Recently, I happened to witness two hypes in scientific world. People tried to maintain the secrecy until the last moment, and blogs, news etc. were full of speculations.
First was about the discovery of the dark matter and it turned out to be a fiasco. You can find more details here. There was also a special meeting in Perimeter Institute that evening. Live telecast of the talk from SLAC was screened. All the physicists were sitting in the Bob room, holding their breath, hoping that they might witness one of the biggest breakthroughs of the century in next couple of minutes. Soon speaker started detailing their findings and more than half of the people left the room before the talk finished. I remember John Ellis from CERN stating in one of his lectures at 4th Asian Winter School in Particles, Strings and Cosmology: “12 percent confidence level? Bullshit!”
Second speculated (but less publicized) breakthrough comes from a company named Bloom Energy in Silicon Valley. The company is founded by Dr. K. R. Sridhar, an academician and entrepreneur of Indian origin. They have claimed to invent very efficient and environment friendly fuel cells that will revolutionize the energy industry. In one of his interviews, Dr. K. R. Sridhar has promoted his vision by saying that although the technology is currently expansive but it will improve over the period and follow the Moore’s Law. Anyways, i personally find his ideas very promising (here is a video). If investments are made, they might be able to improve the technology and provide a great alternative energy source.


