Is there any evidence suggesting Terrans have actually accomplished Cold Fusion?

I'm just curious, I've been thinking lately. The only time we've heard anything about cold fusion (that I can remember) is when the jarhead marine goes "thank god for cold fusion" before blowing up the Science Vessel (and that can easily be excused if we look at him as an idiot. After all, cold fusion is a common [misinterpreted] term and all the marine saw was a bomb surrounded by ice. He could have been joking or just talking about things he doesn't have any clue about). I think it's been commonly accepted by many that the Terrans have accomplished cold fusion but I'm questioning this now.

Are there any other cases that I'm forgetting? Because recently I've been thinking about how a lot of things wouldn't make sense if they really HAD accomplished cold fusion. For example, marines wouldn't need to "recycle" waste to keep their suits running. And they wouldn't need to leave their visors up to conserve power.

Likewise, battlecruisers wouldn't even need their physics labs to power up, and they certainly would have as much energy as they wanted to shoot all the Yamato Cannons that they want.

Thoughts?

Cold fusion != unlimited energy. There is still a limit to the power it can output, which depends upon many factors.

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And they wouldn't need to leave their visors up to conserve power.

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Source? I wonder if that was the author's excuse to explain why all marines kept their visors up? (An easy explanation would be to say, "Can't see nothing in this helmet!")

I would think that cold fusion would have been achieved by this point. Then again, I'd think they'd be using something other than cathode ray tubes for computer screens.

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Cold fusion != unlimited energy. There is still a limit to the power it can output, which depends upon many factors.

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Well I'm not scientist. Care to elaborate?

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Source?

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The wiki, IIRC.

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Originally Posted by Pandonetho

The wiki, IIRC.

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The reference there is from StarCraft: Ghost: Nova.

I'm pretty sure its just a joke.

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The reference there is from StarCraft: Ghost: Nova.

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Ah, I see. In that case it should probably be taken with a grain of salt. But still, there are the other factors I've pointed out. Incidentally, you're the biggest lore buff in the K-sector, what do you think, Kimera?

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I'm pretty sure its just a joke.

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I'm inclined to agree.

The two cylinders going into the new Marine armor look cold to me. Granted, real cold fusion wouldn't be really cold, but this would be "movie-style" cold fusion. Like how gauss rifles in SC produce flashes. Not too fun to see if they don't produce flashes.

If those aren't power supplies, i don't know what they could be.

The difference between cold fusion and normal nuclear fusion is merely the mechanism with which you get nuclear fusion to occur. In 'hot' fusion you do it by heating matter up to such temperatures that they naturally undergo fusion, cold fusion in contrast is a hypotethical way to get something to undergo nuclear fusion without heating up the matter.

So in terms of which is more powerful, they're both pretty equal. Cold fusion would just be a lot more practical. IIRC the theoretical maximum energy you can get from a kilogram of matter via fusion is somewhere around 800 terajoules, be it hot or cold fusion.

I think the terrans have cold fusion. I can't otherwise explain how ghosts and medics can carry personal reactors on their backs (or wherever). Fission reactors would be too large, and if it's not cold fusion, it'd probably be uncomfortably* hot.

*Major understatement!

The scene from the cinematic could have been both real (it really is a cold fusion nuke, although isn't deliberately blowing up a cold fusion reactor supposed to be difficult?) and the marines used the reactor to smuggle ice and beer. (Which means they would have drank slightly radioactive beer.)

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Originally Posted by Kimera757

I think the terrans have cold fusion. I can't otherwise explain how ghosts and medics can carry personal reactors on their backs (or wherever). Fission reactors would be too large, and if it's not cold fusion, it'd probably be uncomfortably* hot.

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Agreed,i have always wondered why the Ghost upgrade is called moebius reactor....,although that may not be why they are so small,probably the Terrans invented some other way to trigger fusion,besides the primary fission(dirty),that requires a critical mass,I guess that's why Nukes don't leave radiation(at least those dropped by Ghosts)

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Originally Posted by Kimera757

The scene from the cinematic could have been both real (it really is a cold fusion nuke, although isn't deliberately blowing up a cold fusion reactor supposed to be difficult?) and the marines used the reactor to smuggle ice and beer. (Which means they would have drank slightly radioactive beer.)

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But it's a bomb, not a reactor. Obviously, it would have some safety mechanism to avoid any non-authorized detonation, but the safety could be deactivated before, and it's a cinematic from a game, it's not 100% accurate.

Anyways, if it can release all that energy at once, exploding isn't a problem.

Radioactivity wouldn't be present if it's sealed, otherwise people working in atomic power plants would be doomed.

Well, if they did achieve cold fusion that would leave a mighty plot hole;

You take;

1 Cold fusion reactor (massive, size of a normal fission reator)

1 plasma cannon (easy to make plasma when you can make fusion occur)

1 Aim bot

=

Dead swarm.

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Originally Posted by Norfindel

The two cylinders going into the new Marine armor look cold to me. Granted, real cold fusion wouldn't be really cold, but this would be "movie-style" cold fusion. Like how gauss rifles in SC produce flashes. Not too fun to see if they don't produce flashes.

If those aren't power supplies, i don't know what they could be.

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Gauss rifles would still create a flash due to the high amount of friction. See the following video for an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1q_rRicAwI

That is all being generated from friction. Nothing is propelling the projectile but the magnets.

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Originally Posted by Hav0x

Gauss rifles would still create a flash due to the high amount of friction. See the following video for an example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1q_rRicAwI

That is all being generated from friction. Nothing is propelling the projectile but the magnets.

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That's a Railgun. It's completely different stuff.

