cold fusion is back, but this time it's real*.

(and, strangely, as i post this, "supercollider" by fountains of wayne is playing)

anyway, the power output of the experiment was only around 360 picowatts. (0.00000000036 W), so you're not going to be running your groovy coconut grinder using this as a power source, but nuclear fusion was attained at temperatures significantly below room temperature.

the experiment used a pyroelectric crystal (one where the charges inside it separate to opposite faces when it is heated) to generate a huge electric field, ionizing deuterium and accelerating the resulting ions toward a deuterium target, causing a deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction. (deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with an extra neutron, is used in fusion experiments because it doesn't require as much energy to cause it to fuse).


Ref: B. Naranjo, J.K. Gimzewski and S. Putterman, Observation of nuclear fusion driven by a pyroelectric crystal, Nature 434, 1115-1117 (28 April 2005)

* this link won't work unless you're on university of maryland's campus or have a subscription to nature