Word: hydrogenized
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...nuclear fusion-the process that feeds the fires of the sun and gives the H-bomb its awesome power-atomic nuclei of light elements like hydrogen collide and merge. The resulting nuclear particles contain less mass than the sum of the original nuclei; again, matter has been converted into energy. But while atomic nuclei easily split, they do not easily fuse; they have positive electric charges and thus repel each other, acting as if they had invisible springs between them. Getting them to join requires that they approach each other with enough energy to overcome their natural repulsion and smash...
These conditions exist, more or less, in the sun and other stars, where the tremendous gravitational forces of the giant bodies, combined with their huge amounts of hydrogen, produce self-sustaining fusion reactions. But producing controlled fusion on earth is a far more difficult task-and to do it practically and economically may well be the most complicated technological venture ever attempted. Says Physicist Gerald Yonas of New Mexico's Sandia Laboratories, a federally supported atomic research facility: "It's the most exciting area today in science. Fusion power is a mountain we have to climb...
...first steps on that ascent was the realization that the conditions of temperature and density necessary for the sustained fusion of ordinary hydrogen nuclei were far beyond the present capabilities of science. But experiments showed that it was easier to fuse two isotopes, or different forms, of hydrogen: deuterium and tritium. Reason: the nuclei of these isotopes have larger cross sections than those of ordinary hydrogen nuclei. Thus the probability of direct collisions between them is increased and that in turn means that less extreme conditions are required to make them fuse. The easiest fusion to attain, scientists determined...
...thus of life. But photographs from the deep revealed small areas, each around a warm spring, that were teeming with clams, mussels, tube worms and scavenger crabs. The probable explanation for the profusion of these organisms, announced last week: warm waters from the submarine hot spots are rich in hydrogen sulfide, which provides a food supply for sulfur-eating organisms called thiobacilli. These bacteria, in turn, become part of a food chain that nourishes the marine animals clustering around the submarine geysers...
...from Moscow State University, he went to work in the war industry. After World War II, he studied with the theoretical physicist (and later Nobel laureate) Igor. Tamm. Soon he was at work on the Kremlin's No. 1 priority project: development of the Soviet Union's hydrogen bomb. "When I began working on this terrible weapon, I felt subjectively that I was working for peace, that my work would help foster a balance of power," Sakharov recalled years later. "It was a natural point of view shared by many of us, especially since we actually...