How close are we to powering the world with nuclear fusion? - George Zaidan

Explore the possibility of nuclear fusion technology to create limitless, on-demand energy with almost no emissions.

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Stars have cores hot and dense enough to force atomic nuclei together, forming larger, heavier nuclei in a process known as fusion. In this process, the mass of the end products is slightly less than the mass of the initial atoms. But that “lost” mass doesn’t disappear — it’s converted to energy ... a lot of energy. So, can we harness this energy to power the world? George Zaidan investigates.

Lesson by George Zaidan, directed by Igor Ćorić, Artrake Studio.

This video made possible in collaboration with Speed & Scale

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[HayashiManabu]

I thought the quote would be:

“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand”

4:32 The power of the Sun, in the palm of his hand

[KC_]

I love that the best way humanity has found to harness energy is to get something so hot that it heats water to produce vapor to move turbines, and we've just changed the source of heat.

[AymenDZA]

It's still crazy that no matter what the energy source we decide to use is, it all comes down to: "boiling water and having steam turn turbines"

[charcoalberries]

Absolutely loving the Dr. Octopus comments 😂

[alexisduarte]

Investors when it doesn’t work out “Im ruined I have nothing left except spiderman”

[lolajo]

only person who can make small sun is dr Octopus

[simonsuarez]

Hi, I see an errata in minute 2:35, where the helium nucleus is wrongly labeled, in the video appears as "H" of hydrogen, when it should be "He" of Helium.
Otherwise, great video! Thank you @TED-Ed

[uncommon_name]

Never underestimate man's ability to innovate; if any lesson was learned from our long history is that "it can be done" given enough time any thing can be realized.

[mausprz]

What a dismissed opportunity to close the video with _“The power of the sun in the palm of my hand"_ at 04:30.

[joshuagcwong]

I could probably help, I once pushed the negative ends of two magnets together and got them to touch, fusion shouldn't be a problem 💪🗿

[abhishuoza]

I really love the soundtrack on this one, especially at 3:49. It gives off a feeling of miraculous, utopian, sci-fi like power. I suppose that's what controlling fusion actually is!

[SoldierBoySingingRapture]

It'll stabilize. It's under control 🕷

[TuanNguyen-bquc]

Still waiting and still hoping. Hope I can see it in this generation.

[dryft]

2:42 So basically a fancy steam engine, like nuclear reactors today.

[yowlolstfu]

I am confident that this will be achieved in the future. As history has shown us, human ingenuity progress exponentially. Maybe not in the near future nor in our lifetime, but someday.

[charlietsai]

People who are interested in fusion energy should really check out what Helion Energy has been doing. They don’t even bother to sustain the reaction, but by pulsing small fusion reactions steadily to output constant electricity. Plus, they don’t use steam turbines, they use electromagnetic fields to generate electricity, so that’s pretty cool.

[thedead_wraith]

I guess you could say that Ted Ed really shines a bright light on this topic. 👀

[Optimusprime]

He's got the sun, in his hand he's got the whole wide sun in his hand

[GrassesOn]

Doc Ock was decades ahead of his time.