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I'll never understand being able to kill someone in a humane way(through acts of war). You're killing someone.
humane (hjuːˈmeɪn) 2. inflicting as little pain as possible: a humane killing.
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I'll never understand being able to kill someone in a humane way(through acts of war). You're killing someone.
It's like humane slaughter of animals for food - there are ways that don't cause unnecessary pain, others that do.
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I'll never understand being able to kill someone in a humane way(through acts of war). You're killing someone.
I won't deny it's complicated, but there's more to thinking about how we conduct war than just the proximal individual act of killing. Two cultures that, for instance, respect military vs. civilian distinctions may war with each other with much less total damage than two cultures that practice Total War, even if the political outcome is the same in the end. Just because war is bad does not mean we are forced to throw…
What's the plasma configuration of the machine? I think there's a research group at U of Washington working on merging spheromaks which create a field reversed configuration. Is this a spinoff of that group? edit: looks like it is - this is the group: https://www.aa.washington.edu/research/plasmaDynamics/phdx.h...
Yes! Prof. John Slough is the Chief Scientist at Helion and the inventor of the Fusion Engine. UW has been leading the field of 'alternates' fusion for decades. Our 'About Us' page has a short blurb: http://www.helionenergy.com/
Fusion works particularly well for stars because of gravity. We're trying to use magnets to contain superheated plasma.
The Sun generates less energy on a kg-for-kg basis that compost [1]. And it has gravity to contain the byproducts (other than energy).
But the real problem is neutrons. To start a fusion reaction with a small amount of matter we use heavy isotopes of hydrogen (specifically deuterium = 1 neutron, tritium = radioactive isotope with 2 neutrons). The fusing material releases neutrons that damage the containing reactor.
This is using the most "promising" deuterium-tritium reaction.
Alternatives are suggesting using He3. Unfortunately that's super-rare, which kinda defeats the point of "free" energy.
I remain skeptical but hoping to be proven wrong.
[1]: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.ht...
is this the equivalent of throwing shit at the wall and see what sticks? why do vcs with a specialty in software suddenly stray into completely unknown territory? nothing left to fund in software? rarely does this end well.
From the point of view of a fusion startup, if you try 100 software VCs, you might find 2 or 3 who will be interested. However, you will wait forever if you want to find a VC specializing in fusion.
Safe: With no possibility of melt-down, or hazardous nuclear waste, fusion dose not suffer the drawbacks that make fission an unattractive alternative. Eyeroll. D-He3 fusion produces less neutron flux than D-T, but it's hardly aneutronic-- otherwise they couldn't breed He3 from it. After a decade, the whole reactor will be nuclear waste. I wonder what the service interval on an installed reactor will be? Or are they…
>D-He3 fusion produces less neutron flux than D-T, but it's hardly aneutronic-- otherwise they couldn't breed 3He from it. You can't "breed" 3He; you have to breed tritium, which decays to He3 with a half-life of 12 years. D-3He reactors do produce some neutrons, roughly 1% of the flux of D-T, and almost entirely from D-D side-reactions. Actually, a big problem with D-3He as of today is the lack of neutrons -- since…
Just throw chunks of Californium 252 at it ;-)
(That is one of the most expensive practical materials on earth, probably hundreds of dollars per microgram)
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humane (hjuːˈmeɪn) 2. inflicting as little pain as possible: a humane killing.
which dictionary did you pull this from? I see "characterized by tenderness, compassion, and sympathy for people and animals, especially for the suffering or distressed"
I pulled it from http://thefreedictionary.com/humane which cites 'Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'.
Suffering and harm are distinct things, and being humane is about the former.
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Regardless of everyone's feelings on whether weapons research is or isn't a good idea, this strikes me as a grossly unlikely application. The problem with direct-fire weapons is not something like "bullets don't do enough damage." It's aiming and range and so forth. A plasma weapon seems unlikely to have good range or good aiming, and if it does not come with a fusion reactor alongside it, it's also kind of hard to s…
Rather than a literal plasma gun, I think they were just saying the risk is that the team will pivot into weapons research. But no one has thus far explained why weapons research would be anything but a positive thing. Yes, using weapons is unfortunate. The decision to ever use a weapon should be made with the utmost discretion. But when it comes time to use a weapon, it seems hard to argue against having the most ef…
For that kind of money they could've just kickstarted it.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-fusion-empowerthewo...