First, the Rubik's cube makes a comeback, and now there's another '80s pop icon back on the map: cold fusion.

Cold fusion -- which essentially involves conduction nuclear transformations at room temperatures on table tops -- was heralded with great fanfare twenty years ago after a report from the University of Utah, but the difficulty of getting reproducible results seem to relegate it to obscurity and infeasibility. Sort of like the dream of nuclear powered airplanes, or rockets that would be powered by nuclear bombs.

"We can yield the power of nuclear physics on a tabletop. The potential is unlimited. That is the most powerful energy source known to man," researcher Michael McKubre from SRI International told 60 Minutes. "The potential is for an energy source that would run your car for three, four years, for example. And you'd take it in for service every four years and they'd give you a new power supply."

The idea is that you could dunk palladium into water infused with the hydrogen isotope deuterium and apply an electric current. Voila, you'd have an electric battery.

Wacky, yes, but it might work. Besides, the potential benefits are huge. Still, expect lots of skepticism.

Nuclear, of course, is making a comeback. Several national labs and a few startups like Tri-Alpha Energy are working on nuclear fusion, which could lead to safe power plants. TerraPower, out of think tank Intellectual Ventures, meanwhile, is building portable nuclear fission reactors.