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Nuclear fusion dream ten million degrees short of a limitless energy samba party

The dream of creating huge quantities of cheap controllable power from acetone and sounds waves is total nonsense, leading experts have wearily concluded.

Earlier this year, US and Russian scientists claimed that by firing sound waves at the liquid, bubbles were formed that would collapse producing a temperature of millions of degrees. This would cause nuclear fusion and in turn release vast quantities of energy.

Sadly, the "sun in a glass" idea is total cobblers, as two professors from the University of Illinois have discovered. The temperature in the bubbles reaches only 15-20,000 degrees Celsius, which is bloody hot but just a few weeny million degrees short of the mark.

The process, called sonoluminescence and nothing to do with somnambulism, is still pretty cool though, if devastatingly pointless.

The shock discovery comes just a few years after some other idiot scientists claimed to be able to create nuclear fission in water. Then of course there were claims that hairspray could help power the West's cities, nitrogen would solve third world hunger and that all we needed was love.

Still, nice to dream hey?

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