[extropy-chat] A ROOM-TEMPERATURE PALM-SIZED NUCLEAR FUSION DEVICE

[Adrian Tymes]

--- John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:
> One thing that impressed me about this cheap simple little gadget is
> that it
> could produce electrical fields as high as 25 volts per nanometer.
> That's
> HUGE! With something like that you might be able to make a particle
> accelerator that would fit on a desk that's as powerful as one of
> today's
> machines that cost many billions and is the size of a small country.

Now, see, this is why we focus on what it does do rather than trying
to palm it off as doing what it can't.  Example: I recall another
discussion in the not too distant past (though it might have been on
another list), about how one could possibly slightly improve (make
lighter per KW output) nuclear fission reactors as used to power ships
of the sea, then use them to power particle accelerator engines to get
very low fuel fraction Earth-to-orbit rockets, which should hopefully
be cheaper because most of their mass is reusable.  Problem is - or
maybe now, *was* - that particle accelerators cost many billions and
are about the size and mass of a good sized town.