Turning Quantum Mechanics On Its Head: The Hydrino?
Dean
The Guardian has an interesting story on a maverick M.D. who says he's got a radical theory of physics while producing a potent new energy source. Quoted:
It seems too good to be true: a new source of near-limitless power that costs virtually nothing, uses tiny amounts of water as its fuel and produces next to no waste. If that does not sound radical enough, how about this: the principle behind the source turns modern physics on its head.
Randell Mills, a Harvard University medic who also studied electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims to have built a prototype power source that generates up to 1,000 times more heat than conventional fuel. Independent scientists claim to have verified the experiments and Dr Mills says that his company, Blacklight Power, has tens of millions of dollars in investment lined up to bring the idea to market. And he claims to be just months away from unveiling his creation.
To be blunt I'm more than a little skeptical. It's not that an M.D. can't come up with a breakthrough in physics, but he's no more likely to do it than I am (i.e. not very).
Curious, I searched on his name and found this Space.com piece on Randell Mills from 2000. To be honest, it's even more interesting reading, but my antannae were raised a bit more: he's been in business for at least five years with this thing, and still doesn't have anything he's ready to unveil right now?
Then I found this Village Voice piece on him from 1999, and it says his company's been in business since 1991.
And he still doesn't have anything he's ready to unveil?
Uh, someone wake me when the guy actually has a product for sale. Or when real nuclear or theoretical physicists are willing to publish papers that show experimental evidence for his theories.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Here's A More Thorough Debunking....
- Turning Quantum Mechanics On Its Head: The Hydrino?
- Speaking Of Simple Solutions: Ashok Gadgil
- "Incredible" Technological Breakthrough
But, heck, I ain't a physicist.
Barnes, Hank
This is why basic knowledge of physics and math is so important.
I don't recall hearing about any revolutions in physics in 2000, so I'm guessing that didn't work out. I give odds of 100 to 1 the guy is simply an intellectual con artist promising the moon so he can get millions in funding.
Other things that didn't happen:
To date, none of BLP's stuff seems to be peer-reviewed. Here are some reviewers pointing out basic problems with his understanding of chemistry and quantum mechanics.
http://www.blacklightpower.com/
There's some interesting info there.
I tried to do a patent search, but the PTO's website is giving me fits today. I'll try again if I get a chance later today.
6,024,935
Interesting reading.
To say that he has been in business for up to 15 years without shipping is not really soooooo bad compared with getting a new refinery or nuclear power plant built...
:/
http://www.lenr-canr.org/
Then again, I'm certain that all of the scientists involved bought their degrees online, and moonlight as snake oil salesman.
I was a physics student at the time Pons and Fleishman made their announcement. There were errors in their laboratory procedures, no question. However, the idea was discredited and ridiculed before any attempt had been made to replicate their experiments. After all, everyone knew that such a thing was completely impossible, right?
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go buy a new road map. The "Here be monsters" section of my current map is looking a little faded.
Not today, thank you.
Yeah, I know. I've got 30 something of them myself.....
All it takes is enough cash and time.
I have to admit, though, none of mine come close to having 499 claims. Impressive!
Yes Dr. Randell Mills sounds like quackery, but Matthew B is probably correct. The original claims were called incorrect (and maybe were) because laboratory conditions were poor and impurities may have caused false results. Still science because of its sceptical nature also often throws the baby out with the bathwater. In truth cold fusion research was likely stopped by political fallout.
Because of ridicule typical of the scientific community cold fusion research has had to almost go underground, but has never stopped, with hundreds of scientist still working with it. Science no longer has much tollerance for accepting failures of the past and trying to build on them.
Yes they may be correct and there is nothing there, but only if every one of the hundreds of successful cold fusion experiments turns out to be based on incompetence, experimental errors, self-delusion, or fraud.
In the mean time we may have lost the chance to learn what we might really be missing. What ever happened to persistence? Although science has comdemned it some are still working on it and making progress.
It's not that an M.D. can't come up with a breakthrough in physics, but he's no more likely to do it than I am (i.e. not very).
I disagree.
I have long been waiting for a molecular biologist or somebone in a similar field to come up with a radical new power source.
Think of it, our bodies are capable of transforming food into energy, plants can transform sunlight and nutrients into energy.
Perhaps our bodies aren't as efficient in using energy as they could be, but they're pretty efficient at producing that energy. We actually require a lot of excess energy to live (we give off heat, not very efficient).
If some molecular biologist could figure out how we do it, think of the revolution in energy production/transformation. Imagine stopping at McD's to get your car a "Number 1 with Coke, make it biggy size, I have a long ride"
Now that would be cool.
Screw fusion, let's get biological energy production/transformation in gear and we're set.
I'm not saying I think this guy is for real, I don't have the math or physics anymore to have an opinion, but I really think that understanding how life uses food and sunlight to power itself will revolutionize energy production (transformation, energy can neither be created nor destroyed).
I also don't know what the deal is with these people, go to the patent office site and search in 'published applications' and then "publication number" for 20020079440.
Anti-gravity. That's been abandoned. These guys have a bunch of applications. You can also do an inventor search on that page, they have a few patents and they also have a bunch of applications, many have gone abandoned.
Lots of interesting stuff in there.
We use oil because it's the cheapest practical fuel, not because there aren't any alternatives.