Physical Attraction

In the early 1950s, optimism surrounding the potential for nuclear fusion in devices like the Stellarator, the pinch devices, and the magnetic mirror were frustrated by plasma inst...

In 1950-1, Argentine dictator Juan Peron and German scientist Ronald Richter announced that they had cracked the secret of limitless energy from nuclear fusion, and would soon sell...

Hello, and welcome to this episode of Thermonuclear Takes - our occasional bonus episodes that deal with topics in the news when there's just TOO MUCH EXCITING STUFF out there to t...

Building a nuclear fusion power plant is no easy feat. Fusion naturally occurs in temperatures comparable to those at the heart of the Sun - temperatures so hot as to instantly vap...

[Reupload with the actual, correct file this time - sorry!  Thomas]    When Teller's dream of a hydrogen, fusion bomb was eventually realised, it was another physicist, Ulam, who r...

You can get too caught up in praising the beauty of science and conflating that with praising the individual. I think we should recognise and appreciate brilliance, but stop short ...

Physical Attraction: 100th Episode Competition Physical Attraction is the podcast focused on physics, science and technology – and we're about to reach a very big milestone when o...

The good people of the United States Senate were not prepared for Huey P. Long. Could Huey Long's personality, travelling-salesman charm, and Share Our Wealth populism catapult him...

There's a famous saying that's attributed to the statistician Henry L Box – but it's one of the most important sayings for thinking about physics, and science in general. "All mod...

Our series of episodes on nuclear fusion begins with the Rutherford Gold Foil experiment, which first discovered the nucleus and changed our understanding of the atomic world forev...

What happened when one of history's most esteemed biologists fought with one of history's most esteemed physicists about how old the Earth could be? And what has any of this got to...

In 1928, Huey Long was riding high. He'd beaten all opposition and achieved the second step in his life-plan. Get elected to minor public office, check. Get elected to the Governor...