Talk:William Draper Harkins

Removed mention of Martin Kamen
Martin Kamen, according to Wikipedia, and also according to his autobiography Radiant Science, Dark Politics: A Memoir of the Nuclear Age was at the University of California at Berkeley during the period when Harkins was building a cyclotron at the University of Chicago, so the statement that he collaborated on its construction is incorrect.

I have also provided more details for the reference to The Origins of Vīraśaiva Sects: A Typological Analysis of Ritual and Associational Patterns in the Śūnyasaṃpādane, an unexpected source for information about a Chicago chemist.

Beamjockey (talk) 15:47, 8 June 2017 (UTC)


 * This all about to change since the work of William Draper Harkins has now beem brought to fore: see NIF
 * Breakeven
 * https://journals.aps.org/.../10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.065102
 * PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 132, 065102 (2024)
 * Achievement of Target Gain Larger than Unity in an Inertial Fusion Experiment
 * H. Abu-Shawareb et al.*
 * (The Indirect Drive ICF Collaboration)
 * (Received 27 October 2023; accepted 3 January 2024; published 5 February 2024)
 * On December 5, 2022, an indirect drive fusion implosion on the National Ignition Facility (NIF)
 * achieved a target gain Gtarget of 1.5. This is the first laboratory demonstration of exceeding “scientific
 * breakeven” (or Gtarget > 1) where 2.05 MJ of 351 nm laser light produced 3.1 MJ of total fusion yield, a
 * result which significantly exceeds the Lawson criterion for fusion ignition as reported in a previous NIF
 * implosion [H. Abu-Shawareb et al. (Indirect Drive ICF Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 075001
 * (2022)]. This achievement is the culmination of more than five decades of research and gives proof that
 * laboratory fusion, based on fundamental physics principles, is possible. This Letter reports on the target,
 * laser, design, and experimental advancements that led to this result.
 * DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.065102
 * The quest for laboratory fusion and the possibility of a
 * nearly limitless source of low-carbon and low-radiation
 * energy likely began in the 1920s shortly after Harkins,
 * Perrin, and Eddington conjectured self-sustaining hydrogen
 * fusion as the primary system fueling the Sun [1–3]. This
 * idea was inspired by Aston’s discovery [4], using his newly
 * https://journals.aps.org/.../10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.065102 Chuckstvns (talk) 12:57, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
 * One possible reason for William Draper Harkins work on hydrogen nuclear fusion was his work was highly controversial and he was given the moniker "priority Harkins" see: "Constantly involved in priority disputes, it was not without reason that he was nicknamed “priority Harkins.”" The isotope effect: Prediction, discussion, and discovery Helge Kragh Centre for Science Studies, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. (arxiv.org/pdf/1112.2339#:~:text=Constantly%20involved%20in%20priority%20disputes%2C%20it%20was,“priority%20Harkins.”%20The%20discovery%20of%20the%20isotope) Chuckstvns (talk) 13:22, 27 April 2024 (UTC)
 * One possible reason for William Draper Harkins's work on hydrogen nuclear fusion was generally overlooked was his work was highly controversial and he was given the moniker "priority Harkins" Chuckstvns (talk) 13:31, 27 April 2024 (UTC)