MIT Professor Explains Nuclear Fusion in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

[@jopo7996]

I'm pretty impressed with myself. I easily understood all of this completely, right up to the point where she started level 1.

[@RichardFeynmanRules]

Cracked me up!

[@kmanccr]

Haha I was gunna say. Level 1 was complicated, don't know if I could get to level 5.

[@peach7210]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@wowalamoiz9489]

Lemme try. Nuclei have positive electric fields. These make two nuclei repel each other. This acts as a barrier that prevents fusion. This is caused by the protons. There is an attractive force called the strong force produced by protons and neutrons. This is stronger than the electrostatic force, but it weakens more with distance. If you give enough force to the nuclei, they can move past the electric field and get bonded with the strong force. Hydrogen has many variations in its nuclei based on how many neutrons are in it. The nuclei with neutrons are preferred because they increase the amount of strong force without increasing the electric force. The problem with fusion is finding how to get through the electric field without it taking more energy to do that than what you get out of fusion. Because if you don't care about that, doing fusion by itself isn't that hard. It just won't produce more energy than it takes.

[@kitefan1]

That's because it was entertaining but she never gave a simple explanation for what fusion is until the third student. Fossil and Nuclear power plants have an energy source that makes heat that is used to generate electricity. The center of an atom is a nucleus containing protons and neutrons. The radioactive materials are very heavy and have many protons and neutrons Heavy element Uranium has 92 protons and 141 to 146 neutrons. Light element Hydrogen has one proton and 1 to 3 neutrons and is relatively cheap. Our regular nuclear fission power plants enable heavy atomic nuclei with many protons and neutrons to split or impact other heavy nuclei releasing enormous amounts of energy and a relatively large amount of radioactivity and radioactive waste. Containing the fission reaction is complicated but is possible using borated water, lead and normal structural materials such as steel, reinforced concrete and so on. Fusion plants enable a process where lighter nuclei to combine into a heavier nucleus and release enormous amounts of energy and less radioactive waste. To make a fusion reaction the atoms have to be heated to enormous heat under enormous pressure until they reach a state of matter called plasma. Normal materials cannot contain this hot, pressurized plasma. The only way found (so far) is to create a containment out of an enormously powerful and stable magnetic field. A team in Lawrence Livermore had a fusion for 20-billionths of a second. This is a landmark achievement.

[@mariannamccallum]

That’s me in level 2!! So much fun to film❤️

[@robbyddurham1624]

At first I thought you meant that level 2 is where you dropped out in understanding, now I think you meant, that was actually you being filmed. Nice to see you.

[@MemeB0MB]

Cool !

[@nicolecunningham5477]

☺️❤️❤️❤️

[@MANOFTIME]

How did you get selected for the video?

[@YellowMustard_]

That’s cool

[@iTiger13]

Level 6: Oppenheimer

[@simplylethul]

Level 7: crime against humanity in which no one was prosecuted.

[@koala.justakoala4287]

Afaik that’s fission, might be wrong tho🤓🤓🤓

[@antoniousai1989]

@@koala.justakoala4287 Oppenheimer was supposed to participate in the project of the first Fusion bomb, but he refused and was accused of not being patriotic during the red scare period.

[@koala.justakoala4287]

@@antoniousai1989 oh, interesting. Good to know, thanks!

[@bournechupacabra]

His main contribution was to fission, not fusion

[@OrigamiMaster06]

The moment she said that ion and electron plasma are modeled as separate fluid flows and that the model needs to account for particle interactions ALONG with magnetic fields my jaw dropped. The amount of head banging you'd have to do to even TRY to model that yet alone simulate it. Geez these people are miracle workers.

[@oraziovescovi1922]

my thought is (correct me if I am wrong!): don't moving charges create a magnetic field? I can't even begin thinking about a turbolent magnetic field They probably have to take that into account also...

[@sankang9425]

Some describe Fusion as "sculpting a Michelangelo statue with jelly and metal wire".

[@wowalamoiz9489]

​@@sankang9425It's not that hard... If your goal isn't to produce energy.

[@newmeta2668]

@@wowalamoiz9489the problem is not making a fusion reaction. The problem is making a self-sustaining fusion reaction.

[@wowalamoiz9489]

@@newmeta2668 Which is basically what I said...

[@snsdk]

I love these videos of 5 levels of difficulty, the best of the channel by far.

[@s3cr3tpassword]

I used to be a physicist, condensed matter specifically synthesis and characterization of materials, and now working in tech. When I first transitioned a lot of my peers thought when I said instrumentation they thought I played music.

