NEWS * 27 MAY 2019 * CLARIFICATION
Google revives controversial cold-fusion experiments
Researchers tested mechanisms linked to nuclear fusion at room temperature — but found no evidence for the phenomenon.
Elizabeth Gibney
Since 2015, Google has been
— the theory that nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun, can produce energy in a table-top experiment at room temperature. Two scientists first made sensational claims about achieving the phenomenon — promising endless, cheap energy — 30 years ago, but their results were quickly debunked and the topic is now considered a scientific taboo.
Google’s project — revealed in a peer-reviewed
Nature Perspective
this week — found no evidence that cold fusion is possible, but made some advances in measurement and materials-science techniques that the researchers say could benefit energy research. The team also hopes that its work will inspire others to revisit cold-fusion experiments, even if the phenomenon still fails to materialize.
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