Ian Bott

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Australia’s defence dilemma: projecting force or provoking China?

MundoOceanía

The shipyard in Osborne, a suburb 20km north of Adelaide in the St Vincent’s Gulf of South Australia, feels far removed from the simmering geopolitical conflict between the US and China.

The freshly built, modern facility has the air of a Hollywood set with enormous sheds connected via narrow roads. Golf cart-like vehicles ferry equipment and people between locations. A small strip of marshland, intended as a bit of greenery for the workers, is the only reminder of what used to be.

Now the Osborne precinct is the symbolic heart of Australia’s burgeoning military industry at a time when the country seeks to claim a seat at the “big table” of global affairs.…  Seguir leyendo »

Nuclear fusion: why the race to harness the power of the sun just sped up

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

A nervous excitement hangs in the air. Half a dozen scientists sit behind computer screens, flicking between panels as they make last-minute checks. “Go and make the gun dangerous”, one of them tells a technician, who slips into an adjacent chamber. A low beep sounds. “Ready”, says the person running the test. The control room falls silent. Then, boom.

Next door, 3kg of gunpowder has compressed 1,500 litres of hydrogen to 10,000 times atmospheric pressure, launching a projectile down the 9-metre barrel of a two-stage light gas gun at a speed of 6.5km per second, about 10 times faster than a bullet from a rifle.…  Seguir leyendo »