This could be a very big thing, IF it works. If the test proves that the furnace produces enough hydrogen to warrant further development, and IF that works out, we could end-up not needing oil. That would not only benefit the environment, but it would also change the politics of the middle east completely. Interestingly enough, I wrote a Fantasy novel which required a renewable source of hydrogen to power a fuel cell on a non-fossil fueled boat. Back in 2002 when I did the research into this, I found a bacterial hydrogen generator project which used a genetically altered form of algae to produce hydrogen via photosynthesis. The book is more Fantasy than Sci-Fi, because the boat is sent back in time to 1813 to commit the perfect crime. To steal gold from Napoleon as an act of war committed by the Royal Navy. You can get the first half of Napoleon's Gambit free at, http://napoleonsgambit.com/

If you want a 440 page long answer to this question, you'll find it in a novel called Napoleon's Gambit: Sailing through history to commit the perfect crime. A story about a modern sailor whose hydrogen powered time machine sails him back to 1813, onto the deck of HMS Imperieuse as she sails into battle against overwhelming odds. More at www.napoleonsgambit.com

So let me see if I get the general drift of most of your comments right: Without societies, censors or authority over us, we're all immoral and unethical? What happened to individual choice? All you guys out there (used in a non-sexist way) are telling me that stealing is okay, provided you, taking the best suggestion I read before I stopped in horror, that you document your going along with it to simply CYA? If I found myself in this position, I would take part of that same suggestion to document the whole problem. I'd make a list of all the software which should be bought to make the company legal. Present it to the boss. And if he doesn't instantly implement a plan to acquire it, look for another job if you need the paycheck - else resign immediately. Morals, ethics and honesty - you have them or you don't and there's almost no ambiguity about it (you may be forgiven for stealing a slice of bread to feed your hungry child). This philosophy still seems to me to be the best going: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

When we speak of "Science" in a general sense, it's about using the Scientific Method to pursue a goal or enhance our knowledge. This has nothing to do with the size of the data accumulated to perform the task. These days, all of us are learning to think at "Internet Scale." Join Facebook and "befriend" 200 million people. Enroll in LinkedIn and you have 40 million possible connections. National debts are measured in numbers with more zeros than ever used before to describe money. In other words, every field of human endeavour these days, presents its own data management problem. If I may introduce the crass topic of business into such a rarified air of Science; in today's Inbound Marketing arena, the volume of data being accumulated about Visitors to one's website, some of whom become Prospects and then Clients, is literally Internet sized. So what's a person to do? Same thing we've always done - automate to handle it. We have used technology and tools to overcome human limitations since the first ape used a bone as a hammer (if you liked the movie 2001's analogy). So marketers today can use Sales and Marketing Automation to reduce huge data sets to usable and understandable sizes, in the same way that any other field will employ computer methods to do the same. Data management problems, in other words, are a field unto themselves, requiring specialists such as DBAs, Hardware and Software Engineers. Not Scientists in the general sense, but specialists. There's more on these ideas at http://www.inbound-marketing-automation.ca/blog/