[I sent a version of this previously, that did not appear to go through.] Abd ul-Rahman Lomax found the Encyclopedia Britannica article on fusion:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/421667/nuclear-fusion/259125/Cold-fusion-and-bubble-fusion This is part of a larger article about fusion, which is pretty good. It is written by Robert W. Conn, who is apparently the Dean of Engineering Emeritus U. California at San Diego. Steve Krivit would probably be pleased to hear fusion defined as: "Fusion reactions constitute the fundamental energy source of stars, including the Sun. The evolution of stars can be viewed as a passage through various stages as thermonuclear reactions and nucleosynthesis cause compositional changes over long time spans." Here is the section on cold fusion and bubble fusion, which not so good: "Cold fusion and bubble fusion Two disputed fusion experiments merit mention. In 1989 two chemists, Martin Fleischmann of the University of Utah and Stanley Pons of the University of Southampton in England, announced that they had produced fusion reactions at essentially room temperature. Their system consisted of electrolytic cells containing heavy water(deuterium oxide, D2O) and palladium rods that absorbed the deuterium from the heavy water. Efforts to give a theoretical explanation of the results failed, as did worldwide efforts to reproduce the claimed cold fusion. In 2002 Rusi Taleyarkhan and colleagues at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind., claimed to have observed a statistically significant increase in nuclear emissions of products of fusion reactions (neutrons and tritium) during acoustic cavitation experiments with chilled deuterated (bombarded with deuterium) acetone. Their experimental setup was based on the known phenomenon of sonoluminescence. In sonoluminescence a gas bubble is imploded with high-pressure sound waves. At the end of the implosion process, and for a short time afterward, conditions of high density and temperature are achieved that lead to light emission. By starting with larger, millimetre-sized cavitations (bubbles) that had been deuterated in the acetone liquid, the researchers claimed to have produced densities and temperatures sufficient to induce fusion reactions just before the bubbles broke up. As with cold fusion, most attempts to replicate their results have failed." The last sentence contradicts the first paragraph. Kind of sloppy. Also factually incorrect. I guess I would have to say that despite its many faults, the Wikipedia article is better. - Jed
