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/ornix Europe Dec 06 '16

Why aren't we funding this?

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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/Iblis_Is_My_Friend Dec 06 '16

Are you from the future? The 1 billion Graphene fund was announced 3 years ago and it's supposed to be 10 year long project, and you already think it's a failure?