2014 ISEF

[Jim Kovalchick]

Tucker Sandbakken and Jason Syndergaard, who recently petitioned for neutron club membership for their pyroelectric accelerator fusion work won a trip to CERN last night at the 2014 Intel ISEF. Congrats to you both.

Another special awards winner last night had a project related to net gain from fusion using sonoluminescence combined with magnetic confinement. I can't wait to read that abstract.

[Richard Hull]

Interesting win. I suppose I need to call Carl Willis and get his opinion on placing them in the neutron club. The sonoluminesence bit is interesting and I would like to know more on this as well.

Richard Hull

[Chris Bradley]

I think ISEF awards are based on creativity and scientific process, rather than outcome or result, and their project clearly runs high on those criteria. Well done!

In regards the neutrons - The lack of repetition of their experiment is surprising, and simply eye-balling the time-plot of neutron counts [that are already on the 'high' side of expectations, though I do not know enough about the tube they used to understand its real sensitivities to neutrons and 'noise' signals] I really don't see the change in background neutron rate, and that's before we begin to consider potential RFI. When I've watched background neutrons, they vary like that naturally as far as I recall.

[Jim Kovalchick]

I definitely agree with Chris B. I don't think the Neutron Club should have entry biased by ISEF success because the fair judging, while competent, can't be expected to dig deep enough to truly validate data and method. So many projects and so little time. These young gentleman did a great job and were properly rewarded. The club is the club. You guys have done a great job with consistently scrutinizing fusion efforts, and that doesn't need to change because a special awards judge was happy at ISEF.

[Richard Hull]

Thanks for weighing in guys. This is the kind of back and forth needed at times like this. Unless I see some good data that looks good I will not enter them into the neutron club.

Richard Hull

[Jim Kovalchick]

Here is the abstract for sonoluminescence fusion project. Looks like a theory and modeling project.

2014 - PH052
ACHIEVING NET GAIN NUCLEAR FUSION IN MICROCAPSULES BY COUPLING SONOLUMINESCENCE AND MAGNETIC COMPRESSION
Raghu Vamsi Dhara
Mission San Jose High School, Fremont, CA, United States of America

Achieving net gain controlled nuclear fusion on Earth would lead to a revolution in energy and transportation technologies. This endeavor combined the techniques of sonoluminescence and magnetic compression, allowing the extreme ignition conditions required by the Lawson Criterion to be achieved at room temperature. First, a capsule is designed that can transmit both audio and magnetic energies. A spherical shell comprised of perforated iron is an efficacious and inexpensive choice. Second, the advantages of coupling sonoluminescence and magnetic compression were computed using Mathematica’s numerical differential equation solver and integrator. Multiple nonlinear coupled ordinary differential equations were analyzed and plotted. The combined sono-magnetic wave imploded the capsule at speeds of over 95,000 m/s. The temperature inside the capsule rose rapidly to nearly 2keV, sufficient for D-T reactions to ignite. The fusion power function was approximated using a temperature-dependant Maxwellian distribution, and when integrated over the time-step, yielded a fusion energy of 302.43 J per capsule. Even when energy losses to Bremsstrahlung radiation and electron heat conduction are incorporated, and assuming 30% efficiency of electricity production, this output corresponded to a gain factor of 43, significantly more than any current form of fusion technology. In the final phase, a parallel-scalable nuclear reactor is designed that can generate heat and extract electricity from sono-magnetic reactions. More sophisticated Hydrocode simulations are being run to validate these initial findings. This project suggests that a sono-magnetic hybrid fusion approach can readily yield gain in a way that can be harnessed for clean energy generation.

[Richard Hull]

Very florid and tech laden overview with many claims. Not neutron club material in my opinion. Good enough for ISEF, apparently.

Richarad Hull

[Chris Bradley]

They won a 'special award'? Is there more to the description of that particular award category?

One wonders what the future holds for science if youngsters are given free rein to believe that's good material. Not an iota of self-doubt or suggestions of how to improve the simulation or what next steps to hone the accuracy/realism of the predictions.

'302.43 J '? ... straight from the school for superfluous significant figures.

[Dennis P Brown]

Deleted by author after re-considering; see explanation provide later in this thread.

