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(Image source: iStock) It may prove to be as historic as the harnessing of fire, invention of the wheel, or the channeling of electricity. It will certainly rank on a par with the first release of nuclear energy in an experimental Chicago reactor or its first test as an atomic weapon near Los Alamos, New Mexico. It is the first successful experiment to extract power from what scientists often describe as “cold fusion.” It may take a decade or more to convert their successful experiment into commercially available power, but what it offers is an inexhaustible, readily available source of clean energy that eliminates pollution, greenhouse gases, or radioactive waste from the current generation of nuclear reactors. In short, it has the means to be as powerful and transformative than… Source link

It is a thought as old as human existence. It is as old as the first time a sentient being looked up at the sky and realised the great glowing thing in the sky above was what gave the Earth its warmth and light throughout the day. How could they capture some of it? And, could they find something like it right here on Earth for themselves?  Speculations such as those have triggered humanity’s myths and legends — as well as its scientific explorations. In one of his most lyrical short stories, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Ray Bradbury, the renowned 20th-century speculative fiction author, described a rocket expedition from Earth whose mission was to skim right across the surface of the sun to scoop up a cargo of the sun’s actual material — the very hydrogen being fused into… Source link

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Podcast by CAPITOL WEEKLY STAFF posted 12.19.2022 CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: Proposition 30, the ambitious plan to combat wildfires and fund EV infrastructure throughout the state by taxing California’s wealthiest citizens failed at the ballot box in November. Early polls found broad support for the measure, but a strong opposition campaign led by Gov. Newsom and the CTA turned the tide and ultimately derailed the measure. We spoke with Bill Magavern, Policy Director of the Coalition for Clean Air, and an author of Prop. 30, about efforts to combat pollution and climate change in the wake of Proposition 30’s defeat. Show Notes: :26 Prop. 30 – what happened? 4:18 “What really cost us the initiative… Source link

Workers in protective gear gather for their duties in Beijing, November 2022. Photo: AP/Andy Wong Last week’s item on dismal attendances at signing sessions, even by famous authors, reminds me of one woman who attracted enormous crowds. It was at the Merry Hill shopping centre, Dudley, in 1999 and the (then) most famous woman in the world was signing her autobiography at the rate of 500 an hour. “She says she’s getting wrist-ache,” said one lady in the queue. “Makes a change from housemaid’s knee,” sniggered another. No media interviews were allowed so I adopted a cunning plan, disguising myself as a member of the public to speak with a woman who brought down the most powerful man in the world. Her book may not have been the greatest political memoir ever written but on that… Source link

What is the fastest-moving object on Earth? Certainly not the traffic on the A34 north of Oxford, but the answer lies not far away. In a small chamber in an anonymous building on an industrial estate outside the city there is a machine that regularly fires small aluminium pellets, about the size of a postage stamp, at speeds of 20km per second (45,000mph). It is the headquarters and laboratory of First Light Fusion, one of a number of companies and organisations that are trying to harness commercial power from nuclear fusion – potentially a far cleaner and safer form of generating nuclear power than our existing nuclear fission power stations.    There is little of the feel of a nuclear power station as Nick Hawker, CEO and co-founder of First Light Fusion, shows me around the… Source link

Though I’m of the opinion that we have reached “peak woke,” I’m less sure that we’ll be rid of woke anytime soon. I read an op-ed a few days ago that speculated on a coming period of “plateau woke.” That might be just about right. “Woke,” as you know, is a term used to describe a veritable cornucopia of progressive chicanery: overreaching diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, disregard for public safety, reparations, “decolonizing” various academic fields, environmental hysteria and support for various ”identity” movements. Source link

News this week of a historic fusion reaction that produced more energy than was used to ignite it could move the world one step closer to a power source that doesn’t create radioactive waste as a byproduct. This is a major advancement in the long, complicated history of nuclear energy — which has been used to create electricity but also weapons. During World War II, the United States became concerned that Nazi scientists were close to creating an atomic bomb. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein issued an alert to then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory,” Einstein wrote. U.S. scientists and government officials… Source link

This is an opinion editorial by Will Szamosszegi, founder and CEO of bitcoin mining hosting service Sazmining. Money and energy are two of the most fundamental aspects of an economy because both are universal. Energy is required to transform raw materials into final consumer goods and services. Money is required to store wealth, calculate revenue and losses and trade for goods and services that you couldn’t acquire through barter. Although Bitcoin drastically improves humanity’s relationship with both energy and money, the problems that plague both energy and money are likely to survive a Bitcoin standard, even if they become lesser in severity. With respect to energy, government regulations, subsidies and bans will continue to have sway. With respect to money, governments will, in all… Source link

There’s been a nuclear fusion breakthrough as significant as “man landing on the moon”. Photo: Shutterstock Enervated Australian scientists are already flagging the prospects for development of a major new domestic industry after US physicists announced they had achieved the “holy grail of physics” by successfully producing surplus energy from a nuclear fusion reaction. The experiment, conducted within the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, used strong ultraviolet lasers to heat a fuel capsule filled with deuterium and tritium so much that it imploded. This increased the pressure and temperature inside the capsule, forcing the deuterium and tritium in the capsule – each a slightly different form… Source link