Of course, this isn't the first time someone has claimed success in nuclear fusion. There have been Ronald Richter, John Cockcroft (with ZETA), Martin Fleischmann & Stanley Pons, and North Korea, among others, whose claims haven't panned out. On the other hand, I believe (and I suppose most of us who post here do as well) that net gain from nuclear fusion is close at hand, mostly a matter of continued research, and the time and funding necessary for that. I'm not going to change my current signature just yet, but I do like Coulter's attitude about openness and replication. If he has what he says he has, it shouldn't be difficult to replicate. He says he's spent about $500,000 overall.Most good papers meant for publication are all about quantification of things, measurements and math (should be new math, but often isn't). I don't have tons of that, though we've gone from almost immeasurable nano-watts of fusion to 30uW (replicable, and easy) and 84 milliwatts (replicated here but only once as I needed and still need more shielding before I try that again - that was near-lethal in a 20 second exposure and I actually got really sick from it). Since we get all the energy we put in back out as heat. that's a "Q" of 1.084, a bit shy of practical breakeven but well over scientific as defined currently. This tech has that property "for free" - anything extra you get is gain assuming you have a 100% efficient heat engine - but we don't.
As far as a "how to" for replication of where we provably are at right now, this board (though some parts are kind of off the beaten path) kind of has that, just not as a single narrative, which could be done quite easily. This is just not that hard to do, as it turns out - the real adventure was finding out how others' assumptions were wrong, doing something about that, and learning how to have those "Fleming moments" on purpose - and reacting appropriately when we saw something we "shouldn't have seen", but did. That would be tons more fun to write up and a good example for others to follow, seeing how many orders of magnitude we've improved this field in such a short time. The idea being to set a good example and help correct the crystallization (stagnation) of science.
For example, we haven't measured quantitatively quite a few things, though we HAVE measured some things others have not, and that's good stuff. I'm judging focus quality by eye, not by accurate measurement, as for now, it's obviously the thing worth improving, and qualitatively, it has an exponential effect when you do. (as usual, the SM says what we think we see - we agree again on the effects of luminosity; SM hindsight is 20-20.) Most of our measurements about the things that matter (eg what's going on in there, not what we put in or get out, which are easy and are logged as we run) are mainly qualitative. For me, that doesn't make the cut for a journal.
Also, he's in need of a lab assistant, or was a few days ago:
If I wasn't halfway around the world (and probably not very qualified, and needing to feed several mouths) I'd seriously consider it.At the moment, the main help I could use is a lab assistant. I'm 100% hours-in-the-day-limited at the moment - we have everything we could want as far as gear goes. (remember, I live alone in the middle of nowhere off the grid in buildings I built and maintain 40+ acres, which also takes some time) There have been offers from various people (that movie fame stuff) but though I've accepted - no one has shown up yet. Darn! I guess people just got excited at first, then reality steps in about some kind of major lifestyle change working here would necessitate, for most. My moral quandary is that I have essentially no income at the moment to pay a real lab guy. Sure, various tricks could raise some "amount". But lab guys, and lets face it - I don't need a schlub here - are expensive at a rate, not an amount. Asking someone to relocate to work here for a short period till the money likely runs out is counter to my moral universe, so I've not taken that path at this point. You never know. I have had a couple calls from major energy outfits that want to buy in - for a piece. The thing is, an exclusive is not for sale here. Maybe I can get them to form a consortium or something, which would then be OK, as they'd all have equal access to the results. Stellar as their records are, I don't think I just want to give this to T. Boone Pickens or even Elon Musk exclusively, even though I kinda like them (for different reasons).