New Energy

New Energy (also called free energy or, more broadly, alternative or breakthrough energy) is an umbrella term used within the dissident, or "critical thinkers," community for the study of novel or unconventional energy sources that mainstream science generally rejects, ignores, or regards as impossible. It brings together several distinct lines of research — most prominently cold fusion and low-energy nuclear reactions, the extraction of energy from the quantum vacuum, and "over-unity" or "free-energy" devices — united less by a single theory than by the shared conviction that the accepted laws of physics do not exhaust the ways in which usable energy can be obtained.

The field overlaps substantially with the broader community of scientists and independent researchers who challenge mainstream physics, including many associated with the John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society and the former Natural Philosophy Alliance. Its proponents typically argue that promising experimental results have been suppressed or prematurely dismissed by the scientific establishment, while mainstream science generally classifies the same work as pseudoscience or "pathological science."

Overview

The term "New Energy" gained currency in the 1990s, in the wake of the cold-fusion controversy, as a name for research that appeared to point beyond conventional chemistry and nuclear physics. What its various strands have in common is the claim that a device or reaction can release more usable energy than conventional theory predicts — whether from unexpected nuclear processes at ordinary temperatures, from the zero-point energy of the vacuum, or from configurations said to exceed the efficiency limits ("unity," or a coefficient of performance of 1) set by the accepted reading of the laws of thermodynamics. Because several of these claims appear to conflict with the first or second law of thermodynamics, the field is sharply controversial.

Main areas of research

Cold fusion and LENR

The event that catalyzed the modern New Energy movement was the March 1989 announcement by chemists Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, at the University of Utah, that they had observed excess heat — apparently of nuclear origin — from the electrolysis of heavy water with a palladium electrode. When laboratories failed to reproduce the effect consistently, mainstream science rejected the claim. A dedicated community continued the work under the names low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) and condensed matter nuclear science, reporting anomalous heat and transmutation effects and organizing through bodies such as the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science.

Zero-point and vacuum energy

A second line of research seeks to draw usable energy from the zero-point energy of the quantum vacuum — the residual electromagnetic energy that quantum theory assigns to empty space even at absolute zero. Advocates argue that this vast background energy could in principle be tapped, and connect the idea to stochastic electrodynamics and to older concepts of an aether.

Over-unity and "free-energy" devices

Perhaps the most contested area concerns machines said to be "over-unity" — to deliver more energy than is put into them — such as magnetic motors, self-charging battery systems, and solid-state generators. Inventors documented on this wiki, including John Bedini, Paul M Brown, and others, have advanced such devices, which mainstream engineers regard as violations of energy conservation and therefore impossible.

Water and new hydrogen physics

Several researchers have pursued energy stored in water and hydrogen. Peter Graneau and his son Neal reported water-arc explosions in which a pulsed electrical discharge appeared to liberate more chemical bond energy from water than the electrical input supplied. Related work includes "Brown's gas" (oxyhydrogen / HHO) and Randell Mills's disputed "hydrino" theory of a below-ground-state hydrogen atom.

Journals and organizations

Infinite Energy — the principal magazine of the field, founded in 1995 (originally as Cold Fusion magazine) by Eugene Mallove and published by the New Energy Foundation.
New Energy Foundation — the nonprofit, founded by Mallove, that publishes Infinite Energy and funds research.
Journal of New Energy and New Energy Times — further periodicals covering cold fusion and related work.

Key figures

Eugene Mallove (1947–2004) — a former MIT science writer who resigned in 1991 alleging that cold-fusion data had been misrepresented, then founded Infinite Energy and the New Energy Foundation. His death in 2004 was widely mourned within the community.
Peter Graneau (1921–2014) — an MIT and Northeastern electrical scientist known for water-arc energy experiments and for editing Infinite Energy.
Brian O'Leary (1940–2011) — a scientist and former NASA astronaut who became a prominent advocate of new-energy research.
Other contributors documented on this wiki include John Bedini, Patrick G Bailey, and Paul M Brown.

Reception and controversy

Mainstream science regards most New Energy claims as unproven or impossible, citing repeated failures to reproduce key results and apparent conflicts with the conservation of energy and the second law of thermodynamics; cold fusion in particular is frequently cited as a textbook case of "pathological science." Proponents respond that the evidence has been dismissed for institutional and financial reasons rather than scientific ones, and that a growing body of replicated experiments — especially in LENR — deserves serious attention. This wiki documents that dissenting research tradition and the researchers who have contributed to it.