num_pages: 272
description: From a young award-winning scientist a thoughtful and illuminating ( Nature ) look at one of the most compelling and historic turning points of our timethe race to harness the power of the stars and produce controlled fusion creating a practically unlimited supply of clean energy.The most important energy-making process in the universe takes place inside stars. The ability to duplicate that process in a lab once thought impossible may now be closer than we think. Today teams of scientists around the world are being assembled by the boldest entrepreneurs big business and governments to solve what is the most difficult technological challenge humanity has ever building the equivalent of a star on earth. If their plans to capture star power are successful they will unlock thousands potentially millions of years of clean carbon-free energy.Not only would controlled nuclear fusion help solve the climate crisis it could also make other highly desired technological ambitions possiblelike journeying to the stars. Given the rising alarm over deterioration of the environment and the strides being made in laser and magnetic field technology powerful momentum is gathering behind fusion and the possibilities it offers.In The Star Builders  award-winning young plasma physicist Arthur Turrell offers an optimistic outlook for the future of fusion power and is adamant about the need to invest in it ( The New York Times ). Turrell describes fascinating star machines with ten times as many parts as the NASA Space Shuttle and structures that extend over 400 acres in an accessible and entertaining account spotlighting the individuals firms and institutions racing for the finish science-minded entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel companies like Goldman Sachs and Google universities like Oxford and MIT and virtually every rich nation.Its an exciting and game-changing international quest that will make all of us winners.
language: English
title: The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet
publisher: Scribner