Brillouin Energy 5/8/2016


Skill-Set and History of the Inventors of the Google LENR Patents

“If you choose a harder problem to tackle, you’ll have less competition.” Co-founder CEO Google Inc Larry Page


On February 7th 2019 two LENR technology patents assigned to Google Inc. became exposed/published. They were each filed on the same day a year and a half ago, August 3rd 2017. It’s hard to tell how long Google has had these inventors working on developing this LENR energy technology. At least a few years before the filing date of the patent, let’s say 2014 or earlier.



gbgoble addendum note 3/6/2019 I just found this while doing an advanced patent search. A new LENR patent, “Nano-Engineered Materials for LENR”, published on 2/28/2019, filed by Klee M. Irwin. Larry Page and Klee Irwin helped to start Singularity University in 2008. I need to investigate this more and see if Klee and Larry are working together in the development of LENR energy tech or know of each others LENR patents. My hunch is an affirmative to each. I would also like to know if Singularity University is involved. If so, the resources of these two, along with those of the other Singularity University founders and board members, applied to LENR tech would catalyze rapid LENR energy market entry worldwide. The rest of this addendum is found at the end of this compilation. I will add more information as it’s developed. It will then become either a stand alone article or become part two of this compilation.


Carl Page, brother of the co-founder of Google, has been invested for many years in the LENR company Brillouin Energy, Berkeley CA. Both an investor and active agent, he serves on the Technical Advisory Board and is supportive of their ongoing growth during this important phase, as ‘Brillouin Energy prepares to enter the commercial marketplace’ (press release).



Larry Page, as CEO of Google, is pursuing an alternate LENR energy technology pathway. The work is being done by a group out of Munday Labs at the University of Maryland. Late last year Munday Labs received a lucrative DoD contract for two years of continued research. It makes sense that Google Inc. might develop this technology, through the commercial LENR reactor design phase, in partnership with a private industrial laboratory group in the semi conductor or nano technology industries or in the security of a DoD lab.



The ‘Google Inc. LENR energy group’ (GILEG) comes as a surprise to many; which leads to speculation questioning how serious Google is in developing this technology. Yet the possibility of Google investing in the field was alluded to in a 2016 E-Cat World article:

“Of course with his family ties to Google, one wonders how much his younger brother Larry might be paying attention to LENR now. The Alphabet company was formed to let Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin broaden their horizons and explore topics outside the traditional web/search field. Right now they have efforts going in areas such as longevity research, robotics, drone delivery, and capital investment. One wonders if they might see LENR as an important new area of innovation that should be explored.” - Frank Ackland


Well it seems that Frank Ackland at E-Cat World was correct. In fact Google Inc. was developing these patents at the time of his article.



This compilation provides information and links to works which will set many of these speculations and doubts to rest. The inventors are highly skilled and work in fields that are directly related to LENR research. Professor Munday attended an APS Meeting that held a seminar on cold fusion research. His lab’s research in metallic nanocrystals during hydrogen absorption and desorption, thin metallic film and co-depositation, nano physics and nano morphology/fabrication, photonics, plasmonics and the dynamical Casimir effect (DCE) for energy to nanoscale forces and engineering the quantum vacuum, all of these provide experience for developing LENR reactor cores. Many questions come to mind which require further investigation and time to resolve. The following compilation, at the very least, is a good starting point.

This paper and the four papers referenced within it, by Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger, lend themselves to an understanding of the Google LENR patents and the importance of the inventors set of skills; particularly DCE (dynamical Casimir effect) and ‘Engineering the Quantum Vacuum’. While re-reading Schwinger’s papers, I reflected on the fluid like properties* of nano-particles and what possible lattice structures the nano particles might form in the reactor core. What might the Dynamical Casimir Effect do in such a medium? How might it focus or transfer energy? How might it shift things? Or create an oscillating motion (or any motion) of the nanoparticles, phonons, or sub-atomic particles within the lattice? *ref. “Nanoparticles can act like Liquid on the Outside, Crystal on the Inside” MIT 2014

Wiki quote - Having supervised 73 doctoral dissertations, Schwinger is known as one of the most prolific graduate advisors in physics. Four of his students won Nobel prizes: Roy Glauber, Benjamin Roy Mottelson, Sheldon Glashow and Walter Kohn (in chemistry). After 1989 Schwinger took a keen interest in the non-mainstream research of cold fusion. He wrote eight theory papers about it. He resigned from the American Physical Society after their refusal to publish his papers. He felt that cold fusion research was being suppressed and academic freedom violated. He wrote: “The pressure for conformity is enormous. I have experienced it in editors’ rejection of submitted papers, based on venomous criticism of anonymous referees. The replacement of impartial reviewing by censorship will be the death of science.” - end quote This paper was published in Transactions of Fusion Technology Vol. 26, Number 4T, Part 2, December 1994 Presented at the Fourth International Conference on Cold Fusion, Dec. 1993. The paper was presented by Eugene Mallove in place of Julian Schwinger. Schwinger died in July 1994. “ Cold Fusion Theory ” by Julian Schwinger As Polonius might have said: “Neither a true-believer nor a disbeliever be.” From the very beginning in a radio broadcast on the evening of March 23, 1989, I have asked myself—not whether Pons and Fleischmann are right—but whether a mechanism can be identified that will produce nuclear energy by manipulations at the atomic-the chemical-level. Of course, the acceptance of that interpretation of their data is needed as a working hypothesis, in order to have quantitative tests of proposed mechanisms.

