THE STAR BUILDERS

From a young, award-winning scientist, a look at one of the most compelling and historic turning points of our time - the race to harness the power of the stars and produce controlled nuclear fusion, creating a practically unlimited supply of clean energy.

All across the world teams of scientists are being assembled at great expense by governments, research universities, and venture capital firms to solve what is the most difficult technological challenge mankind has ever faced: building the equivalent of a star on earth. If the researchers are successful in creating a process of controlled fusion in which atoms of hydrogen are heated to temperatures as high as 100 million degrees, ionized into a plasma, then, for several instants, held together, a stream of energy will be created that is so powerful it can potentially be a source of inexhaustible energy.

Not only could controlled fusion eliminate the need for fossil fuels and immediately solve the climate crisis, it could help realize other long-dreamed-of aims - like journeying to the stars. With the environmental stakes steadily rising in the last forty years, and laser and magnetic field technology ramping up, there is high confidence that the fusion puzzle will soon be solved.

In The Star Builders, Arthur Turrell, an award-winning young plasma physicist who possesses a unique ability to render complicated science understandable, offers a quick history of fusion then introduces us to the leading fusion teams as they race to cross the finish line. As regards the exotic machines they've built: some have ten times the number of parts as the NASA Space Shuttle and some are enormously large, extending over 400 acres. Subsidizing these modern-day Manhattan projects are firms like Goldman Sachs and Google, universities like Oxford and MIT, international consortiums, and big dreaming entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel.

Arthur Turrell has a PhD in plasma physics from Imperial College London and is the recipient of the Rutherford Prize for the Public Understanding of Plasma Physics. His research and writing has been featured in The Daily Mail, The Guardian, the International Business Times, Gizmodo and other general audience publications. He also works as a Senior Economist for the Bank of England where he is applying his scientific training to questions about the macro-economy. As a visiting scientist, he retains close links with the plasma physics group at Imperial College London.