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Bubblegate:
June 12, 2009
KCC Patent Application
Release May Help Solve the
Bubble Fusion Mystery

December 4, 2009 - Cold fusion seems to be the third rail of physics research. In late November, a former Oak Ridge researcher and Purdue University professor, Dr. Rusi Teleyarkin, was stripped of federal funding for 28 months by the Office of Naval Research (ONL) after struggling for years to prove his bubble fusion results weren't mere Swiss cheese. UCLA researchers failed to replicate Teleyarkin's dramatic yet controversial results (video).  Purdue admonished his academic conduct in findings used by ONL for its "bubblegate" investigation. In the IP world, there is no evidence anyone has cut funding for Teleyarkin's 2003 patent application, still  working its way through the USPTO. Teleyarkin's work is directly cited on at least two published US applications. On June 11, 2009, support for Teleyarkin's side came from a surprise source:  The USPTO published a 2007 bubble fusion patent application filed by  Wisconsin paper manufacturer Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc. (KCC).  In the application's background disclosure, Teleyarkin's work is cited, stating, "One problem with the above [Teleyarkin] attempt is that it was not reproducible." KCC's inventive team implies that it overcame the reasons why those skilled in this controversial art had difficulty consistently replicating the elusive "Ultrasonic Treatment Chamber For Initiating Thermonuclear Fusion," a.k.a. bubble fusion.  One final point:  There is nothing "cold" about bubble fusion, which is part of the reasons it might actually work. Temperatures at the center of its collapsing bubbles equate to temperatures on the sun.