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Heather Cox Richardson said:
It's pretty much peak leaf season in Maine now.
Photo by Buddy Poland.
Photo by Buddy Poland.
Official BBO Hijacked Thread Thread No, it's not about that
#3841
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-October-18, 10:11
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3842
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-October-25, 12:02
Came across this story after reading about Ross Douthat's experience with chronic Lyme disease which illustrates how ineffectual our healthcare system can be when dealing with problems that are not well understood:
One feature that would improve patient care IMO would be a diagostic screening tool that individuals can use to track and analyze their own healthcare data (individual life histories + family histories + DNA). Such a tool could search healthcare databases, including clinical trials, and provide a prioritized list of stuff to be pursued (concurrently in some cases) with medical professionals, preferably in near real time vs the bullshit 3 to 6+ week sequential cycles that are common practice even for people who have access to decent healthcare.
The key IMO is being honest about where the responsibility lies (it lies with individuals) and creating interfaces between individually owned data and proliferating silos (privately owned portals). It looks like Google and the consultants on its team get this. I suspect open source has an important role here also.
Quote
Google is exploring a health record tool for patients
After 13 years, Google is coming back for patient health records. The tech giant has launched an early user feedback program aimed at exploring how patients might want to see, organize, and share their own medical record data.
The work could inform the creation of a consumer-facing medical records tool along the lines of Apple’s Health Records app. It also follows an early attempt by Google — later panned by medical experts — at creating a new version of the electronic medical record in 2008. This time around, timing may be on the company’s side: Its new effort, which is still in the early stages, came on the heels of the introduction of the federal information blocking rule, which lets patients access their medical records through health apps.
Google is currently recruiting about 300 patients for its health records study from community health facilities and academic medical centers in Northern California, Atlanta, and Chicago who use Epic as their medical record vendor. The study is only open to patients who use Android devices.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said the company was “running a user feedback program to test features that give users the ability to collect health information from their provider patient portals,” and added that any health data gathered as part of the feedback program will not be sold or used for Google ads. The information will be encrypted and stored in the cloud, the spokesperson said.
While the tech giant is not directly partnering with any organizations for the program, it has reached out to at least four health systems to alert them of the effort, including the University of California, Davis; UCSF; Alameda Health System in Oakland, Calif.; and Access Community Health Network in Chicago.
Bob Wachter, who chairs the department of medicine at UCSF and has advised Google on its health records work on a noncompensatory basis, told STAT he was impressed but not blown away by the company’s latest health records initiative.
“It didn’t knock my socks off,” he said, but “I think they’re doing it in a thoughtful, measured, and mature way. And it seems like they’re making progress.”
Related: 5 health care projects to watch at Google Cloud
The move follows Google’s other recent health records work in Care Studio, a search tool that assists clinicians with navigating patients’ medical records. Earlier this month, the tech giant named Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center its second hospital partner, joining the hospital chain Ascension as part of the pilot program. The effort drew widespread criticism over the organizations’ patient data-sharing agreement, which Google and Ascension said was compliant with federal health data privacy rules.
In the coming months, Wachter said he hopes to see Google add more functionality to Care Studio, for example by smoothing its workflow integration and incorporating more features aimed at improving patient care.
Wachter, having advised technology companies on their health efforts since the early 2000s, said he has witnessed a number of tech giants including Google try and fail to create new versions of the electronic health record (EHR). Looking forward, he hopes to see more companies take a similar approach to Google’s most recent effort, which essentially builds assistive tools that layer on top of the existing EHR, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
“I think we’re entering an era where we have our EHR, but there are tools that help us use it in a better, faster, and safer way.”
After 13 years, Google is coming back for patient health records. The tech giant has launched an early user feedback program aimed at exploring how patients might want to see, organize, and share their own medical record data.
The work could inform the creation of a consumer-facing medical records tool along the lines of Apple’s Health Records app. It also follows an early attempt by Google — later panned by medical experts — at creating a new version of the electronic medical record in 2008. This time around, timing may be on the company’s side: Its new effort, which is still in the early stages, came on the heels of the introduction of the federal information blocking rule, which lets patients access their medical records through health apps.
