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From: bigthink
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  • sad to hear only fusion is the future would be nice to have some other alternatives available When are we getting our space elevator and build our mega solar collector belt around earth

  • I think I get a release of dopamine when I hear him talk... I don’t think I need my anti depressants anymore.

  • I am very upset after reading some of the stupid comments about black holes below...

  • Michio, you need to do an add showing your support for Obama. You know that if a Republican becomes President, they're going to slash money for scientific research, just like they did under Bush. It's important that people like you get involved and make your voice heard

  • magnets ?

  • just how small is dark energy? would it be enough to charge my laptop?

  • Guess where we get our hydrogen from right now. Oil. Look it up. We need to figure out where to get the hydrogen from before we start using it.

  • @timoteoman13 look man i understand wat ur talkin about but your speakin theoretical..meanin in theory in other words ideas of your imagination and im speaking in facts...first of all you CAN see the dark! and its not matter because like we all know matter takes up space..and we cant see the black "hole"cuz were not 100 percent it even exist!!..oh! we cant see the air but we can feel it,and make it!!!!.my comments are about physics and facts not ^^theory^^ ;)

  • @kikonrose Explain to me how we don't know a black hole already exist. I thought Stephen Hawking already ended that debate. If you are talking theories look at your theory of God. Don't throw physics and facts around if you bring God into the debate for it is much greater stretch than Dark energy or dark matter. So don't preach about theory. Why can't you just except scientist like the Dr. here have a better understanding than you or I. Also dark matter does take up space, research the topic.

  • @timoteoman13 Aw, America. We began by showing the world what advanced citizenship looks like, just as other cultures have done through out history, and now we are choking on our own decadence and delusion. We have certainly entered our pubescence.

  • @Realmslover I'm not sure whose side you are supporting with that comment, however I do believe you are right.

  • @kikonrose Actually, we have proven black holes. We have even observed their byproducts and measured their gamma radiation, which is actually how we found them. As for getting to one? Forget it. That won't happen for a while and anything that we could send to further define it through closer observation would be destroyed in the process.

  • dark energy does not exist because dark matter wich is not even a "matter"or object or thing..... darkness only appears by the absence of light!!!!...get it..but here is 2 things i agree with myself..GOD does exist and that dr.michio would look like einstein if he had a mustache

  • @kikonrose The "darkness" has nothing to do with it's existence. Dark energy is still theoretical along with dark matter but just because you cannot see dark matter does not mean it doesn't exist. You cannot see a black hole can you? You cannot see air either. Ones invisible. The other is the absence of light. However both can be tested to see their existence which is the same with dark matter and energy.

  • hold on, did he say that it is possible to have 'break-even', essentially breaking the 2nd law of thermodynamics? can someone clear this up?

  • @emperorsenshi He just meant that at first, they will need to bring in as much electricity into the reactor as they pump out. i.e. They will merely "break even" at first. This will be a good achievement, but nobody wants a power plant that takes as much electricity to run as it produces. Eventually they hope to net energy out by not requiring external electricity to "burn the fuel" in the plant.

  • so if i have dark energy in my body, does that makes me a sith?

  • free energy is a dream for those with no money and a nightmare for those with

  • @qazz11q what if i Patton free energy, than i will make zillions and zillions of monies. muahahahaha!

  • @Nightwalker9001 will just have to wait for your patton to run out or ill just download it from pirate bay

  • @qazz11q That doesn't even make sense

  • the future lies in solar!!

  • Dark side is in all of us?+++

  • this is so amazing. but tomorrow I know I will have forgotten it :D

  • 'So small'...Michio is originally from Japan and when he said 'so small' it reminded me of the South Park episode 'Chinpokomon' :-) Whoz with me? :-) Anyways...respect to Michio.

  • >< But water is so important, i'm a bit scared of anything using water.

  • hi

    

  • There are 1.3 trillion barrels (54.6 trillion gallons) of oil on earth that will last us 40 years. There is about 343 quintillion gallons of water in earths oceans. Water contains 0.015% Deuterium. One gallon of water used in fusion can give you the same amount of energy as 300 gallons of gasoline or 600 barrels of oil. Do the math.

  • @epicpwner0 This means that we can produce energy equivalent to 1.5435*10^21 gallons of gasoline or (1.5435*10^21)*2 barrels of oil can produce. This amount of energy, excluding the fact that energy demands are going to rise exponentially, would sustain the human economy for approximately 2.997*10^7 years longer than all the oil on earth would. This means we can sustain life as we know for another 1198834951 years!!!!; on top of the 40 years we can live off with the remaining oil.

  • Dr. Octavius!

