4 ms·
Scientists revisit the cold case of cold fusion
- mordant 7y agoWhere are the dead grad students? Oh, there aren't any? Then there's no 'cold fusion' taking place.
- foxyv 7y agoGrad students are remarkably hard to kill. Deprive them of sleep, food, and water. Expose them to high radiation levels and dangerous chemicals. They even survive brief periods of vacuum. Grad students are like academic tardigrades.
- thechao 7y agoTardigrades get paid better.
- Skunkleton 7y agoTardigrades are generalized grad students.
- th0ma5 7y agoDespite the macabre tone of this comment, this is one of those rhetorically famous criticisms of cold fusion so don't discount it because it seems sensationalist or something... Seriously why has no one died from radiological causes from cold fusion study?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- modzu 7y agoin all seriousness, this just seems to be grad students having fun...
- modzu 7y agonote the "unknown probability of success". why can't the probability be calculated? because based on known assumptions, it's 0. that means for the probability to be above 0, some of our assumptions have to be wrong (ie new physics). is it possible? are genies real? could be. we'd have to rub all the lamps to check. despite the fact that genies have not been "disproven", nobody seriously considers systematically rubbing lamps because of the cost:benefit. similarly, serious physicists don't even consider exploring cold fusion. but i see no problem at all with research going on at this level and any good scientist should be equally curious and skeptical
- sctb 7y agoMost comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20027943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20027943.