Patchwork Universe

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

Kirby, and Dr Platt, the school's head of science, were huddled around a desk in the Advanced Science Lab.

"It's impossible" remarked Mr Platt.
"Well, it's not impossible is it?" replied Kirby, reasonably "It's doing it."
"True, true..." answered Platt, somewhat bewildered. "But who made it?"
"Good question" replied Kirby "I found it last night. My armour usually has a quite different power source installed in it."

The two had the cold fusion unit that Kirby had discovered in his suit laid out on the table, and connected to a range of test apparatus.

Investigation had shown that the unit was reasonably simple. It was a ceramic vessel, in which was held a liquid that smelled like acetone. At the base of the cell was a low frequency sound emitter. To the cell was connected a thermocouple. Evidently, when the emitter was activated, the liquid bubbled and heat was produced, at a level that couldn't be explained by the energy of the sound emitter.

It took Kirby and Platt most of the day to reverse engineer the cell, and work out what it was doing. It wasn't clear how or what to either of them, but there was clearly a nuclear reaction happening - traces of Tritium were found in the bubbles produced, and analysis suggested that the acetone was rich in deuterium. Somehow the sound was catalysing the reaction. Platt suggested sonoluminescene.

The two carefully reassembled the device. Both of their minds were racing. Platt had in mind a project for the Advanced class. Kirby's mind was swiftly developing prototypes.