  • If we wanted energy from a source that is always available everywhere, could we learn to harness the energy from higgs bosons?

  • @NoNameWorks420 Do you know what is the higgs boson?

  • The universe is like my relationship... Pulled apart by nothing :/

  • OMG there's dark energy inside me ???

    Michi Okaku: yep and sry can't be harvested for ordinary use !!!

    Thx allot Jedi knight, where's a sith lord when you need one, I want superhuman push-pull and choke abilities heheheheh

  • I'm just thinking, if we use water for fusion won't we get the same problem we have with oil and gas, or is there a way for the helium to go back to water???

    I mean we do need the water so I think we should at least know the effects that will occur in maybe thousand or 1 million years from now...

  • 2012, and not investigating Tesla's idea to draw power from the ionosphere and it's immense amount of solar radiation and energy?

  • What happens when you reproduce? You get bigger! Small Thing (ST) Dark Energy is reproducing!

  • Michio Kaku 2012

  • How come people like this cant be in the government? Why do we get people like oboma who only temporarily cure the economic decline?!?!

  • @PistolLucky

    Because people who are intelligent and able to think for themselves don't seek a job in the government. As much as I'd like to see more science majors govern this world, I think it would be wasted potential. We have a future to build, and them to shove bars in our wheels.

  • @PistolLucky they would be forced to react to the dumb ideas of the people to get their vote negating the fact that some one smart was put in office in the first place.

  • Comment removed

  • i dont think oil companies will like "free energy"

  • @1pwnurfac3 They allready dont. Imagine how many different way there is to make energy, how many billions of dollars they have paid to keep it Hush Hush....?

  • @1pwnurfac3 Tesla *cough cough*

  • Long story short. Some engineer's come up with reasonably fusion energy for the masses in about 20 years, to help alleviate stresses on the common man. Then some business men/politicians, come in and find some way to screw us all out of our money once again. Already heard this story, sad but true.

  • "who wants a car that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't...." apparently me cuz thats my car every mourning.

  • I have the answer with anti-matter from Relativistic Perturbation Mantle

  • geothermal energy?

  • I'm going to save these videos and watch them in 2030.

  • admire his science, abhore his politics. still like the guy.

    -President FFM

  • @FuriousFatMan what are his politics

  • As long as there is Oil to be extracted, and coal to be mined, and gas to be fracked, there will never be unlimited free energy.

  • @JoelThedude4u

    because I know how energy and the economy work.

  • @JoelThedude4u What makes you think that any form of energy will be free or unlimited.

  • @Huntua Well, it is "free" until someone hogs and sells it for profit. But if you make your own energy, say, solar panels that are 90% efficient, and batteries for when the sun doesnt shine, then it would be free, The sun IS free!

    If you could make energy from radio waves, like Tesla DID, then the sun emits massvie amounts of radio waves. That would be free.

    The problem becomes when energy is produced at one place and needs distributing. I'm not against SELLING power, But we need renewables

  • @JoelThedude4u Well, with not even knowing if 'free energy' is really even viable, there is no money to be made if energy is free, so i doubt we will know for a fact for a very long time. The Issue is, as long as something can be sold, it will receive the funding and research. Funneling money into something that promises 0 returns, to an investor, makes no sense.

  • @rich1051414 Whne you're destroying the earth by releasing carbon atoms that took millions of years to sequester into the atmosphere, using dangerous energy that MAY release radiation that last thousands of year making land un-inhabitable, and machines that release oil into our drains and ecosystem, and chemicals into our atmosphere, all in the Name of "profit", it makes perfect sense!!! Unlimited free energy= No hard work= Unlimited free food, labor, and etc etc etc

  • @JoelThedude4u What i am saying is, the way the world works does no favors for that field of research. No one wants to fund research into forms of energies that they cannot profit from, and those profiting from energies it would make obsolete will campaign against it.

  • @rich1051414 Sadly, you are right.

  • Comment removed

  • true free clean energy is being suppressed.. just as the cure for certain diseases (cancer ect) are being suppressed, why? because it would put people out of business if it was a complete cure 1 time thing or if it were efficient and self sustaining.

  • @joshdaugherty1111 for president! coughdouchebagcough

  • @PariahFish look up antineoplastons and or watch the documentary Thrive

  • cold fussion is to create special plating not working things IDIOOTS

  • I would love to hear the thoughts of the 2 dislikes.

  • @Vietnigamese I'll sum it up: omfg hees aseen fuk him in da azz.

  • @Vietnigamese I bet there Christians

  • @FutureScience2012 I'll bet they're christians* My advice to you would be to take a break from theoretical physics until you master grammar 101.

