The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry

Did you know the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry have been on the BBC for a number of years?

This week’s programme. What do you get if you smash two hydrogen nuclei together?

You may listen to this programme NOW on Demand on the BBC Discovery Page which is available until Tuesday the 23rd of November. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 20th of November in Phuket at 8:30 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.

Helium and lots of energy – it’s nuclear fusion! Nuclear fusion is the power source of the sun and the stars.

Physicists and engineers here on earth are trying to build reactors that can harness fusion power to provide limitless clean energy. But it’s tricky.

This week Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Hannah Fry are joined by Dr Melanie Windridge, plasma physicist and CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, who explains why the fourth state of matter – plasma – helps get fusion going, and why a Russian doughnut was a key breakthrough on the path to fusion power.

Dr Sharon Ann Holgate, author of Nuclear Fusion:

The Race to Build a Mini Sun on Earth, helps our sleuths distinguish the more familiar nuclear fission (famous for powerful bombs) from the cleaner and much less radioactive nuclear fusion.

And plasma physicist Dr Arthur Turrell, describes the astonishing amount of investment and innovation going on to try and get fusion power working at a commercial scale.

Previously from the Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry.

Why do some people faint at the sight of blood? And can horses count?

Rutherford and Fry and Shakespeare’s Othello, on this episode in 2017 Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Hannah Fry consider the testimony of Shakespeare’s Othello, a study on dog bites, and homicides in Florida.

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