Bubble fusion, also known as sonofusion, is the non-technical name for a nuclear fusion reaction hypothesized to occur inside extraordinarily large collapsing gas bubbles created in a liquid during acoustic cavitation. Rusi Taleyarkhan and collaborators claimed to have observed evidence of sonofusion in 2002. The claim was quickly surrounded by controversy, including allegations ranging from experimental error to academic fraud. Subsequent publications which followed, which claimed independent verification of sonofusion were also highly controversial. Taleyarkhan was found to have engaged in falsification of independent verification, and to have included people on his papers who weren't aware of it by an investigation by Purdue University. He was subsequently stripped of his professorship. One of his funders, the Office of Naval Research reviewed the report by Purdue, and deemed that the behaviour was "so severe as to merit debarment".
Read more about Bubble Fusion: Original Experiments, Oak Ridge Failed Replication, Subsequent Reports of Replication, Doubts Prompt Investigation
Famous quotes containing the words bubble and/or fusion:
“Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that the sadistic person commands, exploits, hurts, humiliates, and that the masochistic person is commanded, exploited, hurt, humiliated. This is a considerable difference in a realistic sense; in a deeper emotional sense, the difference is not so great as that which they both have in common: fusion without integrity.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)