A few quotes from page 2 A following paper, entitled: “Nuclear Energy in an Atomic Lattice,” was sent directly to another German periodical, in November of 1989. As of today, the only memorable part is a quotation from Joseph Priestly: “In this business, more is owed to what we call chance-that is, to the observation of events arising from unknown causes-than to any preconceived theory.” The editor thought it necessary to add a total disclaimer of responsibility, ending with: “We leave the final judgment to our readers.” In my naivety I had thought that was always so. When part 2 of NEAL was submitted, it was simply rejected. The fix was in. I gave a talk with the same title—“Nuclear Energy in an Atomic Lattice”—at Salt Lake City in March of 1990. The HD hypothesis-of the dominance of the pd reaction-has the pragmatic advantage of suppressing neutron production at the level of excess heat generation. But, to quote from that lecture: “... a well trained hot fusioneer will instantly object that there must also be a 5.5 MeV γ-ray. He will not fail to point out that no such radiation has been observed. Indeed.” “But consider the circumstances of cold fusion. (The quotation continues.) At very low energies of relative motion, the proton and deuteron of the HD reaction are in an s-state, one of zero orbital angular momentum, and therefore of positive orbital parity. The intrinsic parities of proton, deuteron, and 3 He are also positive. Then, the usually dominant electric dipole radiation-which requires a parity change-is forbidden.” I turn from ‘missing’ radiation to Coulomb repulsion, and quote: “... treatments of nuclear fusion between positively charged particles (usually) represent the reaction rate as the product of two factors. The first factor is a barrier penetration probability. It refers entirely to the electric forces of repulsion. The second factor is an intrinsic nuclear reaction rate. It refers entirely to nuclear forces. This representation ... may be true enough under the circumstances of hot fusion. But, in very low energy cold fusion one deals essentially with a single state, or wave function, all parts of which are coherent. It is not possible to totally isolate the effect of the electric forces from that of the nuclear forces: The correct treatment of cold fusion will be free of the collision dominated mentality of the hot fusioneers.” To speak of transferring energy to the lattice is to invoke lattice excitations, or phonons. At about the time of the Salt Lake City meeting, or shortly after, I became dissatisfied with my treatment, and began to reconstruct phonon theory. A note entitled “Phonon Representations” was submitted to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in June of 1990. The abstract reads: “The gap between the nonlocalized lattice phonon description and the localized Einstein oscillator treatment is filled by transforming the phonon Hamiltonian back to particle variables. The particle-coordinate, normalized wave function for the phonon vacuum state is exhibited.” A month later, I submitted a second note with the title “Phonon Dynamics”. The abstract reads: “An atomic lattice in its ground state is excited by the rapid displacement and release of an atomic constituent. The time dependence of the energy transfer to other constituents is studied ... .” The third and last note is called “Phonon Green’s Function”. Its abstract is: “The concepts of source and quantum action principle are used to produce the phonon Green’s function appropriate for an initial phonon vacuum state. An application to the Mössbauer effect is presented.” I remind you that the Mössbauer effect refers to “an excited nucleus of an atom, imbedded in a lattice, (that) decays with the emission of a γ-ray,” thereby transferring momentum to the lattice.” There is a certain probability ... that the phonon spectrum of the lattice will remain unexcited, as evidenced by the absence, in the γ-ray energy, of the red-shift associated with recoil energy.” A casual explanation of the Mössbauer effect has it that the recoil momentum is transferred to the lattice as a whole so that the recoil energy, varying inversely with the mass of the entire lattice, is extravagantly small. As Pauli would say, even to God, “Das ist falsch!” The spontaneous decay of a single excited atom in the lattice is a localized event, the consequences of which flow at finite speed, out into three dimensional space, weakening as they travel. This is a microscopic event, with no dependence on macroscopic parameters such as the total mass of the lattice. Unmentioned in the abstract, but of far greater importance, is another situation. To quote: “What happens if the momentum impulse ... is applied, not to one, but all lattice sites?” The reader is invited to “recall that the lattice geometry is not absolute, but relative to the position of the center of mass for the entire system. Thus (the injected energy) can be read as the kinetic energy transferred to the lattice as a whole.”


LENR History in the Making - Carl and Larry Page

“Carl Page on Most Significant Science News for 2016: “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions Work And Could Supplant Fossil Fuels” E-Cat World Article By Frank Ackland Posted on January 3, 2016

https://e-catworld.com/2016/01/03/carl-page-on-most-significant-science-news-for-2016-low-energy-nuclear-reactions-work-and-could-supplant-fossil-fuels/




The Google Inc. LENR Energy Technology Patents

“Enhanced Electron Screening Through Plasmon Oscillations” US 20190043624 A1

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20190043624.PGNR.&OS=dn/20190043624&RS=DN/20190043624

Drawings: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20190043624.pdf

Inventors: David K. Fork (Mountain View, CA), Jeremy N. Munday (North Bethesda, MD), Tarun Narayan (Washington, DC), Joseph B. Murray (Laurel MD)

Applicant: Google Inc., Mountain View CA; University of Maryland, College Park MD Appl. No.15/668436; Filed: August 3, 2017; Published: February 7, 2019



