Contains records documenting the research and supposed success of achieving cold fusion, or piezonuclear fusion, at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. Also includes records on the ensuing patent controversy and the news coverage of the failure of the research results to hold up in the scientific community. Includes correspondence, research notebook copies, journal articles, news clippings, audiotapes of the press conferences, and meeting notes on patent views, 1985-1989.

Contains slides and photographs by Thorne documenting her work as a plant curator and botanist at Brigham Young University. Includes images of plants in Utah and the West, and of the Bean Museum, as well as from field trips to Los Alamos, New Mexico, Costa Rica, Kauai, and other unidentified locations. Materials dated approximately 1965-1993.