Fusion!
Imagine if one day our world ceased to exist. An unlikely prospect you might think, but according to the latest scientific research, one which is horrendously real...
Scientists have long known that the main source of energy in our Solar System is the Sun, and they have also known for many years that our sun is a sort of giant nuclear reactor. We humans, in our search for cheap energy, have tried to harness that nuclear power, but so far we have only managed to achieve commercial power production by nuclear fission, a dirtier but easier form of nuclear power than the nuclear fusion that takes place in the Sun.
An early British attempt at a nuclear fusion reactor.
So far, the only large scale man-made energy from nuclear fusion has been via atomic bombs. Our only attempts as harnessing nuclear fusion in a peaceful way have been limited to experimental work in huge devices that consume more power than they create and need vast amounts of space to work. So when, in 1989, two scientists, Professors Pons and Fleischmann, announced that they had managed to harness the power of nuclear fusion in a relatively simple apparatus in no more complex a location than their own lab, there was great interest.
Pons and Fleischmann's experiment involved a strange physical effect known as sonoluminescence. Put simply, when a bubble in a liquid is stimulated with a sound wave of a certain frequency, it collapses in on itself (acoustic cavitation), creating a vast amount of energy, and a flash of light. The two scientists claimed that the amount of energy put into the experimental system was less than the amount of energy created. This could only mean that in the split second when the bubble collapsed, the atoms of matter within the bubble were compressed together with such force that they fused together, and hence, nuclear fusion was taking place - which explained why additional energy was being created.
Whilst many other scientists were sceptical of Pons and Fleischmann's results, when Doctor Yakimoro Subarachi read the paper, it sent a chill down his spine.
Doctor Subarachi is a marine biologist working at the University of Motolola in Japan. At first glance, he is not likely to be the sort of person who would take an interest in a paper by two theoretical physicists. A quiet man in his forties, Dr Subarachi has spent his life studying whales, and not cutting edge physics. But in this paper, two seemingly disparate scientific fields converged. Pons and Fleischmann were using ultrasonic beams to make their bubbles implode. Dr Subarachi was trying to accurately record the ultrasonic sounds of whales.
For many years, on the whaling boats of the Japanese fleet, Dr Subarachi has been there, with his underwater microphones, recording the sounds of whales. "While many believe that we Japanese only catch whales to eat, we do do a lot of research," says Dr Subarachi. "I now know the distress calls of at least 10 species of whales, by recording them as we hunt them. This knowledge was not known before."
But it is the distress call of the male sperm whale which concerns Dr Subarachi the most.
A sperm whale, having a swim.
"The frequency of the call of the sperm whale is a very exact level. In the right conditions, I do not wish to think of the consequences", Dr Subarachi states. "If what Pons and Fleischmann say is right, we may have a catastrophe waiting to happen."
And what Dr Subarachi refers to is no ordinary catastrophe. It is the total destruction of the planet earth, and possibly the whole solar system. For, his experiments have shown, given the right conditions, the alarm call of the sperm whale could set off a deadly chain reaction.
The ocean is a dynamic environment, but one thing can always be said of it - it is largely composed of water, or H20. Dr Subarachi's fears are simple: "Our oceans are the ideal place for sonoluminescence to take place. Oxygen and hydrogen would be great fuels for this process, and the ocean is full of bubbles. It would only take a trigger, and there could be a runaway reaction. What I am saying is that, one day, some whale, going about it's everyday business could send out a sound which would literally 'burst the bubble' - in our vast oceans, this could always be a possibility. Then, the reaction would spread, as more whales were panicked by what was happening. And before you know it, there would be a huge fusion reaction, which would runaway and burn up the sea. Our planet would quickly become like a second sun. And we would all be dead.
The Earth after it has turned into a fierce burning star, killing all of us.
But Dr Subarachi has a solution. "I think it would be better to kill and eat all the whales before this happens," he says. "We cannot risk the world by not doing this. Unless we eat all the whales, here, and in Norway, we are all at risk."
If Dr Subarachi is right, we face a stark choice. Either we eat all the whales or, sooner or later, we will all die. We leave the last word to Dr Subarchi: "At least it would be quick. We would all become fuel for the reaction, and probably not notice our last moments of life."