Rusi Taleyarkhan's fusion debunked by BBC Horizon (Score 5, Interesting)

There was a BBC Horizon documentary on this nuclear fusion sonoluminescence phenomenon that casts strong doubt on the validity of previous work conducted by this researcher. The acid test for the occurence of fusion is the release of a neutron at the exact instant that the flash of light from sonoluminescence occurs. The Horizon team used a detector that can record the neutron releases at the required instant in time. After recreating Taleyarkhan's experiment according to his published journal papers, results were disappointing. None of the neutrons that were detected occurred at the same instant of any of the sonoluminescence flashes. The extra neutrons were explained away as originating from the emitter used to generate bubbles, or from external sources. No doubt rivals will challenge the statistically significant tritium claim. Tritium does occur naturally in significant quantities in any mass of heavy water (deuterium oxide).