Last weekend was the hugely over-hyped Didcot First Science Event. There I got to see some fun science demonstrations and took away a CD-ROM about Fusion Power. There was also a board for everone to write their opinions on which I thought was good fun.
There was no community interaction on the internet though, this got me thinking about how all the academics need to get their message out better online as was the case for CERN.
Anyway, luckily my CD-ROM drive hadn't packed up from lack of use and I watched the animated slide-show from the guys over at the JET laboratory in Culham. It was reasonably interesting, for me, a trained scientist... I hope the other people who picked it up felt the same. I'd love to share it but I wouldn't want to get a rep for copyright infringement.
Later, I heard from Richard Kemp a fusion scientist, via my brother Stephen. They passed on this great link from theregister.co.uk in which Andrew Orlowski systematically castigates Greenpeace for their suspicion of Fusion Power. It's a powerful and amusing piece, with a great soundbite at the end.
Ranting is fun, and great names like Patrick Moore wouldn't have abandonned Greenpeace unless Orlowski had a point.
But how do we get the good news flowing about science?
You might find this of interest:
ReplyDeleteFusion Report 29 August 2008
You Brits should have an IEC Program. They don't cost much.
Thanks for the comment and the link, I'll pass this to my brother who's quite big in the world of energy policy. Too right that we should be exploring all possibilities to get this fusion cracked. Big physics projects are being severely squeezed for cash over here.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone else interested you also can get a basic idea of how IEC fusion power is proposed to work from this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmp1cg3-WDY
Greenpeace began life as a citizens' group devoted to fighting pollution and the whaling industry, but it's now a powerful de-industrialisation lobby. Its hostility to progress snags it well over $200m income a year. If a scientific breakthrough promises a better of quality of life, then the organisation is probably against it.CERN boffins are confident that fusion, the holy grail of cheap, safe power will be economical and usable within thirty years. It's a finger in the air sort of estimate, based on projects from the Age of Scientific Optimism, such as the Los Alamos and Apollo moon landing projects.
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