Friday, February 22, 2013 - 3:22pm
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, the same crew responsible for the original stealth fighter, say they'll have a trailer-sized fusion reactor running by 2017.
fusion stories
Friday, February 15, 2013 - 1:10pm
It's got the look down. Very soon, it could add sound and smoke, too.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - 5:02pm
The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California is home to the most powerful laser on the planet. It was intended to be developed into humanity's first break-even fusion generator, but it hasn't happened yet, and the new plan is to slow down the pace of fusion research. Again.
Thursday, November 8, 2012 - 3:06pm
We know, the fact that the largest and most powerful laser in the world is now being used for weapons research might not, at first glance, sound like a bad thing. But it is, for two reasons: first, this laser used to be trying to figure out how to make fusion happen, and second, the weapons research does not involve turning it into a laser cannon.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - 12:20pm
Hear that, Star Trek? Technology is catching up! The University of Alabama's Aerophysics Research Center, NASA, Boeing, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory are all getting together to develop an "impulse engine" that's powered in part by "dilithium crystals."
Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 11:17am
Back in March, we posted about how this could be the year where the National Ignition Facility breaks even with laser fusion, reaching the point where as much power is generated as is input. This doesn't mean we've got a fusion power plant around the corner, though, and researchers have come clean about what the hold-up is.
Friday, March 9, 2012 - 3:47pm
Fusion is the way our sun powers itself. It's clean, it's efficient, and all you need is hydrogen, which we've got a bunch of stashed away in the ocean. We've been having trouble making fusion happen here on Earth, because we don't have any suns lying around to do it for us, but this could be the year where we make it happen, efficiently, with giant lasers.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 - 2:22pm
We're still not totally sold on the technology behind the E-Cat dirt cheap eco-friendly fully operational household cold fusion thing, mostly because things that seem too good to be true usually turn out to be exactly that way. But whether we believe it or not, household systems reportedly may be available in Home Depot later this year.
Monday, October 31, 2011 - 10:30am
On Friday, we told you about a potentially revolutionary new technology that was about to undergo its first trial in Italy: called the E-Cat, it supposedly combines hydrogen and nickel using a catalyst to generate heat (and electricity) without any radiation or carbon emissions. So, has society been revolutionized over the weekend? Not quite.
Friday, October 28, 2011 - 4:17pm
Today in Italy, a new energy technology called the E-Cat is undergoing its first independent test of energy output. The E-Cat supposedly uses low-energy nuclear reactions to produce massive amounts of cheap and clean power, and if it works, it could completely revolutionize our entire society. If it works.
