Wonder how long this is going to be “just around the corner”?
Scientists say they have achieved small-scale nuclear fusion in a tabletop experiment, using tried and true techniques that are expected to generate far less controversy than past such claims.
This latest experiment relied on a tiny crystal to generate a strong electric field. While the energy created was too small to harness cheap fusion power, the technique could have potential uses in medicine, spacecraft propulsion, the oil drilling industry and homeland security, said Seth Putterman, a physicist at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Putterman and his colleagues at UCLA, Brian Naranjo and Jim Gimzewski, report their results in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
Verrry Interesting…
It looks like this one might actually work. There are some encouraging signs in the way this research is being reported.
From this New York Times article :
By contrast with the earlier claims, the U.C.L.A. researchers do not assert that their invention will provide unlimited energy. “What we’ve built so far,” Dr. Putterman said, “no chance.”
One thing I’ve found interesting in what I’ve read so far:
Would it scale?
They’ve discovered the Farnsworth fusor !
ouryL
April 29, 2005, 4:35am
4
WOW!! :eek:
When did Nature become a peer reviewed journal? :dubious: