Burning Water. Sounds like a Merceds Lackey novel.
AP carries a story of a guy making salt water burn.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iT1KAi6UEPN8LqZlvLnfsxP7ToKw
This sounds legit. The cancer researcher used a radio frequency device to try to desalinate water. It sounds like it did too well - separating the hydrogen from the rest, allowing the hydrogen to burn, as long as the RF energy was present.
From what I remember of Junior High science, the common way to get hydrogen from water is electrolysis. You also get oxygen. Now if RF energy can be used to perform part or all of the separation of elements from the H2O compound we call ‘water’, there are a few things that come to mind.
1) Basic research. This has implications on how electrolysis separates the hydrogen. We might be able to achieve electrolysis with less energy expended, we might find new insights into what actually happens in chemical bonds, and in compounds, ions and their combinations and separations.
2) If blood acts much like salt water in some ways, then hopefully this mean we can tear the pieces of blood out, leading to blood treatment improvements from dialysis and viral and parasite removal, to new treatments not available today.
3) Again, if blood is similar to salt water, maybe we just got closer to a blaster ray gun. Ka-Blooie!
4) There may be implications here, for a water (separated hydrogen) burning vehicle or power plant, to water purification, to new welding and construction practices.
Heck, this gadget may replace the ozone in the atmosphere.