Michael McKubre

Last updated
Michael McKubre
Gas-ColdFusionCell-SRI-Intl-McKubre.jpg
Michael McKubre working on deuterium gas-based cold fusion cell used by SRI International.
Born
Alma mater Victoria University of Wellington
Scientific career
Fieldscold fusion
Institutions SRI International
Thesis An Impedance Study of the Membrane Polarisation Effect in Simulated Rock Systems  (1976)
Doctoral advisor John Tomlinson

Michael Charles Harold McKubre is an electrochemist involved with cold fusion energy research. [1] [2] McKubre was the director of the Energy Research Center at SRI International in 1998. [3] He is a native of New Zealand. [2]

Contents

Education

McKubre completed two degrees at Victoria University of Wellington, a Master's degree in 1972, titled A Study of the Frequency Domain Induced Polarisation Effects Displayed by Clay and by Cation Exchange Resin, Model Soil Systems, [4] followed by a PhD in 1976 on membrane polarisation effects in simulated rock systems. [5]

Career

From 1989 to 2002, he researched cold fusion at SRI International. [6] Unlike other researchers in the same field, he obtained mainstream funding during all his research: first from the Electric Power Research Institute, then from the Japanese government, and in 2002 he had funding from the U.S. government. [6]

In January 1992 a cold fusion cell exploded in an SRI lab. One of McKubre's collaborators was killed and three people including McKubre were wounded. [3] [7] McKubre still has pieces of glass embedded in his side. Subsequent experiments were done behind bulletproof glass. [2]

In 2004 he and other cold fusion researchers asked the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to give a new review to the field of cold fusion, and he co-authored a report with all the available experimental and theoretical evidence since the 1989 review. The 2004 review concluded that "while significant progress has been made in the sophistication of calorimeters since the review of this subject in 1989, the conclusions reached by the reviewers today are similar to those found in the 1989 review." [8]

As of 2010, he was still making experiments with palladium cells at SRI International, [9] and collaborates with the ENEA laboratory, where the most reliable palladium is being produced. [1] McKubre more recently took part as one of the 22 physicists of the Steorn "jury".

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold fusion</span> Hypothetical type of nuclear reaction

Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and prototype fusion reactors under immense pressure and at temperatures of millions of degrees, and be distinguished from muon-catalyzed fusion. There is currently no accepted theoretical model that would allow cold fusion to occur.

Pathological science is an area of research where "people are tricked into false results ... by subjective effects, wishful thinking or threshold interactions." The term was first used by Irving Langmuir, Nobel Prize-winning chemist, during a 1953 colloquium at the Knolls Research Laboratory. Langmuir said a pathological science is an area of research that simply will not "go away"—long after it was given up on as "false" by the majority of scientists in the field. He called pathological science "the science of things that aren't so."

Malcolm Arthur McKinnon is a New Zealand historian and political historian. McKinnon's work largely focuses on the history of New Zealand and New Zealand's international relations. McKinnon has held a number of editorial roles, including at New Zealand International Review and as theme editor of Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

The Patterson power cell is an electrolysis device invented by chemist James A. Patterson, which he said created 200 times more energy than it used, and neutralizes radioactivity without emitting any harmful radiation. It is one of several cells that some observers classified as cold fusion; cells which were the subject of an intense scientific controversy in 1989, before being discredited in the eyes of mainstream science.

Martin Gerhardt Banwell, Hon.FRSNZ is an organic chemist specialising in biotransformations and natural product synthesis.

Balfour Douglas Zohrab was a New Zealand diplomat and public servant.

Lydia Joyce Wevers was a New Zealand literary historian, literary critic, editor, and book reviewer. She was an academic at Victoria University of Wellington for many years, including acting as director of the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies from 2001 to 2017. Her academic research focussed on New Zealand literature and print culture, as well as Australian literature. She wrote three books, Country of Writing: Travel Writing About New Zealand 1809–1900 (2002), On Reading (2004) and Reading on the Farm: Victorian Fiction and the Colonial World (2010), and edited a number of anthologies.

