Talk-Polywell.org

Hello, I've been following Polywell developments for quite some time. I've even joined the Yahoo groups (you may know me as "greenhillsofearth"), and fusor.net. Trough Polywell I have found motivation to broaden my knowledge of physics and science in general.

I hope we see a bright future.

Thanks for joining the discussion! I too have learned more physics in the last six months than in the previous six years. In my case at least, this was because I was initially skeptical about Dr. Bussard's results, and so I dug up all the published papers I could find and studied them. The result was that I know a lot more plasma physics than I did before, and I think Dr. Bussard may well be on to something that's very very important!

I'm a freshman college student, math/physics double major (with a healthy interest in chemistry and engineering too), and I saw the fusor stuff several years ago and was excited, but I realized it wasn't going anywhere. So when I came across the Polywell discussion on nasaspaceflight.com forum (I'm into space-flight as well!) it really got my interest. So that's why I'm here.

My family has always been big on conserving energy and being good stewards of the earth in general, so clean fusion power is very appealing to me. I also did a research paper in highschool on the coming oil crisis!

Anyway, this is making me impatient with my schooling: I want to hurry up and learn some plasma physics!

Solo wrote:I'm a freshman college student, math/physics double major (with a healthy interest in chemistry and engineering too)... Anyway, this is making me impatient with my schooling: I want to hurry up and learn some plasma physics!

Where are you going to school? Do they have a decent plasma physics lab there?

I confess I'm a bit jealous: you're at the perfect age and place to really have an impact on this field. I've got far too many responsibilities (most importantly, kids!) to go back to school now, otherwise I'd give it serious thought myself. (My background is in neuroscience and software engineering, neither of which is terribly helpful for this.)

As an undergrad, you probably won't have much opportunity to choose real research projects. But here's what I suggest: work hard in your courses, especially the physics ones, and impress your teachers. Get to know the faculty in your department. Then, at the end of a course you've done well in, ask your teacher to introduce you to whoever's doing work in plasma physics (you should know who this is) about arranging an independent study. If you're in the Honors program, the program chair should be able to help make this happen.

And keep us posted on how it goes! You may not get to make real contributions to the field until you're a post-doc, and we can hope that by then (eight years from now or so?) Polywell fusion will already be nearing commercialization. But things often go slower than we would like, and it wouldn't all surprise me if we're still trying to get the ball rolling then.

The other thing you could do, as a student, is try to do a summer internship at EMC2. Dr. Bussard may not have the time or patience for an undergrad (just guessing here), but once you're in grad school, I bet he'd be happy to have some extra help around the lab, especially if you're willing to work for peanuts (as is normal in grad school anyway). It's a thought, anyway.

I'm at Carson-Newman College. It's got about the smallest physics department I've ever heard of, lol! (But my dad teaches here, so I go for free, pretty much! Can't beat that.) I'm planning on going to U. of T at Knoxville for grad school, they've got much better labs etc.

An internship would be amazing, though you're probably right, they'd prefer grad students. (I'm going to apply to Blue Origin for their internship program in the mean time, though!)

Welcome to the forum.

Would you be interested in reproducing some small-scale experiments regarding Polywell?

I'm rather strapped for cash, being a college student and all! I'd certainly be interested, but I'm not sure how much I could contribute. My feeling right now is that what we need is a large, well-built machine, and I doubt I could do anything to help with that. But perhaps some systems components could be tested on a shoestring buget. Hmm, this subject probably deserves a new thread!

Hello, I'm from a board that Zixinus mentioned these forums on. What with Peak Oil and all, I reckon Polywell could be one of the most awesome stories of the century.

Hello Winston Blake. Welcome to the forum. Which board are you from?

Tony Barry; from Sydney, Australia. Engineering. Mainly interfacing machines to computers (microcontrollers, embedded, etc). Currently working in medical research. Heard about Bussard polywells from a doctor who wanted to know if it was a scam ... I did some reading, and then some more reading. Seems like it's the real deal. Good to find other people interested. I'll keep an eye on the list.
Regards,
TB

Howdy folks! You can call me "Schneib" for short. I was attracted by a post on the Randi forums. Interesting group you got here. Hope it grows some.

I'm a software engineer, with a couple decades in the business. I'm an armchair physics buff; I thought about a physics education, but went into CS instead (for the $$ of course, but also for the fun). I've been curious about physics, astronomy/astrophysics, cosmology and the like since I was a kid; I'm also an amateur astronomer, and an amateur wildlife photographer. I've done a lot of reading over the years about physics, so I know my way around a fair bit; and I've always had a strong interest in fusion. Being lazy, I avoid the math if I can. But I know my way around some of that, too. I'm pretty good at searching, too.

I'm pretty interested in Dr. Bussard's idea. Of the three ideas I refer to as "small fusion," by which I mean something short of the Tokamak, I find this one the most likely. (The other two are off-topic for this forum, but ask and I shall answer, if you're curious.) I'd like to follow this, and I hope some papers come out soon. I'll chime in as I see the opportunity to contribute something.

Tony Barry; from Sydney, Australia. Engineering.

Howdy.

Howdy folks! You can call me "Schneib" for short.

Hello Schneib. From the South?

Zixinus wrote:

Howdy folks! You can call me "Schneib" for short.

Hello Schneib. From the South?

No, the West Coast.

Just introducing myself here. I'm faculty (pre-tenure) at UC Santa Cruz, in the computer engineering department. My research is in the area of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC), mostly I work with autonomous vehicles.

I can do some pretty hard math, but I don't know much about plasma physics. I can however, pull most published references fairly quickly at least through inter-library loan.

I can, however, see the implications of clean and low-cost power, and I would love to see it happen in my lifetime.

--Gabriel

Hello Gabriel, and welcome to the forum.

Tony Barry