Cold fusion is:“A reaction that occurs under certain conditions in supersaturated metal hydrides (metals with lots of hydrogen or heavy hydrogen dissolved in them). It produces excess heat, helium, and a very low level of neutrons. In some experiments the host metal has been transmuted into other elements. Cold fusion has been seen with palladium, titanium, nickel and with some superconducting ceramics.” (Infinite)
In 1989 Stanley Pons and Martain Fleischmann announced to the press that they had discovered cold fusion. This announcement sent the scientific community in an uproar and the public news media went crazy.The accepted way of presenting research results within the scientific community is to first publish your experiment to the rest of the scientific community, have other scientist verify your results, and then only after your results have been tested and verified should you go to the press.
A general way physicists determine if a reaction is nuclear or chemical is via tritium (an isotope of hydrogen) production. Chemical reactions do not produce tritium, while most nuclear reactions do. It is important to note that some forms of fusion (nuclear reaction) can occur where tritium is not produced. (Matejowsky)
Pons and Fleishmann claimed to produce a few tritium atoms, but their claimed results were never replicated because they did not publish their experiment. The exact method they used was not replicated until it was too late and cold fusion already had a bad name and been renounced.
Even once the method Pons and Fleishmann used had been reproduced the results were not consistent enough to convince the community. This resulted in the scientific community believing the entire idea and concept of cold fusion to be a hoax.
Nonetheless, those that were devoted to the phenomenon of cold fusion have stayed persistent and often found private companies where they can do their research.
Cold Fusion Main
Experimental Debate
Theoretical Debate