Abstract

Enhanced Coulomb repulsion screening around light element nuclei is achieved by way of utilizing electromagnetic (EM) radiation to induce plasmon oscillations in target structures (e.g., nanoparticles) in a way that produces high density electron clouds in localized regions of the target structures, thereby generating charge density variations around light element atoms located in the localized regions. Each target structure includes an electrically conductive body including light elements (e.g., a metal hydride/deuteride/tritide) that is configured to undergo plasmon oscillations in response to the applied EM radiation. The induced oscillations causes free electrons to converge in the localized region, thereby producing transient high electron charge density levels that enhance Coulomb repulsion screening around light element (e.g., deuterium) atoms located in the localized regions. Various systems capable of implementing enhanced Coulomb repulsion screening are described, and various nanostructure compositions and configurations are disclosed that serve to further enhance fusion reaction rates.



“Target Structure For Enhanced Electron Screening” US 20190045617 A1

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20190045617.PGNR.&OS=dn/20190045617&RS=DN/20190045617

Images: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20190045617.pdf

Inventors: Fork, David K. (Mountain View, CA); Munday, Jeremy N. (North Bethesda, MD); Narayan, Tarun (Washington, DC); Murray, Joseph B. (Laurel, MD)

Applicant: Google Inc. Mountain View CA; University of Maryland, College Park MD Appl. No. 15/668499; Filed: August 3, 2017; Published: February 7, 2019



Abstract

Enhanced Coulomb repulsion (electron) screening around light element nuclei is achieved by way of utilizing target structures (e.g., nanoparticles) that undergo plasmon oscillation when subjected to electromagnetic (EM) radiation, whereby transient high density electron clouds are produced in localized regions of the target structures during each plasmon oscillation cycle. Each target structure includes an integral body composed of an electrically conductive material that contains light element atoms (e.g., metal hydrides, metal deuterides or metal tritides). The integral body is also configured (i.e., shaped/sized) to undergo plasmon oscillations in response to the applied EM radiation such that the transient high density electron clouds are formed during each plasmon oscillation cycle, whereby brief but significantly elevated charge density variations are generated around light element (e.g., deuterium) atoms located in the localized regions, thereby enhancing Coulomb repulsion screening to enhance nuclear fusion reaction rates. Various target structure compositions and configurations are disclosed.

Editor note: Google has a powerful incentive to apply their vast resources towards bringing their LENR energy technology on-line as quickly as possible. Powering a Google Search: The Facts and Figures Nov 28, 2017 - Collectively, Google uses about 2.26 million megawatt hours per year to power its global data center operations, which is equivalent to the power necessary to sustain 200,000 homes.


https://business.directenergy.com/blog/2017/november/powering-a-google-search

Google Inc. LENR Patent Inventors

Looking at the history and skill-set of the inventors David K. Fork, Jeremy N. Munday, Tarun Narayan, and Joseph B. Murray.



First on the list is David K Fork...



David K. Fork


https://ai.google/research/people/DavidFork

Skill -Set of D. K. Fork at Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Fork)



About

David Fork is a Renewable Energy Technologist at Google. Before that he was a Principal Scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Rochester in 1987 with degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Applied Physics in 1991. He has studied and worked primarily on thin film electronic materials and devices. His research activities include complex oxide epitaxial thin films, laser crystallized display materials, organic electroluminescent devices, semiconductor LEDs and lasers, electronic imaging systems, and micro-electromechanical systems. Dr. Fork holds over 80 issued US patents and has authored over 100 publications. His honors include the Warren Prize for Science 1983, the Bausch & Lomb Medal for Science 1983, the Bausch & Lomb Scholarship 1983, the John R. Flagg Award 1987, and a Certificate of Congressional Recognition for Community Service, 1997.



A relevant paper by David Fork



“Accurate Coulometric Quantification of Hydrogen Absorption in Palladium Nanoparticles and Thin Films”

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325771624_Accurate_Coulometric_Quantification_of_Hydrogen_Absorption_in_Palladium_Nanoparticles_and_Thin_Films

Jun 2018 DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b01324ISBN: 0897-4756

Rebecca S. Sherbo, Marta Moreno-González, Noah J J Johnson, David J.

Dvorak, D. K. Fork



Abstract

We report here an electrochemical method for precise and accurate quantification of hydrogen absorption in palladium materials. We demonstrate that conventional chronocoulometry over-reports adsorbed hydrogen due to charge from the accompanying hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR). We designed and built a bespoke electrochemical flow cell that mitigates the concurrent HOR reaction and consequently provides improved accuracy and reproducibility relative to other existing electrochemical techniques. The efficacy of this technique is demonstrated experimentally for a series of palladium sample types: a 100 nm electron-beam deposited thin film, a 20 μm electrodeposited palladium film, a casting of 21 nm edge-length cubic nanoparticles, and a casting of 27 nm edge-length octahedral nanoparticles. We contend that this method is the most effective for measuring hydrogen uptake in different palladium samples.



Sometimes I wonder if people know each other...



The American Physical Society - APS has hosted a number of Cold Fusion sessions over the years. I’m looking at the 2005 APS Meeting, March 21–25, 2005 Los Angeles, CA.



