Latest news with #Solenoid
Gizmodo
05-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
This Giant Magnet Can Lift an Aircraft Carrier—and Possibly Power the Future
The most powerful pulsed superconducting magnet system ever built is now complete, and will soon be part of the world's grandest energy experiment. The system is the Central Solenoid of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a towering magnet core built and tested in the United States and destined for southern France, where the international project is assembling its gigantic tokamak. The magnet system will serve as the electromagnetic 'heart' of the reactor, strong enough—according to ITER—to lift a freaking aircraft carrier. For the uninitiated: Tokamaks are doughnut-shaped vessels that contain superheated plasma for nuclear fusion, the energetic reaction that powers stars like our Sun. Tokamaks constrain the plasma by generating very strong magnetic fields, hence the importance of ITER's Central Solenoid. ITER is dedicated to validating nuclear fusion as a viable energy source, though none of the reactor's output will be used to power anything. ITER is simply a gigantic and expensive technology demonstrator, one that's inching increasingly closer to actually flipping the 'on' switch to recreate the power of the Sun here on Earth. It's an expansive collaboration involving over 30 countries, aiming to prove that fusion energy—basically, slamming atoms together until they produce different atoms, releasing massive amounts of energy in the process—can be harnessed and scaled into a commercially viable and essentially limitless power source. The newly completed magnet system isn't going to work alone. The Central Solenoid joins six massive ring-shaped Poloidal Field magnets built and delivered from Europe, China, and Russia, forming a 3,000-ton (2,721 tonne) system of superconductors cooled to -452.2 degrees Fahrenheit (-269 degrees Celsius). Together, the supercooled magnets will trap and shape scorching plasma at 270 million degrees Fahrenheit (50 million degrees C)—ten times hotter than the Sun's core—until atomic nuclei fuse and let out a tenfold energy return. Commercially viable fusion has long been the clean energy grail, and ITER's setup is expected to generate 500 megawatts of energy from just 50 megawatts of input. That kind of power return would mark the start of self-sustaining 'burning plasma'—though there's a long road to that goal. Private companies are attempting to demonstrate smaller-scale tokamak designs as a potential way to realize the future of fusion, though neither approach has had its breakthrough moment to date. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced net energy gain in a fusion reaction at the National Ignition Facility—but even that high-water-mark did not account for 'wall power' used in the experiment, making it another incremental step in the marathon towards viable fusion power, rather than a shortcut to the finish line. ITER isn't just a physics experiment—it's a geopolitical flex. Despite tensions between member countries, the project has delivered on component construction and hit its 2024 construction targets. (The collaboration also launched a private sector fusion project last year for sharing data and furthering the project's R&D goals). The U.S. built the solenoid and support structure, Europe is handling the vacuum chamber, Russia provided the reactor's massive superconductors and busbars, while Korea, Japan, China, and India have all contributed vital parts of the tokamak's core. 'With ITER, we show that a sustainable energy future and a peaceful path forward are possible,' said Pietro Barabaschi, ITER's Director-General, in a collaboration release. Of course, ITER has yet to realize the 'sustainable energy future' part of its project, so don't hold your breath for the peaceful future, either. Now in its assembly phase, ITER is building up steam towards its actual goals—a slight increase in momentum from the collaboration's plodding steps in producing its constituent parts. If it works, this magnetized machine could be a watershed moment towards a carbon-free energy future—even if it does not contribute to the power grid itself.