[@robbyddurham1624]

How could your peers think music? They probably used test equipment daily. I'm just a tech with a 2 year degree and my first thought was test equipment. I'm struggling with not being intelligent enough to get past calculus and understanding more. I'm 58 years old. I feel like I'm smarter than I was 30 years ago. I think I could get past calculus today, but by the time I moved on, I think my smarts will start to decline. I need to be happy with understanding and learning how "handy man" stuff works.

[@KevinMakins]

It's a revelation to realize that words describe reality, not just in one domain but in all domains. Provided we name well.

[@mayito714]

@@robbyddurham1624 Calculus is not difficult if you have a "strong" Algebra and Trigonometry base. Algebra and Trigonometry is much needed in solving Calculus problems or it becomes a problem.

[@jeylful]

Thank you Wired for bringing these complex but important subjects to everyone in different levels. Fabulous job!

[@johnchessant3012]

So fascinating! I'm more of a math guy, but the description of turbulence and gyrokinetic theory sounds like it might give rise to some really interesting math problems. A great reminder of exactly why I picked physics for my second major back in school.

[@willis936]

Stellarator optimization is a fun area of applied math research as well. Fun coordinate systems, multiple stages of optimization feeding back and forward, etc.

[@frankathl1]

@@willis936Fun? Yeah, I happened stopped laughing since lunch!

[@yellostallion]

The universe speaks math - Niel Degrasse Tyson

[@MarlonValcq]

I made it through level 4. It is indeed really interesting.

[@MeoWHamster]

Wait until you hear about Magnetohydrodynamics.

[@lexirubber9210]

That level one explainer was probably a little complicated for them

[@Campaigner82]

Charged particles was tricky but turbulence..? No idea about that. Lost it totally at lvl 4. Star in a jar it is! 😄

[@martian14]

Have you heard about the different sizes of infinity? 😅

[@Campaigner82]

@@martian14 Nope

[@janoycresva276]

Truly remarkable how smart she is that she made something simple enough for a child to understand.

[@jimmydelacruz]

I loved the level 1 girl's question; she asked if they keep the invisible matter in one place to not forget where it is at all times, which is true.

[@lilytea3]

0:57: 🌟 Nuclear fusion is a clean and limitless form of energy that involves bringing particles together to release energy. 4:03: 🔬 Plasma is the fourth state of matter, and it can be controlled using magnetic fields. 7:17: ⚛ The tokamak is a device used to confine and control a super hot plasma in order to harness fusion energy. 10:51: 🔥 Fusion requires high temperatures and densities to make particles collide and fuse, producing energy that can be converted into electricity. 15:01: 🔬 Fusion energy sources, which are predominantly fully ionized plasmas, have a lot of mystery around them due to the complexity of turbulence and magnetic fields. 18:06: 🌪 Turbulence in plasma physics is a complex and visually beautiful phenomenon that affects the performance of fusion reactors. 22:09: ⚛ Fusion energy research is accelerating with the involvement of private companies and advancements in other fields, bringing us closer to achieving fusion electricity on the grids. Recap by Tammy AI

[@Kevin-3333]

Science is so fun and moves so rapidly that even the scientists themselves underestimate our abilities. She ended this wonderful video saying she thinks net electricity in a decade and yet in August of 2023 we achieved net energy gained for the first time. Shows you how brilliant the people working on this stuff truly are!

[@markiep8477]

This is an amazing series. Please keep it up!

[@Mio_Azusa]

I love watching learning videos like this that would take me a thousand years to fully comprehend

[@SuperLocrian]

Great video but there is a rough edit (missing dialogue) at 13:23. I assume she is talking about the helium nucleus... Awesome video, she really explained everything so clearly! Thanks!

[@rohanmanian4250]

This series has been highly knowledgeable.looking forward to more of it.

[@rizkymumtaza]

Would love to have more discussion about magnetic confinement vs inertial confinement in approaching fusion reaction

[@bananacrunch]

I love these videos, but some are better than others. This one is top tier. It helps that at the end of the video, I have so much hope for the future of energy.

[@Sunflowersarepretty]

I made it through the first and second level. Such an intelligent, well spoken person. I need more of these.

[@MelvinHawkins-k7k]

This series has been highly knowledgeable.looking forward to more of it.. I love this series! She’s a great educator! .

[@ctrlz9372]

5 minutes through the video and i was incredibly impressed with the child engagement with the professor. how she can come up with question and also explaining about her understanding towards science is plausible. and the professor is such a brilliant educator i wish she taught me in university

[@jessetrott2549]

this is a fantastic series

[@robertwalkley4665]

I love this 5 Levels of Difficulty series so much, it's truly excellent, gj WIRED. A tip for people with any other topic, is that I've found ChatGPT be pretty good at explaining things to be in different levels of difficulty too. No where near as good, but can help.

