Physicists in Germany have used an experimental nuclear fusion device to produce hydrogen plasma in a process similar to what happens on the Sun. The test marks an important milestone on the road towards this super-futuristic source of cheap and clean nuclear energy.
The following excerpt is from The Boy Who Played with Fusion by Tom Clynes. The book, released today, tells the story of science prodigy Taylor Wilson, who by age 14 had built a 500-million-degree nuclear fusion reactor.
Life is dependent upon a lot of coincidences, but there’s only one that was so improbable that physicists laughed at the very idea of it. Here’s why something known as the “beryllium bottleneck” should have choked out all life before it even got started.
Nuclear fusion is the dream of energy scientists the world over, because it promises limitless, clean electricity. Most efforts to kickstart the process use high-intensity lasers, insane magnetic fields and super-hot hydrogen plasmas. But there may be a more humble alternative. It's called sonofusion, and it…
Technically savvy scientists and engineers have put much effort into conceiving far-future technologies that might make possible near- light-speed travel. You can learn a lot about their ideas by browsing the web. It will take many centuries for humans to make any of those ideas real, I think. But they do convince…
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin's announcement this week that it could make small-scale nuclear fusion power a reality in the next decade has understandably generated excitement in the media. Physicists, however, aren't getting their hopes up just yet.
At the onset of the atomic age, governments on both sides of the iron curtain sought to harness the power of nuclear fusion. Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey stood at the forefront of the American effort when, in 1953, they began using Stellarators—one of the earliest controlled…
Do you remember what your greatest accomplishment was at age 13? Well, it doesn't really matter either way, because whatever it was, Jamie Edwards—the tween scientist who's now the youngest person to ever carry out atomic fusion—just crushed it.
He chain smokes. He loves his guns. And he almost looks homeless. But he's actually pretty damn awesome. Meet Doug Coulter. A gunsmith who's also an amazing DIY engineer. So amazing that he's built a nuclear fusion reactor in his basement. Yup.
In order for fusion power plants to be feasible, they have to produce more energy than they consume. It's a challenge that's confounded scientists for years. But researchers at the National Ignition Facility just made it happen.
Nuclear fusion, the same process that powers the sun, could provide us with limitless cheap energy—but experiments to date have always used more power than they created. Now, though, researchers have apparently tipped that balance, making fusion a real possibility.
Scientists at UAHuntsville have proposed a scheme that could see a spacecraft propelled through space by using a pulsed nuclear fusion system. To do so, a series of "nuclear slapshots" would apply magnetic pulses in order to slam nuclei into each other inside a hockey puck like structure made of a special lightweight…
A new analysis suggests North Korea clandestinely tested two nuclear weapons in 2010. If it's true, it would double the number of known tests hailing from the country and could mean serious nuclear warhead development is underway.
Two physicists recently announced they had figured out the secrets of cold fusion, which is a low energy nuclear reaction that, if it exists, could solve the world's energy problems. But to call their story fishy is a massive understatement.
Yesterday, North Korea's official state media reported that the country had successfully carried out nuclear fusion, the holy grail of cheap, clean energy that has heretofore eluded every other scientist ever.
Nuclear fusion is a tricky business: the last thing you want is any of the residual radioactive isotopes leaking out from the reactor. So how might California's National Ignition Facility mitigate that possibility? By laser punching. Obviously.
It seems like we're constantly just around the corner from fusion power, and that soon it'll solve our energy woes. While we're not quite there yet, three new reports all indicate we're at least getting a little closer.
Vancouver-based startup General Fusion has been running around claiming they can build a nuclear fusion reactor in the next 10 years for under a billion dollars. And some anonymous futurists just gave them 9 million dollars for their troubles.
The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility is finally open for business. Housed in a 10 story building as wide as three football fields, it will aim 192 laser beams at a 2mm ball of frozen hydrogen gas to achieve nuclear fusion—in 2040.