The Guardian
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
All 13 writers on International Booker longlist are first-time nominees
Mircea Cărtărescu, Hiromi Kawakami and Christian Kracht are among the writers to have made this year's 'unconventional' International Booker longlist. All 13 writers on the list are nominated for the first time, while one translator, Sophie Hughes, appears for a record-breaking fifth time with her rendering of Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection. They are now in contention for the £50,000 prize for the best book translated to English, which will be divided equally between the winning author and translators. The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated by Sinan Antoon (And Other Stories) On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland (Faber) There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (Bullaun Press) Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter (Pushkin) Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary (Scribe) Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson (Small Axes) Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton (Viking) Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda (Granta) Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated by Daniel Bowles (Serpent's Tail) Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes (Fitzcarraldo) Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories) On a Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated by Lucy Scott (Tilted Axis) A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson (Lolli) The 2025 list features the highest-ever number of independent publishers, with 12 of 13 titles coming from indie presses. Though the most recent Nobel prize in literature winner Han Kang was eligible for this year's prize with her book We Do Not Part, translated from Korean by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, she did not make the list. Kang won the International Booker in 2016 with her breakthrough novel, The Vegetarian, translated by Deborah Smith. Cărtărescu is the first Romanian author to be longlisted for the prize, with his novel Solenoid, translated by Sean Cotter. Set in late 1970s and early 1980s communist Bucharest, Solenoid begins with the diaristic reflections of a teacher before expanding into an existential, surrealist account of the narrator's journey through alternate realities. Last May, it won the €100,000 Dublin literary award. Along with Romanian, a second language, Kannada – spoken by approximately 38 million people, primarily in the state of Karnataka in southwest India – also features for the first time in the prize's history with Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. Japanese writer Kawakami, best known for her novel Strange Weather in Tokyo, was chosen for her novel-in-stories Under the Eye of the Big Bird. Set in a future in which humans are on the verge of extinction, its voice is 'marvellously captured by translator Asa Yoneda', writes James Bradley in a Guardian review. At 288 pages, Kawakami's book is among the longest on the list: 11 of the 13 books come in at under 250 pages, with eight under 200. One of the slimmer titles, at 192 pages, is Kracht's Eurotrash, translated from German by Daniel Bowles. The novel follows a middle-aged writer on a road trip through Switzerland with his terminally ill mother. 'Their journey takes them through a number of blackly comic set pieces at a vegetarian commune, a private airstrip and inside a broken-down ski lift,' writes Marcel Theroux in the Guardian. This year's longlist sees an Iraqi translator nominated for the first time, with The Book of Disappearance by Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem, translated by Sinan Antoon. When Palestinians suddenly disappear, a friend of one of the vanished begins searching for clues in what John Self described as a 'rich, potent novel'. This year brings a record for the longest period between an original-language publication and International Booker prize longlisting. On a Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer was first published in Dutch 43 years ago, and is now translated into English by Lucy Scott. Also on the longlist are On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland; There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert; Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary; Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson; Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton; and A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson. Author and judging chair Max Porter said that he hopes the 'unconventional' longlist will 'exhilarate' readers. 'These books bring us into the agony of family, workplace or nation-state politics, the near-spiritual secrecy of friendship, the inner architecture of erotic feeling, the banality of capitalism and the agitations of faith,' he said. The shortlist of six books will be announced on 8 April, with the winner revealed at a ceremony at London's Tate Modern on 20 May. Alongside Porter on this year's judging panel are poet Caleb Femi, writer Sana Goyal, author and translator Anton Hur, and musician Beth Orton. The judges selected the longlist from 154 books submitted by publishers. The 2025 prize was open to works of long-form fiction and collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025. Along with Kang, previous writers to have won the award include Olga Tokarczuk and Lucas Rijneveld. Last year, Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann won the prize for Kairos.
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
To the Point: Short Novels Dominate International Booker Prize Nominees
The majority of the books nominated for this year's International Booker Prize, the prestigious award for fiction translated into English, are under 200 pages long. Only one is over 300 pages: Mircea Cartarescu's 627-page 'Solenoid,' translated by Sean Cotter. It is also one of the most high-profile novels on the list. Many literary critics have long touted Cartarescu as a potential Nobel Prize laureate, and the Romanian author's nominated tome concerns a schoolteacher reflecting on his life, family and disturbing dreams. The other titles, announced by the prize organizers in London on Tuesday, include Saou Ichikawa's 100-page 'Hunchback,' translated from Japanese by Polly Barton, about the sexual desires of a disabled care home resident, and Solvej Balle's 169-page 'On the Calculation of Volume I,' translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland, in which an antiquarian book dealer relives the same day over and again. Max Porter, the chair of this year's judging panel, said in an interview that the selection of so many short books didn't reflect a 'much-prophesied loss of attention span' among readers. The 13 titles were simply the best the panel had read, he added. Some book award judges gravitate toward long novels, he added, thinking that writing longer is harder, but finessing a short novel was an equal challenge. 'Some of these books don't have a wasted word,' Porter said. Established in 2005, the International Booker Prize was originally awarded to an author for their entire body of work. Since 2016, it has been given to a single book translated into English and published in Britain or Ireland during the previous 12 months. Last year's prize went to Jenny Erpenbeck's 'Kairos' translated by Michael Hofmann, and previous winners have included Han Kang's 'The Vegetarian' and Olga Tokarczuk's 'Flights.' The award comes with prize money of 50,000 pounds, or about $63,000, which the winning author and translator share equally. This year's other nominees include Ibtisam Azem's 'The Book of Disappearance,' translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon, which imagines a day in Tel Aviv when Israelis awake to find all their Palestinian neighbors have vanished; and Astrid Roemer's 'On a Woman's Madness,' about a woman who abandons an abusive marriage and has a series of affairs, including one with a woman. Originally published in the Netherlands in 1982, 'On a Woman's Madness' was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Awards. It was translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott. The judges will now cut the list down to six nominees, scheduled to be announced on April 8. The winner will revealed during a ceremony at Tate Modern, in London, on May 20. The full list of nominees is:
