Edmund Storms wrote:
Apparently all spontaneous nuclear reactions are exothermic. This is
required because a nuclear process cannot obtain the required large
amount of energy from the local environment fast enough.
Well, my understanding is extremely limited, but I gather that
nuclear processes occur so quickly and they are so energetic that
according to conventional theory there is no way to transfer energy
to a lattice, so cold fusion is ruled out. Yet cold fusion does
occur, and it appears to be nuclear, with energy transferred as heat.
So perhaps by one of these mechanisms such as Chubbs' the energy can
"slow down" enough to break apart elements lighter than iron, which
takes more energy than it produces.
This would produce other anomalous elements in the cell. I do not
know whether they have been found, or even looked for.
By the way, Mizuno confirmed that my English summary of his comments,
posted here yesterday, is accurate. He confirms that he was referring
to transient events during mass spectroscopy. As I said, he thinks
there is no way to break down an organic molecule to get CH. I
wouldn't know about it, but I did confirm that is what he meant.
I asked Mizuno for more information about the mass spectroscopy,
including who did it and what that person thinks. In plain English, I
asked him whether the fellow who operates the mass spec gadget agrees
you can't make CH in his gadget by whacking creosote. (Plain
Japanese, actually.)
In contrast, a chemical reaction is much slower and is satisfied
with energy that
can be stolen from a few surrounding atoms.
My point is that something appears to be slowing down nuclear
reactions in metal lattices. Or spreading them out over a large area,
the Chubbs would say.
Of course the heat is also breaking chemical bonds -- cooking the
creosote -- which does reduce the heat release slightly, but not
enough to explain the apparent excess of nuclear products.
The experiment does cook the creosote, which may be one of the
reasons the university wants to throw Mizuno out this month rather
than April. When he and I were in the New York subway not long ago,
we went up a stairway past an area where the weather comes in from
the street, which was heavily coated in creosote. He said, "this
place smells like my lab after a run."
(Naturally, this does not prove it is anomalous heat: the electric
heater supplies more than enough heat to volatilize the stuff.)
- Jed