Google is currently recruiting about 300 patients for its health records study from community health facilities and academic medical centers in Northern California, Atlanta, and Chicago who use Epic as their medical record vendor. The study is only open to patients who use Android devices.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said the company was “running a user feedback program to test features that give users the ability to collect health information from their provider patient portals,” and added that any health data gathered as part of the feedback program will not be sold or used for Google ads. The information will be encrypted and stored in the cloud, the spokesperson said.
While the tech giant is not directly partnering with any organizations for the program, it has reached out to at least four health systems to alert them of the effort, including the University of California, Davis; UCSF; Alameda Health System in Oakland, Calif.; and Access Community Health Network in Chicago.
Bob Wachter, who chairs the department of medicine at UCSF and has advised Google on its health records work on a noncompensatory basis, told STAT he was impressed but not blown away by the company’s latest health records initiative.
“It didn’t knock my socks off,” he said, but “I think they’re doing it in a thoughtful, measured, and mature way. And it seems like they’re making progress.”
Related: 5 health care projects to watch at Google Cloud
The move follows Google’s other recent health records work in Care Studio, a search tool that assists clinicians with navigating patients’ medical records. Earlier this month, the tech giant named Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center its second hospital partner, joining the hospital chain Ascension as part of the pilot program. The effort drew widespread criticism over the organizations’ patient data-sharing agreement, which Google and Ascension said was compliant with federal health data privacy rules.
In the coming months, Wachter said he hopes to see Google add more functionality to Care Studio, for example by smoothing its workflow integration and incorporating more features aimed at improving patient care.
Wachter, having advised technology companies on their health efforts since the early 2000s, said he has witnessed a number of tech giants including Google try and fail to create new versions of the electronic health record (EHR). Looking forward, he hopes to see more companies take a similar approach to Google’s most recent effort, which essentially builds assistive tools that layer on top of the existing EHR, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.
“I think we’re entering an era where we have our EHR, but there are tools that help us use it in a better, faster, and safer way.”
One feature that would improve patient care IMO would be a diagostic screening tool that individuals can use to track and analyze their own healthcare data (individual life histories + family histories + DNA). Such a tool could search healthcare databases, including clinical trials, and provide a prioritized list of stuff to be pursued (concurrently in some cases) with medical professionals, preferably in near real time vs the bullshit 3 to 6+ week sequential cycles that are common practice even for people who have access to decent healthcare.
The key IMO is being honest about where the responsibility lies (it lies with individuals) and creating interfaces between individually owned data and proliferating silos (privately owned portals). It looks like Google and the consultants on its team get this. I suspect open source has an important role here also.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3843
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-October-27, 00:50
Sending these out to kenberg
Quote
Digging by Seamus Heaney
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner’s bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll dig with it.
Quote
The Woman at the Dig by Leo Dangel
Tired from running a combine
all day through acres of wheat,
alone in front of the TV, I pay
attention because the show's about
scientists digging up an ancient site.
I have no special interest in bones,
pottery, spearheads, or prehistoric
garbage dumps, and I always look past
the man describing animal migrations,
burial rites, or building design and try
to catch a glimpse of the women
working at the site - one of them
might be wearing cut-off jeans
and a halter top, clearing a patch
of ground with a trowel or brush.
These women are all experts.
You can tell by the way they look
at a bone chip or a pottery shard
they understand worlds about
the person who left it. Sifting soil,
they show more grace than contestants
in a Miss Universe pageant.
Years from now, when these farms
are ancient history, an expedition
with such a woman might come along.
I could drop something for her to find,
a pocketknife, a brass overalls button.
If only she could discover my bones.
My eyes would be long gone,
But I can see her form coming into focus
above me as she gently sweeps aside
the last particles of dust - her knee, thigh,
hip, shoulders, and finally, set off by sky
and spikes of sunlight, her face - a woman
who recognizes what she's found.
Tired from running a combine
all day through acres of wheat,
alone in front of the TV, I pay
attention because the show's about
scientists digging up an ancient site.
I have no special interest in bones,
pottery, spearheads, or prehistoric
garbage dumps, and I always look past
the man describing animal migrations,
burial rites, or building design and try
to catch a glimpse of the women
working at the site - one of them
might be wearing cut-off jeans
and a halter top, clearing a patch
of ground with a trowel or brush.
These women are all experts.
You can tell by the way they look
at a bone chip or a pottery shard
they understand worlds about
the person who left it. Sifting soil,
they show more grace than contestants
in a Miss Universe pageant.
Years from now, when these farms
are ancient history, an expedition
with such a woman might come along.
I could drop something for her to find,
a pocketknife, a brass overalls button.
If only she could discover my bones.
My eyes would be long gone,
But I can see her form coming into focus
above me as she gently sweeps aside
the last particles of dust - her knee, thigh,
hip, shoulders, and finally, set off by sky
and spikes of sunlight, her face - a woman
who recognizes what she's found.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3844
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 11,228
- Joined: 2004-September-22
- Location:Northern Maryland
Posted 2021-October-27, 12:10
y66, on 2021-October-25, 12:02, said:
Came across this story after reading about Ross Douthat's experience with chronic Lyme disease which illustrates how ineffectual our healthcare system can be when dealing with problems that are not well understood:
One feature that would improve patient care IMO would be a diagostic screening tool that individuals can use to track and analyze their own healthcare data (individual life histories + family histories + DNA). Such a tool could search healthcare databases, including clinical trials, and provide a prioritized list of stuff to be pursued (concurrently in some cases) with medical professionals, preferably in near real time vs the bullshit 3 to 6+ week sequential cycles that are common practice even for people who have access to decent healthcare.
The key IMO is being honest about where the responsibility lies (it lies with individuals) and creating interfaces between individually owned data and proliferating silos (privately owned portals). It looks like Google and the consultants on its team get this. I suspect open source has an important role here also.
One feature that would improve patient care IMO would be a diagostic screening tool that individuals can use to track and analyze their own healthcare data (individual life histories + family histories + DNA). Such a tool could search healthcare databases, including clinical trials, and provide a prioritized list of stuff to be pursued (concurrently in some cases) with medical professionals, preferably in near real time vs the bullshit 3 to 6+ week sequential cycles that are common practice even for people who have access to decent healthcare.
The key IMO is being honest about where the responsibility lies (it lies with individuals) and creating interfaces between individually owned data and proliferating silos (privately owned portals). It looks like Google and the consultants on its team get this. I suspect open source has an important role here also.
The Ross Douthat story had one point in common with me, although my situation was much milder. He speaks of seeing a psychiatrist since maybe his problems were caused by stress, resulting in the psychiatrist assuring him the problems were physical while the physicians thought they might be emotional. When my first marriage broke up I was quite young nf quite upset and saw a psychiatrist for a while. I had some issue resembling acute sinus problems, something that had never bothered me before. Same result. The physician I saw said it was surely something for the psychiatrist to deal with, the psychiatrist said he was certain my problem was physical and should be dealt with by the physician. In this case I believe the psychiatrist was correct since when I moved from Minnesota to Maryland the problem cleared up immediately. Something in the Minnesota air I guess, although it had never bothered me before and doesn't bother me now when I am back.
It would be nice if both physicians and psychiatrists were a little more willing to acknowledge their limitations. They don't have to recite five times that they might be wrong, they can just go a little easy on regarding themselves as godlike.
The Google effort on health records bears watching. Twenty years ago I could say that I didn't have any health records. Not strictly true, but basically my records were that everything was fine. I am not now planning on dropping dead tomorrow, I should wait at least until after my daughter's birthday party, but I do have health records, plural, and coordination can be a problem. And, sometimes, interpretation can be a problem. I think I will forego details, at least for now.
Oh, thanks for the poetry. I probably will stick with Robert Frost, but it's fine. Thanks.
