Man-made star to unlock cosmic secrets

news.bbc.co.uk

4 points·habs··4 comments

This reminds me of another article that was posted to HN a few months ago. The author speculated that one of the reasons why we have not seen signs of alien life, is that any advanced civilization capable of space travel will eventually create a technology that they don't understand, and that destroys them.

I don't think we will be destroyed this time, but we will probably come to a point where there are things we shouldn't try unless we can test the experiment on another planet.

Well, to be sure, calling this a "Man-made star" is quite a stretch. In fact, it is nothing of the sort. It is a small-scale fusion reaction. Yes, this can indeed tell them some things about how stars operate, but in no way, shape, or form does it, as claimed by the article, "allow the researchers to probe the insides of stars and supernovae in unprecedented detail".

That's not to say they won't be surprised by some unexpected side-effects. Who knows? But they certainly won't be doing a 2010 to planet Earth. Besides, we have already created fusion reactions vastly larger than what NIF will be creating. It's called the hydrogen bomb.

I couldn't find any credits, but the narrator in the video at the bottom of this article sounds like Samuel L. Jackson (to my ears).

I had no idea we were building such a facility. It sounds like fertile scientific ground.

Woah. I remember Spiderman 2. Are they sure this is such a good idea?

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