  • @mikeochenballs

    I bet your also a christian

  • @FutureScience2012 that's the best you could come up with? You sure like betting. I even through you a bone by not capitalizing Christians. See, I was betting that you truly were illiterate and not just careless. Please tell me English is not your first language.

  • @mikeochenballs *Throw :P

  • @Maddolis **Threw makes more sense. Also, why be a dick and ruin it? I was on a roll. It's funny that you try to be smart but you can't even grasp what I was doing.

  • @mikeochenballs Defensive much? I just figure if you're going to correct one's spelling or grammar, you'd better make damn sure your own comments are flawless.

  • @Maddolis That was the whole point my man. Read the other posts and maybe it will sink in.

  • @mikeochenballs Oh so now you're using the defense that you were being clever by ironically using "through" instead of "threw?" In which case I won't criticize your spelling, but rather your use of ironic humour or smartass insults. Generally you need to give a bit more of a clue to the reader when doing such, because in this case it clearly looks as though you made a mistake yourself. Nice try though.

  • @Maddolis Yes exactly, I said as much in the response you critiqued. I was waiting for future science to find it. That was the clue. The fact that I say that noticing my own mistakes would be a better comeback than calling me a Christian.

    Let me then criticize your need to butt in and come to the rescue of someone who felt compelled to claim his superior intellect while sounding like an ass. Which happens to be the thrust of your original response to me. Now that's what I would consider ironic.

  • @mikeochenballs Actually initially I was teasing seeing as that guy was being an ass, but you took it far too seriously so I figured I'd respond in kind. I'm done here.

  • This guy is my hero.

  • my girlfriend broke up with me cause she said I have too much dark energy...

    she just didn't understand me...

  • 2:57 reminds me of southpark

  • What if we were to say, somehow garther and condense very very very large amounts of dark energy and condense it all into a very dense point around an object of some kind.

    A human,a city,a country,a planet, an asteroid, a star. Could it be possible that with enough Dark energy condensed onto a single space, that it could possibly rip apart every single atom that is with in that single space? thus "vaporizing" in a sense, everything in that set space.

    "The first act of creation is destruction".

  • @DeaddudeRS what you say makes sense ...... somewhat. But i think that dark energy is the one which has been claimed to be tearing our universe apart i think

  • If you can't funnel or channel the "energy" it is useless.

    I am still waiting to see if someone can funnel or channel gravity.

  • @JungleJargon We do have tidal generators, and hydroelectric dams. But something tells me that isn't what you mean.

    If we could manipulate gravity itself, we could just fall into orbit. Or to the next star.

  • @L00NGB00W That is good but it doesn't seem to be enough.

    We could place huge under water cylinders in the gulf stream and have a huge amount of power generated!

    How about that??!!

  • @JungleJargon I suppose that would be a great idea, If the cylinders could somehow generate power.

  • @L00NGB00W Cylinders in moving water tend to rotate uncontrolably even without any vanes. They could generate a lot of power if we could get the power back to the shore.

    I just don't know if drive shafts would be better than power lines.

  • 0 dislikes. Can't stand the pressure off misclicking the like button.

  • You spill a cold beer in lake Shasta and go home, come back next month and beat up some lawrencium. How as hell fusions.

  • "Not small portable things that you can put into a car" - Back to the Future reference? "Mr. Fusion" anyone?! hah

  • he looks EXACTLY like jimmy page does now

  • *Dislikes the vid... Chuck Norris kicks in my face and takes away the dislike*

  • @CampyMcCamperPants Nope, Chuck Norris calls Segata Sanshiro who kicks you in the face and takes away the dislike lol

  • i think we already have hot fusion reactors 0.0 I think we need cold fusion

  • @RoyalJackofSpades We have nuclear fission reactors, which is generally viewed as being unsafe and risky (look at the malfunctions that occurred in Japan). A FUSION reactor would be completely safe and more efficient.

  • @gdsm93 well, fusion reactors are as safe as million degree plasma and massive amounts of energy can be...

  • @dareapa1 There's literally no threat of malfunction, nor of radiation. Fission is obviously dangerous, just look at the recent events in Japan for a modern reference.

  • If we can create a device that produces or captures dark energy and concentrates it to a certain point then perhaps we can use it to levitate structures and make travel less expensive and efficient. Question is what is its nature? If only our world's resources are used to discover these interesting possibilities instead of making war and killing each other...

  • @AlbertLloydy to be fair I'd estimate the amount of the world (economy, resources, population) which is actively used for war at the moment to be very small. We really don't have a lot of wars going on worldwide lately or atleast not on the scale of say WWII or the cold war. Modern wars don't involve alot of soldiers and resources in the scale of the World Wars, simply because our economies have grown relatively more than the army budgets.

