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Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking by [Charles Seife]

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Charles Seife

Sun in a Bottle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking Kindle Edition

by Charles Seife (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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With his knack for translating science into understandable, anecdotal prose and his trademark dry humor, award-winning science writer Charles Seife presents the first narrative account of the history of fusion for general readers in more than a decade. Tracing the story from its beginning into the twenty-first century, Sun in a Bottle reveals fusion's explosive role in some of the biggest scientific scandals of all time. Throughout this journey, he introduces us to the daring geniuses, villains, and victims of fusion science. With the giant international fusion project ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) now under construction, it's clear that the science of wishful thinking is as strong as ever. This book is our key to understanding why.

ISBN-13

978-0670020331
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

October 16, 2008
Language

English
File size

864 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

It’s the energy source of the future, and always will be; that’s the rap on nuclear fusion. Reviewing its development—which at present is embodied in two big-science installations in California and France—Seife clarifies the devilish complexities of containing a fusion reaction. The idea’s tantalizing physical simplicity and the allure of earning unbounded riches from unlimited power has repeatedly tempted scientists, whose excess optimism, hubris, and self-deception propel the technical side of Seife’s account. A seasoned science author (most recently, Decoding the Universe, 2006), Seife shines in explaining how hydrogen’s behavior at solarlike temperatures has so far defeated the two conventional devices for taming it: magnets and lasers. With high-energy physics at an impasse, eccentric claims of room-temperature fusion gained a hearing. Remember the cold-fusion nondiscovery of 1989? Seife writes up two other claims of low-temperature fusion that similarly could not be replicated, the sine qua non of scientific proof. Informed and perceptive, Seife ably melds physics and public policy (fusion has consumed billions of dollars) into a fine presentation for general-interest readers. --Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Fifty years ago scientists and futurists glowingly predicted a future in which cars would run on little fusion cells and the world would extract deuterium from the oceans for an inexhaustible supply of energy. Like all too many shining visions, fusion turned out to be a mirage. Award-winning science journalist Seife (Zero) takes a long, hard look at nuclear fusion and the failure of one scheme after another to turn it into a sustainable energy source. Many readers will remember the 1989 cold fusion debacle, but Seife explains why tabletop fusion isn't all that difficult to achieve. The problem, as with all fusion devices except the hydrogen bomb, is to produce more energy than the fusion process consumes. The two most promising approaches today use plasma and lasers, but again, Seife reports, scientists have been repeatedly frustrated. The United States and several other industrial nations recently agreed optimistically to sink billions of dollars into a 30-year fusion power project. Seife's approachable book should interest everyone concerned about finding alternative energy sources. (Nov. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B001IH6WOM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books (October 16, 2008)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 16, 2008
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 864 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 324 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0670020338

Best Sellers Rank: #539,945 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #63 in Nuclear Physics (Kindle Store)
- #83 in Physics of Energy
- #215 in Nuclear Physics (Books)

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85 ratings

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Charles Seife
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Charles Seife is a correspondent for Science, a London--based international weekly science magazine. He has written for Scientific American, The Economist, Wired UK, The Sciences, and numerous other publications. He has a masters degree in mathematics from Yale.
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Charles Seife
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Charles Seife, a professor of journalism at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, has been writing about physics and mathematics for two decades. He is the author of seven books, including Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (2000), which won the 2000 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction; Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception (2010); and a forthcoming biography of physicist Stephen Hawking (2021).
Before arriving at NYU, Seife was a writer for Science magazine and had been a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist. His writing has also appeared in The Economist, Scientific American, ProPublica, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Discover, Slate, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and numerous other publications. He has also been a scientific consultant and writer for television documentaries about science and mathematics.
Seife holds an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University, an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University, and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University. He lives in New York with his wife, Meridith, and his children, Eliza and Daniel.
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

85 global ratings

5 star		57%
4 star		27%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		6%

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JP

Impressed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 23, 2012

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book to satisfy a long lingering curiosity about the subject of fusion. I'm nearly 40 years old with a somewhat faded recollection of my high school / college scientific lessons. I'm crusading to dust of existing knowledge, and planning to actually learn what I wish I'd paid more attention to during adolescence. I also need to catch up on the current state of human knowledge.

Combined with a few books about relativity, string theory and human evolution, this book has been worth the price of admission for me (biased as it may be).

I've spent some time reading reviewers' opinions, and I must say that I agree with many of them. You can spot the professional scientists a mile away (grumpy...lol). As well they should be, as hard as this field must be (let alone devoting your entire life to it).

The author's grammar, prose, vocabulary and articulation are razor sharp...it is impossible not to reap some level of knowledge.

I highly suggest reading this book, and as for its pessimistic tone, have a grain of salt handy. Self interest and glory chasing are, after all, the human conditions necessary to fuel any passionate endeavor. We all seek recognition and attention on at least some level. It is unfortunate that some of these "air guitarists" have lacked scientific integrity, exchanging morals for a quick buck or 15 minutes of fame. More like a lifetime of shame...but this should NOT detract from the hard-working, honest scientists in the field...not should it be the a basis for disregard or abandonment. We need an alternative energy source, and the R&D will continue to cost a lot of money for a long period of time. A necessary expenditure!

