I had no idea that slot car racing was such a big business. This photo does not do it justice; this is a very large track… with a very slow driver 🚙📷

Following a terrifying Google search about spiders, it appears this spider in the yard is a Peucetia viridans. It’s actually very pretty and you can zoom in to see its little eyes 🕷📷

We made a highlight sheet for some of the diagnostics-focused presentations our lab is presenting at the American Physical Society – Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP) conference this month. Most of these posters are found in the following sessions: BP10, TP10

The primary magnet of the largest nuclear fusion device in the world is now 1/7 complete. General Atomics has completed the first module of the ITER central solenoid. Technically, ITER only uses 6 of the modules (hopefully, we’ll never need to use that backup module).

Making Our Fusion Reactor Better, day 352 of 320: yesterday, we attached the final vacuum flanges to the tokamak. As we pump it down today, if there are no leaks, then the year-long engineering upgrade is complete 😵

My HTC One M8 lasted about five years, but now we have to part ways. I would have considered replacing the battery to keep it, but the failure of the physical buttons sealed its fate. A great phone 📱

Making Our Fusion Reactor Better, day 339 of 320: with vessel close and pumpdown only 6 days away, we better get all those tiles reinstalled!

What a beast!

Making Our Fusion Reactor Better, day 319 of 320: behold, the 50-ton neutral beam positioned in all its off-axis glory! 👩‍🔬📷

Newly placed on the shelf: a 1/30 scale model of Doublet III 🤩
Doublet III is the predecessor to the presently operating DIII-D National Fusion Facility. For a real blast from the past, here is a 1980 publication about the “Status and Future Plans of Doublet III.”