Has inventor Jeremy Munday, or the ‘Google Inc. LENR energy group’ (hereafter referred to as GILEG), ever meet or collaborate with a member of the SPAWAR/JWK/GEC LENR group? Each of these groups are working with the DoD since 2018 and earlier. Stan Szpak, P.A. Mosier-Boss, Frank Gordon. and Scott Chubb presented a SPAWAR paper at the 2005 APS Meeting. Professor Munday presented a paper as well. Both on Thursday... Did they meet and mix? I have no idea... I’m just curious. Here are the papers they presented there. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR05/SessionIndex3/%3FSessionEventID%3D28686/?VirtualSession=U



SPAWAR

Session U33: Cold Fusion (14 papers)

Sponsoring Units: DCMP

Chair: Scott Chubb, Naval Research Lab

U33.00001 Thursday, March 24, 2005 8:00AM - 8:12AM:

“Experimental Evidence for LENR in a Polarized Pd/D Lattice”

S. Szpak, P.A. Mosier-Boss, Frank Gordon SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego https://www.lenr-canr.org/acrobat/SzpakSexperiment.pdf




Abstract

Experimental evidence in support of claims that excess enthalpy production in a polarized Pd/D lattice is of a nuclear origin is questioned on various grounds, eg marginal intensity and difficulty in reproducing. Here, evidence is presented that is ≈100% reproducible and of sufficient intensity to be well outside of experimental errors. In addition to the thermal behavior, the nuclear manifestations include: X-ray emission; tritium production; and, when an operating cell is placed in an external electric field, fusion to create heavier metals such as Ca, Al, Mg, and Zn.




Professor Munday

Session U44: Focus Session: Interfaces, Characterization, and Fabrication

Sponsoring Units: GIMS

Chair: Karen Waldrip, Sandia National Labs

U44.00006 Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 9:24AM - 9:36AM:

“On the Torque on Birefringent Plates Induced by Quantum Fluctuations”

Jeremy Munday, Harvard University, Department of Physics, Cambridge,

MA 02138, David E. Iannuzzi, Frederico Capasso, Harvard University,

Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA 02138,

Yuri Barash, Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of

Sciences, Moscow, Russia

https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0410136

Abstract

We present detailed numerical calculations of the mechanical torque induced by quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field on two parallel birefringent plates with in plane optical anisotropy, separated by either vacuum or a liquid (ethanol). The torque is found to vary as sin(2θ), where θ represents the angle between the two optical axes, and its magnitude rapidly increases with decreasing plate separation d. For a 40 µm diameter disk made out of calcite which is kept parallel to a Barium Titanate plate at a distance d=100 nm, the maximum torque (at θ = π/4) is on the order of ∼ 10−18 N·m. We propose an experiment to observe this torque when the Barium Titanate plate is immersed in ethanol and the other birefringent disk is placed on top of it. In this case the retarded van der Waals (or Casimir-Lifshitz) force between the two birefringent slabs is repulsive. The disk would float parallel to the plate at a distance where its net weight is counterbalanced by the retarded van der Waals repulsion, free to rotate in response to very small driving torques.



Professor Jeremy N. Munday



In August 2018 Munday Labs received a half a million dollar grant from DARPA for two years of continuing research on “Engineering the Quantum Vacuum”.

I looked into engineering the quantum vacuum and found an interesting paper by another group from 2016. I have not yet found the executive summary, submitted for the DARPA grant, by Professor Munday.


Skill-Set at Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2145788608_Jeremy_N_Munday.





editor note: The 2016 article presents... “the idea of engineering the quantum vacuum to create novel devices and protocols for quantum technologies. The paper describes how the researchers converted vacuum fluctuations into real photons of microwave radiation that are correlated (coherence between photons in separate frequency modes). The coherence correlations are tunable.” (thanks yu/JRDMB on r/Physics at reddit for this synopsis)




Here is the 2016 paper and University of Maryland News article



“Coherence and Multimode Correlations from Vacuum Fluctuations in a

Microwave Superconducting Cavity”

By Pasi Lähteenmäki, Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu, Juha Hassel & Pertti J.

Hakonen; Published: 26 August 2016

Nature Communications volume 7, Article number: 12548 (2016)



https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12548

Abstract

The existence of vacuum fluctuations is one of the most important predictions of modern quantum field theory. In the vacuum state, fluctuations occurring at different frequencies are uncorrelated. However, if a parameter in the Lagrangian of the field is modulated by an external pump, vacuum fluctuations stimulate spontaneous downconversion processes, creating squeezing between modes symmetric with respect to half of the frequency of the pump. Here we show that by double parametric pumping of a superconducting microwave cavity, it is possible to generate another type of correlation, namely coherence between photons in separate frequency modes. The coherence correlations are tunable by the phases of the pumps and are established by a quantum fluctuation that stimulates the simultaneous creation of two photon pairs. Our analysis indicates that the origin of this vacuum-induced coherence is the absence of which-way information in the frequency space.



“Munday Receives DARPA Young Faculty Award”

University of Maryland News Published August 30, 2018




https://ece.umd.edu/news/story/munday-receives-darpa-young-faculty-award



Associate Professor Jeremy Munday (ECE/IREAP) was selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to receive a Young Faculty Award (YFA) in recognition of his status as a rising star in photonics and quantum technology. Munday will receive a grant of approximately $500,000 to be used to further develop his research during the next two years.