[@dcfan2222]

Found the blood doctor randomly on here, and i have been completely addicted. These are so educational, and informational, broken down to a level of universal understanding. So so awesome!

[@AdanTrujillo1]

I love these series! I would love to see an episode with someone that has a PHd in Philosophy!

[@jpa_fasty3997]

Question for anyone that knows, since the plasma inside the tokomak is confined magnetically, what boundary condition do you use at the edge of the plasma field? Is it no slip or free surface or something else?

[@jessearodriguez]

This is a killer question. When we model plasmas with what are called ‘particle-in-cell’ or ‘kinetic’ numerical models (this is what we use for tokamaks), one of the most difficult things to get right is the boundary conditions. Most often, the boundary is located at the reactor wall, and the conditions we impose are things like disallowing particles to penetrate this wall (called a no-flux condition) and making sure that the EM fields and /or electron density drops to zero at the wall (called sheath boundary conditions). Choosing the shape and thickness of the sheath fields can have a huge effect on your results, so it’s important to get it right!

[@kwasisb5390]

Wait so basically fusion produces huge or enormous amounts of energy enough to make electricity production wayyy better and more efficient, eventually cheaper, and to get that you'll need the plasma state and you'll have to be able to keep those energetic particles under control, so what in summary is the exact issue they're facing . Is it about getting the particles under control or finding ways to get more energy plasma state or?? I didn't quite get that.

[@taylorsalva2417]

I think it's the confinement of the plasma, as in holding it in the device. As it stands they haven't been able to hold the crazy hot plasma for more than a fraction of a second

[@oraziovescovi1922]

they have been able to hold it for quite long, up to 10 minutes (!) I believe, but we still lack the instrumentation able to withstand the heat produced: most of the existing thomawaks are lab instruments and not made to actually harvest the heat as they would in a real powerplant. They actually have to manually shut the reaction down not to melt the instruments. Beyond that, the issue is harvesting the energy - it requires tremendous amount of energy to kickstart the reaction. there is a relatively small margin of net energy that we can harvest, but the net balance is currently negative

[@canobenitez]

I wonder if AI would help us to tackle these kind of feats, image harvesting the power of the sun! amazing stuff @@oraziovescovi1922

[@naeuch0489]

I love these type of videos

[@IGNOBLEVOIDPEEKER]

DO PHILOSOPHY! I am a Ph.D. student in Philosophy (at a top 25, for what it's worth) and I would love to see my colleagues, peers, and aspiring philosophers talk about topics in ethics (obligation, promises, good/evil, action), metaphysics (causation, self, space-time, possible worlds), social-political philosophy (law, society, justice, prisons). It would, indeed, be a treat to see people's intuitions on such complex topics!

[@CertifiedSupplyChainPro]

RIP for your career choice lmao

[@Melarona23]

​@troth. Pretty wrong. My uni teacher had a degree in philosophy. There are jobs that do hire them and they can go into academics, teacher training, education etc. All u need is to Google search and alot of opition will come up.

[@CertifiedSupplyChainPro]

@@Melarona23 supply chain is GOAT'd

[@MemeB0MB]

@@CertifiedSupplyChainPro Philosophy is an amazing career choice, not everyone is chasing money, the love of knowledge is much more rewarding

[@CertifiedSupplyChainPro]

@NobodyCares100 both acheived w Supply Chain + real world practically. All you need is Charlie Mungers 'Poor Charlie's Almonack' for philosophy 😉

[@stephenjones9444]

Due to a private tour of the Bevatron synchrotron at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in 1970 (I was 11 years old) I have had a life long interest in high energy physics. Watching this video I was happy to find that all 5 levels were understandable to me and my knowledge of what was (and probably is) occurring in the fusion field has now been enhanced. Despite having a career in chemistry, physics has always been the area I find most exciting.... now you have whet my appetite I am about to dive down the rabbit hole of fusion research as it is today in November 2024. Thanks for the video nudge, great content!

[@Spartacus-4297]

Ok... Well I didn't expect to understand and have knowledge of every level I knew I had a good grasp but I didn't think my understanding was quite as strong as it is. It really helped me put my understanding of the field in perspective, I still have some things to learn about but not as much as I expected.

[@shunyaku7759]

Huh. I coulda sworn Tokamak was the name of a particulars particle accelerator. Gonna have to rewatch some old videos sometime with a better understanding.

[@adammolnar2520]

That expert is a boss! So cool.

