Science Thread
- Thread starter gadgetcool5
- Start date
He Jiankui has been released from prison. I'm thrilled China called what he did a crime, but mildly disappointed he didn't get a longer sentence.
tldr; Dr He Jiankui announced in 2018 he had genetically engineered kids using CRISPR when CRISPR has been universally said to be not ready for germline gene editing due to the number of errors it made at the time. He lied to the patients. He lied to the Chinese government about what he was doing with the funding. Then he came out at a conference and told the world what he had done. China reacted swiftly and in a very ethical manner, imo.
tldr; Dr He Jiankui announced in 2018 he had genetically engineered kids using CRISPR when CRISPR has been universally said to be not ready for germline gene editing due to the number of errors it made at the time. He lied to the patients. He lied to the Chinese government about what he was doing with the funding. Then he came out at a conference and told the world what he had done. China reacted swiftly and in a very ethical manner, imo.
Sure, and the monkeys can fly. Who's verifying that this so-called breakthrough is indeed legitimate and credible and not just a lame attempt to impress the readily gullible people experts and non-experts alike especially in light of the current hyper geopolitical contest between the U.S. and China.
Is this one of the infamous American style of putting the cart before the horse situation? Or is there an actual meat behind the claims.
I hope and wish that this breakthrough is true because it'll benefit the world if applied in real humanitarian way but U.S. being the U.S. the world will have to be alphabetized and accept them as lord and savior if this mana is to be received by other countries, China included.
by78
General
Yet another breakthrough? Whoah, dude, this is a pretty big deal!
So instead of being 60 years away from being 60 years away from commercial nuclear fusion, we're now 50 years away from being 50 years away from widespread adoption. Wow...
∞ ÷ x = ∞, where X ≠ ∞
Speaking of nuclear fusion breakthroughs, whatever happened to that was all over the news? They were supposed to have a working prototype by 2017, and then by 2019, and then pushed back again to 2022. We're now at the tail end of 2022, and it's all crickets.
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by78 posting pictures... nice.
by78 humiliating trolls... priceless.
by78
General
Every few years the media reports a net positive fusion breakthrough. It reminds me of the old days, when during the oil crisis of the 1970s, it seemed that every few months the media reported on a promising new car engine that could run on water.
Nuclear fusion breakthroughs are the modern day equivalent of a , but simpletons keep falling for it because they need hopium, which is the second best thing after copium.
October 8, 2013:
February 13, 2014:
August 17, 2021:
December 3, 2021:
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It's like the decades of graphene memes about leaving the laboratory.
The above headlines are because the definition of a net gain is different every time by adjusting technical specifications. In 2013-14, the denominator was only a fraction of the laser light amounting to 1%, so fusion preserved about 1% of the energy in the light. In 2021, about 50% of the energy in the light was generated. Today's announcement is that 120% of the energy in the light was generated (in one year they have gone from 1.3 megajoules of energy for 2 megajoules of laser light to 2.5 megajoules of energy for 2 megajoules of laser light). Now, it's true that even with today's announcement, the energy used to generate the light is many times greater than what is in the actual light, so it's still not practical.
But the reality is that these repetitive headlines hide the fact that the US and it's allies are making steady progress on this goal, and if they succeed it would be the biggest economic revolution since the discovery of oil.