Billions of dollars have been squandered, decades wasted, careers devoted to a cause that even if successful would not be much better than nuclear fission, as radioactivity is generated in harmful amounts given the fuels used: Deuterium and Tritium. The only logical alternative is the Plasma Focus, a device that works with plasma, rather than attempting to control it via brute force techniques (i.e., intense magnetic fields or laser beams) and uses Hydrogen-Boron for fuel, and can generate electricity safely and directly without the need for power generation using steam and turbines.
There has been much progress with the plasma focus fairly recently. Taken from the Focus Fusion website:
In recently completed test experiments, the researchers were able to achieve temperatures that reached up to two billion degrees in some shots of the plasma focus device, well surpassing previous records of 520 million degrees achieved by the commonly used tokamak device. The much larger and more expensive tokamak has been cornerstone of the US fusion program for 25 years.
The plasma focus functions in a fundamentally different way from other fusion devices. Tokamaks and most other fusion devices use powerful magnets to attempt to stabilize the plasma - the extremely hot, electrically conducting gas in which the fusion reactions occur. This task has been likened to lifting gelatin with rubber bands. Instead, the plasma focus takes advantage of the natural instabilities of the plasma, so that the plasma's own magnetic fields compress it and heat it. "The plasma focus works with the plasma, not against it," says Lerner.
Perhaps someone with the foresight to see the best path for future power generation can fund this research fully and cease our pseudo problems concerning concerns about future energy sources. The solution is apparent.
Assuming it was found, is that based on our understanding of the Periodic Table of Elements, those elements in the same Group or column have similar properties.
So, based on that knowledge we can say that Element 115 should be very much like Element 83 (Bismuth), which is the most diamagnetic metal, giving it some very interesting properties.
Also, it should be noted that Element 115 should it possess diamagnetism, and all indications are that it should, it will be a much better diamagnetic material than Bismuth.
Sounds like a tall order, but this achievement will come to pass in short order once it is understood how easy it is to accomplish.
Now as everyone knows Fusion is one of those perennial things trotted out during every future forecast that is always outside the realm of possibility. Well, that is because of the methods that are currently employed to achieve it.
The two main categories typically thought of as one day leading to Controlled Fusion are: Inertial Confinement using Lasers or Ion Beams to heat a small pellet of deuterium-tritium to such high temperatures and pressure that the atoms fuse.
Then, the second choice for Fusion is Magnetic Confinement, this is the method used by the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton. The principle is to use Magnetic fields to hold plasma containing deterium-tritum together long enough for fusion to be initiated.
Now, both these approaches have been stumbling around for many decades consuming billions of dollars while scientists proclaim that the breakeven point is "just around the corner." Well enough is enough, it is time for something fundamentally different.
The new method uses a "Plasma Focus" which is a device which works with plasma rather than against it with expensive and inefficient brute force methods.
Quoting from: Focus FusionIn contrast, the plasma focus device functions by using instabilities that nature provides. It is natural instabilities that cause the plasma filaments to form and later to compress themselves into an ultra dense plasmoid to generate fusion temperatures. Such instabilities are common in nature and, as Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine has emphasized, are the way that nature evolves and creates new structures and new types of order.
Focus Fusion is thus a new type of Fusion that uses Hydrogen-Boron as a fuel that will produce electricity directly (the helium nuclei) verses the water, steam, and turbines necessary to produce energy with the Tokamak and other potential methods of Fusion. Because of these advantages this Fusion device could be extremely small and inexpensive. All that remains is for the right person or persons to realize this and capitalize on this wonderful opportunity to bring cheap clean power to humanity.
For example with devices such as this it is not hard to understand that a device such as this would provide rapid flight to any location on earth irrespective of weather conditions and I would say, appropriately insulated, it would even be able to go underwater as it would depend on electricity and not air for its propulsion. Interplanetary space flight with a propulsive method like this would also be trivial. The ideas are there they only require money and patience.
And at this point he spits venom at anything new in science or anything that violates his assumed beliefs. He's of the sort that would have said flight was impossible, or nuclear power would come to nothing, or that the world market is only for a couple of computers pre-home pc. Nothing he says should be taken seriously at all.
Much criticism has been thrown at "Lifters" simply because it is believed that these devices use Ion Wind to propel themselves and thus they are nothing more than intriguing toys not worthy of serious study by scientists. Well, this is completely false.
What the author of the Wired article failed to mention, unfortunately, was that an experimenter by the name of Jean-Louis Naudin has been experimenting with Lifters for some time now, and has done a number of experiments which prove that Lifters do not use ion wind for their propulsion.
The experiments he conducted include one where the aluminum and copper wire were unlinked from each other and the copper wire is placed in a sealed vacuum tube, then once the power is switched on a propulsive force is seen.
