Fusion Physicist moonlighting as a cashier...

[Malsua 1,422]

Every once in a while, specially when Itar makes the news, I go and see how the Polywell is coming along.   The Polywell is a nuclear fusor that, unlike the Tokamak(Itar), has real promise.  The Tokamak will NEVER work.  It is simply too complicated.   Too many people have spent entire careers on that project and it won't ever to go away.  They are just "10 years away" from success.  Always 10 years.

 

The Polywell, conceptualized by Robert Bussard, yeah, that Bussard (Bussard Ramjet anyone?) can work.  It can be done for 200 million.   The Tokamak is at 30 billion or so and counting.

 

Anyway, I was reading an article about the Polywell and the comment at the bottom struck me as hilarious.

 

 

[jackandjill 683]

Gets more interesting...  (DO NOT DONATE..)

 

 

 

By Mr Michael Scuteri & Mrs. Tiffany Scuteri

 

 

My wife and Myself are homeless (NOT by Choice).

 

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/kdp7

[Kaiser7 33]

More common than you'd think. I have a degree in biological sciences, with a minor in chemistry, research experience, and worked at a major biobank which supplies medical specimens to pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research firms all over the world, and I'm currently working as a pharmacy technician making more than I did at the biobank.

 

Hell, I even had an idea for a cancer treatment. I haven't gotten too far into the chemistry to see if it'll work per-se, but one of my chem professors said the one issue I had thought about was doable. Basically there's a proposed treatment method where you take spheres of silicon, coat them in gold, and then inject them. Due to the vasculature of tumors being misshapen and unusual, they'd accumulate in the tumor. Then, using only infrared light, you could shine a beam through the flesh, into the tumor, and hit the nanoballs. The gold coating scatters the light in a way where it generates immense heat, and burns out the tumor without the side-effects of conventional radiation therapy. The problem is that silicates can accumulate in the body and cause toxicity. I had thought that if we took carbon nano-balls (Buckyballs), coat them in the gold, if similar results could be attained, but in a form the body may be able to break down without the toxicity. Totally just a thought I had about 5 or 6 years ago, so no clue if it's feasible, or if it offers any advantages over the silicates in practice.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot 358]

"I have an idea..."

 

[Lambo2936 297]

The email provided says Michael, the poster is Tiffany. Dude could be extremely smart while his wife works as a cashier. You never know! Some metalhead kid i thought was an absolute idiot from highschool is on a full ride scholarship working on his PHD, while teaching his own lab in said college..

[maintenanceguy 510]

I knew a guy with a PhD in physics, had taught at a university, but worked 6 days a week as a crew hand on a sail boat.

 

One morning, I met him very early at the docks in NYC.  He was sitting on a bench eating his breakfast out of a donut box.  As usual, his pants didn't fit, he had a tight wife beater over his too big T-shirt and his socks didn't match.  Oh, I forgot to mention that his hair was all the same length - hair, beard, mustache - all cut off around shoulder length.

 

As I got closer to the bench where he was sitting, some woman walked over to him and handed him a five dollar bill, which he accepted with a "thank you" and stuck in his pocket.  He wasn't homeless.  He wasn't even broke.  He had a side business doing some software work for MTA to better coordinate train schedules to avoid collisions.  He made a comfortable living doing that.  He preferred to spend his days working as manual labor on a boat.

 

Not all cashiers are dumb.

[Newtonian 453]

More common than you'd think. I have a degree in biological sciences, with a minor in chemistry, research experience, and worked at a major biobank which supplies medical specimens to pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research firms all over the world, and I'm currently working as a pharmacy technician making more than I did at the biobank.

 

Hell, I even had an idea for a cancer treatment. I haven't gotten too far into the chemistry to see if it'll work per-se, but one of my chem professors said the one issue I had thought about was doable. Basically there's a proposed treatment method where you take spheres of silicon, coat them in gold, and then inject them. Due to the vasculature of tumors being misshapen and unusual, they'd accumulate in the tumor. Then, using only infrared light, you could shine a beam through the flesh, into the tumor, and hit the nanoballs. The gold coating scatters the light in a way where it generates immense heat, and burns out the tumor without the side-effects of conventional radiation therapy. The problem is that silicates can accumulate in the body and cause toxicity. I had thought that if we took carbon nano-balls (Buckyballs), coat them in the gold, if similar results could be attained, but in a form the body may be able to break down without the toxicity. Totally just a thought I had about 5 or 6 years ago, so no clue if it's feasible, or if it offers any advantages over the silicates in practice.

1. What we really want to know is where you went to preschool.

2. Your balls could get stuck in other small vessels, e.g. in the lung, e.g. death in short order. Getting your balls stuck is bad.

3. IR has to penetrate skin to get to your balls. More heating of skin than of target. Inefficient way to heat balls. 

[Zeke 5,504]

Laser. Set to correct spectra

[Zeke 5,504]

Hell' they were getting close to absolute zero with lasers . Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but change

Delta( best airline)