Thursday, April 28, 2005

UCLA Researchers Achieve Fusion

UCLA scientists have published an article in the Journal Nature claiming that they have created a new type of "bench-top" nuclear fusion, a key technology that the scientific community has been struggling to create in a quest for more efficient energy generation. In the article, Brian Naranjo, a graduate student in physics; James Gimzewski, professor of chemistry; and Seth Putterman, professor of physics are reporting they have created a new type of "bench-top" nuclear fusion. They don't believe the version of nuclear fusion they have created will be useful for normal power generation, but may be of use in research for creating neutron beams and in propulsion of miniature spacecraft. Nuclear fusion has long been sought as an alternative clean energy source, but suffered in the 80's due to highly-hyped and then discredited work by Pons and Fleischmann.

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