Topic
A fusion energy approach that uses high-powered lasers to compress and heat small fuel capsules until nuclear fusion reactions occur.
Ryan Lester and colleagues put windows in the gold cylinder that confines a National Ignition Facility shot. The escaping pulse reached tens of trillions of watts, on a par with the brightness of some red dwarf stars.
Reality
A Nature Physics measurement lands on the temperature models had already predicted, so the older laboratory numbers were the outliers. The same shots saw no intermediate solid carbon phase before the diamond went liquid.
Reality
A corrected melting curve for carbon is the real product here. It does double duty, governing where diamond turns liquid inside Neptune and how hard a fusion capsule should be hit on the first shock.
Reality
The startup says crystal growth now takes 30 minutes instead of up to a week, and a whole pellet two to three hours. Nine of its ten stated barriers remain.
Reality
LLNL says its Nature Physics measurement reconciles diamond melting data with quantum simulations, and that applying it to inertial-confinement fusion could triple energy gain.
Reality
Shock-compression data published in Nature reconciles diamond melting experiments with quantum simulations. The lab says applying it to inertial confinement fusion could triple energy gain.
Reality