1989: Two scientists at the University of Utah, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, claimed a breakthrough in cold fusion.
Scientists around the world rejoiced. Fusion might finally go from science fiction to science fact and become a game changer for humanity.
Many others, however, were skeptical.
In theory, cold fusion can create clean, sustainable, nondestructive energy. The scientific community has dreamed of it for decades.
The Sun is a cold fusion reactor. Imagine creating a miniature sun in a laboratory. It's much more complicated than that, but in layman's terms that’s the goal.
Fusion is quite different from - and theoretically much safer than - fission technology, which is the basis of nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons.
Fission splits atoms. Fusion combines atoms. (Again, oversimplified but essentially true.)
Fusion would supposedly give off no waste - no carbon dioxide or other gases, no radioactive fuel rods, nothing.
Theoretically, 20 pounds of fusion energy could power a small city for a year.
At the urging of their university in Utah, Pons and Fleischmann released their findings without peer review. They rushed their work into the public to avoid another university professor from claiming a similar patent on the technology.
BYU’s Steven Jones was believed to be closing in on a fusion breakthrough at the same time.
Time magazine put Pons and Fleischmann on their cover with the title Fusion or Illusion?
The problem: no one could duplicate their research. Scientists around the world called the work sloppy and fraudulent. Their findings were withdrawn.
Meanwhile, Steven Jones’ work was published in Nature magazine. It received no acclaim.
The hype for fusion technology was a letdown.
Pons and Fleischmann were defensive but dropped their fusion work entirely. They went to Europe to conduct unrelated research for Toyota that cost millions and ended without results.
BYU's Steven Jones later became a World Trade Center conspiracy theorist and claimed that Jesus visited ancient Mexico.
Cold fusion was deemed pathological science - a case of wishful thinking - and research was shelved.
Funding into the supposed junk science disappeared - setting back development of the technology for decades while climate change advanced.
But research was recently revived, mostly notably at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories in California, a US government operated facility.
Breakthroughs have been achieved, and results are promising.
Fusion might have been much closer to reality by now if not for the shoddy work that prejudiced the science thirty-four years ago.
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