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January 1928: Dirac equation unifies quantum mechanics and special relativity

(www.aps.org)
28 points thunderbong | 2 comments | 21 Nov 24 02:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.415s | source
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hdivider ◴[21 Nov 24 05:09 UTC] No.42201327[source]▶
If our society were sane, rational, advanced, the headlines would be all about scientific and technological progress. The fusion power breakthrough of 2022 by Lawrence Livermore National Lab would still dominate the news. Large corporations would compete to create the first Star Trek replicator (at least for organic matter, food, etc) by advancements in nanofabrication. Politicians would debate R&D topics and strategy, figuring out which path leads to greater broad-sector economic progress.

One can dream. :) Instead, we have a society almost entirely dependent on many kinds of technology, and yet very few understand any of it, nor care to. Wonder how long this trend can persist until some sort of phase transition appears on the horizon.

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1. mikhailfranco ◴[21 Nov 24 07:16 UTC] No.42201903[source]▶
The LLNL fusion result was not a breakthrough. The fusion output was about 1% of the energy input. The exaggerated press release was just a PR ploy to get support for continued DoE funding, which was expiring at the end of 2022.
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2. orwin ◴[21 Nov 24 07:55 UTC] No.42202084[source]▶
And while we talk about fusion, even when the energy output surpass the energy input and the reaction is stable enough, how to you harness the energy? Because the reaction happen within a vacuum, the only way is to capture expelled neutrons and make electricity from it somehow.