BACK in the 1950s, scientists proclaimed that reactors which could produce reliable commercial fusion energy were only three decades away. As the ever-eloquent Charles Seife makes clear in this sobering tale, we are still decades from harnessing the mechanisms that power the sun. He expertly traces the history of our fusion-powered dreams. The fringe enthusiasms of cold fusion and bubble fusion get a quick and withering glance, but it is the mainstream efforts that seem to come off worst: the plan to create a commercial fusion plant is “just another case of wishful thinking”.