Ken
#3845
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-October-27, 15:28
Xerxes Society newsletter said:
Signs of hope for western monarchs? Reports from overwintering sites in coastal California indicate western monarchs are returning in greater numbers than last year, with hundreds at some sites and thousands at others, giving hope for the struggling population. More than 9,000 monarchs have been recorded at a pair of sites that last year hosted less than 300 between them. Additional smaller estimates and observations from volunteers and the public have started to pour in from elsewhere, with numbers ranging from a few to dozens to hundreds, of monarchs. Altogether, there appear to be over 10,000 monarchs easily accounted for at the overwintering sites. This year’s official count has not yet begun (that starts in mid-November), yet these early reports signal the possibility of a rebound in numbers. Click here to read the complete press release.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3846
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-October-31, 07:01
Heather Cox Richardson said:
It's a cold, rainy night here. Perfect sleeping weather, and I'm going to take advantage of it.
Photo by Buddy Poland
Photo by Buddy Poland
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3847
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-November-01, 07:10
For the not seeing eye-to-eye files:
A jail masquerading as a dormitory sounds right.
Quote
“Absolutely stunning” is how the University of California, Santa Barbara, described plans for a new 11-story residence hall — one in which the vast majority of students would live in small, windowless rooms.
A consulting architect saw it differently, writing: “The basic concept of Munger Hall as a place for students to live is unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being.”
A consulting architect saw it differently, writing: “The basic concept of Munger Hall as a place for students to live is unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being.”
Quote
Paul Goldberger, the architecture critic for The New Yorker, said the concept showed “how far UCSB has fallen since the days when it had architects like Charles Moore.”
“This design is a grotesque, sick joke — a jail masquerading as a dormitory,” he said on Twitter, linking to a story by The Santa Barbara Independent about the design. “No, design isn’t up to billionaire donors.”
“This design is a grotesque, sick joke — a jail masquerading as a dormitory,” he said on Twitter, linking to a story by The Santa Barbara Independent about the design. “No, design isn’t up to billionaire donors.”
A jail masquerading as a dormitory sounds right.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3848
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 11,228
- Joined: 2004-September-22
- Location:Northern Maryland
Posted 2021-November-02, 12:26
This is one of those "Oh well, I'm 82 " moments but I just found it amusing enough to post.
I am going in for a medical appointment tomorrow, and in order to make things move quickly, they ask that I send in some stuff. Stuff includes a photo id. So I scanned my driver's license with the printer, sent it to the computer, uploaded it to the online form that they had sent me, it looked fine, and so I pressed submit. It says "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
I called and they assured me that it would be ok to show my id when I come in tomorrow.
But if anyone knows what "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means, I would be happy to hear it. Gotta keep up with the modern world.
I sent them my lsit of meds and so on, that went through fine. The object reference must have been set to an object for those.
I am going in for a medical appointment tomorrow, and in order to make things move quickly, they ask that I send in some stuff. Stuff includes a photo id. So I scanned my driver's license with the printer, sent it to the computer, uploaded it to the online form that they had sent me, it looked fine, and so I pressed submit. It says "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
I called and they assured me that it would be ok to show my id when I come in tomorrow.
But if anyone knows what "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means, I would be happy to hear it. Gotta keep up with the modern world.
I sent them my lsit of meds and so on, that went through fine. The object reference must have been set to an object for those.
Ken
#3849
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-November-02, 15:09
kenberg, on 2021-November-02, 12:26, said:
This is one of those "Oh well, I'm 82 " moments but I just found it amusing enough to post.
I am going in for a medical appointment tomorrow, and in order to make things move quickly, they ask that I send in some stuff. Stuff includes a photo id. So I scanned my driver's license with the printer, sent it to the computer, uploaded it to the online form that they had sent me, it looked fine, and so I pressed submit. It says "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
I called and they assured me that it would be ok to show my id when I come in tomorrow.
But if anyone knows what "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means, I would be happy to hear it. Gotta keep up with the modern world.
I sent them my lsit of meds and so on, that went through fine. The object reference must have been set to an object for those.
