Sun in a Bottle Quotes

“if history is any guide, a long, long road lies ahead before physicists will be able to tame fusion reactions”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Scientists would then build a demonstration fusion power plant that would begin operations in 2035 or 2040. After five decades of broken promises, lies, delusions, and self-deception, it will finally be true. Fusion energy will be thirty years away.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Without periodic nuclear testing, weaponeers argued, they could not be certain that the weapons in the nuclear stockpile would work. Nuclear bombs, like any other machines, decay over time.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Once we crack the problem of fusion, we have an assured source of energy for as long as you want to think about it. It will cease to be a reason for war or an influence on foreign affairs.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“It’s an open secret. Fusion isn’t clean, and it probably never will be.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Fusion is a bit cleaner than fission, but it still presents a major waste problem.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“a fusion power plant would produce a larger volume of radioactive waste than a standard nuclear power plant.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“But there is a dirty little secret. Fusion is not clean.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Livermore scientists still insist that they have good reason to trust the computer’s more recent predictions. They claim to have experiments that back up the computer code, but it is impossible to tell, from the outside, whether they are telling the truth.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“GAS VERSUS PLASMA: In a gas (left), every electron is stuck to an atom. In a plasma (right), the electrons roam free, attracted by nuclei, but not attached to any single nucleus.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“The navy evacuated more than six hundred people, many of whom developed “raw, weeping lesions” from the radiation. It was a public relations nightmare. AEC chairman Lewis Strauss tried to reassure the public that the island natives were “well and happy,” but it was hard to hide the truth,”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“Mines and trenches were just the obvious applications. Teller also suggested using hydrogen bombs to change the weather, to melt ice to yield fresh water, and to mass-produce diamonds. (Another unconventional suggestion attributed to him was to close off the Strait of Gibraltar, making the Mediterranean a lake suitable for irrigating crops.) Ted Taylor, a bomb designer, argued that nuclear bombs would be able to drive a rocket into deep space, even to other stars.21 Teller even found the idea of bombing the moon incredibly enticing. “One will probably not resist for long the temptation to shoot at the moon . . . to observe what kind of disturbance it might cause,” he wrote.”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

“We are all truly made of star stuff.18”
― Charles Seife, Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking