“IN Toy Story there’s a moment when Buzz Lightyear says: ‘Are you guys still using fossil fuel – haven’t you discovered crystollic fusion power yet?’ This is crystollic fusion power,” jokes Seth Putterman.
Buzz was hyping batteries, but Putterman is referring to an astonishingly simple demonstration which appears to show that nuclear fusion can take place in an ordinary crystal soaked in deuterium gas – in a device no bigger than a coffee cup. While the technique is unlikely to lead to a practical power generator, a similar device could be used to provide a portable source of neutrons for analysing…
