Astronomy Cast Covers Cold Fusion

A recent episode of the Astronomy Cast webcast on the Universe Today web site has a conversation between host Fraser Cain, and Astronomist Pamela Gay about cold fusion. I found it quite an interesting conversation because some of the background information that Gay talks about, and her descriptions of some of the theoretical issues.

Gay is generally skeptical about cold fusion, but not totally dismissive. She considers cold fusion to be a ‘borderland’ science, rather than a pseudoscience. She sees that there is a theoretical way that cold fusion could happen, but doesn’t think that the deuterium-palladium electrolysis mechanism that Pons and Fleischmann used is a workable way to do it. Nickel-hydrogen reactions are not brought up, and there is no mention of Andrea Rossi or the E-Cat. Gay seems more interested in the bubble cavitation experimentation that she thinks shows some interesting results.

The video of the conversation is below — the cold fusion discussion starts around the 11:30 minute mark.