Marine suits would literally be impossible to power without cold fusion. Otherwise it would need to frequently recharge every few hours, not days.

The fact that shit is recycled almost 100% points towards fusion of some sorts, as the only kind of known power generation that would use dung to power a power suit with such high energy consumption with any noticeable effect.

Marines either have a normal fusion reactor or a cold fusion reactor in their suits. There is literally no other possible way that thing could operate continuously for days on end that has been even conceived of yet.

And getting a normal fusion reactor on that suit would just be retardedly implausible. .



The cinematic may very well be a joke, but terrans having cold fusion tech is almost a 100% necessity for them to do the stuff they do without having to utilize even more wild stuff that doesn't even exist in theory.


Well, technically, they may be using variant alternative fusion techniques besides the formal theory of "Cold Fusion", which is a bit flawed. For insance, they could use Muon-Catalyzed fusion, but functionally, it would operate very similar to cold fusion, such as large net energy with temperatures as low as 100 Celsius.

There are currently many alternative fusion techniques that have been proven to work, but do not produce net energy, but theoretically could with better tech, like the aforementioned. Cold Fusion itself may be impossible, but really, its just a specific technique, the first one to be conceived, not the only way to achieve fusion at reasonable temperatures.

Isn't the SC2 Battlecruiser building called a fusion core?
That would indicate they do have fusion...

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Originally Posted by Alex06

Isn't the SC2 Battlecruiser building called a fusion core?
That would indicate they do have fusion...

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dude....It's not about just fusion,it's about cold fusion,And I think 'Fusion Core' it's about standard 'hot'- fusing hydrogen atoms into helium under tera pascals of pressure and milions of degrees :)

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Originally Posted by arthas

dude....It's not about just fusion,it's about cold fusion,And I think 'Fusion Core' it's about standard 'hot'- fusing hydrogen atoms into helium under tera pascals of pressure and milions of degrees :)

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And how could you possibly contain such intense heat/pressure through conventional means w/o immediate meltdown?

Unless it didn't actually get that hot, and nuclear fusion occurred at a more reasonable tempurature?

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Originally Posted by phazonjunkie

And how could you possibly contain such intense heat/pressure through conventional means w/o immediate meltdown?

Unless it didn't actually get that hot, and nuclear fusion occurred at a more reasonable tempurature?

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Starcraft takes place in the 26th century so they dont necessarily need to use todays conventional means. Why wouldnt they be able to have methods of fussion that are beyond our current level of technology?

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Originally Posted by phazonjunkie

And how could you possibly contain such intense heat/pressure through conventional means w/o immediate meltdown?

Unless it didn't actually get that hot, and nuclear fusion occurred at a more reasonable tempurature?

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With magnetic fields ? it's similiiar today with trying to contain plasma...

Power requirements are the Achilles heel of modern weapons technology. If they remove that then there is nothing standing in the way of automated attack drones that fire a billion plasma balls that fly at the speed of light. Totally game breaking. So, therefore there must be some issue with Fusion that limits how much power you can get out of it. Like, for suit armor, powering a city or a FTL drive (but not my beloved billion-fire plasma gun :().

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Originally Posted by Taoo

Power requirements are the Achilles heel of modern weapons technology. If they remove that then there is nothing standing in the way of automated attack drones that fire a billion plasma balls that fly at the speed of light.

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You mean, besides the slight issuee that there isn't any known way to actually fire plasma, accelerate to speed of light, developing an advanced enough AI to make all that things possible? :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by inverseninja

Starcraft takes place in the 26th century so they dont necessarily need to use todays conventional means. Why wouldnt they be able to have methods of fussion that are beyond our current level of technology?

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Achieving fusion in back pack sized wearable containers is far less likely then achieving fusion that operates at a hundred or a couple degrees Celsius :P...

I mean, sure, they could be doing that, but one is more probable then the other.

I just realized something. Ingame the weapon for the scv says fusion cutter, and since they dont burst into flames and melt, i would guess it has to be cold fusion. yah yah i know ingame doesnt mean its lore but starcraft was a game first so any lore that cae after would be based on the game.

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Originally Posted by arthas

dude....It's not about just fusion,it's about cold fusion,And I think 'Fusion Core' it's about standard 'hot'- fusing hydrogen atoms into helium under tera pascals of pressure and milions of degrees :)

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Unless you've got a really good micro particle accelerator.

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Originally Posted by phazonjunkie

And how could you possibly contain such intense heat/pressure through conventional means w/o immediate meltdown?

Unless it didn't actually get that hot, and nuclear fusion occurred at a more reasonable tempurature?

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The thing is, there's a difference between the heat produced by a reaction powering a suit of armor and a reaction powering a decent-sized city. I'd guess that the overall thermal energy of the reaction would be enough to turn most of the Marine into plasma, but if they've got a good containment system...

Hey, these are guys harvesting spires of minerals out of the ground, and have 'tritanium' armor for their buildings. I'm guessing a little unobtainium went into the suits.

That's Engineering Unobtainium, not the Impossibilium from "The Core" or the Improbabilium from "Avatar".

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Originally Posted by inverseninja

I just realized something. Ingame the weapon for the SCV says fusion cutter, and since they don't burst into flames and melt, I would guess it has to be cold fusion. Yeah yeah, I know ingame doesn't mean its lore but Starcraft was a game first so any lore that came after would be based on the game.

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Hey, genius. Fusion refers to things blending or melting via the application of heat. While 'fission cutter' would have made a whole lot more sense, 'fusion' could refer to cutting the minerals apart with plasma torches.

Or, admittedly, semi-controlled fusion reactions, ala the Yamato cannon.