Nearly a dozen years ago I wrote an article for  The Huffington Pos t on  Star Power for Humanit y.  The latest June issue of  Scientific American  featured  Star Power: What is the future of fusion energy?   You can click on that link for the full article.  I'll summarize: This past December, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( LLNR ) claimed a breakthrough in attaining net positive with their laser fusion system.  No one had ever done that before. As an aside, I worked there in the 1970's on that project, and left because I could not envision the laser that would accomplish this task.  Can you believe that was around half a century ago? The bad news is that net positive is a long way from commercialization.  And certainly, that intriguing ultimate laser has not yet been invented. Well anyway, this article was written by Philip Ball, a British science writer who is my same age.  He has a PhD in physics from Bristol University.  Easy to read  Sci Am  article with no eq

Two major news stories recently about hydrogen. In September the White House launched a generational  $7 billion hydrogen plan. Then this month the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNR) announced a  momentous breakthrough in harnessing controlled nuclear fusion . When I retired in 1999 I took on the gargantuan task to help save Humanity and Planet Earth.  Wrote several books on the subject.  Two of my early contributions were, one, in 1979 drafting the first hydrogen bill when I worked in the U.S. Senate.  And second, this was after spending two stints at LLNR working on the laser fusion program.  I keep telling people that I'm here just to plant seeds for the future.  Well, such good news more than 40 years later is fine enough for me. Long ago I became enamored with  hydrogen , for our Sun and all the stars generate energy by fusing this gas.  It is the most abundant element in the Universe.  Combust hydrogen in our atmosphere, and the products are energy and water.  If s

         From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):     DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85 Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118 Dec     30       3880    14748       1224       299      465 Jan      14         4142     15512       1151        189      712 Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398 Mar     2        1989     9490        1726       110      194 April   6         906     11787         4211       631       37 May    4         853     13667         3025     3786     59   June   1         287    10637         2346      3205      95  July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411 A