  • @AlbertLloydy you probably just came up with the idea that will make nuclear weapons obsolete...

  • i have dark energy within my body??

    O.o

    i must come to the dark side..

  • @satoshinjiro15 I had too, but I have let it out recently...

    Poop.

    Oops, there was a little more left.

    :D

  • If a type two civilization is to harness your suns energy, why wouldn't we stick with solar energy and make it better?

  • @TuckerWooldridge Fusion is solar..Kinda

  • @TuckerWooldridge type 2 civilisations would harness OTHER suns not their own if it was their own they would that would be kinda stupid dont ya think...

  • 2019 is too late because oil an gas last another 50 years not including new deposits to be found and coal 200 not including new deposits to be found them we also have nuclear and renewable energies? So tell me how is 2019 too late

  • If a physicist is actually open minded about an experiment that most don't really understand, then he is actually doing his job.

  • @leerman22 skepticism fuels science

  • 2019 is TOO FUCKING LATE!!!

  • Woah woah woah That is impossible to Generate power 100% you always lose power from friction?!

  • @kennykillsyou1 And what did that comment have to do with the video?

  • If hot fusion DOES become real, then what happens when we run out of water?

  • @MYNAMEISBANNANA1 he said it purifies the water not consumes it and uses its materials and chemcials to generate electricity. Which means cleaner seawater

  • @MYNAMEISBANNANA1 The water doesn't disappear, but would be good as we are about to flood the planet.

  • But the finial source of energy will be dark energy. I wonder how that long that will take?

  • put a load of solar panels in a desert, there you go tons of energy. Put a load of wind turbines on some windy places there you go tons of energy. what the problem is? transporting the energy and the cost to make it?dont use the money on oil and focus more on reusable enegy there you go

  • @Smokemalboro

    If it were that easy, it would have been done by now. Somehow I doubt that these simple ideas just flew over the world's top physicists' heads.

  • I love when you make things simple. At first I'm like :O them I'm like -.- "It's that simple?!"

  • we gonna need it

  • why is this system so f*ked up that those who have big ideas can't easily afford to tell the mto the world..?

  • so dark matter E is so small to use but large enough to push the universe away?

  • @Udumbdumb in large enough quantities, it can push the universe apart.

  • @redjr242 no, its the fundamental energy of the universe's very "substance" so it cant push itself apart. Its merely getting bigger as it expands. What it CAN do is spread out the material of the univere until basically every solar system is so isolated that it has no nearby stars for approximately 15 billion light years. When that happens no light from any other star would ever reach another star and the "nighttime sky" from any planets in that system would be total blackness.

  • @redjr242 However that event while inevitable, wont be happening to our universe for many, many, many billions of years so have no fear that in your time that you will suddenly start seeing the nighttime view of stars begin "winking out" for good. Besides by the time that would happen the Sun itself will have expired (and in the process of it's Red Giant phased vaporized our planet anyway) itself. Our sun "only" has about 5-6 billion years left :)

  • @redjr242 if that the case then we should be able to suck them in / use them as energy

  • I have another question (sorry)

    Would the use of dark energy be dangerous?

    What I mean by this, is if it's pushing the universe outward, harvesting it and burning it (so to speak) would remove it from it's current coarse and it would no longer be pushing.

    Also; Wouldn't this be similar to Oil in that once it has been harvested in that area, it is gone and can not be replaced, meaning that if we find out that it was upsetting some sort of balance it would be "too late" now on a cosmic scale?

  • @Marazish it doesnt work in that fashion. Dark Energy cannot be "collected" its a natural state of the nature of Space-time itself (yes i hyphenate it some do some dont...deal with it those sticklers among you).

    Dark Energy's source (many theories abound), can't simply be "drained" as its a fundamental energy. How can you stop Space-Time itself from expanding? We know of no way. Trying to stop space itself from expanding can't be done.

  • @OkamsRazer

    I see, thank you : D

    I was worried there for a second, but couldn't figure the whole situation. "They wouldn't try if there was a danger right?..... Then again..human is human"

  • @Marazish indeed. the "beauty" of a fusion reaction is that it requires such precise mechanisms to work that its a endothermic reaction initially (thats what for decades the only way we could figure out how to do it was the use of an atomic explosion, ie a hydrogen fusion bomb is triggered by a small fission warhead to begin the cycle). If a fusion reaction went "haywire" it would never become a critical "meltdown" situation like a fission reactor, it would simply stop functioning.

  • Fusion is fine and dandy, but how large would a reactor be?

