American scientists are busy building the "world's first sustainable fusion reactor" by creating a miniature star on Earth. Their project at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, which costs 3.5 billion dollars, could mean a breakthrough in the development of safe renewable energy of the future. According to the plans, a workable fusion reaction should be realized by the 2012. On November 2, the scientists fired up the 192 lasers beams at the centre of the reactor and aimed them at a glass target containing tritium and deuterium gas. "The resulting release of energy was of a magnitude of 1.3 million mega joules, which was a world record and the peak radiation temperature measure at the core was approximately six million degrees Fahrenheit."
Volume #24: Counterculture Few people are out protesting in the street or tripping on acid in America these days, yet many of the social principles of its hippie generation are now mainstream. The most celebrated example of the continuing influence of 60s alternative values is in the world of technology. In his book From Counterculture to Cyberculture, media historian Fred Turner describes a group of 60s figures who did not revolt against a menacing, out of touch ‘establishment’ as the familiar narrative tells us, but took a seemingly contradictory interest in defense technologies developing within the militaryindustrial complex. Turner observes that the countercultural ethos of demanding access to knowledge invoked by Stewart Brand and others influenced the development of the personal computer products and network tools that popularized the web and initiated our shift to a society that thrives on information.