Fusion
Fusion
AUD$106.95
inc GSTFusion: The Search for Endless Energy is the story of the international race to build the first atomic fusion reactor. It is the story of a fraternity of scientists, whose members included such greats as Andrei Sakharov and Edward Teller. Transcending political boundaries, their utopian mission was to create a source of safe, clean, inexhaustible energy from the elements of seawater. The book abounds with fascinating anecdotes about fusion's rocky path. Aimed at a general audience, the book describes the scientific basis of controlled fusion - the fusing of atomic nuclei, under conditions hotter than the sun, to release energy. Using personal recollections of scientists involved, the book traces the history of this little-known international race that began during the Cold War in secret laboratories in the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and evolved into an astonishingly open collaboration between East and West.
- The inside story of the race to build the world's first fusion reactor
- The greatest engineering challenge ever attempted by mankind
- The story of the 'discovery' of 'cold fusion' and the uproar it caused within the scientific community
Reviews & endorsements
'The fusion fraternity should read this book and take heart for the future.' Nature
'This book takes the reader beyond this trivial metaphor, explains why achievement has proved harder than anticipated, and shows what progress has been made.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
'This is a book that once started demands to be read in one sitting.' Physics World
Product details
March 2006Paperback
9780521024952
280 pages
229 × 152 × 15 mm
0.415kg
17 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. The invention of Dr Spitzer
- 2. Behind closed doors
- 3. Friends and rivals
- 4. Searching for answers
- 5. Dawn of the tokamak
- 6. Building big science
- 7. Forming the major league
- 8. The political plasma
- 9. The modern fusion lab
- 10. The plasma olympics
- 11. Different directions
- 12. Struggling to sell fusion
- 13. In sight of breakeven
- 14. Fusion's past and future
- Notes
- Glossary
- Appendices
- Index.
