FISSION IN A FLASK

["E. Lewars" <elewars |-at-| alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>]

 There was a question on the Net today or yesterday about this.  In his book
 "Cold Fusion: the Scientific Fiasco of the Century", Huizinga refers
 to an
 off-the record remark by one of the protagonists that palladium in an
 electrochemical cell may be undergoing fission.  The view among physicists
 is probably that this kind of thing is even less likely than
 (electro)chemically induced fusion.
 Actually, *some* nuclear processes are not quite independent of chemical
 influences: electron capture radioactive decay, a la one of the isotopes
 of potassium, is clearly somewhat affected by the proximity of electrons,
 and thus by the chemical state of the atom.
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 E. Lewars
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