Munday received the funding for his research project, titled “Engineering the Quantum Vacuum.” Prof. Munday’s research project seeks to advance the understanding of the quantum vacuum and its potential use for future technologies, including nanoscale electro-mechanical devices, chemical reactors, etc. His lab’s current research endeavors range from experimental probes of quantum mechanics (e.g. the Casimir effect) to photonics and alternative energy.



DARPA’s Young Faculty Award program, sponsored by DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office provides funding, mentoring and industry and Department of Defense (DoD) contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs. The selected researchers focus on concepts that are innovative, speculative, and high-risk.



DARPA programs include basic science research performed on university and industry campuses and at research laboratories. This research may ultimately significantly advance a technology or application that is critical to national security. The long-term goal of the YFA program is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers and mathematicians in key disciplines who will focus a significant portion of their career on DoD and national security issues.


DARPA YFA Class of 2018 Awardees List https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/DARPA_YFA_Class_of_2018.pdf

A relevant paper by Professor Jeremy Munday

“Measurement of the Casimir Torque” David A. T. Somers, Joseph L. Garrett, Kevin J. Palm & Jeremy N. Munday, Nature volume 564, pages 386–389 Published: 19 December 2018


https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0777-8



Abstract

Intermolecular forces are pervasive in nature and give rise to various phenomena including surface wetting, adhesive forces in biology, and the Casimir effect, which causes two charge-neutral, metal objects in vacuum to attract each other. These interactions are the result of quantum fluctuations of electromagnetic waves and the boundary conditions imposed by the interacting materials. When the materials are optically anisotropic, different polarizations of light experience different refractive indices and a torque is expected to occur that causes the materials to rotate to a position of minimum energy. Although predicted more than four decades ago, the small magnitude of the Casimir torque has so far prevented direct measurements of it. Here we experimentally measure the Casimir torque between two optically anisotropic materials—a solid birefringent crystal (calcite, lithium niobite, rutile or yttrium vanadate) and a liquid crystal (5CB). We control the sign and strength of the torque, and its dependence on the rotation angle and the separation distance between the materials, through the choice of materials. The values that we measure agree with calculations, verifying the long-standing prediction that a mechanical torque induced by quantum fluctuations can exist between two separated objects. These results open the door to using the Casimir torque as a micro- or nanoscale actuation mechanism, which would be relevant for a range of technologies, including microelectromechanical systems and liquid crystals.




A companion article to the paper

Nature - News and Views

“Elusive Torque Sensed by Liquid Crystals” 19 December 2018


https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07744-9

Almost half a century ago, it was predicted that the confinement of quantum fluctuations could induce mechanical rotation — the Casimir torque. This prediction has now been confirmed using liquid crystals.



Quantum physics tells us that empty space is filled with fluctuating electromagnetic fields. If two metal plates are positioned close to each other, the quantum fluctuations between the plates differ from those outside the plates, producing a force that pushes the plates closer together. This phenomenon is known as the Casimir effect. In 1972, it was suggested that quantum fluctuations could also generate a turning effect, called a torque, if the metal plates were replaced by materials that are optically anisotropic — that is, their optical properties, sensed by a light beam, depend on the beam’s direction. Writing in Nature, Somers et al.2 report experimental evidence for this Casimir torque through the twisting of liquid crystals. The discovery paves the way for the development of complex micrometre- and nanometre-scale mechanical devices.



A companion podcast


https://mundaylab.umd.edu/?p=1893

Munday Labs - People



(three of the inventors of the Google Inc. LENR patents work there)

https://mundaylab.umd.edu/?page_id=117



About Professor Jeremy N. Munday

https://mundaylab.umd.edu/?page_id=309

Jeremy Munday is currently an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Maryland. He received his PhD in Physics from Harvard in 2008 and was a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech before moving to the University of Maryland in 2011. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the ONR YIP Award, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award (YFA) 2018 “Engineering the Quantum Vacuum” and the NASA Early Career Faculty Space Technology Research Award, as well as society awards including the OSA Adolph Lomb Medal, the IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, and the SPIE Early Career Achievement Award.



His lab’s current research endeavors range from photovoltaics, near field optics, photonics, and plasmonics for energy to nanoscale forces (e.g. the Casimir Force) for actuating micro- and nano-mechanical devices.



Prof. Munday is currently teaching courses on Solar Energy Conversion and on Electricity and Magnetism, and he looks forward to future courses on a variety of topics. He is also interested in music, and in his free time recently designed and built a hybrid electric resonator guitar.



Munday Lab for Solar and Quantum Technologies


https://mundaylab.umd.edu/

Research

We use a variety of techniques to probe nano-scale interactions including atomic force microscopy, near field scanning microscopy, and traditional optical microscopy. Additionally, we are interested in developing new tools and techniques to better understand these interactions.



The third inventor on the list is...



Tarun C. Narayan

University of Maryland, College Park | UMD, UMCP, University of

Maryland College Park · Institute for Research in Electronics and

Applied Physics (IREAP)

Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering

Skill-Set Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tarun_Narayan



Two relevant articles by T. C. Narayan...



“In Situ Detection of Hydrogen-Induced Phase Transitions in Individual

Palladium Nanocrystals”

Andrea Baldi, Tarun C. Narayan, Ai Leen Koh & Jennifer A. Dionne

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 1143–1148 (2014)


https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat4086

Abstract

Many energy and information storage processes rely on phase changes of nanomaterials in reactive environments. Compared to their bulk counterparts, nanostructured materials seem to exhibit faster charging and discharging kinetics, extended life cycles, and size-tunable thermodynamics. However, in ensemble studies of these materials, it is often difficult to discriminate between intrinsic size-dependent properties and effects due to sample size and shape dispersity. Here, we detect the phase transitions of individual palladium nanocrystals during hydrogen absorption and desorption, using in situ electron energy-loss spectroscopy in an environmental transmission electron microscope. In contrast to ensemble measurements, we find that palladium nanocrystals undergo sharp transitions between the α and β phases, and that surface effects dictate the size dependence of the hydrogen absorption pressures. Our results provide a general framework for monitoring phase transitions in individual nanocrystals in a reactive environment and highlight the importance of single-particle approaches for the characterization of nanostructured materials.



“Dynamic Optical Properties of Metal Hydrides”

Kevin J. Palm, Joseph B. Murray, Tarun C. Narayan, and Jeremy N. Munday

ACS Photonics 2018 5 (11), 4677-4686

DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.8b01243


https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsphotonics.8b01243

Abstract

Metal hydrides often display dramatic changes in optical properties upon hydrogenation. These shifts make them prime candidates for many tunable optical devices, such as optical hydrogen sensors and switchable mirrors. While some of these metals, such as palladium, have been well studied, many other promising materials have only been characterized over a limited optical range and lack direct in situ measurements of hydrogen loading, limiting their potential applications. Further, there have been no systematic studies that allow for a clear comparison between these metals. In this work, we present such a systematic study of the dynamically tunable optical properties of Pd, Mg, Zr, Ti, and V throughout hydrogenation with a wavelength range of 250–1690 nm. These measurements were performed in an environmental chamber, which combines mass measurements via a quartz crystal microbalance with ellipsometric measurements in up to 7 bar of hydrogen gas, allowing us to determine the optical properties during hydrogen loading. In addition, we demonstrate a further tunability of the optical properties of titanium and its hydride by altering annealing conditions, and we investigate the optical and gravimetric hysteresis that occurs during hydrogenation cycling of palladium. Finally, we demonstrate several nanoscale optical and plasmonic structures based on these dynamic properties. We show structures that, upon hydrogenation, demonstrate 5 orders of magnitude change in reflectivity, resonance shifts of >200 nm, and relative transmission switching of >3000%, suggesting a wide range of applications.



Tarun Narayan while at the Stanford Dionne Group http://dionne.stanford.edu/TarunNarayan.html

Ph. D. Candidate Materials Science & Engineering (2014)

B.S., Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College (2010)

M.S., Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012)



Research Interests



I study the intercalation process that governs the behavior of many energy storage materials. Specifically, we focus on the palladium/hydrogen system, which serves as an excellent model system that has similar thermodynamics to other intercalation systems such as LixFePO4 and LiTiO2 battery electrodes. To do so, I use one of the more unique pieces of equipment in Stanford’s possession - an environmental transmission electron microscope (TEM). Most electron microscopy occurs in high vacuum, but we are able to introduce gasses while maintaining the high spatial resolution characteristic of the TEM. Taking advantage of the many techniques available in the TEM, I study individual palladium nanoparticles to learn how different structural attributes affect the thermodynamics of hydrogen absorption. With this information, I hope to create guidelines for the design of future energy storage materials.



Now this one really intrigues me...



While researching the final inventor listed in the patent I came across this 2018 paper. It is written by all four of the inventors of the Google Inc. LENR patent. How does this work lend insight into the low energy nuclear reactive environment of condensed matter nuclear science? What is the usefulness of this apparatus Possibly a sensor to monitor the interior of the nuclear reactive environment of LENR reactors for better control?



The final Google Inc. LENR patent inventor...



Joseph B. Murray






Skill-Set at Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph_Murray11



At Semantic Scholar

https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/Joseph-B-Murray/48976311



“Apparatus for Combined Nanoscale Gravimetric, Stress, and Thermal Measurements”

Published Online: 06 August 2018 Accepted: July 2018

AIP Review of Scientific Instruments 89, 085106 (2018);

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5040503

By Joseph B. Murray, Kevin J. Palm, Tarun C. Narayan, David K. Fork,

Seid Sadat, and Jeremy N. Munday


ABSTRACT

We present an apparatus that allows for the simultaneous measurement of mass change, heat evolution, and stress of thin film samples deposited on quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs). We show device operation at 24.85 ± 0.05 °C under 9.31 ± 0.02 bars of H2 as a reactive gas. Using a 335 nm palladium film, we demonstrate that our apparatus quantifies curvature changes of 0.001 m−1. Using the QCM curvature to account for stress induced frequency changes, we demonstrate the measurement of mass changes of 13 ng/cm2 in material systems exhibiting large stress fluctuations. We use a one-state nonlinear lumped element model to describe our system with thermal potentials measured at discrete positions by three resistance temperature devices lithographically printed on the QCM. By inputting known heat amounts through lithographically defined Cr/Al wires, we demonstrate a 150 μW calorimetric accuracy and 20 μW minimum detectable power. The capabilities of this instrument will allow for a more complete characterization of reactions occurring in nanoscale systems, such as the effects of hydrogenation in various metal films and nanostructures, as well as allow for direct stress compensation in QCM measurements.