I am going in for a medical appointment tomorrow, and in order to make things move quickly, they ask that I send in some stuff. Stuff includes a photo id. So I scanned my driver's license with the printer, sent it to the computer, uploaded it to the online form that they had sent me, it looked fine, and so I pressed submit. It says "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".
I called and they assured me that it would be ok to show my id when I come in tomorrow.
But if anyone knows what "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means, I would be happy to hear it. Gotta keep up with the modern world.
I sent them my lsit of meds and so on, that went through fine. The object reference must have been set to an object for those.
For a user to get a message like "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means that the software you used was so poorly written that it was unable to detect the underlying problem and clearly explain how to fix it eg upload the file again using a smaller image size or some such.
Technically, it probably means that the <submit> code tried to do something with the uploaded file using an object that was supposed to identify the uploaded file's location in memory but had never been created and assigned a value.
This is pretty funny because I ran into a variation of this problem today when doing basically the same thing. My wife also ran into a variation of this problem when trying to upload vaccination documents before traveling to Europe last month. She eventually gave up and decided to take the documents to the counter which worked out fine.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3850
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 11,228
- Joined: 2004-September-22
- Location:Northern Maryland
Posted 2021-November-02, 19:12
y66, on 2021-November-02, 15:09, said:
For a user to get a message like "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" means that the software you used was so poorly written that it was unable to detect the underlying problem and clearly explain how to fix it eg upload the file again using a smaller image size or some such.
Technically, it probably means that the <submit> code tried to do something with the uploaded file using an object that was supposed to identify the uploaded file's location in memory but had never been created and assigned a value.
This is pretty funny because I ran into a variation of this problem today when doing basically the same thing. My wife also ran into a variation of this problem when trying to upload vaccination documents before traveling to Europe last month. She eventually gave up and decided to take the documents to the counter which worked out fine.
Technically, it probably means that the <submit> code tried to do something with the uploaded file using an object that was supposed to identify the uploaded file's location in memory but had never been created and assigned a value.
This is pretty funny because I ran into a variation of this problem today when doing basically the same thing. My wife also ran into a variation of this problem when trying to upload vaccination documents before traveling to Europe last month. She eventually gave up and decided to take the documents to the counter which worked out fine.
I have been thinking of a post-retirement career. The techies who write this stuff could use me as a paid guinea pig. I believe that if I can't make sense of it then there will be quite a few others who also cannot make sense of it, and the techies should then re-write it.
So people actually talk like this?
I won't carry this on any further, but I showed the message "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" to Becky and she broke into laughter. I will show my driver's license at the desk tomorrow. Old fashioned I know, but simple.
Ken
#3851
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 3,787
- Joined: 2019-October-04
- Gender:Male
- Location:Poland
Posted 2021-November-03, 02:51
Mark Rendle said:
those who do not learn from history are doomed to be unable to repeat and iterate on its mistakes
Mark Rendle - according to himself - is the developer of the worst programming language ever.
Fortuna Fortis Felix
#3852
- Group: Advanced Members
- Posts: 6,496
- Joined: 2006-February-24
Posted 2021-November-05, 19:55
Tom Wilson at FT said:
A nuclear fusion start-up backed by Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman and Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital has secured $500m to demonstrate commercially viable power by 2024 in the largest capital raise yet by a private fusion company.
The investment in US-based Helion is the latest sign of growing private sector confidence in the potential of nuclear fusion to provide clean, cheap power that would fundamentally transform the world’s ability to cut carbon emissions.
“On the whole, fusion has been missing from the global conversation about what we’re going to do about the climate crisis, but that is rapidly changing,” Altman, who will join Helion’s board as executive chair, told the Financial Times.
The newly formed Fusion Industry Association said last week that at least 35 different companies were now pursuing nuclear fusion around the world and predicted that fusion energy would be connected to the grid in the 2030s.
The prospect of fusing atoms to generate almost unlimited power from minimal fuel has tantalised scientists for decades. Soviet scientists pioneered the development of the first fusion machine, known as the “tokamak”, in the 1950s but no group has been able to achieve fusion while producing more electricity than the system consumes.
