Cold Fusion: Fire From Water

Cold Fusion: Fire from Water (1998)
Director: Chris Toussaint
Writers: Eugene Mallove (creator) and Jed Rothwell (co-writer)
Genre: Documentary


Cold Fusion: Fire from Water, narrated by James "Scotty" Doohan, is a documentary about one of the greatest and most controversial discoveries of all time. Find out what happened to the cold fusion discovery in the years since the announcement at the University of Utah.


On March 23, 1989, respected chemists Drs. Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons claimed that a table-top, glass cell filled with heavy water, fitted with a palladium electrode, produced so much heat beyond the power put in that the mysterious energy source had to be nuclear. They said it was probably related to nuclear fusion, which powers the stars.


The new "fire" from water could not be coming from ordinary chemical reactions; it was far too much energy. Nuclear reactions in a jar of water, producing heat but no deadly radiation? If the shocking claim was real, the world might have a source of infinite, clean energy from the abundant fusion fuel in all water.

Thus began the cold fusion controversy, one of the greatest revolutions in the history of science. This video discusses: cold fusion as an ultimate renewable energy source; how vested interests in academia launched a cold fusion war that continues to this day; dozens of scientific theories put forth to explain cold fusion.


By exploring the history of the discovery and witnessing people working in the field today in laboratories and companies, decide for yourself whether cold fusion is one of the greatest discoveries of all time.