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I guess that's what happens when you set out on a path that requires billions of dollars from dozens of countries — just to light a match. Construction at the site of ITER — the multibillion-euro project to prove controlled nuclear fusion — has been at a standstill since April, Nature has learned. The stoppage […]

Hey kid, that's MY phrase.  I started using it in like 1975.  Get you're own clever phrase (just kidding…I think…).  Eric Foss, a junior at Kentwood High School, won the second place grand award and $1,500 in the physics and astronomy category for his project titled “Star in a Jar” at the 2009 INTEL International

Well, sure, I guess, compared to the $14-billion they're going to blow on ITER, a mere $37-million sounds like chump change. More specifically, General Fusion plans to make a metal sphere reactor that spins a liquid mixture of lithium and lead to create a vortex inside the sphere. Two spheromaks, or plasma rings kept together

First it was Doc Oc gone bizarro in whichever Spiderman sequel that was.  Now it's the indie film "Moon:" It is the near future and Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), a sort of corporate engineer/astronaut is nearing the end of a grueling three-year stint as the sole manager of a space station on the far side

That’s what Philo T. Farnsworth said to his wife as they sat in their living room on July 20, 1969, and watched Neil Armstrong take “one giant leap for mankind.”  Watched.  Because of the thing that he invented 40+ years earlier.  It’s been said before, but bears repeating: amazing as the moon landing / walk

This time it's fusor.net regular Frank Sans featured featured in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review In the ordinary-looking garage of a home outside Pittsburgh, Frank Sanns is creating the power of the sun, with his "Pillar of Fire." Moving between pieces equipment on a work bench and the floor, Sanns adjusts knobs and turns valves, while a

I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m recording episodes of a new SciFi (now “Syfy Network”) Channel Series called “Warehouse 13.”  It’s an action-adventure thing essentially constructed around the concept of the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. As described in to WIRED,the show is about… …a cavernous warehouse filled

As I was saying:  Fusion falters under soaring costs. Some scientists also believe that the technical hurdles to fusion have become more difficult to overcome and that the development of fusion as a commercial power source is still at least 100 years away. At a meeting in Japan on Wednesday, members of the governing Iter

This article originally appeared in the IEEE Spectrum back in March, 2009, but is only now available online: …. it’s pretty simple, according to Paul Schatzkin, who runs Fusor.net, a Web site where amateur ”fusioneers” congregate to swap equipment and advice: ”Find two stainless steel half-spheres, seal them together around a wire grid, suck the

Maybe the worst thing that ever happened in the annals of fusion research was the announcement of the discovery of “cold fusion” back in 1989. Now, whenever I mention the subject to somebody, invariably the answer is “oh, you mean ‘cold fusion’?  Well, no, that’s NOT what I mean.  Now CBS has breathed new life into