    Why was solar not included in this video? it seems to be the elephant in the room.

    many of us could just cover the roof in panels, and store excess energy until latter in the night/ winter years.

    The only real two issues are

    A: Solar is still sloppy, only using one color spectrum and poorly.

    B: power companies lose business

    On that...would G.E be behind this fusion reactor?

    How would we carry one of these with us in space?

  • @Marazish The reactor is owned and operated by the sponsoring governments and their related dept's of energy, so no this is non commercial. Its not intended to be a "power station", rather more a living model of how the fusion reaction can be shown to be balanced (ie as much energy out as goes int to make it). As Kaku states the generation of reactors after it will be based on modifications developed and researched at this current facility.

  • The money spent on the hot fusion process, which according to Dr. Kaku has produced no net energy, have cost an estimated 100 Billion dollars. With this money, using existing technology, the planet would be sustainable before hot fusion has even produced any net energy.

    I hope we are reading his messages as a joke.

  • @refondata Its a considred investment toward the future of nil fossil fuel. Its better to spend the relatively minor resources now so that we can "capitalize" on the technological advancements born from the investment now.

    Your argument is like those who guffawed at the early developers of aviation.....why bother spending all this money to develop this impractical technology when we could just spend the money on more ships and trains.

  • How is he able to give exact years and facts of the future???? Oh my GOD!!!! Kaku has a Time Machine!!!!

  • wow 0 dislikes.

    Only an Asian can pull off such results

  • @doodelay Don't say stuff like that, you might wake up the trolls.

  • Comment removed

  • @doodelay How dare you jix this

  • @doodelay 1 guy disliked on purpose I wonder who

  • @doodelay Then some asshole just HAD to dislike it. -_-

  • @FenrirAlucard Language :O

  • @FenrirAlucard

    Dishonor be upon them

  • @doodelay American of Japanese descent actually. Additionally I don't see how his ethnicity is relevant to the lack of dislikes on the video...

    I personally would have thought the content he presented and the way he presented it is what made it entertaining to almost everybody. Thank you for opening my eyes to the fact that race has such a big factor on how people like a video...

  • haha im smarter than you, i know my fart is faster than a speed of light.

  • and if anything explodes its in france

  • What about E=mc^2

    It says that any matter can theoretically be converted into energy, and 1 kg would be enough to power one million homes for a year

  • @OleKyrkjebo

    The problem with this is that in order to convert matter into energy we would have to give massive amounts of energy in order for this convertion. And that would defeat the purpose.

  • @OleKyrkjebo True, but how do you convert it into energy? Only known way today is to make it react with its corresponding anti-particle, and we don't have anti-particles lying around to be harvested. If we do find it though, it's awesome! But we won't find it on earth :P

  • @mattegeniet OK, just btw, mattegeniet. Du er vel ikke norsk?

  • @OleKyrkjebo Haha, nä, men nästan :P (gissar att prickarna avslöjar mig)

  • @mattegeniet ser nå at du er svensk ja. :)

  • i want to meet this guy. I wanna smoke a blunt with him and listen to him talk about this shit for hours

  • I still don't understand how empty space, i.e. nothing, has energy. How can nothing, by definition the absence of matter and energy, have energy?

    It's very confusing. I'm sure if you understand the math it makes sense, but it doesn't if you're a laymen.

  • @UnknownXV

    I don't think it's actually nothing as a perfect vacuum doesn't exist. It is just very close to nothing.

  • @presswt Well that's not entirely true. In deep space between galaxies, there's 1 atom every X amount of square miles (but it's a huge number) so between those single atoms, there's nothing but totally empty space.

  • What's he mean by "generate as much power as you put into it?" I assume the point of building a fusion reactor is that it would generate WAY more energy than is put into it. What did I miss?

  • @chackers You first need to get it to the point where you get as much out as you put in. You are right that the ultimate goal is to get much more out then you put in, but you can't just jump there out of nowhere. You first need to get to the break-even point and then go from there.

  • @Altairograph Yeah: that's what he said. But why build ANY energy-producing device if you already have as much energy as it would produce? What am I missing? What energy has to be "put into" fusion for it to continue? Once it gets going, isn't it more or less perpetual?

  • @chackers did you not watch the entire video? it is a process...

  • Liquid fuel thorium reactors: No danger, an enormous amount of fuel available, hardly any by products, no chance of nuclear bomb proliferation.

    In other words a very good power source. And and here is the kicker, the USA has already built and tested the concept and it works!!!! When India and China starts to build these wonderful reactors the world will become a better place.

  • so we suck all of the water out of the ocean for energy for this? Whatever happened to renewable resources?