Imagine the kudos associated with discovering a source of clean, unlimited energy. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, two highly regarded chemists from the University of Utah, certainly did. Imagine it, that is!
The simplest ideas are sometimes the best, but the elementary nature of Fleischmann and Pons’ set-up should surely have been a clue. Could one of the greatest challenges facing mankind really be solved by a cube of palladium metal, some water laced with deuterium and an electrical current?
According to Fleischmann and Pons, yes. Left unattended overnight, the apparatus built up such an intense heat that it exploded, vaporising the palladium and scattering radiation. How exactly? Well, given the ambient temperature and pressure, there was only one explanation – the first ever instance of the cold fusion of deuterium nuclei. Lucky that!
The trouble is that this ‘first’ instance also proved to be the ‘only’ instance. Despite the simplicity of the apparatus and normality of the conditions, no one has managed to reproduce the phenomenon to this day; the only heat generated being the bright red beamers across both scientists’ faces.
No such embarrassment in the world of R&D tax relief. Here, a project’s failure is often a sign of its eligibility for tax credits, though we need to substantiate it a little better than Fleischmann and Pons.
