Well, it’s at least not a Pons and Fleischmann (the cold fusion guys) situation; the paper shows a whole battery of tests, and based on my more-than-random-guy-on-the-street-but-less-than-expert knowledge they sure sound like the right kind of tests. Either they actually found superconductivity, or they’re lying through their teeth.
high-current calorimetry measurements (using a somewhat different experimental setup)
gamma ray spectrum (indirect evidence of neutrons, via the H+n→D+γ reaction)
measurement of neutron flux (more directly)
measurement of tritium (more directly)
(Plus other things that they didn’t include in that particular paper.)
Every single one of these claims was erroneous!! For different reasons!! But I also strongly believe that they were reporting their results in good faith. (Gory details can be found in the final post of my old cold fusion blog.)
Oh interesting, I thought their announcement was based entirely on excess heat in calorimetry and they notably did not have neutron flux, gamma ray or tritium detection results. Is this a difference between the original announcement and the eventual paper, or did I just completely misremember?
This page links the press conference video. I don’t feel like watching it. However, the same page also links to the original press release, which does in fact mention measurements of neutrons and tritium. So I guess that means they already had their nuclear results by the original press conference.
Cold fusion skeptics and cold fusion advocates are united in the belief that Fleischmann and Pons’s nuclear measurements were erroneous. The advocates shrug and say that Fleishmann & Pons were not specialists in those kinds of nuclear measurements, and just messed up. That broad consensus rejection developed pretty quickly after the press conference.
However, the cold fusion advocates continue (to this day) to believe the Fleischmann-Pons calorimetry results, whereas the mainstream consensus (and also my opinion) is that Fleischmann & Pons messed up on calorimetry too.
(Today’s cold fusion advocates do think there exists direct nuclear evidence of cold fusion, but they would cite later experiments by different people; that would be Section 4 here.)
Seems quite compelling—most previous claims of high temp superconductivity have been based on seeing only dips in resistance curves—not full array of superconducting behaviours recounted here, and sample preparation instructions are very straight forward—if it works we should see replication in a few days to weeks [that alone suggests its not a deliberate scam].
The critical field strength stated is quite low—only about 25% of what is seen in a Neodymium magnet and it’s unclear what critical current density is, but if field reported is as good as it gets then it is unlikely to have much benefit for motor design with B² dependent torque densities <10% of conventional designs, unless the applications are not mass/cost sensitive (wind turbines replacing permanent magnets?).
Meissner effect could be useful for some levitation designs (floating houses, hyperloop, toys?) Likely some novel space applications like magnetic sails, perhaps passive magnetic bearings for infinite life reaction control wheels and maybe some ion propulsion applications. But lightly biggest impacts will be in digital and power electronics with ultra-high q inductors, higher efficiency transformers, and maybe data processing devices.
It might be transformative for long distance renewable power distribution.
Meissner effect video looks like the real deal. Imperfect disk sample is pushed around surface of a permanent magnet and tilts over to align with local field vector as gets closer to edge of cylindrical magnet end face. Permanent magnets in repulsive alignment are not stable in such arrangements (Earnshaw’s theorem) - they would just flip over, and diamagnetism in conventional materials—graphite the strongest—is too weak to do what is shown. The tilting shows the hall-marks of flux pinning working to maintain a consistent orientation of the superconductor with ambient magnetic field, which is a unique feature of superconductivity. No evidence of cooling in video.
If this is not being deliberately faked then I’d say this is a real breakthrough.
Well, it’s at least not a Pons and Fleischmann (the cold fusion guys) situation; the paper shows a whole battery of tests, and based on my more-than-random-guy-on-the-street-but-less-than-expert knowledge they sure sound like the right kind of tests. Either they actually found superconductivity, or they’re lying through their teeth.
The original Pons & Fleischmann paper also had “a whole battery of tests”, namely:
low-current calorimetry measurements,
high-current calorimetry measurements (using a somewhat different experimental setup)
gamma ray spectrum (indirect evidence of neutrons, via the H+n→D+γ reaction)
measurement of neutron flux (more directly)
measurement of tritium (more directly)
(Plus other things that they didn’t include in that particular paper.)
Every single one of these claims was erroneous!! For different reasons!! But I also strongly believe that they were reporting their results in good faith. (Gory details can be found in the final post of my old cold fusion blog.)
Oh interesting, I thought their announcement was based entirely on excess heat in calorimetry and they notably did not have neutron flux, gamma ray or tritium detection results. Is this a difference between the original announcement and the eventual paper, or did I just completely misremember?
This page links the press conference video. I don’t feel like watching it. However, the same page also links to the original press release, which does in fact mention measurements of neutrons and tritium. So I guess that means they already had their nuclear results by the original press conference.
Cold fusion skeptics and cold fusion advocates are united in the belief that Fleischmann and Pons’s nuclear measurements were erroneous. The advocates shrug and say that Fleishmann & Pons were not specialists in those kinds of nuclear measurements, and just messed up. That broad consensus rejection developed pretty quickly after the press conference.
However, the cold fusion advocates continue (to this day) to believe the Fleischmann-Pons calorimetry results, whereas the mainstream consensus (and also my opinion) is that Fleischmann & Pons messed up on calorimetry too.
(Today’s cold fusion advocates do think there exists direct nuclear evidence of cold fusion, but they would cite later experiments by different people; that would be Section 4 here.)
Thanks, and I greatly appreciate you doing the homework here.
Seems quite compelling—most previous claims of high temp superconductivity have been based on seeing only dips in resistance curves—not full array of superconducting behaviours recounted here, and sample preparation instructions are very straight forward—if it works we should see replication in a few days to weeks [that alone suggests its not a deliberate scam].
The critical field strength stated is quite low—only about 25% of what is seen in a Neodymium magnet and it’s unclear what critical current density is, but if field reported is as good as it gets then it is unlikely to have much benefit for motor design with B² dependent torque densities <10% of conventional designs, unless the applications are not mass/cost sensitive (wind turbines replacing permanent magnets?).
Meissner effect could be useful for some levitation designs (floating houses, hyperloop, toys?) Likely some novel space applications like magnetic sails, perhaps passive magnetic bearings for infinite life reaction control wheels and maybe some ion propulsion applications. But lightly biggest impacts will be in digital and power electronics with ultra-high q inductors, higher efficiency transformers, and maybe data processing devices.
It might be transformative for long distance renewable power distribution.
[Edit to add link to video of meissner effect being demonstrated]
Meissner effect video looks like the real deal. Imperfect disk sample is pushed around surface of a permanent magnet and tilts over to align with local field vector as gets closer to edge of cylindrical magnet end face. Permanent magnets in repulsive alignment are not stable in such arrangements (Earnshaw’s theorem) - they would just flip over, and diamagnetism in conventional materials—graphite the strongest—is too weak to do what is shown. The tilting shows the hall-marks of flux pinning working to maintain a consistent orientation of the superconductor with ambient magnetic field, which is a unique feature of superconductivity. No evidence of cooling in video.
If this is not being deliberately faked then I’d say this is a real breakthrough.