8. Cold fusion

In 1989, researchers at University of Utah (USA) and University of Southampton (UK) claimed to have achieved fusion at room temperature in a simple tabletop experiment involving the electrolysis of heavy water (deuterium oxide) using palladium electrodes [12]. According to them, when electric current passed through the water, palladium catalyzed fusion by allowing deuterium atoms to get close enough for fusion to occur. Since other experimenters failed to replicate their claim, most of the scientific community no longer considers it a real phenomenon.

But in 2005, cold fusion got a major boost. Scientists at UCLA initiated fusion using a pyroelectric crystal [13]. They put the crystal into a small container filled with hydrogen, warmed the crystal to produce an electric field, and inserted a metal wire into the container to focus the charge. The focused electric field powerfully repelled the positively charged hydrogen nuclei, and in the rush away from the wire, the nuclei smashed into each other with enough force to fuse. The reaction took place at room temperature.