The Google Inc. RE<C Project

Here is something I find extremely interesting. It concerns David Fort, one of the inventors of the Google LENR energy technology patents. He was one of two scientists hired by Google Inc. to investigate renewable energy during their RE<C Project, ie Looking to develop renewable electricity at a cost less than electricity produced by coal. The project was abandoned around the same time that the Google Inc. LENR patent was being developed by David Fort et.al. (2014).


“Why Google Gave Up On Renewables (hint: because they don’t know much about energy)“ November 24, 2014 by Karel Beckman, Published at Energy Post EU

https://energypost.eu/google-gave-renewables-hint-dont-know-much-energy/

A few quotes from the article...

The two scientists responsible for Google’s failed attempt to launch a renewable energy revolution have written an article explaining what, according to them, went wrong with their project. They have come to the conclusion that fighting climate change with today’s renewable energy technologies won’t work – but they present no evidence for it, writes Energy Post editor Karel Beckman Some years ago, in 2007, to be exact, Google embarked on an ambitious project to develop renewable energy sources that would generate electricity more cheaply than coal-fired power. Google’s hope was that in this way the buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere could be halted and reversed. However, in 2011, after four years of trying, the company gave up the project, known as RE<C. The two engineers who were responsible for Google’s venture into renewables, Ross Koningstein and David Fork, have now written an article in which they try to explain what went wrong – and what lessons can be drawn from it. Looking back on their experience, they conclude that “even if Google and others had led the way toward a wholesale adoption of renewable energy, that switch would not have resulted in significant reductions of carbon dioxide emissions. Trying to combat climate change exclusively with today’s renewable energy technologies simply won’t work”, they write. “We need a fundamentally different approach.


The article that Karen Beckman is referring to was published in IEEE Spectrum Magazine, “What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change: Today’s Renewable Energy Technologies Won’t Save Us. So What Will?” By Ross Koningstein and David Fork, Published 18 Nov 2014

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take-to-reverse-climate-change


A few quotes from the article...

Google cofounder Larry Page is fond of saying that, “If you choose a harder problem to tackle, you’ll have less competition.”

This business philosophy has clearly worked out well for the company and led to some remarkably successful “moon shot” projects: a translation engine that knows 80 languages, self-driving cars, and the wearable computer system Google Glass, to name just a few.

Trying to combat climate change exclusively with today’s renewable energy technologies simply won’t work; we need a fundamentally different approach. What’s needed are zero-carbon energy sources so cheap that the operators of power plants and industrial facilities alike have an economic rationale for switching over within the next 40 years.


Sounds like cold fusion to me.

We know David Fork is into LENR because of the patent. So I decided to check into his colleague from the RE<C Project, Ross Koningstein.


Here is what I found.

Ross Koningstein is a proponent of Gen IV nuclear. New (U238) Nuclear and supports the development of hot fusion. “I am an advocate for advanced technology nuclear energy (waste-burning fission, fusion, etc.)“


The Global Energy Corporation (GEC) LENR GeNie (GNE) Reactor claims to be Gen V nuclear power. i.e. LENR hybrid fusion fission technology. “By employing a novel, in situ, very fast neutron source, GNE constitutes a new Generation V hybrid reactor technology, combining aspects of Generation IV fast fission reactors, the DoE Advanced Accelerator reactor, and hybrid fusion/fission systems. It may eliminate the need for uranium enrichment and fuel reprocessing and, consequently, the opportunity for nuclear weapons proliferation through the diversion of fissile isotopes.”

The GEC non-fissile LENR reactor being space hardened at NASA GRC can be considered Gen VI nuclear power.


The Google Inc. LENR patents are also Gen VI nuclear power. As are Brillouin and Leonardo Corp. LENR nuclear power technologies. (non-fissile LENR)

It seems Ross and Dave have taken different paths since working together on the Google RE<C Project.


Ross Koningstein @Linked In - Engineer, Director Emeritus at Google Inc. San Francisco Bay Area 2010 – Present https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosskoningstein/

Quote

If we want a world that can adapt to or reverse climate change, and we want humanity to enjoy the benefits of energy, then we need “all of the above” in energy. Many are of the belief that renewables can meet this need, I have seen no data that even remotely supports such a belief. This is why I am an advocate for advanced technology nuclear energy (waste-burning fission, fusion, etc.) and why I have executive produced “Pandora’s Promise” and “The New Fire”. editor note - These are both contemporary nuclear power industry productions. - end ed. note


Addendum 3/6/2019

gbgoble addendum note 3/6/2019 I just found this while doing an advanced patent search. A new LENR patent, “Nano-Engineered Materials for LENR”, published on 2/28/2019, filed by Klee M. Irwin. Larry Page and Klee Irwin founded Singularity University in 2008. I need to investigate this more and see if Klee and Larry are working together in the development of LENR energy tech or know of each others LENR patents. My hunch is an affirmative to each. I would also like to know if Singularity University is involved. The resources of these two, along with those of the other Singularity University founders and board members, applied to LENR tech will catalyze rapid LENR energy worldwide market entry. The full addendum to date is at the end of this compilation. I will add more information as it’s developed. It will then become either a stand alone article or become part two of this compilation. - end note


Here is what I have so far.

