Run by fusion power? “Forever” is also the incorrect answer to how long our planet’s fossil fuels will last. For several decades, mankind lived as if fossil fuels would never run out but, fortunately, we are beginning to see the light in the way we see with light. In fact, Kaku writes, “New forms of energy are desperately needed. … By 2019, fusion power becomes a major player. That is when the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) becomes operational in southern France.” “People have been talking about nuclear fusion for 50 years, and it never happens,” countered Ken Cramer . “I think the author is overly optimistic that ITER will be operational by 2019. … It is going to take an incredible amount of energy to get it started, and then they’d have to upscale it. “Solar and wind are more competitive,
price-wise. We need to replace fossil fuels, but I’m just not confident we will. They are so convenient, and we’re so addicted. … We’re taking oil from ever more extreme places. The margins are getting smaller and smaller. It’s taking more and more energy to extract these materials.” What Cramer sees happening in the short run is demand for oil exceeding production, and prices going up exponentially. “What’s going to happen is that people will be priced out of the market,” said Cramer, likening the situation to a scene from the movie Soylent Green, when a spoonful of strawberry jam cost $150. “Change won’t really occur until people’s wallets are affected,” he said. “When gas is $7 or $8 a gallon, behavior will change.” While nuclear fusion might be many more years away than some experts predict, Cramer is hopeful that another development might progress faster.
“Right now, a battery-operated car like a Nissan Leaf can run 60-70 miles on a charge in ideal driving conditions,” he said. “A few decades ago, computers were extremely large, but they’ve gotten smaller and smaller and more powerful. I hope that’s what will happen with battery power—that the batteries can get progressively smaller and that they’ll store more energy. Maybe several years from now, that same car will be able to go 500 miles on a charge.” Another area in which advances can be made is solar energy. “We have so much wasted space in areas where there is lots of sunlight, like roadsides,” said Cramer. “People will say, ‘Oh, you can’t have solar panels all along the road, they’re an eyesore. But we got used to telephone poles. We don’t even think about those anymore.” Cramer also doesn’t think “eyesore” when he sees a wind turbine but, rather, “jobs.” He hopes that a wind farm outside of Monmouth will be operational before the end of 2013.
What is ‘the replicator?’ “Theoretical physicists are
my people,” said physics professor Chris Fasano , “but they will say almost anything.” Fasano was asked to comment on the “replicator,” which Kaku says will be made possible through a “nanobot,” a molecule-sized robot that can arrange molecular bonds in the same way ribosomes work in our bodies. Fasano calls the science “not forbidden,” i.e., theoretically impossible, but adds, “I wouldn’t buy stock in it.” He continued, “An example of something that is ‘forbidden’ is going faster than the speed of light. You can’t do that. What this involves—starting with coal and placing atoms the right way so that you end up with a diamond—is theoretically possible. However, it took nature 4.5 million years by trial and error to get to where we are now. Doing this type of work is tremendously hard and complicated. Even if it were possible, would it be economically feasible to do it? Would it be better to take carbon and monmouth | winter 2013
apply this complicated process and make diamonds, or should we just go out and mine diamonds? These are not trivial questions.” Fasano is bullish on the future, but not quite the way Kaku has in mind. “The manipulation of matter at the microscopic level will happen,” he said. “You’ are going to see materials that can be designed to do what you want, to have the properties you want. The tiles on the space shuttle are an example of this—a beautifully-engineered material.” Fasano continued, “We may not be able to create anything we want, but we’ll create interesting things we want.” Micro-machines will become more mainstream, Fasano predicted. “For example, if you have a clogged artery, a micro-machine will be able to go in and Roto-Rooter it out. There are already examples of this, and we will create smaller and smarter micro-machines. This is definitely a science that is viable and on the horizon.” Fasano also spoke about engineering materials through biological processes. “I read an article about how, pound-for-pound, spider silk is stronger than steel. The problem is, you can’t get enough silk. But genetically-engineered silkworms could produce it … A lot of these developments are very exciting to think about. But making anything you want out of nothing? I don’t think so.” continued life in 2100
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