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collegekid
Jan 5, 2006, 9:43 AM
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Heh Heh Heh...
Since you mentioned it, I am actually working on Inertial Confinement Fusion. My summer project was to develop a system that tracks deuterium/tritium spheres as they are shot at 100 m/s into a vaccuum chamber, where they are then shot by a massive array of lasers.
And my interest was recently piqued in the area formerly known as "cold fusion" (now known as "low-energy nuclear reactions"). Since the department of energy was too dense to see the potential implications of this phenomenon, most fusion scientists don't want to lose their funding, and most physicists don't like the idea that something can break their decade's old laws, the few visionaries that DO research the "cold fusion" phenomena do so quietly, away from the media. The only thing fake about cold fusion was the media that blitzed it. The only error the orginal scientists (Pons and Flieschman sp?) made was reporting the effect to the media before they were ready to defend themselves from the onslaught.
And to educate anyone who thinks "fusion is a pipe dream" or "cold fusion is junk science", the simple fact is, both of these areas are severly underfunded relative to older technologies. The net Department of ENERGY (emphasis is on energy, since most DOE funding goes to military purposes) Fusion research money is about 250 million a year...less than the cost of a single jet fighter. Kinda sad, that a technology that has the potential to solve all of our energy problems gets less funding than machines that destroy. But as people have said, that's just politics for ya.
But you see, I don't mind being underpaid and overworked, because I care more about what project I am working on than the amount of money I am making. Also, my tuition and (single bedroom, in a 5 bedroom house, shared between 6 people) rent is being paid by the DOE right now, so it's not all bad.
Although, if I had taken up my offer with Lockheed Martin, with whom I interned last year, I could probably be making 60 K right now and living the American Dream in San Jose, Ca, while the missiles I work on kill innocents in distant, unknown lands. But I made the choice to persue my dreams instead of working for one of the companies that is putting the most effort into (successfully) lobbying Washington, so that it's essentially useless products will have a place in our wealthy nation.
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robbovius
Jan 5, 2006, 1:44 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: Since you mentioned it, I am actually working on Inertial Confinement Fusion. Interesting! What method are you working with? Are you using a hohlraum (you mentioned lasers)? Any results yet? I've been interested in "cold fusion" for a while, and as you say, it's a crying shame that it's not better funded. There are (to my mind anyway) several promising avenues which could provide a workable solution, but no-one seems interested in their commercial potential. Have you come across pinch fusion systems? What are your thoughts on muon-catalyzed fusion?
Fucking Troll... ;-)
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robbovius
Jan 5, 2006, 1:53 PM
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In reply to: Heh Heh Heh...
In reply to: But you see, I don't mind being underpaid and overworked, because I care more about what project I am working on than the amount of money I am making. Also, my tuition and (single bedroom, in a 5 bedroom house, shared between 6 people) rent is being paid by the DOE right now, so it's not all bad.
freeloading hippie bastige. you just wait until that freebie dries up, THEN you'll care about how much money you make ;-)
In reply to: Although, if I had taken up my offer with Lockheed Martin, with whom I interned last year, I could probably be making 60 K right now and living the American Dream in San Jose, Ca, while the missiles I work on kill innocents in distant, unknown lands.
In reply to: But I made the choice to persue my dreams
I pursues my dreams too, and when I catch them I hack them apart with an axe...and then hide the pieces in the crawl space...*sniff sniff*... hmm, needs more lime.
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thorne
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Jan 5, 2006, 1:57 PM
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In reply to: Since you mentioned it, I am actually working on Inertial Confinement Fusion. My summer project was to develop a system that tracks deuterium/tritium spheres as they are shot at 100 m/s into a vaccuum chamber, where they are then shot by a massive array of lasers. And my interest was recently piqued in the area formerly known as "cold fusion" (now known as "low-energy nuclear reactions").
I used to think Val Kilmer was "all that", too. :wink:
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madriver
Jan 5, 2006, 2:51 PM
Post #31 of 73
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...South Park...
....Hippie Jam Fest episode..
....the writers..they probably lurk here for material....
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dingus
Jan 5, 2006, 3:33 PM
Post #32 of 73
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In reply to: I could probably be making 60 K right now and living the American Dream in San Jose, Ca,
60 k in San Jose is more like an American nightmare.