Unlike the traditional tokamak approach, which uses energy from the fusion reaction to drive steam turbines, Helion’s system enables it to generate electricity directly from the fusion reaction as the fuel expands.
David Kirtley, Helion’s chief executive, compared it to the regenerative breaking system in a Tesla electric car, where the kinetic energy from the vehicle is used to recharge the battery system.
“The key there is that we can bypass all the capital cost and all the complexity of all those steam turbine systems . . . and focus on getting fusion as small and fast as possible.”
The $500m investment, led by Altman, fully funds Helion to build by 2024 what would be the first fusion demonstration plant to generate net electricity. If successful, the investors, who also include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and sustainability-focused Capricorn Investment Group, have committed to a further $1.7bn to fund future manufacturing.
Rather than building a large single fusion plant, Helion wants to produce shipping container-sized 50 megawatt fusion generators that can be transported to a site and plugged in. Sufficient to power 40,000 homes, the company initially hopes to power data centres and other industrial sites.
“With a small amount of fuel you can generate a tremendous amount of energy,” Kirtley said. The company’s approach uses the hydrogen isotope deuterium, which can be extracted from seawater. It is combined with helium and heated to more than 100m degrees Celsius, causing the atomic nuclei to fuse, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process.
One glass of the fuel is equivalent to the energy potential of 1m gallons of oil and could generate 9m kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power a home for 865 years, according to Helion.
Not only would the energy be carbon-free and almost limitless, it would also be cheap. While some technical hurdles remain, Kirtley estimated that Helion’s system could produce power for less than $0.01 per kilowatt hour. That compares with average residential power costs in the US today of roughly $0.13 per KWH.
Sceptics remain unconvinced given fusions’ many false dawns but its proponents are increasingly optimistic.
“In addition to being our best path out of the climate crisis, less expensive energy, I think it is transformational for society,” said Altman. “If the company can accomplish that it will be one of the most important moments in the history of energy and just a massive transformation of how the world works.”
The investment in US-based Helion is the latest sign of growing private sector confidence in the potential of nuclear fusion to provide clean, cheap power that would fundamentally transform the world’s ability to cut carbon emissions.
“On the whole, fusion has been missing from the global conversation about what we’re going to do about the climate crisis, but that is rapidly changing,” Altman, who will join Helion’s board as executive chair, told the Financial Times.
The newly formed Fusion Industry Association said last week that at least 35 different companies were now pursuing nuclear fusion around the world and predicted that fusion energy would be connected to the grid in the 2030s.
The prospect of fusing atoms to generate almost unlimited power from minimal fuel has tantalised scientists for decades. Soviet scientists pioneered the development of the first fusion machine, known as the “tokamak”, in the 1950s but no group has been able to achieve fusion while producing more electricity than the system consumes.
Unlike the traditional tokamak approach, which uses energy from the fusion reaction to drive steam turbines, Helion’s system enables it to generate electricity directly from the fusion reaction as the fuel expands.
David Kirtley, Helion’s chief executive, compared it to the regenerative breaking system in a Tesla electric car, where the kinetic energy from the vehicle is used to recharge the battery system.
“The key there is that we can bypass all the capital cost and all the complexity of all those steam turbine systems . . . and focus on getting fusion as small and fast as possible.”
The $500m investment, led by Altman, fully funds Helion to build by 2024 what would be the first fusion demonstration plant to generate net electricity. If successful, the investors, who also include Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and sustainability-focused Capricorn Investment Group, have committed to a further $1.7bn to fund future manufacturing.
Rather than building a large single fusion plant, Helion wants to produce shipping container-sized 50 megawatt fusion generators that can be transported to a site and plugged in. Sufficient to power 40,000 homes, the company initially hopes to power data centres and other industrial sites.
“With a small amount of fuel you can generate a tremendous amount of energy,” Kirtley said. The company’s approach uses the hydrogen isotope deuterium, which can be extracted from seawater. It is combined with helium and heated to more than 100m degrees Celsius, causing the atomic nuclei to fuse, releasing vast amounts of energy in the process.
One glass of the fuel is equivalent to the energy potential of 1m gallons of oil and could generate 9m kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power a home for 865 years, according to Helion.
