Earlier this week an Irish company called Steorn claims to have found a way to generate free energy. But don't cancel your order for solar cells and wind turbines just yet! Steorn's marketing approach smacks of being an all-out publicity stunt.
It seems like every few years some crackpot comes along claiming that magnets can create energy, or that some magic green pill can turn water into gasoline. (How in the world could a little pill hold all that carbon, plus have enough energy to break all those strong molecular hydrogen bonds? To create a gallon of gasoline it would have to weigh at least five pounds and contain more energy than the gallon of gasoline itself!)
A nice history of perpetual motion nonsense can be found here.
Meanwhile I'm eagerly anticipating a source of cheap and clean energy that is actually possible --nuclear fusion done in a machine with a donut-shaped magnetic field called a Tokamak! Bring out the heavy water and let's make some helium.
Another great viewpoint about Steorn is available here.
posted @ Saturday, August 19, 2006 7:22 PM
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