DMT
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collegekid
Jan 5, 2006, 6:48 PM
Post #33 of 73
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In reply to: In reply to: Since you mentioned it, I am actually working on Inertial Confinement Fusion. Interesting! What method are you working with? Are you using a hohlraum (you mentioned lasers)? Any results yet? I've been interested in "cold fusion" for a while, and as you say, it's a crying shame that it's not better funded. There are (to my mind anyway) several promising avenues which could provide a workable solution, but no-one seems interested in their commercial potential. Have you come across pinch fusion systems? What are your thoughts on muon-catalyzed fusion?
Answers to your questions:
1. Direct Drive, No hohlraum (at least, at the moment...it is still in the design stages. I'm working on a low-cost design study--my goal is to see if it's even possible to track something that's going 100 m/s to an accuracy of 10 microns--so far I believe it will work, using interferometric methods and "fringe counting", but time and funding will tell.) NIF (national ignition facility) is just getting started, so there's no way we could have any results yet--in order to have fusion, you gotta have the Petawatt lasers first!
2. My knowledge of cold fusion is pretty limited--obviously it's not taught in any of my classes, and no one at my university has worked on it directly. A chemist that works in my building at General Atomics spent several weeks trying to replicate the original experiment, with no luck, however he believes it is a real phenomenon. His knowledge is limited to that experiment. I know there are books on cold fusion out there, so maybe in the future I'll read up.
3. I know what a z and x pinch are, in fact worked in a lab that is studying x-pinches (and got to spend hours trying to insert stupid 5 micron wires into it, while they kept breaking and twisting around...) However, I have no experience or knowledge of pinch-fusion. My PhD will be in Plasma Physics...at the moment I'm trying to find a way to link that to cold fusion, so that I could run cold fusion experiments instead. I was thinking Plasma loading of metals...labeled as "plasma surface interactions"
4. I hardly know what a muon is, let alone muon-assisted fusion. I am starting my 2nd quarter as an Engineering Physics student, with my undergrad in Aerospace engineering. I'll be taking some general physics classes to round out my education, however I don't know squat about particle physics. In fact, I haven't even taken a class on Fusion yet, all of my knowledge is from my job or what I've taken the time to look up.
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madriver
Jan 5, 2006, 6:57 PM
Post #34 of 73
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....so...is the reason the USofA and or the rest of the world is so frukked up becuase of Bush and the Republicans?....or just a lack of smart people like you?....see ...I'm trying to figure out how you are paying for all that education? .....I'm sure if we were all as smart as you we would see the light and everything would be allright.....I think.....damn......
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collegekid
Jan 5, 2006, 6:59 PM
Post #35 of 73
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Tradman,
What are you studying/working on? How deep is your knowledge of cold fusion? I'm interested to know more.
Dingus,
Well, 60K may be a "nightmare" in San Jose, but 1500 per month in San Diego ain't exactly a dream come true.
In the future, I hope to become more financially secure by persuing my non-military related interests, just as many of my well-payed professors and PhD coworkers have done. I think it's sad, the number of graduating seniors from my class that truly felt they were worthless, and sought any job that would pay the bills, even if it was making missiles. There's always another way, though you might have to make some worthwhile sacrfices that pay off down the road. The Defense industry will likely drop out again once a democrat is in office, and military is no longer our priority. The aerospace industry is fickle like that, funding is based on who's in office. On the other hand, Fusion energy funding will only go up, once people realize that OIL IS RUNNING OUT, and hopefully by the time I'm in my 40's, I'll have a nice career in the fusion industry.
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madriver
Jan 5, 2006, 7:13 PM
Post #36 of 73
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In reply to: In the future, I hope to become more financially secure by persuing my non-military related interests, just as many of my well-payed professors and PhD coworkers have done. I think it's sad, the number of graduating seniors from my class that truly felt they were worthless, and sought any job that would pay the bills, even if it was making missiles. There's always another way, though you might have to make some worthwhile sacrfices that pay off down the road. The Defense industry will likely drop out again once a democrat is in office, and military is no longer our priority. The aerospace industry is fickle like that, funding is based on who's in office. On the other hand, Fusion energy funding will only go up, once people realize that OIL IS RUNNING OUT, and hopefully by the time I'm in my 40's, I'll have a nice career in the fusion industry.
....see....making the world a better place is easy....you've got it all figured out. Why all the ranting? It's all the Republicans fault....and we should all work for companies that do NO HARM....ahhhhhhhhh....and I was worried about my kids future.
BTW.....Who is George Sorros and how did he make all that money to run Moveon.org?
