I continue to be very concerned about the energy future of our world and its implications on global climate change. I mentioned that hydrogen fusion appears today to be the ultimate answer to powering the planet with clean, safe, renewable energy. I will describe it more fully after I remind us that today we must focus on other forms of renewable energy that do not expand the greenhouse gas impacts. All Earth inhabitants are alive today because of hydrogen fusion. Our Sun is a fusion reactor, and recreating that incredible energy source here on Earth is a reasonable human approach-“take the best of nature.” Fusion comes from the Latin-fundere-to pour or melt. A history review reminds us that in 1946 the UK Atomic Energy Authority patented a fusion reaction but without reliable success. Since that time the pursuit of “thermo nuclear” fusion has been a challenge. The Sun works because of its exteme heat, 15 million degrees Celsius and very high gravitational force. The ITER (Latin meaning The Way) reactor is a 35 nation collaboration of major country’s . The most complex machine ever built will need to reach 150 million degrees Celsius-10 times hotter than the sun’s core. Yes, this heat can be contained in a very strong magnetic field. Sounds impossible, but hydrogen is the most plentiful element in the universe and this heavy hydrogen (deuterium) is abundant in sea water. Deuterium is then fused with tritium which produces helium and a neutron of high energy. ITER is expected to have a production test in 2025 and perhaps practical application by 2050. Science will likely find a way to save our planet but in the meantime we should do all we can to give them an assist.
Hank asked me if I knew what the word vaccine meant? Must admit, I can define it but the derivation escaped my knowledge. Hank had watched a first grade video to discover the word comes from a cowpox virus, vaccinia, the Latin word for cow. Many different animal species have their own pox virus, hence smallpox-variola virus for humans and cowpox for cows. The rest of the story. As the eighteen century was coming to an end, an English Physician, Edward Jenner, followed an urban legend. Milk maids who got cowpox from an infected animal did not get smallpox. A full recovery from the cow variant left little after affect while smallpox would likely cause disfiguring scars at best and death in the worst case.
Jenner did not have the FDA, CDC or sophisticated evaluation protocols to follow so he inoculated an eight year old boy with coxpox. The boy contracted and recovered from the disease. Jenner then inoculated him with smallpox—the boy was immune. After a trial that included 22 more fortunate patients, he published his findings in 1798. The term vaccine quickly came to be applied in English and is used today. Thanks to Jenner the scourge that was smallpox was eventually eradicated.
Thanks to our scientists we can imagine Covid containment and a return to a more normal world. We can keep our fingers crossed while the scientists try to help us save our planet. Stay safe and wear that mask. Mike