Science Porn

[vorlon13]

get some thermite and a block of ice sometime !!

[SteelCurtain]

That is the most fascinating thing I've seen in some time. Holy shit! Hawai'i is growing!

[Ravenshire]

That is the most fascinating thing I've seen in some time. Holy shit! Hawai'i is growing!

Until it moves off the hot spot. Then it'll start shrinking.

[Anomalocaris]

That is the most fascinating thing I've seen in some time. Holy shit! Hawai'i is growing!

It will continue to grow for a million years or two yet.

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That is the most fascinating thing I've seen in some time. Holy shit! Hawai'i is growing!

Until it moves off the hot spot. Then it'll start shrinking.

That won't be for a while. Currently the rate of lava production on the big island is well above the average rate of lava production by the Hawaiian hotspot over the last 80 million years.

[Fireball]

I have these "how cool would that be" moments, usually brought on by science fiction or some science of the future, and those moments are constantly being countered by what we actually have now in the real world. For example, seeing a movie like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings populated with a crazy array of unique characters with special looks and abilities, but then appreciating the wide range of diversity we have and learning about incredible abilites, like the kids from the Moken tribe in Thailand having amazing eye sight under water:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160229...e-dolphins

More recently I had a moment when this video of lava pouring directly into the ocean came out. You hear about other planets and moons where a certain gas here is in liquid form there, and you think "how cool would it be to visit that". Then Earth reminds you "Hey, we got liquid rock, man" Pretty fucking cool.

[Youtube]N3wfTAxWxpw[/youtube]

That is really cool!

[pocaracas]

Not exactly "science porn".. .but... this thread needed some revival!

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in
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2010-05-01

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[Fake Messiah]

Great and important message by Neil Tyson about those that deny science

[Alex K]

Not exactly "science porn".. .but... this thread needed some revival!

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I completely understand your pain. These knee jerk low information fusion sceptics are all idiots. We have some in our national green party (omg cancel all fusion research now and build organic solar panels!). Screw them

[pocaracas]

Not exactly "science porn".. .but... this thread needed some revival!

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I completely understand your pain. These knee jerk low information fusion sceptics are all idiots. We have some in our national green party (omg cancel all fusion research now and build organic solar panels!). Screw them

Fusion has the potential to provide electricity to all humanity, for the remainder of this planet's existence.
If it can work, we have the obligation to get it to work. And do it as soon as possible.
Politicians are seriously under-funding it, mostly because of pressure from the oil lobby. A few years ago, I heard a simple comparison: the budget of the next fusion research device, ITER, the one that is supposed to show once and for all that fusion can provide more energy than that which is required to get it to work, over the course of the 30 years that it's supposed to take to build and be in operation, this entire project will, at the end, cost as much as Germany spends in road works during a single year.

If Germany would not maintain or build any new roads for a single year, they could build this one device that will tell us that fusion works.
Or, if Germany would not maintain and build 1/30 (one thirtieth) of their roads for 30 years in a row, they could fund this one project over it's lifespan.

ITER, however, is an international endeavor. It brings together the EU, China, India, Russia, the US, South Korea, Japan, all of them contributing something... all of them with access to all specs... while maintaining the financial burden at a stupefying negligible rate to each country.
All the while, some politicians want to cut spending on fusion... it doesn't make sense.
The US has spent some time out of the ITER project, because (officially) they thought it was too expensive.

Oil, cars, roads... power...
I see the pieces coming together: Tesla and other EV manufacturers are working on making those EVs behave pretty much like traditional cars at a similar cost. Fusion can then provide power to the grid and hence power there EVs. A nuclear reactor under each hood is, I think, impractical - the reactor does get activated by neutrons and no one wants a radioactive engine when it comes to a car crash.

Once fusion becomes established, all oil based power generation will become a dirty thing of the past... maybe to be used on a few stand-alone devices where access to the grid is difficult and batteries would represent too much weight or not provide enough raw brute force power.

Of course, all the oil industry will collapse, and it will not do so quietly!
From the production, to the transformation, to the final distribution and consumer refueling... a lot of people will be out of a job... a lot of businesses will become obsolete. Other oil-based industries, like plastics, should also need to switch to alternative materials. This should all happen gradually, but it is inevitable.

Alternatively, we could clone some dinosaurs, bury them and wait 60 million years.

[Fake Messiah]

Hey you said it pocras. Other thing about pushing fusion is that it would perhaps be great if environmental groups like, let's say Greenpeace, would push for it to be developed, but no. They are actually working against it, saying it's a hoax and that people should not waste money on it and that all fusion programs are circus by politicians  for people to make them think like they're trying to do something to battle against pollution. Like this article
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/...log/51074/
or this
http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/New...-research/

And their reference is always the book "Sun In The Bottle" written some years ago by some journalist. And I say always because over the years I've listened some science shows about fusion and they always base their shows on this book. For instance some months ago I listened Michio Kaku's radio show on this and he even called the author of this book and they talked about all sorts of nonsenses from that book like some guy in (I think) Argentina mixed water or gasoline with gunpowder and tried to pass this as a fusion and never mention stuff like ITER or Wendelstein.
Why isn't anybody talking to legit scientist like Francis F. Chen who wrote really great book on fusion or Steven Cowley?

Other oil-based industries, like plastics, should also need to switch to alternative materials. This should all happen gradually, but it is inevitable.

Well yeah when it comes to plastics (or any other material) perhaps we could make it from other atoms like stars do, if we had enough cheap and clean energy. Same goes with destroying it.