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thorne
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Jan 5, 2006, 7:20 PM
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In reply to: In the future, I hope to become more financially secure by persuing my non-military related interests, just as many of my well-payed professors and PhD coworkers have done.
In reply to: I think it's sad, the number of graduating seniors from my class that truly felt they were worthless, and sought any job that would pay the bills, even if it was making missiles. There's always another way, though you might have to make some worthwhile sacrfices that pay off down the road. |
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dingus
Jan 5, 2006, 7:30 PM
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In reply to: and hopefully by the time I'm in my 40's, I'll have a nice career in the fusion industry.
Cheers!
DMT
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collegekid
Jan 5, 2006, 8:22 PM
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Madriver:
Moveon.org is funded by private donors; I've contributed perhaps 40 bucks over the course of the year.
From moveon.org's donation website (https://political.moveon.org/donate/donate.html):
" This contribution does not exceed my personal contribution limit. (Contributions made to MoveOn.org Political Action are limited to $5,000 per individual per calendar year.)"
I suppose that would exclude individual donors, such as the oil industry, from donating several million at a time. It does not, however, limit the number of people that may donate--since there are 3.3 million members, that's not much of a limitation.
Madriver, I can sympathize with the fact that you've lost faith in the system and in the government. It's very easy to become depressed about it if you previously had any sort of faith in the system. That is not an excuse to give up though; one must push onwards, no matter what the odds.
And today is a better time than any to gather the people and create a movement; The internet was never before available as a means for individuals to communicate and join forces, politically, to achieve their goals. If everyone in the U.S. realized this, and decided to get active, we could potentially reorganize the system, such that it performs the way the forefathers had planned. No longer would we have to "settle for the lesser of two evils" in elections. Of course, if Bush gets the power to limit our access to freedom of speech on the internet, which I'm sure he would, then we're completely f***d. I'm sure this post is listed somewhere in the CIA's "free-thinkers to look out for" list.
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collegekid
Jan 5, 2006, 8:32 PM
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Thorne:
My education is being funded by the same people that are funding Lockheed Martin; The American Public.
Now, I suppose I could have worked for Boeing or Lockheed's non-military sides, either making commercial jets or television satellites (in fact, I worked in the "Commercial Space" segment of Lockheed, where they put together and test $350million communications satellites), However I find those areas uninteresting. I didn't choose graduate school just to avoid entering the work force; I want to do something creative, new, and interesting, so I'm doing graduate school. Hopefully I won't get sucked into a 9-5 job at a given company, doing research that i'm uninterested in. I tend to fall asleep easily during the afternoon, so there's no way I could survive with that life :D
Just another thought--the satellites that beam television to your home cost more than the yearly budget of the United States Fusion program. And Lockheed puts up one or two of those satellites per year. Kinda puts our national priorities in perspective.
The sad, frightening, and extremely alarming fact is, that oil is running out very very quickly. We have perhaps a decade or two (maximum) left before the prices become in the 5-10 dollar range and our economy flops. This all depends on what we do before this happens; if we can learn to reduce our dependence, it won't be a big deal, but with Bush in office, we're f****d. We need to put large amounts of money towards energy research, fast. Very fast. The timescale that research works on is the order of decades, not years...the task at hand is monumental--the same order of magnitude as the mission to the moon. If the fusion research project was treated the same way as the moon mission, where the entire nation gets behind it, then in a few decades fusion could potentially power everything we do and the rich american lifestyle could continue as if nothing had happened.
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danooguy
Jan 6, 2006, 12:03 AM
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In reply to: ....the writers..they probably lurk here for material....
danooguy buys a beer for madriver...
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collegekid
Jan 6, 2006, 12:50 AM
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I swear, I feel like Lisa Simpson trying to convince her dad to become a vegetarian...
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caughtinside
Jan 6, 2006, 1:54 AM
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You don't win friends with salad.
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blondgecko
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Jan 6, 2006, 2:44 AM
Post #44 of 73
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In reply to: In reply to: I think it's sad, the number of graduating seniors from my class that truly felt they were worthless, and sought any job that would pay the bills, even if it was making missiles. There's always another way, though you might have to make some worthwhile sacrfices that pay off down the road. You mean like staying in school? Who's funding your postponement of entering the workplace?
Do you really think that doing a PhD is the lazy option?
Believe me, I've seen the other option. I could have left my undergraduate degree straight into a position that paid at least twice what my PhD scholarship paid, with days fixed at 7am-4pm and a really easy, non-taxing workload. The downside would be that I would be bored out of my mind, and feel like I wasn't really contributing anything meaningful to society.
