Among the flurry of experiments going down worldwide, significant work will start rolling at the US National Ignition Facility sometime this June. Under construction for twelve years, the lab will focus 192 giant laser beams on two forms of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. Combining these isotopes at high temperatures generates a colossal amount of energy, recreating conditions "at the heart of the sun." The goal is to find a way to achieve controlled, sustained nuclear fusion and energy gain in a lab. According to the director of the facility, Dr. Ed Moses, "When all NIF lasers are fired at full energy, they will deliver 1.8 megajoules of ultraviolet energy to the target." Lasting just a few nanoseconds, the system is capable of generation 500 trillion watts of power — more than the peak electrical generating power of the entire United States. Significant results are expected sometime between 2010 and 2012.

[ed]Nuclear fusion is the world game-changer we’ve been waiting for…[/ed]

Article: Engadget. Also see the video at BBC UK.

Once upon a time, back when people in Russia used big moustaches and sent other people to Siberia, there were no GPS or tacky cellphones. But they had atomic lighthouses to light the Artic shores. Since there was no easy way to travel by ship across the Northern coast of the Soviet Union, the smartypants of the Communist regime decided that they needed a chain of autonomous lighthouses that could run 24/7/365.

See the full article at English Russia (via Gizmodo)