MIKADEMUS's blog: "REFLECTIONS OF A LYCANTHROPE"

Ever since the two chemist, "Pons and Fleischman" rocked the world with there amazing discovery they labeled cold fusion, research has proceeded on exploring it's claim of being fusion as well as its possibility as a cheap, abundant, reliable power supply. Initial skepticism was understandable as the whole process involved nothing more than some platinum, palladium, deuturium oxide(water formed with a hydrogen isotope containing an extra neutron) and an electric current. When the current is applied the cell will eventually start producing heat and light.... well in excess of any known chemical reactions in the periodic table.... by an order of magnitude! This is the closest thing in the universe to a free lunch. Researchers from around the world are not only successfully duplicated their famous experiment but in some instances increasing the power outputs in contrast to the original findings. What really caught my attention was when a Japanese researcher claimed she had successfully created a sustained cold fusion reaction using ordinary water instead of deuturium oxide. Is it possible that cold fusion occurs naturally in nature? There is another rare, poorly understood phenomena that does occur in nature that goes by the name "Magnetoplasmadynamics" or "Ball Lightning." This rare form of lightning has been slow in being recognized as a genuine phenomena because of it's rarity, unexplainable bizzare behaviour, and the inability of scientists to recreate it in the a laboritory. It takes on a spherical or sometimes elliptical form and has appeared in all colours. Though it 's more associated with lightning storms that are present and active they can appear when storms are a few miles away and sometimes in clear blue sky weather. Eye witness accounts claim there is an electrical sounding hiss and sometimes people claim to smell sulphur though others have more correctly identified the smell as ozone which is an allotrope of oxygen known to be created during electrical discharges. The spheres move against wind, defy gravity and sometimes go through small openings or even solid walls. They can last for a few seconds but some accounts claim them to last for a few minutes winding a torturous path as they go. One of the most striking things about ball lightning is when they disappear it can be quietly with no trace left behind but on rarer occasions will explode.... with considerable force. When they have exploded in some instances it has caused considerable damage to property, injury and even death. One researcher from centuries past attempted to recreate one of Ben Franklin's experiments with a steel rod in his house extending out of his mansion like a lightening rod. During a lightning storm he was using an instrument to measure the charge potential of the steel rod when ball lightening jumped out of the rod and struck him. He was killed instantly. One of the most important eyewitness accounts of ball lightning and the mischief it causes gave researchers an excellent measurement of the energy potential stored in a volume of this phenomena. The ball lightning observed went in to a rain barrel containing about 5 gallons of water which it promptly boiled out in a couple of minutes. Given the volume of water and the time it took to boil it away a reasonable measurement could be made of the energy potential present. It was calculated to be between 1,600 to 16,000 joules per cubic centimeter. This means that the total energy potential of a ball lightning 20 centimeters in diameter could be anywhere from 6.7 million to 67 million joules. enough electricity to light 67,000 to 670,000 standard 100 watt light bulbs for one second depending on if you go with the higher or lower estimate. Ball lightning and cold fusion share this common characteristic. Huge energy potential stored in a relatively small volume. Some people who study ball lightning phenomena have always felt that the phenomena is some kind of plasma. The problem with the plasma theory is how to explain how the plasma remains stable. In hot fusion research the plasmas created have to be contained in a magnetic bottle as there are no materials that could withstand the temperatures created during Tokomak fusion. Is it possible that ball lightning in nature is simply a variation of what Pons and Fleischman discovered in their laboratory back in the 90's? My instincts tell me that this the case. We may simply be witnessing two expressions of the same phenomena. - MIKADEMUS