But some researchers, including the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, still believe that low-energy nuclear reactions have a future as a power source.

The ring of secret nuclear power stations around the Arctic circle, attached to giant immersion heaters, remains undetected, as do the space-based lasers dissolving the world's glaciers.

Nash's faith in rationality and the power of pure thought was extreme, even for a very young mathematician and even for the new age of computers, space travel, and nuclear weapons.