At first I thought this was another dig at cold fusion alone but it
also attacks plasma fusion.
Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of
Wishful Thinking
http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Bottle-Strange-History-Thinking/dp/0670020338
Review:
"When weapons builders detonated the first hydrogen bomb in 1952,
they tapped into the vastest source of energy in our solar
system--the very same phenomenon that makes the sun shine. Nuclear
fusion was a virtually unlimited source of power that became the
center of a tragic and comic quest that has left scores of scientists
battered and disgraced. For the past half-century, governments and
research teams have tried to bottle the sun with lasers, magnets,
sound waves, particle beams, and chunks of meta. (The latest venture,
a giant, multi-billion-dollar, international fusion project called
ITER, is just now getting underway.) Again and again, they have
failed, disgracing generations of scientists. Throughout this
fascinating journey Charles Seife introduces us to the daring
geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion science: the brilliant and
tortured Andrei Sakharov; the monomaniacal and Strangelovean Edward
Teller; Ronald Richter, the secretive physicist whose lies
embarrassed an entire country; and Stanley Pons and Martin
Fleischmann, the two chemists behind the greatest scientific fiasco
of the past hundred years. Sun in a Bottle is the first major book to
trace the story of fusion from its beginnings into the 21st century,
of how scientists have gotten burned by trying to harness the power
of the sun."
- Jed
