641–650 of 827 posts
I am a strong proponent of Fusion energy and did some work on the subject in undergrad. This is not a major breakthrough, it's a benchmark. A major breakthrough would be materials that could withstand the neutron bombardment longer, the ultimate limiting factor for fusion energy plants after we achieve positive net energy.
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That's enough energy to boil those kettles dry, if my calculations are correct. To bring them to the boil, 59MJ would run about 600 kettles.
Water has a specific heat capacity of 4184J/kg/C. Lets say to get to the boil you need to go from 20C to 100C and that a kettle holds 1.75L. 59MJ / (80C * 4184J/kg/C) = 176kg ~= 176L ~= 100 kettles. Water has a latent heat of vaporization of 2260 kJ/kg. So to boil it dry: 59MJ / (80C * 4184J/kg/C + 2260 kJ/kg) = 22kg ~= 22L ~= 12 kettles. I have no idea what the journalist calculated.
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Even that is optimistic; they don't expect any net production of energy before 2055, and I doubt there's any guarantee that that will work, because if there was, they'd be trying that right now.
This was a test to validate what will happen with ITER. ITER will really only start, by their own planning, that has been consistently delayed, only in 2035. They will start in 2025, then will stop for a few years then will really only start in 2035. ITER is a scientific experiment not the first commercial prototype. Assuming it succeeds you are looking at a procurement and construction process of 20 years for the fi…
Fusion research is still very interesting, but honestly it's starting to feel more like an expensive hobby by now. It certainly shouldn't take precedence over more attainable and faster solutions.
I am a strong proponent of Fusion energy and did some work on the subject in undergrad. This is not a major breakthrough, it's a benchmark. A major breakthrough would be materials that could withstand the neutron bombardment longer, the ultimate limiting factor for fusion energy plants after we achieve positive net energy.
You won't be able to have a serious conversation about the pros and cons of fusion power because any serious conversation will always be trampling on people's dreams.
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The newer F150 also weighs more. Also, if it didn't have to make twice the power, it would probably get 40mpg today. ICE engines have advanced a lot in 20 years, especially in terms of cost per HP/MPG.
I don't understand why they can't just build a basic pickup truck any more. We had an old pre-fuel injected pickup. It had a bigger bed than the current truck, and seated six instead of five. It got 33% more miles to the gallon. The new one's transmission likes to overheat, even when not towing. Seriously, wtf?
I have a 2015 Colorado with a 6 speed manual, long bed, 4.10 read end, and the 2.5L 200Hp four cylinder. Probably as basic as you can get, and nobody buys them, because for like 2k more you can get a v6 and fancy electronics.
Tows 4k lb trailer fairly fine...
I am a strong proponent of Fusion energy and did some work on the subject in undergrad. This is not a major breakthrough, it's a benchmark. A major breakthrough would be materials that could withstand the neutron bombardment longer, the ultimate limiting factor for fusion energy plants after we achieve positive net energy.
I hope it will be possible some day, but it's not going to help with out energy needs in our lifetime. (Unless that longevity research is going to pay off, I guess.)
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I read Paul Allen’s biography. There it seemed Gates could be (quite) a bit of a jerk. However, this thing about shares isn’t mentioned. And was Gates removed from the board of Microsoft? Where did you get that information?
Seriously? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/30/microsoft... He "left" the board, which is the equivalent of "You can't fire me, I quit". He was removed. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/17/bill-gates-m...
Hopefully the current crop of VC funded fusion projects can improve the tech a little faster than this.
I am a strong proponent of Fusion energy and did some work on the subject in undergrad. This is not a major breakthrough, it's a benchmark. A major breakthrough would be materials that could withstand the neutron bombardment longer, the ultimate limiting factor for fusion energy plants after we achieve positive net energy.
You will find, especially after reading the comments, that fusion is not about creating electricity (it never will), it is about sparking people's imagination. Many people grew up reading science fiction and there is seriously nothing it the last 50 years that comes close to the amazing breakthroughs in the physical world that happened in the 50 years before that. The idea of fusion is the best thing going right now.…
Fortunately we've seen tons of progress in other fields: computing, quantum computing, solar energy, medical, gene therapy. Even superconductors are slowly getting better.
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But if the first spaceship was never developed, would the second spaceship have been?
Sure because you develop technology while working on achievable goals. As an example, what could someone in 1920 do to help develop fusion power? Pretty much nothing that would be practically useful today. But they had stuff they could achieve which laid the groundwork to what we're doing today.
There are technologies, materials, and methods we've developed, tested, and perfected because of some specific need. I mean, how much of the internet do we have today as a result of CERN having to store and share vast amounts of data and information?
Sure, you can say /eventually/ we would've come up with alternatives. But a lot of the internet and technology in the 90s came as a direct result of CERN doing practical things. How would we know we'd need solid state drives today if we didn't develop a need for hard drives? The same can be said of NASA, the space shuttle, the Hubble telescope, etc.
Going back to CERN, maybe it would've been better to wait for the Superconducting Super Collider because it was going to be more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider. But so far only one of these particle accelerators has detected the Higgs boson.