Instead, I chose a position which paid not much more than a basic living wage, had unpredictable hours (round-the-clock monitoring of experiments, and often above 70 hours a week), and was incredibly mentally draining and stressful. In addition, taking this position actually reduced my likelihood of finding industrial employment at the end.
Why did I make this seemingly idiotic decision? Because it was the only way I could feel like I was contributing something meaningful to human progress, rather than just keeping the status quo.
PhD students may be referred to as students, but the research they do is of very real significance. Casting aspersions like that above is ignorant at best, and intellectually dishonest at worst.
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reno
Jan 6, 2006, 3:35 AM
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In reply to: You don't win friends with salad.
^^^ I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.
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remi
Jan 6, 2006, 3:39 AM
Post #46 of 73
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In reply to: And today is a better time than any to gather the people and create a movement; The internet was never before available as a means for individuals to communicate and join forces, politically, to achieve their goals. If everyone in the U.S. realized this, and decided to get active, we could potentially reorganize the system, such that it performs the way the forefathers had planned. No longer would we have to "settle for the lesser of two evils" in elections. Of course, if Bush gets the power to limit our access to freedom of speech on the internet, which I'm sure he would, then we're completely f***d. I'm sure this post is listed somewhere in the CIA's "free-thinkers to look out for" list.
I don't see how people were being stopped from forming the 'movement' prior the internet. I think lots of people in the US are very politically active...they just happen to vote for Bush!
Now I remember why I got the hell out of uni after my undergrad & haven't looked back...
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collegekid
Jan 6, 2006, 4:25 AM
Post #47 of 73
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By uni, do you mean university?
There have been movements in the past. Not that I was alive then, but do you remember the 60's?
I guess in the cycle of American Politics, it's time for another revolution. People voted for Bush because things (the economy, mostly) were so good during Clinton, that they became lazy and forgot how bad things became with the last Republican in office. Also, the majority never voted for bush...both elections, there were numerous incidences of election fraud, and in most cases, the fraud was performed on electric voting machines that were easily and untraceably hacked.
If you think that Bush is a good president, please explain one thing that he has done that hasn't done any of the following: a) resulted in death of innocents, b) increased national debt, c) taken money from the poor and middle class and given to the wealthy d) given the United States a poor reputation among its international peers
During the 60's, people were rebelling against the conservative, war mongering older generation's way of life. Now, we need to "rebel" against the corporate and political corruption taking place, that has gradually increased until now, and that has come to a head with a fraudulent election.
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danooguy
Jan 6, 2006, 4:35 AM
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In reply to: During the 60's, people were rebelling against the conservative, war mongering older generation's way of life.
I thought we were just looking for a reason to buy more Boones Farm Apple wine.
Anyone else here attend the May Day rallies held in Washington DC every year in the late 60's?
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reno
Jan 6, 2006, 4:42 AM
Post #49 of 73
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In reply to: Also, the majority never voted for bush...
Or fomer President Clinton.
(And, btw, it's President Bush.)
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ein_berliner
Jan 6, 2006, 8:19 AM
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Maybe you should do some more work on your history. I doubt you will find that the 60's was focused against "war mongers".
I don't care about your ideas on giving people room to live in my house either. Read Ayn Rand. This nation isn't based on "to each according to his ability, to each according to his need". I am not compelled to help anyone else out because the NEED it. That's not a viable excuse and you can't impose need on me and get away with it. Any charity I supply will be based on my own desires not because I OWE it to anyone, which I don't.
Your real concerns appear to be physics. That's nice, a purely academic pursuit, with scholarships galore. Hurray! Like what was posted earlier. When you have a family or when you finally leave the institutions you may have a change of heart regarding who you dole money out to.
I don't care if you think you could get 60k, which won't be an astronomical amount if you're living in SoCal, and I don't care what you are majoring in. You're using tax payers dollars same as the soldiers and others.
I don't necessarily support Bush (beyond what I'm compelled to in my job) but it has been done and we need to remove ourselves from Iraq in such a manner that we don't destroy what we've worked on or allow our Iraqi allies (whether by choice or not) to be unfunded and poorly equipped to begin a new government. You want to speak about Vietnam? Then at least don't preach anything about immediate withdrawal of our troops. We learned lessons from Vietnam that need to be taken in consideration so we don't screw another country like we did the South Vietnamese.
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