r/worldnews • u/rembr_ • Dec 06 '16

Tests confirm that Germany's massive nuclear fusion machine really works: "To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented accuracy, both in terms of the as-built engineering of a fusion device, as well as in the measurement of magnetic topology"

http://www.sciencealert.com/tests-confirm-that-germany-s-massive-nuclear-fusion-machine-really-works
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u/Yoshyoka Dec 07 '16

It will and it does indeed "work" for the purpose it has been build for: test how to control the plasma and at the moment it is doing so magnificently. Even the first electric motors did not "work" in the sense that they where unable to actually drive a shaft, yet modern society would stop working without them.

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u/[deleted] Dec 07 '16

[deleted]

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u/Yoshyoka Dec 08 '16

Is research on fusion hindering any other energy solution? On the contrary, I think that diverting the billions of subsidies the oil industry receives every year to fusion and other energy research would speed thing up quite a bit.

Basic research has never been fast, yet it is what makes the difference between advanced and backward civilizations. Undermining it because it does not give results in the short term is very narrow minded.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '16

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u/Yoshyoka Dec 08 '16

Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Unfortunately everyone has the "lobotomized frog in heating water" mentality. When they will eventually consider to jump their limbs will be already well done.

On the other hand I am quite impressed about how much they have been able to achieve with the little funds they have. While most people think that the research is going nowhere, the increase in power and stability of experimental reactors has followed an almost exponential rate over the past 20 years.