At http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/spawar-space-and-naval-warfare-l… EM Smith has been doing some musing on cold fusion after he discovered the US Space and Naval Warfare Command became interested in the subject. He provides a video, an hour long, of the science of cold fusion – as it is currently progressing. EM Smith was impressed and as always sets out to explore the issue a bit and turns his attention to the Rossi E-Cat (much derided by mainstream and in the blogosphere) and alternatives to nickel, coming up with some cheap possibilities. The use of nickel in the process is somewhat prohibitive – but Rossi wasn't giving all away to his detractors but was holding back. Casting around for cheaper metals that also did not have to be heated at such a high temperature is probably a useful direction to explore and Smith speculates that a mixture of hydrogen and metal atoms in a crystal might produce neturons, protons, and fusions, including rocks in the earth (and their isotopes). It might be part of how the Sun works he adds. He then muses, as that is what he does, if the Sun has an iron heart (at depth) and a hydrogen atmosphere, that hydrogen might be getting fused via the metal hydrade formation process that would thus spit out a load of protons and we would have an explanation for the high energy solar wind full of protons. Smith then goes on to speculate about the nature of Rossi's catalyst.
Smith also provides a couple of videos of MIT research on cold fusion, noting that one MIT physicist had his funding cancelled as the powers that be regarded cold fusion as pie in the sky. Some of the comments are interesting. DirkH at 9.22am adds various links to early work by Fermi – www.i-sis.org.uk/Widom-Larsen.php and various reviews of Larsen's work at www.slideshow.net/lewislarsen/lattice-energy-llcnickelseed-lenr-networks… and www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVRLcC21F14
This subject is bound up with isotope decay rates and therefore impinges on uniformitarian dating methodology and is worth paying attention to as the debate widens.