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.

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# re: Steorn schmeorn... (Just another hokie perpetual energy claim)

Fusion is actually going to be a big mess and may not be practical for power generation ever.
Fission is extremely under rated for its cleanliness and practicality.
We should commit to a massive fission power plant construction program worldwide. If Iran was not run by its islamofascist tyrants, and they were actually trying to build nuke power, they would in fact be doing the smartest thing available for their people.
8/21/2006 6:09 AM | hunter

# re: Steorn schmeorn... (Just another hokie perpetual energy claim)

visit steornpower.com for more news 8/26/2006 3:18 PM | Sam Beckett

# re: Steorn schmeorn... (Just another hokie perpetual energy claim)

Hunter,

Granted that fission is underrated. But Fusion leaves behind much less radioactive waste than fission. The walls of the ITER torus will become irridated, but there's no stronium, cesium, polonium, and other fission fragments to remain radioactive for millions of years.

In terms of rogue states (you mentioned Iran), fusion can't effectively be used to create plutonium or enriched uranium, so it's a technology I would love to see in the hands of those guys. There is some risk of it reaching an uncontrolled state, but the worst it could do is melt a hole in its side, which would still not spew a radioactive cloud. Because it works on light elements (forms of hydrogen and helium), it can't produce long-lasting and dangerous radioactive material.

Sam of Atlanta,

Congratulations, you have effectively become part of their marketing machine! What will it be like when people realize that the Emperor's New Clothes are nothing but thin air?
8/27/2006 2:21 AM | Lorin

# re: Steorn schmeorn... (Just another hokie perpetual energy claim)

I am saket pandey, currently working as a technician in Indian air force. I have invested a lot of time in the perpetual machines and I have covered a series of systematic steps of development i.e., in three parts, analysis of most of the perpetual machine, reasons for their failure & rules for any such machine or principle of its working. I get to know from the Internet that you are also interested in it. I am using magnet only for this purpose but not that property which you are using. For further detail contact on my email ID. I wish to have a online chat with you. 5/1/2007 7:53 AM | Saket pandey

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