At least now I'm armed with enough general knowledge to grasp the implications and possibilities of a fusion powered world, and I hope the data gleaned from monster atom smashers like CERN will unearth a few discoveries to further this form of energy.

Now I'm off to search for something on quantum qechanics...and a little something more to wrap my brain around this "Higgs-boson." It's hard enough to envision a 4th dimension, let alone a universal system permeating / governing all things including space. I wonder what sorts of truths the July 4th Higgs Field discovery may reveal...fascinating stuff!

4 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

History of the Quest for Fusion Power

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2010

Verified Purchase

I read "Sun in a Bottle" because I have previously worked on tokamak technology in graduate school, and because I read a previous book by this author (Decoding the Universe), which I found to be very good. I was not disappointed because I found, like many others including at least some critics in this review list, that it was difficult to put down. "Sun in a Bottle" is basically a history book, and many of the stories are quite interesting. Probably few readers will have heard all of the details of many of the stories. Like any history book, the author's biases color the stories, but how else could it be? The author does unfairly leave the reader with the impression that there is little hope for fusion power in the foreseeable future. The mainstream magnetic confinement fusion effort has demonstrated that particle and energy confinement times increase with the device size. All indications are that a useful power-producing device will have to be big. Big things are expensive. The author cringes at the price tag of $5-10 billion dollars for ITER, ignoring the fact that the US alone is spending hundreds of billions of dollars over periods of a few years to control the oil production and the profits thereof in Iraq. The point of fusion is to replace oil, so the price tag is hardly outlandish. The indication that power producing fusion devices will have to be big is actually a good thing. Fusion reactions involving deuterium produce a lot more neutrons per joule of energy released than fission reactions. If power production from tabletop fusion were actually possible, it would be relatively easy to convert plentiful uranium 238 into plutonium, and thereafter manufacture an atomic bomb.

12 people found this helpful

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Calum MacKinnon

Compelling and comprehensive

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

I expected a technical history and description of fusion power. I did get that but also much more. This book is also about the process of scientific discovery and the drives and motivations of the scientists. It’s about human hope and despair and is written in an engaging, lucid and entertaining style that makes it understandable to the “ non- nuclear” physicist. I gave it four stars only because of its age. I now need to get up to date on the current state of the art.

2 people found this helpful

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Ben Cartwright

Thoroughly explains the whimsy of fusion, succinctly exposes the farce of cold fusion.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 25, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book will briefly discuss some basic physics of fusion and fission. My favorite part of the book is the explanation of the cold fusion fiasco.

More fundamentally, one of the main themes of this book is the fallacy of human nature to think that the laws of physics owe the human race a free lunch. This is exemplified in the today’s “renewable energy” push by all nations, not to mention the social welfare states in existence today.

However, the very acme of the idea of getting something for nothing is epitomized by the idea of endless energy from fusion. The fantasy of fusion and its subsequent free lunch, is such a strong attraction in the human psych that is can not be over estimated.

These very ideas floating around today are the same as the promise of electricity from nuclear fission such that “electricity will be so cheap, we won’t even deed to meter it.”

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Evolutionary Artefact

Why we're still waiting for fusion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 17, 2014

Verified Purchase

When tantalising possibilities are mixed with great (one could say, desperate) desires, the stage is set for plenty of heat and light. Charles Seife does an excellent job of explaining fusion in terms non-physicists can easily understand, while wryly describing why the quest for 'limitless free energy' has so far produced endless smoke and mirrors while steadfastly failing to get nearer than 30 years away from delivering a commercially-viable process.

Marc Vermeir

Very good overview of the history, challenges, politics and future outlook for fusion research

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

I knew next to nothing about fusion research before reading this book. I was vaguely aware of slow progress, with the goal of achieving sustainable fusion not seeming to come any closer. This book provides an excellent history of fusion research. It does an excellent job in explaining the various designs that have been tested so far or for which testing is ongoing and the problems encountered. It's not an optimistic picture. The book also delivers a candid view on the scientific process and the politics in relation to fusion research.

George R.

Exciting read, keeps the tension on. Very informative too.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 26, 2017

Verified Purchase

Kind of destroys my childhood dreams of working for the fusion research industry.
Still, it's fairly fundamental to know these things if you are interested in the general topic.

Mr Robert Ingram

This is an amazing book and even for someone who has very little ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 22, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is an amazing book and even for someone who has very little understanding of the subject it is easy to understand

Roller

Very interesting topic

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book is very well written. It is about Nuclear Fusion, and whether that can ever be viable source of power here on Earth. The book goes into the early work in Nuclear Power, and also gives a good background on how Nuclear Fusion relates to Nuclear Fission. The book is well written and is a good source of information for those who want to learn more about this topic.

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