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Fusion is the physical process in stars which generates energy. Incomprehensible amounts of pressure and heat covert hydrogen into helium. It is the engine which drives the universe, but it does create a fair bit of nasty radiation.

Cold fusion is based on the theory that energy may be created in a more controlled fashion. The goal is to generate a smaller amount of heat without all the dangerous behavior which occurs inside a star. Unfortunately, the field of study was ruined in 1989 by some irresponsible geniuses and a lot of crackpots.

Since then, a small number of respectable scientists at NASA, NRL and the DOE have studied these types of reactions. To avoid crackpots, they have termed their research as Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR). Although they have not discovered any magical formulas, there has been enough progress to justify continued funding.

In early 2011 an Italian physicist, Andrea Rossi, announced that he had created a functioning device. It generates a good deal of heat by converting nickel into copper. This heat may be used directly as a furnace or to generate electricity through steam turbines (the same way coal and nuclear power plants operate). There have been a number of demonstrations for technical audiences and a major trial will be run on October 28th. If Rossi's Energy Catalyzer (e-cat) device is real, energy will become more-or-less free.   read more >>

Today I stood next to the winner of the 2010 Nobel prize winner in chemistry. I was even able to see the medal, which is made of solid gold. He says Americans know what an Olympic medal looks like, but can't recognize the Nobel medal.

Of course, most of the students at the university walked by without realizing a thing.

It was a very interesting day!

Google, Eyebeam and Fast Company are hosting a data visualization challenge:

Every year, Americans fill out income tax forms and make a payment to the IRS. It’s an important civic duty, but it is also a lot of money. Where does it all go? Using data provided by WhatWePayFor.com, we challenge you to create a data visualization that will make it easier for U.S. citizens to understand how the government spends our tax money.

When I learned about the visualization challenge, I'll admit I didn't actually know many hard facts about government spending. I knew the military and national defense were huge expenditures, but wouldn't have been able to accurately place them in relation to other large expenses, such as social security.

I decided my level of knowledge would likely be similar to that of potential visitors, so I used that as a strength. Building a tool which helps me better understand the budget should be equally useful to others.   read more >>

ARM has announced a 2mm x 2mm x 2mm (8.75mm³) glaucoma sensor that can be embedded in your eye. You can read the full write-up, along with a lot of computer architecture discussion, over at SemiAccurate.

Now I'm not going to be the first person in line to become a cyborg, but I've had a good idea where the world was headed ever since I read Vernor Vinge. If you've never heard of him, I'd recommend starting with Rainbows End or A Deepness in the Sky.

In short, we can expect that computers will become a part of everything around us. Further, it's likely that computers will be built into our clothes and integrated with our bodies. Something as simple as a contact lens may become your primary interface to the Internet and the world. Imagine being able to exchange text messages just by thinking the words...

I definitely behave like a pack-rat on occasion. Particularly when it comes to digital content, which is painless to store and relatively easy to organize, there is a great temptation to keep everything. But at the same time, I recognize that our brain's capability to forget is actually beneficial - unimportant/unimpressive things shouldn't take up space or waste our time.

I seriously suspect this will come back to haunt a lot of us in the future, as we accumulate unprecedented quantities of digital goods we can't bear to let go of. Imagine having to wade through 100,000 photos your parents took during the course of their lives. Would you ever bother to do it? How many would you actually care to keep? What if each branch on your family tree had that many photos?

In that spirit, I am revisiting the content of my site. The good and useful will stay - all else will fade...