SUSPICIONS that “bubble” fusion is too good to be true have been revived by Purdue University’s announcement on 10 May that it has opened a second investigation into the technique’s leading proponent.
In 2002, Rusi Taleyarkhan, then at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and now at Purdue, in West Lafayette, Indiana, claimed that bombarding a solvent with neutrons and sound waves can create bubbles that trigger nuclear fusion. The university began looking into allegations of misconduct against Taleyarkhan in March 2006 amid accusations that the supposed evidence for “sonofusion” was in fact caused by a radioactive isotope. On 7…
