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

[Pandonetho]

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?

[Hav0x]

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

[Visions of Khas]

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

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.

[Pandonetho]

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

Well I'm not scientist. Care to elaborate?

Source?

The wiki, IIRC.

[Kimera757]

The wiki, IIRC.

The reference there is from StarCraft: Ghost: Nova.

[DemolitionSquid]

I'm pretty sure its just a joke.

[Pandonetho]

The reference there is from StarCraft: Ghost: Nova.

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?

I'm pretty sure its just a joke.

I'm inclined to agree.

[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.

[l33telboi]

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.

[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.

*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.)