I'm in the process of writing a review.
At 11:33 AM 10/26/2008, you wrote:
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
