Technologies

‘Phenomenal breakthrough’: Nuclear fusion test sparks high-energy hopes

A laser blast in California creates a miniature sun for a tiny fraction of a second and ignites a self-sustaining chain reaction.

For an almost imperceptible fraction of a second on Aug. 8, massive lasers at a government facility in Northern California re-created the power of the sun in a tiny hot spot no wider than a human hair. The result is a significant step forward in the pursuit of nuclear fusion, a long-sought-after panacea for many energy and environmental challenges.

The experiment took place at the National Ignition Facility, which takes up the space of three football fields at the campus of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay metroplex. Powerful lasers there were focused onto a target the size of a BB, resulting in a reaction that threw off over 10 quadrillion watts of power.

Remarkably, that’s about 6% of the total energy of all the sunshine striking Earth’s surface at any given moment, although the powerful burst only lasted for 100 trillionths of a second. Even in that minuscule timeframe, though, scientists observed a big breakthrough: The hotspot was able to ignite a self-sustaining chain reaction, fusing more hydrogen atoms together and continuing the process of energy generation, like an internal combustion engine burning through one molecule of fuel after another to keep going.

Achieving this ignition point is a key milestone in the roadmap to fusion power.

«This phenomenal breakthrough brings us tantalizingly closeto ademonstration of ‘net energy gain’ from fusion reactions — justwhenthe planet needs it,» said Arthur Turrell, physicist and author of The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet, in a statement.

Nuclear power plants today are fueled by thereaction from nuclear fission, the process of splitting atoms to createenergy. Fusion is just the opposite: merging hydrogen atomsinto helium the same way the sun does, releasing gobs of energy in theprocess. Fusion is a sort of holy grail, because theoretically it wouldprovide a limitless source of clean energy with fewer safety and wasteconcerns compared to fission reactors.

For decades now, dozens offacilities have been experimenting with different methods. The challenge isn’tjust to achieve fusion, but to do so in a way that doesn’t require moreenergy to create the reaction than is produced as a result.

This month’s experiment was still a net negative in terms of energy in versus energy out, but it puts the science on the threshold of breaking even.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reports that while a final analysis still needs to be peer reviewed, the initial data showed that the results yielded eight times the energy output of experiments done earlier this year and 25 times that seen in 2018.

«For reference this [is] about 1000x more energy output than we were getting when I joined the project 10 years ago,» project physicist Jayson Luc Peterson added on Twitter.

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Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Center for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, said in a statement that improvement in fusion energy output has accelerated over the past year, «suggesting we may soonreach moreenergy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input fromthe lasersused to kick-start the process.»

Interestingly, the National Ignition Facility is not primarily meant as a tool for fusion energy development, but rather for nuclear weapons research. Chittenden says the result should spur on other efforts focused on creating clean power.

«We have now proven it is possible to reach ignition, givinginspiration to other laboratories and start-ups around the world workingon fusion energy production to try to realize the same conditionsusinga simpler, more robust and above all cheaper method.»

Technologies

Google Is Bringing Gemini AI to Its Smart Home Lineup, Starting Oct. 1

Goodbye, Google Assistant. Hello, Gemini.

It increasingly feels like Google’s AI assistant is omnipresent across our devices and, starting next month, it could also be in your home.

In a post on X on Tuesday, the company teased, «Gemini is coming to Google Home,» and told us to, «Come back October 1.»

At its Made by Google event in August, the company announced Gemini for Home among a slew of other product announcements, so this has been in the works for a while.

Tuesday’s X post teaser appears to show an image of a Nest camera, which Google last upgraded four years ago, suggesting the security camera could be set for a refresh. An upgraded Nest speaker and doorbell, both with 2K camera support, could also be part of the Oct. 1 unveiling.

Google did not immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment.

Android Faithful podcast co-host (and former CNET staffer) Jason Howell is «optimistic» about Gemini replacing Assistant in Google’s smart home products.

«In recent years, I have witnessed my Google Home devices degrading in quality and becoming far less useful for even simple tasks and questions,» Howell tells CNET. «They’ve become buggy and unreliable to the point where I’ve stopped interacting with them for most things.»

Gemini catches dog red-handed

At the Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona earlier this year, Howell was impressed by Gemini’s performance with a smart home camera.

«A smart home camera detected a dog that came into the kitchen to steal a cookie off the counter,» Howell recalls. «Through voice interaction, the homeowner could ask the system what happened to the cookie, and, given the video context from the camera and an understanding of what it saw, the system could tell the homeowner that the dog was the culprit.

«This sort of example empowers users to spend less time looking for answers in lieu of simple voice queries that serve them the answer they are looking for with less effort and less time spent.»

Google announced last month that Gemini for Home will eventually replace Google Assistant in its smart home devices. You’ll still activate Gemini with, «Hey Google,» but the advanced AI tech will be able to better interpret more complex and nuanced instructions and questions.

Maybe you’re stumped as to what to make for dinner, so it could be: «Hey Google, what quick pasta dish can I cook in less than an hour?» or, «Give me a recipe for Caesar salad.» Gemini is also designed to work with thermostats and smart lights, so you might tell it to «turn the temp to 68 degrees» and «turn off all the lights except in the kitchen.»

The market for smart home technology is expected to grow by 23% over the next five years, according to Grand View Research.

Technologies

Polar Introduces Loop, a $200 Screenless Wearable

Polar’s first fitness tracker with no screen tracks activity, sleep and overall health, the company says.

Fitness tracking company Polar has launched Loop, a $200 screenless wearable that it says will have no subscription fees. Preorders opened on Sept. 3, and the Polar Loop will start shipping on Sept. 10.

Like other fitness trackers, the Polar Loop will log steps, sleep patterns and daily activity patterns but Polar is touting the lack of a screen as «unobtrusive» and «discreet.» The Loop, which is a wearable band for your wrist, has eight days of battery life with continuous use and stores four weeks’ worth of data. It syncs with the Polar Flow app to view stats and analyze sleep and training data, among other information.

Because it has no buttons, activities can be started in the app or passively with what the company calls «automatic training detection.»

It’s available in the colors Greige Sand, Night Black and Brown Copper. Additional band colors are offered for $20 each.

There’s already a market of no-screen wearables, including the Whoop 5.0 wristband and smart rings such as the Oura Ring 3.

Will the Loop measure up?

Whether the Polar Loop’s attempt at simplifying a fitness wearable works out will largely depend on how well it runs and what it offers compared to other devices.

«The company is clearly tapping into the growing demand for screen-free wearables,» says CNET’s lead writer for wearables, Vanessa Hand Orellana. «It feels like a direct answer to the athlete-favorite Whoop band and even the Oura Ring, both of which collect similar health metrics to display and analyze in their respective apps.»

Hand Orellana says Polar has a good reputation, with its signature heart-rate chest straps, and may win over fans by eschewing the subscription fee that the Oura and Whoop require.

«That said, as with most devices in this space, the real differentiator often comes down to execution… specifically, how well the data translates into clear, actionable insights. Personally, I’m curious to see how the Loop integrates with Polar’s app, which, at least in my experience with their HR straps, hasn’t always been the most intuitive to navigate,» she said.

Technologies

Waymo Is Expanding to Denver and Seattle. Everything to Know About the Robotaxi

The company has also been granted a permit to test its self-driving vehicles in New York City. Here’s everywhere Waymo operates now, and where it’s set to arrive soon.