http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/science/28fusion.html?pagewanted=all
*They're not kidding! It actually functions!
It's in NATURE, darn it!
Itty-Bitty and Shrinking, Fusion Device Has Big Ideas
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: April 28, 2005
Tabletop Fusion
Scientists have built a small nuclear fusion device triggered by changes in temperature.
In a surprising feat of miniaturization, scientists are reporting today that they have produced nuclear fusion - the same process that powers the sun - in a footlong cylinder just five inches in diameter. And they say they will soon be able to make the device even smaller.
While the device is probably too inefficient to produce electricity or other forms of energy, the scientists say, egg-size fusion generators could someday find uses in spacecraft thrusters, medical treatments and scanners that search for bombs.
The findings, by a team at the University of California, Los Angeles, led by Dr. Seth J. Putterman, are being reported in the journal Nature.
