Energy for nuthin’ and your chicks for free.

It’s bit of a dream really, free energy. No more power bills, no more raping wilderness areas for oil, no more raping other countries for oil, no more changing freaking batteries all the time. Could it be time to take your house off the energy grid?

The guys at Steorn think so.

They’ve developed what they say is the world’s first energy generating device that outputs more than is put in. There is a technical scientific term for this kind of contraption, and it is ‘bullshit’.

Perpetual motion machines and energy-for-nothing generators are considered not just wrong, but completely impossible. It’s right up there with ancient alchemists trying to transmute lead into gold (even Newton did his damnedest to get that one to work), to the more modern fallacy of Fleischmann and Pon’s claims to room temperature desk-top fusion in 1989 and the less modern attempt I made to fly in the late seventies by stuffing my arms into white plastic trash bags and leaping off a chair (failed).

Looking for a way to create self-powered mini security cameras, Steorn’s team stumbled on what they are calling an invention that will change the world. The device features four minutely calibrated magnets, spinning about a fifth magnet. Somehow, this apparently produces more energy than is fed in -- they say around 285% efficiency.

The Laws of Thermodynamics (note the capitalisation) are very clear, and have withstood the test of time. The First Law states that the amount of energy in a closed system remains the same. While a thrown ball has more kinetic energy than a stationary one, this energy is converted from kinetic into heat as friction works on the surface, heating the ball and air. Energy converts, it never disappears or appears. In this example kinetic energy becomes heat,. Measured as a whole the amount of energy never, ever changes.

So Steorn’s claim to have a system that is 285% efficient totally and completely flies in the face of one of the most fundamental building blocks of science. They say that their closed system has even delivered just under 400% efficiency in tests. What they don’t say is how exactly they’re ‘detecting’ this energy.

Now, this may be true. It could actually be pumping out more energy than is being put in, but the First Law states that this energy must be coming from somewhere so it could be that it’s coming from somewhere unexpected.

Arenas that pop into my head could be that the interlocking magnetic field could be creating a Casimir effect somewhere nearing the Planck scale, but the problem with this is that although quantum mechanics fully allows for enormous energies to be released via this effect, it also dictates that it must also disappear just as quickly. Maybe what they’ve developed is a detector of this unleashed energy. Harnessing it is a different matter.

The second way I can see this happening is that the conjunction of magnetic fields is allowing for the energy of the quantum foam to be detected. Again, and incredibly similarly to the Casimir effect, this is happening at the Planck scale so how they’re detecting this I do not know. Also like the Casimir effect this energy is transient.

Now, while you may dismiss all of this as a complete load of bulshit, Steorn are putting their money where their mouth is by purchasing a full-page advert in The Economist, challenging scientists to come and investigate the device in-depth, and then present their findings. This panel of leading physicists, chemist and presumable quantum physiscists must publish their claims as other scientific bodies who have studied the device refuse to out of being named and shamed by the rest of the community.

As of time of writing, 4,581 scientists have applied for position on the panel.

It’s interesting too, as they don’t seem to be asking for funding until the panel’s results are out, and then it’s either rolling-in-cash time, or shunned-by-Science time.

Validation Process

The process of testing Steorn's technology shall consist of three test phases. The process shall commence with the scientific jury appointing its own chairman. Steorn shall then provide an in-depth explanation of the operation of its technology and shall present the tests and test data conducted on the technology to date.

Steorn will cover all direct costs relating to the validation process.

Phase I

Confirm that the Steorn technology has a coefficient of performance greater than 100%.

Phase II

Confirm that the operation of the Steorn technology does not affect the component parts of the technology.

Phase III

Carry out a full thermodynamic analysis of the technology.

What Happens After Validation?

The jury’s analysis will be published on the company's website where everyone can register to receive the results.

The Company will then be seeking to license its technology into a variety of markets including the consumer electronics and automotive sectors. The company will also be releasing several products that it is developing itself.

So it’s very interesting. Steorn is canny enough to know that they’re in a position to be completely ridiculed by the scientific community if they just come out and say ‘our product does this’, but by inviting the community to openly investigate it they’re potentially cutting off that route. And after all, it could turn out that it’s a completely known effect and that the device may appear to be over 100% coefficient but is really 90% and that the detected energy cannot be harnessed.

Who knows? Regardless of what happens, I’ve signed up for the results. As have 57,682 others.