2000 Yr old Tech as a New Discovery

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Scientists put the Sun in our pockets

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

(Filed: 28/04/2005)

"These crystals were discovered 2,000 years ago by the Ancient

Greeks," said Mr Naranjo."

 

A pocket-sized device which can harness fusion, the energy source of

the Sun, with the help of crystals no bigger than a sugar cube has

been developed by scientists.

 

 

 

The "pocket fusion" device, described today in the journal Nature,

raises new possibilities in fields as diverse as space propulsion,

medical diagnostics, cancer treatment and the hunt for concealed

weapons.

 

Scientists have struggled for decades to ape what happens in the Sun

and harness huge temperatures to fuse atoms for energy generation -

potentially a cleaner alternative to the present nuclear-fission

reactors. But they have so far been unsuccessful at turning this into

an economically viable process.

 

Now Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, a professor from Glasgow, and Prof

Seth Putterman of the University of California, Los Angeles describe

a breathtakingly simple way to fuse atoms with the help of a crystal.

 

Mr Naranjo joked that the advance "seems like magic" and that he now

understands why the starship Enterprise, in the television programme

Star Trek, was powered by "dilithium crystals".

 

Prof Putterman wanted to call the technique "crystallic fusion" but

discovered, on holiday with his children, that Buzz Lightyear uses

the phrase in Toy Story when he declares: "Are you guys still using

fossil fuel - haven't you discovered crystallic fusion power yet?"

 

Although pocket fusion already looks more convincing than earlier

controversial claims about cold fusion and bubble fusion, the team is

unsure how to turn it into the limitless source of energy that has

been promised by so many scientists for so long.

 

They fused atoms of deuterium - heavy hydrogen - using a pyroelectric

crystal to generate a beam of charged particles - deuterium ions - to

bombard a deuterium target.

 

"These crystals were discovered 2,000 years ago by the Ancient

Greeks," said Mr Naranjo.

 

"It is the electrical analogue of a permanent magnet and if you heat

or cool it you can build up a very large charge and very large

electric field."

 

With gentle warming, even by hand, researchers concentrated the field

made by the crystal at the tip of a connected tungsten needle.

 

The neutron emission is 400 times stronger than the usual background

level.

 

"We are getting about 1,000 neutrons a second," said Mr Naranjo. "The

amazing thing is that we are heating a crystal to 25C and getting

this very large fusion signal with no external power supplies.

 

"It is just a crystal with a needle. The simplicity is striking."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?

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