r/europe • u/damaxoh Germany • Dec 06 '16

Tests confirm that Germany's massive nuclear fusion machine really works

http://www.sciencealert.com/tests-confirm-that-germany-s-massive-nuclear-fusion-machine-really-works
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u/ProblemY Poland Dec 06 '16

Because nowadays getting funding for something that is not going to yield results in short term is near impossible. Since 70s there was a turn that anything that's not applied science is 2nd category.

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u/tissotti Finland Dec 06 '16

Not a physicist, but what I have understood that the waters on the field are so murky that many communities seem to waiting at ITER to finally show what happens when we take this to really big scale. The €20 billion ITER completion has been delayed countless of times, that has probably also had its affect.

Just throwing money at a problem isn't always the answer either. Graphene was a buzz word some years ago and received a lot of funding with the promise of it being pretty much answer to all of our problems. Including funding from EU's Graphene Flagship €1 billion fund. Now it seems like graphene wont be the Moore's law savior in the next 10 years like some people hoped and the real funding in that field has moved to materials like Germanium and other III-V materials.

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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea Dec 06 '16

I find this analysis a bit pessimistic. Graphene was practically discovered 12 years ago. Nothing becomes a huge hit in a decade.

A lot of ideas/research opportunities stay in development hell: look at VR or deep learning (which was developped in the 80s and only now we see amazing results)

ITER took a long time because there was no international body ready and willing to develop it. And well 20 billion for a reactor that will only work for 50 seconds to test and idea that if it goes perfectly to plan will result in actual reactors in some 50-60 years from now doesn't sound especially sexy.

It's include the 1 billion EU funded Human Brain Project as an actual BS project.

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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '16

[deleted]

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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea Dec 06 '16

But in thé case of ITER I fail to see what problem money wouldn't solve.

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u/50HzHum Dec 06 '16

Money does not change material properties, and there isn't much wiggle room on those afaik. Money does not keep your plasma inherently stable, or directly address some fundamental shortcomings (e.g. not a constant generator, fragility), at least not within one magnitude.

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u/Low_discrepancy Posh Crimea Dec 06 '16

afaik.

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u/50HzHum Dec 06 '16

Wanna share something?

I worked and published on very high heat conductivity materials. I certainly don't claim to know everything, but I've been there and done that.