Scrape the radium off of GITD watches


It worked in cartoons, so it must work in real life!

Unfortunately, there aren't that many GITD clocks around the laboratories. We've got nixies, LEDs and LCDs, but not enough GITD to make it very far on this project, even if it did have scientific merit!

I doubt that would work, anyway. I think most glow in the dark items have switched over to using Tritium (a weak beta particle emitter) rather than Radium now.

However, there's almost certainly an easier way. Just go dig up a sample of the mineral muromontite. This is a crystalline material incorporating both Uranium and Beryllium in it. When the Uranium decays, it spits out an energetic alpha particle, which is absorbed by the Beryllium, which causes it to eject a neutron. The neutron then is absorbed by one of the other Uranium atoms, which transmutes it to Plutonium.

Plus, since it's a natural mineral, it must be good, right? ;-)

Dave

It would be relatively simple to make a fusion reactor. I plan on making one once I have a little more money. You can read about it at http://fusor.net/ and http://www.brian-mcdermott.com/fusion_is_easy.htm. What do you think, EMSL? Might you add a fusion reactor to your list of projects?

The trouble with doing a fusion project is that it tends to drive the psychoceramics experts out of the woodwork. We get enough of that with our homopolar motor article, even though there isn't any mystery or "new" physics there either.

Fusion is a funny thing-- there are a number of different ways (I like lasers) to get fusion to work on a table top. Just don't fall for the folks that think you can get rich with it.