Memons in South Africa form a prosperous Muslim subgroup in that country's Indian community and are largely descended from Memons from Kathiawar who immigrated from India in the late 19th century/early 20th century. Villages and towns that South African Memons originated from include Porbander, Bhanvad, Ranavav and Jodiya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Fleischmann</span> British chemist (1927–2012)

Martin Fleischmann FRS was a British chemist who worked in electrochemistry. Premature announcement of his cold fusion research with Stanley Pons, regarding excess heat in heavy water, caused a media sensation and elicited skepticism and criticism from many in the scientific community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teresia Teaiwa</span> American poet

Teresia Teaiwa, was a distinguished award winning I-Kiribati and African-American scholar, poet, activist and mentor. Teaiwa was well-regarded for her ground-breaking work in Pacific Studies. Her research interests in this area embraced her artistic and political nature, and included contemporary issues in Fiji, feminism and women's activism in the Pacific, contemporary Pacific culture and arts, and pedagogy in Pacific Studies. An "anti-nuclear activist, defender of West Papuan independence, and a critic of militarism", Teaiwa solidified many connections across the Pacific Ocean and was a hugely influential voice on Pacific affairs Her poetry remains widely published.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Rossi (entrepreneur)</span> Italian entrepreneur (born 1950)

Andrea Rossi is an Italian entrepreneur who claims to have invented a cold fusion device.

Bruce Gordon McFadgen is a New Zealand surveyor and archaeologist.

Arapata Tamati Hakiwai is a New Zealand museum curator of Māori collections. He is a principal investigator with Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga, a Māori research centre at University of Auckland.

Richard Irving Walcott is a New Zealand geologist known for his work on plate tectonics.

Lisa Marriott is a New Zealand accounting academic. She is currently a full professor at Victoria University of Wellington.

Wilfred Gordon Malcolm was a New Zealand mathematician and university administrator. He was professor of pure mathematics at Victoria University of Wellington from the mid 1970s, until serving as vice-chancellor of the University of Waikato between 1985 and 1994.

Sally Jane Davenport is an Aotearoa-New Zealand academic and a full professor at the Victoria University of Wellington. She is also Director of the National Science Challenge, Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI). SfTI is a 10-year (2014-2024) science investment by the Aotearoa-New Zealand Government with a mission to enhance the capacity of Aotearoa-New Zealand to use physical sciences and engineering for economic growth and prosperity.

Diane Seward is a low temperature thermochronologist. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington and affiliated with GNS Science. Seward's work has predominantly focused on thermochronology applied to basin analysis and tectonic evolution. Her research has also been instrumental in developing dating of volcanic deposit through fission track analysis.

Michalia Arathimos is a Greek–New Zealand writer. She has held several writers' residencies in New Zealand, and received several awards for her short stories. Her debut novel, Aukati, was published in 2017.

Lara Strongman is a curator, writer and art historian from New Zealand.

References

  1. 1 2 "Cold Fusion Is Hot Again". 60 Minutes . CBS. 2004-04-29. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  2. 1 2 3 Weinberger, Sharon (2004-11-21). "Warming Up to Cold Fusion". Washington Post . p. W22. For years the experiments took place behind bulletproof glass, the result of a 1992 accident that killed one of his colleagues. McKubre still has bits of glass embedded in his side from the cold fusion experiment that exploded that day in his lab (the blast had nothing to do with fusion; hydrogen mixed with oxygen, creating the equivalent of rocket fuel).
  3. 1 2 Wieners, Michael; Storms, Edmund (November 1998). "Michael McKubre & Edmund Storms Give Birth To The Cool". Wired . Vol. 6, no. 11.
  4. McKubre, Michael (1972). A Study of the Frequency Domain Induced Polarisation Effects Displayed by Clay and by Cation Exchange Resin, Model Soil Systems (Masters thesis). Open Access Repository Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. doi: 10.26686/wgtn.16999291 .
  5. McKubre, Michael (1976). An Impedance Study of the Membrane Polarisation Effect in Simulated Rock Systems (Doctoral thesis). Open Access Repository Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington. doi: 10.26686/wgtn.16999279 .
  6. 1 2 Interview of McKubre and Beaudette, by KUER-FM from University of Utah, audio file Archived 2005-03-24 at the Wayback Machine , 2002-11-27
  7. Sheldon, E. (September–October 2008). "An overview of almost 20 years' research on cold fusion". Contemporary Physics . 49 (5): 375–378. Bibcode:2008ConPh..49..375S. doi:10.1080/00107510802465229. S2CID   119406105. an explosion in January 1992 caused a cold fusion cell at SRI International in Menlo Park to blow up violently while Andrew Riley was bending over it, killing him instantly and wounding three other researchers, including Michael McKubre, who headed SRI's research team (the incident is described in New Scientist, 11 January 1992, 1803, p. 12ff).
  8. U.S. Department of Energy (2004). Report of the Review of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (PDF). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Energy. Archived from the original on 2008-02-26. Retrieved 2008-07-19.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. "Chemistry Roundup". Science Friday . 2010-03-26. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-02-10.