[@aureliusfeynman485]

That little girl is so sweet and bright, she has intelligent eyes and an inquisitive mind 🥰 I hope she keeps her love for Science all her life and become whichever kind of scientist she wants!

[@LuquiLuck]

At first I was just hearing the video, but when the expert appeared, my instinct said, this man sounds like Spanish, so I watched the video and saw his name x) We have a very characterstic accent. By the way, I loved the way how you explained this, I understood everything you said. A pitty I didn't have this kind of teachers back in highschool, otherwise my study path would have been so different.

[@elvishiekios8826]

Well rejoice! You have your dream teachers NOW! We age and continue to learn! SOLON.

[@trooper1972]

I understood level 1 perfectly 😁

[@theflightguy777]

🎉me too

[@RIRIany]

wow! you know she's an expert when they can explain it pretty smooth for non-STEM graduated like me. it's really interesting! i hope i have the priviledge that i never had and could introduce the beauty of science to my future children.

[@bepisbepi]

Level 1: We want to make stars on Earth! Level 2: We want to smash plasma with magnets! Level 3: We want to smash VERY hot deuterons and tritions! Level 4: We want to minimize heat fluctuations to increase yield! Level 5: We want money!

[@peterlee9491]

As an educator, I appreciate the different levels of approach explaining a matter of complexity.

[@chrisCNX7522]

is there any way we can see the unedited conversations and interactions? I know that its edited for video size and expediency sake, however I am far more interested in the actually full dialogue back and forth. or if nothing else the transcript?

[@Sahabatdum]

You definitely have my sub. This content is next level. For me cannafarm ltd was the turning point. Please keep doing what you do and keep being you, love it.

[@Jrfusion08]

I don't think a child would understand level 1. The kid was lost and just nodding... then again I may be projecting what I was doing during the discussion :D

[@fabiocaetanofigueiredo1353]

Agree, she could have made it even simpler. Awesome video though!

[@Paradox-om6lm]

For level 1 I would just say I am trying to on a small scale replicate the process that causes our sun to give out light and heat in a laboratory on earth.

[@ТерентийКузнецов]

It's funny seeing vepp at 0:20 in a video about plasma. It looks like showing LHC in a video about ISS

[@sadchild70]

I love that the 9 year old is totally rocking the popped collar.

[@Amelyasalva]

Thanks! I like my style 😊

[@Imran-Desk]

I like how they are all preparing you before you go to watch Oppenheimer😅

[@andreasarmiento1999]

Assuming of course that normal people level of intelligence can understand these difficult concepts

[@dtriplett03]

6:00 it's amazing to learn..(become aware) of new "things"❤

[@CyOfficial0x]

I adore genius people. Great video!

[@Rkcuddles]

Oh yay. I have done the lvl1-2 of this explanation before and it’s fascinating to observe what questions kids ask.

[@TheeHamiltons]

Would love a follow on to cover recent net positive runs, records broken along with the impact of machine learning / neural nets on model optimizations and corresponding impact (performance gains, learnings)

[@mr.rodzhers8663]

I have already watched 2 episodes and it is becoming more interesting for me

[@CartoonKidOLLY]

I love this series! She’s a great educator! 😊

[@yousufnazir8141]

Excellent explanation for the solutions of the energy

[@alexanderloeb]

14:20 Isn’t flame kind of a plasma? 🤔

[@ravikeertiyadav5731]

Depends on the temperature normal fire is not plasma

[@robertorizzo3159]

She is awesome!! Very “easy” to understand

[@neoness1268]

I've learned more of fusion through the his video, than in other cases in my entire life 😬👍

[@mitzacookie]

I love how the level 5 involves talking about budgets and $ limitations and how we want to commercialize fussion lol

[@MechidPodcast]

Amelya was lucky to sit with Professor Anne. She will make a good scientist in the future.

[@Amelyasalva]

Thank you! I felt very lucky to be a part of this!

[@mustafadanishmand-u3v]

THANKS

[@1eingram]

I don't need an explanation of how fusion works. I just need you guys perfect the practical application of it for the sake of making the planet more livable for a few more years.

[@utkarshsharma9547]

I am in love with the grad student 😍 Miss Madelyn❤❤

[@paulsullivan649]

These discussions were all amazing. Holy crap are there some smart people working on this stuff.

[@gwylui]

I usually watch videos at 1.5x speed but for this one, I slowed it down 😅 Thank you Dr. White!

[@dtriplett03]

1:00 Star-in-a-Jar™ , ! I❤it!😅

[@kaiperdaens7670]

Is there a fifth state of matter too like a the type of fluid you get when you cool a gas down so much that it turns to a liquid?

