Build a Nuclear Fusion Reactor at Home

FridayBob writes "For those of you tired of waiting around for someone else to achieve the holy grail of physics, now's your chance to beat 'em all to it. All you need is some basic engineering skills, this site and the inspiration necessary to make your very own 'fusor' produce more energy than it consumes. Hopefully, you'll have more luck than its inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth, who first built it in the 1950's after inventing the television some 30 years earlier. If you run into problems you'll be able to count on a enthusiastic support group, as the contraption seems to have developed a cult following over the past few years. Okay, so I'm skeptical that this approach will ever really work, but at the very least it sounds like a really cool science project!"

And get bombed by Bush?

[corebreech]

Pass.

Mr. Fusion

[DeadBugs]

Finally I can get a Mr. Fusion to power my Flux Capacitor.

Homer Qoute:

[Shymon]

" Lisa in this house we obey the law of thermodynamics!"

Danger(TV) Danger(Fusion Reactor)

[Johnso]

Whether or not this ever works, TV will go down as Farnsworth's most detrimental contribution to humanity.

philo should have combined the two...

[limber]

because then he would have wound up with a

NUCLEAR POWERED TELEVISION SET!!

now that's a plasma screen worth looking at...

Good news everyone!

[TeknoHog]

Not really surprising from the guy who invented the Smelloscope..

Re:From their newbie page

[sjames]

Surely, solar power will be very practical then.

Farnsworth?

[ar1550]

I'd trust an inventor named Farnsworth just as much as I'd trust a physician named Zoidberg.

Farnsworth?

[Chicane-UK]

Hehe... wonder if Hubert J Farnsworth [gotfuturama.com] is a relative of his :)

The article would have been better if they started with 'Good news everyone...' ;)

Finally!

[403Forbidden]

Now we don't have to develop a static powered car [tilleyfoundation.com], but can rather make a Mr Fusion [nitpickers.com] to power the Flux Capacitor [showtech.com] so we can go to the future where all of life's problems are already solved!

Re:Well Crap..

[Lost Dragon]

I can see the [H]ard forums now...

"Check out my new case mod! My PC powers itself!"

Re:But,,,

[sheean.nl]

while fusion starts with merely protons created from hydrogen atoms electrolyzed from pure water.

Highly explosive hydrogen. I'm sure they won't have a problem with that.

Sterility climbs among /. readers!

[JoeGee]

If the stable one-atmosphere plasmoid [slashdot.org] didn't do it, and the DIY breeder reactor [slashdot.org] didn't succeed, there will no doubt be some ingenious /. readers who decide to create a high-energy neutron source out in their garage to remove themselves from the gene pool. CmdrTaco, Timothy, what is it with all the sterility how-to guides you're giving your readers?

Keep this quiet

[Spamalamadingdong]

I have a pocket full of chemical reactors which can reach a temperature of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit within a half-second of initiation, and can be used to start many highly destructive reactions.

But don't tell anyone I own a book of matches, okay?

Simpsons...

[Cyno01]

Did you ever see the Simpsons where Homer and Grandpa went back to the old family farm, and homers shadow was burned into the wall from their Radiation King tv set. I also remember in 6th grade all the monitors in the computer lab had stickers on them, "Now With Low Radiation!", or something like that.

Flux capacitors

[waytoomuchcoffee]

Really? They seem in [hlabs.com] now ;-)

Unnecessary...

[Cyno01]

its not like /. readers breed anyway.

Re:Fusion is NOT the Holy Grail

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Yeh. Too bad that the energy required to make a gram of anti-matter costs $20 trillion USD, takes 300 years to produce, and could provide enough electricity to light NYC for about 10 minutes.

AM/M reactors are prized for their energy density, not energy economy. Not to mention, that unless someone comes up with some sort of anti-matter breeder reactor, we'll never be able to make enough fuel to do more than experiment.

Now, being God, whenever I want anti-matter, I just re-adjust supersymetry temporarily, but lame fuckwads like you have to get your own. Nyah nyah nyah nyah!

PS. Zero-point energy is actually the holy grail, duh. Can't wait til next weeks slashdot article "You too can exploit the Casimir Effect!".

I've always thought the prelude line was funnier

[kfg]

"This perpetual motion machine Lisa built is broken. It just keeps going faster and faster."

KFG

Nah - Not Unless You Have Oil.

[Shturmovik]

Then you'd be in trouble.

Re:Doubtful ... I read through the patent

[Fnkmaster]

It's not a legitimate question when it's phrased in that fashion and you know it. Don't be a fucking prick, it doesn't make you any friends. You copy the text from my post in yours and yet you still seem incapable of reading it. I can't help you with the English language. Billions of neutrons per second was the number claimed by Hirsch and Meeks according to fusor.net, and AS I SAID BEFORE IF YOU HAD READ MY POST the basic premise that fusion occurs and neutrons are produced has been replicated, though nobody seems to have achieved the exact numbers that H&M claimed. In other words, when you ask whether I have read my own links you make yourself look like an idiot since my links corroborated the contents of my post.

I spent about an hour reading through the whole fusor.net site, including many of the forum posts, prior to posting anything, though clearly you did not or you would realize that the operators of that site made no such claim that you are arguing against. The results of the U Wisconsin group are ~1E8 neutrons/sec and the portable commercial device I linked to here are ~1E7. Please don't be a fucknut and imply that somebody with half a brain can't properly compare orders of magnitude. So again, cut the fucking ad hominem attacks ("Do you read your own links?"). That is an offensive comment to make as it implies that I have somehow made some whopping error in logic or observation, which I have certainly not done. The only error of logic and observation being made here is by you, who seems to want to attribute to me your own misreading of a fucking moronic Slashdor editor/submitter, which I had fuck-all to do with.

Family Tree?

[bjorky]

inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth

Any relation to Hubert Farnsworth, inventor of the Smell-o-Scope, the Fing-Longer, and the Death Clock?

Re:Radio Shack...

[c++]

Why don't they just start manufacturing them as soon as they're ordered? They can then use a demo model to go to the future, pick them up, then sell to you immediately. Just-in-time manufacturing aquires a whole new meaning!

Its about time ...

[jopet]

they come up with a thing to power my laptop. Propelling rockets, my ass. We need this for laptops, remote controls and cordless mice. I dont give a damn about fusion unless they can put it in a AAA cell.