Science Nerds Assemble
- Thread starter ChroniC
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Because you'll get more out with fusion than with any other technology that we currently use.
Not sure I understand your question, but fusion takes advantage of releasing the binding energy within a nucleus when it is combined with another to create a larger nucleus with a lower total binding energy than the two individual nuclei. This is true for nuclei smaller than iron and the opposite is true for anything larger ie fission releases binding energy when large atom splits into two. You do not get anything for nothing as after fusion you are left with a new atom and to split it again would require the same amount of energy as you just took out.
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Shock news!! Scientists also die! Some are even murdered!
For heaven's sake - do you know how many 1000s of scientists and engineers are working on battery technology, and how the technology has leaped exponentially over the last few decades??! But one scientist dies and that's fuel for idiotic conspiracy theories of murder and supression of technology. Good grief
Conspiracy nuts never actually give a convincing reason for exactly why evil governments and oil companies would actually want to do this in the first place. I mean seriously - any company would want free energy generating machines. Shell would stop drilling tomorrow if they could just have plants full of magnets and swinging pendulums generating free energy for them to sell to the public. Murdering/kidnapping for the purposes of acquiring such technology for their exclusive use is half understandable - wouldn't put it past some governments. But simply to silence inventors and supress such technology? Why would they do that - think about it. The lack of vast plants generating free energy only to sell it to the public is confirmation enough for me that the evil establishment aren't hiding any juicy tech
Soldato
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Just wondering on fusion front.... how do they get the electrical output?
With fission the released particles from fission energise hydrogen atoms in the water molecules to increase its temperature and that then is used in a steam generators to create steam for a turbine.
same as fission - they heat water to steam to drive turbines.
You can't at the moment. That's why it's still in development rather than in widespread use as the main way to generate electricity. At the moment, fusion isn't good other than in a star. In the future, it very probably will be. It's possible on paper and scientists are getting closer to working out how to do it in practice. Rather suprisingly for such a massive project, European fusion research is still pretty much on schedule after nearly 40 years. The next experimental facility built should get a net gain - ITER is expected to have a peak output power 10 times as high as the input power.
Fusion outside of a star isn't easy (the serious research started ~1970 and nobody is expecting a practical power station much before 2050), but it's feasible and if achieved it will be a real game-changer.
What about the thousands of other researchers who are working on much better batteries and who aren't dead? Are the Secret Conspirators too busy partying with the aliens to have noticed them?
I'm not surprised that a few scientists and engineers working have in energy-related areas have died suddenly. I'm not even surprised that a handful have been murdered. There are many scientists and engineers working in energy-related areas. It's not surprising that a few will have heart attacks or strokes and one or two will be murdered - that would be true for any similarly large number of people.
The underlying problem with your conspiracy story is that, as has been pointed out already, it makes no sense. Even if there was a capitalist conspiracy so secret and so powerful that it could kill people at will without any fear of the consequences, there's no motive.
Let's say that I somehow uncover something that enables me to make a battery that has a charge to weight ratio 20 times as high as Li-ion, which doesn't use any rare materials, which has very little environmental impact during manufacturing, which is recyclable and which can go through many charge/discharge cycles with very little loss of maximum charge.
I could print a list of major companies, regardless of what business they are in, close my eyes, spin round, poke a finger at the list at random and be guaranteed to find a company that would pay huge sums of money for my invention because they'd make even more money from being the first to market with it. Companies aren't pouring billions into battery research because they're bored and need to get rid of the money somehow.
With electricity generation, I could accept the possibility of a political conspiracy if there was any evidence for one, since a really radical new method would have global political effects. But a capitalist conspiracy is obvious nonsense - they'd profit from it, not murder to suppress it. There's no evidence and it makes no sense - it's not in the slightest bit plausible.
I dont know if it would work because even a 100% empty space vacuum still has energy in it, quantum energy that we dont understand yet. Basically particles popping in and out of existence. Although the affect of it on the machine might not manifest for millions of years.