This is a classic article from New Scientist’s archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
STRONG doubts greeted a report by scientists last week that they had sustained a fusion reaction at room temperature. Two chemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, announced their results at a press conference at the University of Utah. Nothing has been published to explain their technique.
In their experiment, the scientists placed a rod of palladium wrapped with platinum wire into a test tube filled with deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen.
An electric current was passed through this “energy cell”. Deuterons, nuclei of…
