In Culture
The term "Cold Fusion" was coined in a 1956 New York Times article about Luis W. Alvarez's paper.
In 1957 Theodore Sturgeon wrote a short story "The Pod in The Barrier" where humanity has ubiquitous Cold Fusion reactors that work with muons, the reaction is "When Hydrogen One and Hydrogen Two are in the presence of Mu Mesons, they fuse into Helium Three, with an energy yield in electron volts of 5.4 times ten to the fifth power". Unlike the thermonuclear bomb contained in the Pod (which is used to destroy the Barrier) they can become temporarily disabled by "concentrated disbelief" that cold fusion works.
Read more about this topic: Muon-catalyzed Fusion
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Popular culture is seductive; high culture is imperious.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)