“Cold fusion” began in 1989 as a claim that fusion of deuterium could be accomplished at room temperatures in electrochemical cells using palladium electrodes. The claim was quickly dismissed after quick and dirty attempts at replication, but hundreds of researchers have continued to look into that and similar systems, including activation by sound energy or lasers. Further claims of nuclear transformations followed, and the field is now being pursued under other names: ‘condensed matter nuclear science (CMNS)’; ‘low energy nuclear reactions (LENR)’; ‘chemically assisted nuclear reactions (CANR)’; ‘lattice assisted nuclear reactions (LANR)’.
There is a dedicated professional society, the International Society for Condensed
Matter Nuclear Science (www.iscmns.org) and journal, the Electronic Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (http://iscmns.org/CMNS/publications.htm).
For an up-to-date review of the field, see Current Science 108 #4, pp. 491-659, freely available at http://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/toc.php?vol=108&issue=04.
