Surely it ought to be possible, then, to do this with a far simpler mechanism?

How does it work
The ORBO technology works by exploiting the magnetic fields of magnets. Not ordinary magnets, but powerful rare earth magnets

made of a substance called Neodymium. Steorn have found a way to move from one point in a magnetic field and back to the same point

again, but with a net gain in energy. Magnetic “lag” effect seems to play an integral part of this process. Lag time allows you to “sneak up”

on the magnet with little or no repulsion, then once the domains align – be pushed away with greater force resulting in an overall net gain.

A clear violation of the principle of The Conservation Of Energy CoE. The foundation of modern physics.

The worst thing about it is that their limited understanding of physics is detracting from the fact that they have developed a genuine method of extracting, albeit tiny quantities of energy from the earth’s magnetic field.

The core error they make is in the phrase “…and back to the same point”. What actually seems to happen is that the apparatus moves through the earth’s magnetic field as the planet rotates and so converts the flux through the loop into energy.

It seems from their site that they realise that the technology is not really useful and prefer to try the pyramid-selling-based-on-credulity model.

Do they mean top notch physicists, or just unknown people with actual letters after their names? How many Nobel laureates have signed up for distributorships?

To nick a phrase from Brad DeLong, “Why oh why can’t we have a better press corps?”

It’s the zero point energy claims that cause the problems because the cosmologists are vague enough on several points that you can’t outright say that getting energy from space is impossible.