It is argued that the conventional view of the Gibbs free energy apparently contravenes the first law of thermodynamics because of the temperature dependence of the entropy term therein. Thus, the yield of the Gibbs free energy in a system undergoing change is not constant, hence implying that energy is being created or destroyed in the process. The ambiguity can be traced to the entropy concept of the original Carnot theorem, which is manifestly dubious and illusory, as argued previously. Unrelatedly, the nuclear fusion controversy is explored in terms of chemical potential changes, arguing that fusion would be viable—if at all—in a closed equilibrium reactor: in the absence of this constraint, fusion runs afoul of mass-energy equivalence. (This also has devastating implications for the stability of the material universe.) It is also most intriguing that nuclear fusion was initially proposed as the origin of solar energy, and appears to have predated the theory of nuclear structure.