Not only would the energy be carbon-free and almost limitless, it would also be cheap. While some technical hurdles remain, Kirtley estimated that Helion’s system could produce power for less than $0.01 per kilowatt hour. That compares with average residential power costs in the US today of roughly $0.13 per KWH.
Sceptics remain unconvinced given fusions’ many false dawns but its proponents are increasingly optimistic.
“In addition to being our best path out of the climate crisis, less expensive energy, I think it is transformational for society,” said Altman. “If the company can accomplish that it will be one of the most important moments in the history of energy and just a massive transformation of how the world works.”
If the company can achieve one or more massive breakthroughs that no one has been able to achieve in the last 70 years, it will be massive.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3853
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Posted 2021-November-05, 21:00
y66, on 2021-November-05, 19:55, said:
If the company can achieve one or more massive breakthroughs that no one has been able to achieve in the last 70 years, it will be massive.
70 years ago, fusion was 20-30 years away. It probably still is despite Helion's claim of "the early 2030s". There are some strong signs it might perhaps be different this time but until we get a working, commercial fusion reactor that can be rolled out in a massive way, I won't worry too much about it.
#3854
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Posted 2021-November-06, 18:02
Gilithin, on 2021-November-05, 21:00, said:
70 years ago, fusion was 20-30 years away. It probably still is despite Helion's claim of "the early 2030s". There are some strong signs it might perhaps be different this time but until we get a working, commercial fusion reactor that can be rolled out in a massive way, I won't worry too much about it.
I will believe the hype when Gerben42 says fusion is for real.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3855
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Posted 2021-November-06, 19:14
y66, on 2021-November-06, 18:02, said:
I will believe the hype when Gerben42 says fusion is for real.
Steely Dan has been fusion for years .
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
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Posted 2021-November-09, 07:37
Rolls-Royce secures £450m for mini nuclear reactors venture
Very happy to see RR taking this on. Do they still have the right stuff engineering-wise?
Also in today's news, GE is splitting itself up into 3 public companies, one of which will focus on energy, taking a clue from their company name apparently.
Very happy to see RR taking this on. Do they still have the right stuff engineering-wise?
Also in today's news, GE is splitting itself up into 3 public companies, one of which will focus on energy, taking a clue from their company name apparently.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter
#3857
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Posted 2021-November-09, 17:13
y66, on 2021-November-09, 07:37, said:
Rolls-Royce secures £450m for mini nuclear reactors venture
Very happy to see RR taking this on. Do they still have the right stuff engineering-wise?
Also in today's news, GE is splitting itself up into 3 public companies, one of which will focus on energy, taking a clue from their company name apparently.
Very happy to see RR taking this on. Do they still have the right stuff engineering-wise?
Also in today's news, GE is splitting itself up into 3 public companies, one of which will focus on energy, taking a clue from their company name apparently.
So long as it comes with leather upholstery, a cocktail cabinet and has a little metal statue on top, who cares if it works or not.
Fortuna Fortis Felix
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Posted 2021-November-09, 20:27
pilowsky, on 2021-November-09, 17:13, said:
So long as it comes with leather upholstery, a cocktail cabinet and has a little metal statue on top, who cares if it works or not.
Most assuredly also the right attitude to take with RR's main business of aircraft engines.
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Posted 2021-November-09, 21:17
Gilithin, on 2021-November-09, 20:27, said:
Most assuredly also the right attitude to take with RR's main business of aircraft engines.
A subsidiary of BMW - btw, how does Brexit affect them?
Fortuna Fortis Felix
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Posted 2021-November-14, 08:56
Gilithin, on 2021-November-09, 20:27, said:
Most assuredly also the right attitude to take with RR's main business of aircraft engines.
I once read a book by the RR engineer in charge of civil power plant technology at the time, Michael J. T. Smith. The concepts were not super complicated but I was still blown away by how clearly he explained them. That's a rare gift IMO. If RR's engineering culture is anything like the one in Smith's day, I would not bet against them to pull this off.
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter