Is cold fusion actually attainable? If so, when would you say?

Question

I have a friend who is an astrophysist at a major university and he has presented what are two opinions in the science community. One being it is and will be within the next two generations, the other being likely never. I would like to hear some other opinions from other physists and methematicians just out of curiousity.

Answer 1

There is a group of chemists and physicists at Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, San Diego still working on this in their spare time. It is very hard to get work like this funded, since the community has been burned in the past. I doubt that current methods with palladium and palladium alloys will go anywhere. The problem I have is that groups don't go the extra length to reject all other known sources of error in the experiment that could lead to the results they are seeing. For example, a build up in H gas at an electrode will give a burst of energy that is not fusion and will give unexpected temperature values in the system.

If nature is not using cold fusion, than it probably doesn't exist, but we should not stop trying. What we need are more analytical approaches to the problem with a study of new systems, and not the ones currently being investigated.

Answer 2

Fully functioning cold fusion likely will happen about 65 years from now. The science world is partying over the discovery of common saltwater being used as a power source.

Not a good day of OPEC or American Big Oil. Bad day for ethanol stock holders, too.

Global scienftific focus on this new discovery and it's sure implemention into our society can be happening in about 5 years. This ought to prove rather interesting soon.