Scientists put the Sun in our pockets

[Guest]

UK Telegraph

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By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

(Filed: 28/04/2005)

A pocket-sized device which can harness fusion, the energy source of the Sun, with the help of crystals no bigger than a sugar cube has been developed by scientists.

The "pocket fusion" device, described today in the journal Nature, raises new possibilities in fields as diverse as space propulsion, medical diagnostics, cancer treatment and the hunt for concealed weapons.

Scientists have struggled for decades to ape what happens in the Sun and harness huge temperatures to fuse atoms for energy generation - potentially a cleaner alternative to the present nuclear-fission reactors. But they have so far been unsuccessful at turning this into an economically viable process.

Now Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, a professor from Glasgow, and Prof Seth Putterman of the University of California, Los Angeles describe a breathtakingly simple way to fuse atoms with the help of a crystal.

Mr Naranjo joked that the advance "seems like magic" and that he now understands why the starship Enterprise, in the television programme Star Trek, was powered by "dilithium crystals".

Prof Putterman wanted to call the technique "crystallic fusion" but discovered, on holiday with his children, that Buzz Lightyear uses the phrase in Toy Story when he declares: "Are you guys still using fossil fuel - haven't you discovered crystallic fusion power yet?"

Although pocket fusion already looks more convincing than earlier controversial claims about cold fusion and bubble fusion, the team is unsure how to turn it into the limitless source of energy that has been promised by so many scientists for so long.

They fused atoms of deuterium - heavy hydrogen - using a pyroelectric crystal to generate a beam of charged particles - deuterium ions - to bombard a deuterium target.

"These crystals were discovered 2,000 years ago by the Ancient Greeks," said Mr Naranjo.

"It is the electrical analogue of a permanent magnet and if you heat or cool it you can build up a very large charge and very large electric field."

With gentle warming, even by hand, researchers concentrated the field made by the crystal at the tip of a connected tungsten needle.

The neutron emission is 400 times stronger than the usual background level.

"We are getting about 1,000 neutrons a second," said Mr Naranjo. "The amazing thing is that we are heating a crystal to 25C and getting this very large fusion signal with no external power supplies.

"It is just a crystal with a needle. The simplicity is striking."

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This is just cool for words if true...

This would make EVERYTHING else obsolete, and I mean EVERY energy source....

[Charles Lindsey]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7654627/

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The reaction gave off an isotope of helium along with subatomic particles known as neutrons, a characteristic of fusion. The experiment did not, however, produce more energy than the amount put in ÔÇö an achievement that would be a huge breakthrough.

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Still, it's very interesting.

[Cruis.In]

sometimes makes me wonder if gene rodenberry was thrown into the past from our future...and decided to make a living telling his real life story on star trek...

[Captain McMahon]

Man, looks like my battlecruiser may need a upgrade to use these new minerals.

[Guest]

well maybe for once women can wear a crystal thats useful for a change