Engineering the Core - LENR Reactors

The core of a LENR reactor, the lattice, can be constructed atom by atom using advanced nano engineering technologies. The patent asserts that, through these engineering processes, specific lattice geometries and materials can be used to control what types of reaction products and isotopes are created.


The patent “Nano-Engineered Materials for LENR”

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20190066852A1

2018-08-29 * Application filed by Klee M. Irwin

2019-02-28 * Publication of US20190066852A1

2019-03-06 * Application status is Pending

Abstract

Nanoengineered materials are disclosed for Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENRs). The nanoengineered materials include quasicrystals and quasicrystal approximants. The energy landscape of these materials is designed to increase a tunneling probability of atoms that participate in a fusion reaction. The nanoengineered materials are designed to have arrangements of atoms in which there are active sites in the material for LENR. The active sites may include networks of double wells designed into the material. In some examples, the design also limits the degrees of freedom for atoms in ways that increase a tunneling probability for tunneling of atoms into sites where fusion occurs.


Klee Irwin

Bio: https://www.kleeirwin.com/bio/

Klee Irwin is an author, physicist and entrepreneur, who dedicates the majority of his time to Quantum Gravity Research (QGR), a research institute he founded in 2009. The mission of the organization is to discover the geometric first-principles unification of space, time, matter, energy, information and consciousness.


As the Director of QGR, Klee manages a dedicated team of mathematicians and physicists developing emergence theory. Since 2009, the team has published numerous papers and journal articles laying out some of the mathematical building blocks and axiomatic ideas for this unification model.

Klee is also the founder and owner of Irwin Naturals, an award-winning global natural supplement company providing alternative health and healing products sold in thousands of retailers ranging from Walmart to Whole Foods. Irwin Naturals is a long-time supporter of Vitamin Angels, which aims to provide lifesaving vitamins to mothers and children at risk of malnutrition thereby reducing preventable illness, blindness, and death and creating healthier communities.


Outside of his work in physics and nutraceuticals, such as CBD, Klee is active in supporting students, scientists, educators and founders in their aim to discover solutions leading to high impact positive change in the world. He has supported and invested in a wide range of people, causes and companies including Change.org, Upworthy, Donors Choose, Moon Express, Mayasil, the X PRIZE Foundation, and Singularity University, where he is an Associate Founder.

Klee is a southern California native who splits his time between his hometown of Los Angeles and his favorite place to be – Hana, Maui.


A bit of Klee Irwin LENR History

ICCF-19 start of “new cycle” 4/23/2015 Ruby Carat at Cold fusion Now https://coldfusionnow.org/iccf-19-start-of-new-cycle/


ICCF19 — Live Thread (Update #10: Conference Wrap-up from Cold Fusion Now) E-Cat World article Posted on April 23, 2015 • 1565 Comments https://e-catworld.com/2015/04/23/iccf19-day-1-april-13-2015-live-thread/

UPDATE #6 The following video was sent to me from Cold Fusion Dog Bob who spoke with Klee Irwin, director of Quantum Gravity Research and a co-founder of Singularity University. Klee Irwin is friend of Ruby Carat of Cold Fusion Now, and in this video makes an offer to LENR researchers that could be very helpful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91t5usrgJyQ

UPDATE #8 (April 17, 2015)

Alan Smith, April 16 2015 — Around 400 people were at the conference today, and I managed to talk to Mats Lewan, Robert Godes and Peter Hagelstein about their work and thoughts. Peter and I discussed his vision of the potential ‘best uses’ for LENR for a quarter of an hour or so. He is particularly interested in the potential of LENR for powering better robots – not the toys we have now, but robots with the power and stamina to move amongst us like real people. He also sees the potential for making the world a better and cleaner place. Massive de-salination projects, the clean-up of nuclear waste by transmutation, CO2 capture or even denaturing would also become possible with LENR. Speakers at this conference have increasingly talked about transmutation of ‘fuel’ into a startlingly large variety of elements. This leads one to hope that maybe 10 years in the future we will be able to make one element into another as we wish- analogous to the way that biotechnologists are finding methods to produce complex proteins- using living systems as manufacturing systems.


I was invited to attend a fascinating ‘off site’ presentation given by Dr. Vladimir Dubinko from the Kharkov Institute of Physics & Technology (Ukraine) to Klee Irwin and colleagues from Quantum Gravity Research in Los Angeles USA. I had spoken to Vladimir earlier in the week and thought his simulation work on ‘breathers’ fascinating – and a terrific fit with Klee’s own research. This led me to arrange their meeting.

For those that haven’t heard of them, breathers is the name for the tiny ‘hot-spots’ where LENR reactions are born. They typically occur in quasi-defects in the atomic lattice. It’s a complex topic, but in brief Vlad has shown how atomic ‘ping-pong’ at breather sites my overcome the Coulomb barrier with only small (by nuclear standards) inputs of energy. And he has the mathematics to describe it – which I confess I only dimly comprehend.


Tomorrow evening I will be in Venice, dining with Aleksander Parkhomov, Vladimir Dubinko and a couple of other conference delegates. Should be an interesting dinner, and a marvelous end to an amazing week. The only small cloud on my horizon has been the sudden and total death of my netbook, but happily little data went to heaven with it. I have a camera full of interesting photos, and can maybe persuade Frank to put up a gallery soon. Back to the UK and real life on Saturday, it will seem a bit tame by comparison.