Weideman Bill - Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the

Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...75

Table of Contents

ALSO BY CHARLES SEIFE

Decoding the Universe

Alpha & Omega

Zero

VIKING
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin
Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R
0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin
Books Ltd) Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124,
Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd,
11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ),
67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand
Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg
2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in 2008 by Viking Penguin,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Charles Seife, 2008

All rights reserved

Insert illustration credits
Page 1 (two images), 4 (top), 6 (top left and bottom): United States Department of Energy
2 (left), 3, 6 (top right): Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 2 (right): DigitalGlobe
4 (bottom): Federation of American Scientists 5 (top and bottom left): AP/Wide World
Photos 5 (bottom right): Lynn Freeny/United States Department of Energy 7: ITER
8: Randy Montoya

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Seife, Charles.
Sun in a bottle : the strange history of fusion and the science of
wishful thinking / Charles Seife.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-670-02033-1

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

INTRODUCTION

Circe warned me to shun the island of the blessed sun-god, for it was here, she said, that our worst danger would lie.

THE ODYSSEY, TRANSLATED BY SAMUEL BUTLER

The dream is as ancient as humanity: unlimited power. It has driven generation after generation of scientists to the brink of insanity.

In 1905, after centuries of attempts to build perpetual motion machines, scientists discovered an essentially limitless source of energy. With his famous equation, E = mc2, Albert Einstein discovered that a minuscule chunk of mass could, theoretically, be converted into an enormous amount of energy. Indeed, E = mc 2 is the equation that describes why the sun shines; at its core, the sun is constantly converting matter to energy in a reaction known as fusion. If scientists could do the same thing on Earthif they could convert matter into energy with a controlled fusion reactionscientists could satisfy humanitys energy needs until the end of time.

For the past half century, legions of physicists have been trying desperately to create a tiny sun in a bottle, trying to bring the stellar power of fusion to Earth. The quest for fusion is the story of scientists weaving an increasingly tangled web of secret, crazy, and brilliant schemes to harness the power of the sun. They are caught up in a complex tale that includes classified government experiments, billion-dollar scientific projects, and byzantine conspiracy theories. The quest for fusion is a tale of genius physicists who have changed the world foreverfor better and for worseand of secret-spilling whistleblowers, jealous researchers, brilliant tinkerers, and backstabbing politicians.

The stakes are enormousand they are getting higher by the day. The worlds supply of oil is no longer assured to meet humanitys energy needs; worse yet, the threat of global warming is forcing governments to find sources of power other than fossil fuels. In the long term, fusion is the only option. Humanity will suffer if researchers dont solve its problems.

Scientists have broken under the pressure. Others have been forced to make a heartwrenching decision to give up their dreams and disavow their work or to be driven from the fold of mainstream science. Over and over again, the dream of fusion energy has driven scientists to lie, to break their promises, and to deceive their peers. Fusion can bring even the best physicists to the brink of the abyss. Not all of them return.

CHAPTER 1

THE SWORD OF MICHAEL

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

EXODUS 13:22

The fires were still burning over Hiroshima, the charred and faceless victims were still slouching toward Asano Park, when President Harry S. Truman told the world about a new weapon. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East, the announcement read. Mankind had unleashed unheard-of energy from deep within the atom and used it to destroy a city.

From the very beginning of the atomic age, Americans were enthralled and frightened by the prospect of this inconceivable power. By splitting uranium and plutonium atoms, scientists had made a weapon by using the very same principle that made the sun shine: E = mc 2.

The scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, the super-secret program to build the first atom bomb, looked back on their achievement with a mix of awe and horror. To J. Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Manhattan Project, the atom bomb represented a loss of innocence, a fall from grace that could mark the end of civilization. Others, however, such as the Manhattan Project physicist Edward Teller, saw that the atom bomb was just the beginning of a nuclear arms race. And just over the horizon, Teller realized, was a much greater weapon than even the atom bomb, one thousands of times more powerful.

This new weapon, the Super, would unleash a power not yet seen on Earth: fusion. Instead of breaking atoms apart to release energy (fission), the superbomb would stick them together ( fusion) and release even more. While this might seem to be a subtle difference, fusion, unlike fission, had the potential to produce weapons of truly unlimited power. A single Super would be able to wipe out even the largest citya task far beyond even the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A fusion bomb would be the ultimate weapon.

It would also split the scientific community in two and would drive humanity to the brink of ruin. The quest to unleash the power of the sun upon the Earth had an inauspicious start, to say the least.

Next page

1234567...75

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the»

Look at similar books to Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

L. J. Reinders

Sun in a Bottle?... Pie in the Sky!: The Wishful Thinking of Nuclear Fusion Energy

Sharon Ann Holgate

Nuclear Fusion

McCracken Garry

Fusion: the Energy of the Universe

Derry

What science is and how it works

Clynes Tom

The boy who played with fusion: extreme science, extreme parenting, and how to make a star

Jason Parisi

The Future of Fusion Energy (Popular Science)

Dagogo Altraide

Cold Fusion Presents: New Thinking: From Einstein to Artificial Intelligence, the Science and Technology that Transformed Our World

Antony C. Sutton

Cold Fusion - The Secret Energy Revolution

Frank Znidarsic PE

Energy, Cold Fusion, and Antigravity (Znidarsic Science Books)

Finley Eversole

Infinite Energy Technologies: Tesla, Cold Fusion, Antigravity, and the Future of Sustainability

Nell Benton

Ramen Fusion Cookbook

Charles Seife

Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

Discussion, reviews of the book Sun in a bottle: the strange history of fusion and the science of wishful thinking: The Strange History of Fusion and the and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.