of clean energy far the world.