Keep checking those gold prices—scientists have more news about the coveted metal. An energy startup claims it has the recipe for modern-day alchemy: turning mercury into gold inside a nuclear fusion reactor. Last week, Marathon Fusion, a San Francisco-based energy startup, submitted a preprint detailing an action plan for synthesizing gold particles via nuclear transmutation—essentially […]
Experimental Propulsion Tech Could Reach Mysterious Planet Beyond Pluto in 10 Years
On November 14, 2003, astronomers spotted what was at the time the most distant known object orbiting the Sun. They called it Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It’s a cold, reddish dwarf planet that drifts billions of miles away from the Sun during its 10,000-year orbit before coming in for a relatively […]
Jaw-Dropping Video Shows Concept for Fusion Rocket That Might Halve Mars Travel Time
Over the past decade, a U.K.-based nuclear propulsion startup has been working behind the scenes to develop a fusion rocket that could cut flight time to Mars in half. This week, it unveiled the concept in a striking new video. The Sunbird Migratory Transfer Vehicle, designed by Pulsar Fusion, would be capable of reaching 329,000 […]
Record-Breaking Fusion Lab More Than Doubles Its 2022 Energy Breakthrough
The world’s only fusion experiment that actually gives back more energy than it takes in is now breaking its own records. According to TechCrunch, the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently pushed its fusion yield—first to 5.2 megajoules, and then to 8.6 megajoules—more than doubling the energy released in its historic […]
China Plans Ambitious Nuclear Fusion Target For 2030
China has set its sights on a new fusion-fission power plant that could be up and running by the end of the decade. The reactor is called Xinghuo; it will reportedly cost $27.6 billion and will be built on central China’s Yaohu Science Island, according to the South China Morning Post. Because Xinghuo is a […]