And another experiment has the aluminum portion of the lifter fully enclosed in a cardboard box and the unlinked copper wire is then lowered near the box and an upward motion is still seen when the device is powered up.
Then yet another experiment shows that the lifter device can still generate an upward propulsive force even when fully enclosed in a plastic bag.
I should hope that based on the evidence presented here one can come to the conclusion that this matter is far from settled and that Lifters depend on something else entirely different from Ion Wind for their propulsion.
Slashdot Mirror
There has been much progress with the plasma focus fairly recently. Taken from the Focus Fusion website:
In recently completed test experiments, the researchers were able to achieve temperatures that reached up to two billion degrees in some shots of the plasma focus device, well surpassing previous records of 520 million degrees achieved by the commonly used tokamak device. The much larger and more expensive tokamak has been cornerstone of the US fusion program for 25 years.
The plasma focus functions in a fundamentally different way from other fusion devices. Tokamaks and most other fusion devices use powerful magnets to attempt to stabilize the plasma - the extremely hot, electrically conducting gas in which the fusion reactions occur. This task has been likened to lifting gelatin with rubber bands. Instead, the plasma focus takes advantage of the natural instabilities of the plasma, so that the plasma's own magnetic fields compress it and heat it. "The plasma focus works with the plasma, not against it," says Lerner.
Perhaps someone with the foresight to see the best path for future power generation can fund this research fully and cease our pseudo problems concerning concerns about future energy sources. The solution is apparent.
So, based on that knowledge we can say that Element 115 should be very much like Element 83 (Bismuth), which is the most diamagnetic metal, giving it some very interesting properties.
Also, it should be noted that Element 115 should it possess diamagnetism, and all indications are that it should, it will be a much better diamagnetic material than Bismuth.
The two main categories typically thought of as one day leading to Controlled Fusion are: Inertial Confinement using Lasers or Ion Beams to heat a small pellet of deuterium-tritium to such high temperatures and pressure that the atoms fuse.
Then, the second choice for Fusion is Magnetic Confinement, this is the method used by the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton. The principle is to use Magnetic fields to hold plasma containing deterium-tritum together long enough for fusion to be initiated.
Now, both these approaches have been stumbling around for many decades consuming billions of dollars while scientists proclaim that the breakeven point is "just around the corner." Well enough is enough, it is time for something fundamentally different.
The new method uses a "Plasma Focus" which is a device which works with plasma rather than against it with expensive and inefficient brute force methods. Quoting from: Focus Fusion In contrast, the plasma focus device functions by using instabilities that nature provides. It is natural instabilities that cause the plasma filaments to form and later to compress themselves into an ultra dense plasmoid to generate fusion temperatures. Such instabilities are common in nature and, as Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine has emphasized, are the way that nature evolves and creates new structures and new types of order.
Focus Fusion is thus a new type of Fusion that uses Hydrogen-Boron as a fuel that will produce electricity directly (the helium nuclei) verses the water, steam, and turbines necessary to produce energy with the Tokamak and other potential methods of Fusion. Because of these advantages this Fusion device could be extremely small and inexpensive. All that remains is for the right person or persons to realize this and capitalize on this wonderful opportunity to bring cheap clean power to humanity.
For example with devices such as this it is not hard to understand that a device such as this would provide rapid flight to any location on earth irrespective of weather conditions and I would say, appropriately insulated, it would even be able to go underwater as it would depend on electricity and not air for its propulsion. Interplanetary space flight with a propulsive method like this would also be trivial. The ideas are there they only require money and patience.
And at this point he spits venom at anything new in science or anything that violates his assumed beliefs. He's of the sort that would have said flight was impossible, or nuclear power would come to nothing, or that the world market is only for a couple of computers pre-home pc. Nothing he says should be taken seriously at all.
What the author of the Wired article failed to mention, unfortunately, was that an experimenter by the name of Jean-Louis Naudin has been experimenting with Lifters for some time now, and has done a number of experiments which prove that Lifters do not use ion wind for their propulsion.
The experiments he conducted include one where the aluminum and copper wire were unlinked from each other and the copper wire is placed in a sealed vacuum tube, then once the power is switched on a propulsive force is seen.
And another experiment has the aluminum portion of the lifter fully enclosed in a cardboard box and the unlinked copper wire is then lowered near the box and an upward motion is still seen when the device is powered up.
Then yet another experiment shows that the lifter device can still generate an upward propulsive force even when fully enclosed in a plastic bag.
I should hope that based on the evidence presented here one can come to the conclusion that this matter is far from settled and that Lifters depend on something else entirely different from Ion Wind for their propulsion.