[JakeJHecla]

As someone who participated in ISEF last year, I'm not surprised to see this project made it there.The run-up to the big fair isn't always a good BS filter, especially for something as niche as nuclear fusion. We were met with enough blank stares just trying to explain the fusor (at regionals) that I imagine it would be easy for someone with a bit of superficial charm and a few buzzwords to weasel through with questionable content. However, ISEF itself is a finer-meshed sieve. In particular, I remember a judge formerly from ORNL (Dr. Lee Berry ) who grilled our project for two straight hours. In that discussion, he brought up "bubble fusion" and used some very strong words to characterize it. If it's any consolation, I can guarantee that Dr. Berry ripped this guy a (well-deserved) new one for the wild speculation in the abstract.

[Jim Kovalchick]

The special awards judging is sometimes piece-meal and can involve less rigor than the fair's grand awards (place ribbons).

The special award the sonoluminescence project received was a 1000 dollars from NASA. Description:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Founded in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research, answering basic questions like: What's out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find?

He also won 3000 dollars in United Technology stock. description:
United Technologies Corporation is a diversified company that provides a broad range of high-technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial building systems industries. We are pleased to offer eight awards of $3,000 in UTC common stock for projects showing excellence in science and engineering.

He has to be happy with 4000 dollars, but he didn't get a place ribbon at all. He apparently has a prom using career in sales ahead of him.

[Dennis P Brown]

After thinking just a bit of deeper thought on the physics and something none of the judges apparently did, I realize that this award is not deserved and the idea appears, from the details in the abstract, complete nonsense. The basic premise is collapsing bubbles due to the sound waves acting upon the bubble walls (water surface tension is critical.) Creating iron spheres that would mimic such a collapse has to first be shown possible and simultaneously, proven to lead to the runaway heating that water cavities exhibit when they collapse. Neither of these absolutely critical physical phenomenon were demonstrated mathematically through the computer code. Nor, to my knowledge, has this ever been demonstrated in experiment relative to iron spheres. For these crucial reasons, the entire idea is worthless and totally undeserving of merit, much less than any award. Of course, maybe the detailed paper addressed these critical issues but from their abstract, this appears doubtful.

As such, I am deleting my previous post of considering the award deserved.

[Jim Kovalchick]

Dennis,
It sounds like you are torn between holding a high standard for quality of scientific projects and a side that says let them challenge and explore even if they are heading down a path we might think is wrong. If so, then you are not alone. I personally like to see these young people make honest attempts to stretch and exceed. Yes, every now and then we may see an intentional huckster faking data or stealing others ideas, but most of these kids deserve to very proud of their efforts. I am encouraged by their drive.

I recall judging at an elementary school science fair over ten years ago now. Amongst the many obligatory 'let's see if seeds grow in cleaning fluid' projects there was one where a child had decided to understand the science behind a decaying road killed animal. The other judges were annoyed with me for giving it the time of day because it repulsed them as some kind of juvenile prank. I stopped and left an encouraging note at the project board, congratulating the person on choosing to take a different path than the others. Who knows? Perhaps a person like that will find that one path that none of us were open enough to see.

Jim K

[Chris Bradley]

The problem with what is written in that abstract is, as far as I am concerned, a failure to comprehend their own work. I have nothing against young'uns being bold and outspoken, but, irrespective of their age, experience and bullish optimism, that has to be tempered with a self-realisation and cognisance of what they are actually saying!

In this case;

"This endeavor combined the techniques of sonoluminescence and magnetic compression, allowing the extreme ignition conditions required by the Lawson Criterion to be achieved at room temperature"

could have easily been written as;

"This theoretical endeavor proposed to combine the techniques of sonoluminescence and magnetic compression, the results suggesting that the extreme ignition conditions required by the Lawson Criterion may be achieved at room temperature"

which would have changed the whole nature of the piece.

IMO, it is no play on words. It is a demonstration of awareness of what one is saying and claiming, because the point at which 'The Scientific Process' ends and science fiction starts is where claims are made without any self-critique so as to set in motion the process to examine the physical reality of what is being said.

[Richard Hull]

I will state that I am not in anyway demeaning their effort or their project. I am not even worried about the awards made or the quality of the judging. My sole concern is for the sanctity of the neutron club and maintaining the highest standards for admission for doing real fusion. I just do not see it in this effort due to all the factors I have already mentioned and that others have pointed out.

Again, the neutron club is not "fusor exclusive". Anyone doing fusion, by any method, with a proper demonstration and lots of data to show that fusion has benn achieved will be admitted.

Richard Hull