How to Understand Cold Fusion

In 1989, two physicists at the University of Utah announced an amazing discovery: They had succeeded in fusing atoms of deuterium (one of the components of “heavy water”) together at room temperature, thus opening the door to a potentially limitless source of energy. While it made headlines around the world, “cold fusion” proved a conundrum to other physicists both conceptually (the theory behind the results simply didn’t make sense) and practically (no one else was able to replicate the original experiment). Here’s the whole story behind this (now mostly discredited) “discovery.”

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1. Nuclear fusion only occurs at extreme temperatures. The reason the initial “cold fusion” experiment created such a stir is that the classic fusion of deuterium only occurs at million-degree temperatures—and scientists have yet to figure out how to get more energy out of a fusion reaction than they put in. If the Utah results were right, scientists could literally get “something for nothing”—which made many of them very suspicious right off the bat.
2. The conclusions of the experimenters hinged on “excess heat.” In a laboratory setting, it can be a delicate matter to measure the amount of energy that goes into a particular reaction against the amount that the reaction creates. In the Utah experiment, the “fusion” supposedly being observed didn’t melt the beakers (or the experimenters), but it did (supposedly) create a nearly imperceptible excess of energy. This was why a handful of physicists later claimed to be able to reproduce the experiment. At the level of error involved, it was easy to interpret the resulting data as showing fusion.
3. The results of the experiment were way overblown. Though they’re supposedly a hard-hearted and cynical lot, phyicists are every bit as prone to fads and manias as anyone else. In the excitement of 1989, many scientists jumped on the cold fusion bandwagon, to the extent that the Department of Energy poured millions of dollars into cold fusion research. Within a year, though, most level-headed observers had concluded that “cold fusion” simply didn’t exist.
4. The motives of the original experimenters are a matter of dispute. While it’s unlikely that the Utah team deliberately set out to defraud the scientific community, they did defend their results long past the point of credulity, and even wound up suing an Italian newspaper (and losing) for its suggestion that cold fusion had been a hoax. Despite their protests, they never published any convincing scientific data to back up their claims.
5. Even today, some people believe cold fusion is being “suppressed.” Diehard conspiracy theorists love to speculate that cold fusion was a victim of the oil industry, which felt threatened by a cheap, universal form of energy. However, since a cold fusion apparatus could conceivably be set up by a bright high-school kid in his parents’ garage, it’s a safe bet that—if cold fusion actually existed—someone would have harnessed it by now!