A few weeks ago I finally wrapped up my first semester research project with a presentation to the Plasma Research Lab faculty, which went surprisingly well. Now with yet another fusion related project or two lined up for this semester which has just started, I felt that it's worth taking a moment … [Read more...]
3 Big Recent Breakthroughs in Fusion
(See my previous post about fusion if you have no idea what nuclear fusion is) From a whole new stellarator reactor - the Wendelstein 7-X at the Max Planck Institute, to visualizing energy flows and two new kinds of plasma turbulence discovered which explain heat loss...It's been a busy few … [Read more...]
Power of the Stars
Nuclear fusion is awesome. It's about time I did a blog post on fusion - I'll jump straight into it. Nuclear fusion is the reaction in which two smaller atoms fuse together and make one bigger atom. The best example of this process is right above our heads (or below your feet, depending on the … [Read more...]
Reflections on a Summer at MIT
Having been back in sunny old Noosa for a week now, the past 6 weeks at the Research Science Institute at MIT seem like a strange dream. Sure I have 80+ new friends on facebook, a paper written on nuclear material science and a couple of souvenirs, but it's difficult to not help but wonder - wow, … [Read more...]