BBC Science & Technology — The US has finished constructing a huge physics experiment aimed at recreating conditions at the heart of our Sun. The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, a process that could offer abundant clean energy. The lab will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant laser beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel.

To work, it must show that more energy can be extracted from the process than is required to initiate it. Professor Mike Dunne, who leads a European venture that is also pursuing nuclear fusion with lasers, told BBC News that if NIF was successful, it would be a “seismic event”. “It would mark the transition for laser fusion from ‘physics’ to ‘engineering reality’,” he said.

The California-based NIF is the largest experimental science facility in the US and contains the world’s most powerful laser. It has taken 12 years to build.

“This is a major milestone,” said Dr Ed Moses, director of the facility. “We are well on our way to achieving what we set out to do - controlled, sustained nuclear fusion and energy gain for the first time ever in a laboratory setting.”

Experiments will begin in June 2009, with the first significant results expected between 2010 and 2012.

Fusion is looked on as the Holy Grail of energy sources because of its potential to supply almost limitless clean energy. But the challenge of creating a practical fusion reactor has eluded scientists for decades. Now, however, they believe they are nearing their goal.

“We are now very close to the culmination of 50 years’ effort,” explained Professor Dunne. (03/31/09)
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BBC Medical Science — A cheap five-in-one pill can guard against heart attacks and stroke, research suggests. The concept of a polypill for everyone over 55 to cut heart disease by up to 80% was mooted over five years ago, but slow progress has been made since.

Now a trial in India shows such a pill has the desired effects and is safe and well-tolerated by those who take it. Although The Lancet study is proof of concept, experts still question the ethics of a pill for lifestyle issues. The polypill used in the latest study combines five active pharmacological ingredients widely available separately - aspirin, a statin to lower cholesterol and three blood pressure-lowering drugs - as well as folic acid. Trials on 2,053 healthy individuals free of cardiovascular disease, but with a risk factor such as high blood pressure or a long-term smoker, showed combining the drugs into one tablet delivered a similar effect to each drug separately.

Reductions were seen in both blood pressure and cholesterol without any major side effects. The researchers believe that the combined action of all the components in their “Polycap” capsule made by Cadila Pharmaceuticals, could potentially halve strokes and heart attacks in average, middle-aged people. On a global scale, this would save tens of millions of lives.

The study, led by Dr Salim Yusuf, from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, took in people at 50 centres across India. A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said: “The results suggest that the polypill has the potential to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease. (03/31/09)
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Brian Liloia writes: In the small town of La Plata, Missouri, something of a revolution is beginning. A brand new intentional community has recently formed, and its aims and message are radical, inspiring,
and daring: the Possibility Alliance is a completely car-free,
petroleum-free, and electricity-free community striving to raise a new
level of awareness regarding sustainable, cooperative, and
compassionate living.

Currently composed of a small handful of members, the Possibility
Alliance is totally off-the-grid and uses candlelight and wood stoves
for heating and cooking, and it owns no vehicles. Instead, members use
bicycles as their main mode of transport. (See above for an example!)
Another of the group’s goals is to depend entirely on 100% local food,
so that whatever is not grown by the community is obtained within a 200
mile radius. The Possibility Alliance hosts students, visitors, and
guests and provides educational workshops free of charge on topics such
as permaculture, bicycle maintenance, gardening, etc. Although the
group might use the term “radical simplicity” to describe the lifestyle
they have taken on, they see it as more of a return to what makes sense
for humans living harmoniously with the earth.

Last week, I spoke at length with
friend and communitarian Ethan Hughes, who is heavily invested in
the  Possibility Alliance project.

Ethan explains: “We’re so happy with what’s happening now. All of us [living there],
in our heart level, our big goal is total societal transformation. Our
vision is that the Possibility Alliance would have something like a
land-based center in every bioregion of the US to see how can we live
in this bioregion with a total local diet, no petro input, and as an
educational center, and also as a service center. So each bioregion
would have a team of Superheroes going out to serve in emergencies,
riots, hurricanes [etc.], and for free, which is a big part of the
Superheroes and the Possibility Alliance, is that we’re based on the gift economy.
We don’t require fees for what we do. We have probably moved over
$100,000 in eight years. People give to us and we gift projects. The
Possibility Alliance’s land was totally paid for in a year and a half
through people’s donations. They say, wow, it’s so amazing that you’re
having groups come, you’re teaching permaculture, you’re doing all this
for free. It’s amazing how when people have a choice to give, they give
a lot more than what you would even charge them.

“But really, our goal is not societal transformation as we think it
should be, but the belief that if everyone followed their heart,
society would be transformed. So how do we support and give people the
courage to live what’s in their heart? I know everyone sits on a secret
dream, and there’s a whole spectrum. By helping people to live to their
full vision, mainstream society will break the fabrics of consumption,
people will feel whole again, and we believe that what will emerge is a
healthier society.” (03/31/09)
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