Scientists make breakthrough discovery that could change our understanding of universe: 'Only possible through countless discussions and debates' Think of stirring a pot of soup, if you stir hard enough, all the liquid goes round and round, helped by all the heat mixing everything. At high enough temperatures, the pot of soup goes crazy and boils over. In a plasma like this, it's always trying to boil over, and they've finally figured out exactly how it does so. Superhigh temperatures like a fusion reactor, don't obey anyone's theories, and this is the first real chance they have to stir the pot, and figure out what's happening. Almost certainly, this will involve nonlinear temporal dynamics, and it will be a few years before we hear much more, but its similar to figuring out the temperature at which water freezes, and vital for countless applications.
So if I heat up my plasma TV I can find out the temperature that water freezes? Well ya neva gonna achieve fusion without understanding and controlling plasma. Speaking of which, check this out! Colored image of plasma in a tokamak. Personally I use a plasma lighter to toke-a-lot. Enlarge this image for better view. From Tokamak website: Current experiments on our ST40 spherical tokamak are offering new visual insights into plasma behaviour, thanks to a high-speed colour camera capturing footage at 16,000 frames per second. What the colours reveal The image shows visible light emitted from the plasma’s edge, where temperatures are lower. The core of the plasma is too hot to emit visible light. One of the most recognisable features is the bright pink glow from deuterium gas injection, visible in the upper left of the image. A pure hydrogen plasma, or any of its isotopes – deuterium or tritium – typically produces a light shade of pink, as it emits wavelengths of both red and blue light.
