Thursday, August 27, 2015

"The Opposite of Cold Fusion" (10 million degrees Celsius)

From MetaFilter:
The online edition of Science magazine reports that the private and secretive company Tri Alpha Energy, has built a machine that forms a ball of superheated gas—at about 10 million degrees Celsius—and holds it steady for 5 milliseconds, calling the achievement "a significant step toward mastering nuclear fusion"
That's even warmer than Al Gore's estimate of the temperature of the earth's core:
"...two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ’cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot ”
-Al Gore talking to Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show
Mr. Gore was brought in as a partner at Venture Capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers which is a major investor in geothermal tech company Altarock.

I’m guessing Mr. Gore was not brought in for his scientific expertise.