[@JoeLancaster]

That's just liquid

[@kaiperdaens7670]

@@JoeLancaster ok

[@max1392]

there are many more than 5 states of matter, like bose-einstein condensate and time crystals

[@TechTipsUSA]

The power of the sun… in the palm of my hand

[@coleozaeta6344]

I’ve been waiting on ITER for 5 years. Hopefully just 2 to go like planned.

[@Twiggls555]

Awesome format!🎉

[@roldanduarteholguin7102]

Export the Q*, Chat GPT, Revit, Plant 3D, Civil 3D, Inventor, ENGI file of the Building or Refinery to Excel, prepare Budget 1 and export it to COBRA. Prepare Budget 2 and export it to Microsoft Project. Solve the problems of Overallocated Resources, Planning Problems, prepare the Budget 3 with which the construction of the Tokamak, Building or the Refinery is going to be quoted.

[@mrssept2013]

Thank you for showcasing women in STEM!

[@lalitasharma6687]

Please bring chemist too please

[@kabhiaao128]

Best video

[@IngVivas]

Can we get one explaining quantum mechanics and/or quantum electrodynamics? 👐

[@chatterjeesangma8919]

Good job 👍

[@claudiaprivitelli3306]

its reassuring that the more advanced the explanation the more it makes sense to me lol, i was listening to the kids one like ????

[@berkayalan4830]

Amazing

[@christopherfulton2635]

This is just so cool, or super hot! Nice discussion of perhaps the most important area of modern science

[@sakit-b5b]

you should add super easy explanation and I would lovely to be interviewed

[@ninja97o]

Isn’t alpha particle positive?

[@MasterChakra7]

"Alpha particles" are indeed positively charged since they're the same thing as a helium nucleus (2 protons + 2 neutrons). Hence their charge is +2e.

[@TehDash]

Let’s goooooo! I love these!!

[@GINGI9519]

I love this seriee

[@Jtcamarena]

Idk man she just tossed the atomic structure at a nine year old. I know 29 year olds that don’t know what “proton” means.

[@rickyc664]

Yes, I concur completely.

[@GasparinPR]

Nice, Wired!

[@johnh6245]

“All the pieces of the puzzle are here” sounds good, but is it true? For example tritium breeding is a massive problem requiring tonnes of lithium isotopically enriched to increase the Lithium 6 percentage - and there is no viable process to do this easily. If it can be done, the costs will be astronomical.

[@elvishiekios8826]

Lithium is another element. Deuterium and tritium are water isotopes that exist in sea water.

[@peach7210]

Absolutely fascinating

[@Volker-Dirr]

About 7:14 : Do you call magnetic "positive" and "negative" in Englisch? (Just wonder, because we call it different in German)

[@filipgaming1233]

Yes positive (pole) refers to the north pole, and negative (pole) refers to the south pole of the magnet

[@Ezio2310c]

how do we call it in german ?

[@Volker-Dirr]

@@Ezio2310c We use negative and positive only for the electric field. The magnetic field has north and south.

[@NoobMaster-or2jf]

@@Volker-Dirr It is called north and south pole in English as well.

[@Volker-Dirr]

@@NoobMaster-or2jf I am not sure about the relation of your "as well". Do you mean "as well as positive and negative" or do you mean "as well as in German" ? (So "positive" and "negative" is in fact a bug, which is done by many guys?)

[@MrWillgoode]

You guys should do the bond market sometime!

[@DerPlasma]

Ahhh, I was so hoping for her to turn on that mini tokamak^^

[@nivedithav7620]

I understood Everything. But I give all the credit to the MIT Professor.

[@bluearth5074]

Don't know why but somehow understood everything in the video

[@47-dimethyl-2-heptene8]

In fact the concept introduced in level 1 was the hardest to understand

[@mandeepsingh6010]

Relative to other videos this was actually more leveled with the grades of students and explanations as others were exponential, by college student I use to feel bad man I cannot understand these

[@boredguy5531]

Wow I just watched an episode about Conner (human clone made of Luthor & SuperMan genes - Session 2 of Titans), and he talks about Nuclear Fusion too. What a coincidence.

[@ColinMcGuire-h4g]

H+H equill to He and energy

[@dphng.77]

I have a question, ma'am. What if I had a nuclear factory, which fuses deuterium and tritium to make energy, and then I used these energy to feed the factory alone, wouldn't it be, an infinitive engine?

[@SubbrajoytiSaha]

Amazing.

[@aryangod2003]

Between LEvel 3 and Level 4. I know the Lawson Criteria, coulomb repulsion etc, quantum tunneling etc.