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Someone else posted about this, but this is from LLNL. I love what they do, and Twitter reminded me of the many Photonics shares I have. This is cool, and Ill post more links.

November 7, 2022

A record high-laser-energy NIF target shot on Sept. 19 produced about 1.2 million joules of fusion energy yield. Compared with the groundbreaking 1.35-megajoule (MJ) experiment of Aug. 8, 2021, this experiment used higher laser energy and a modified experimental design.


The NIF and Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducts cutting-edge research in the fields of laser inertial confinement fusion, high energy density physics, and advanced photonics for the advancement of national security, energy security, discovery science, and national competitiveness.

We review the salient evidence consistent with or predicted by the Hoyle-Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology. Much of this physical and biological evidence is multifactorial. One particular focus are the recent studies which date the emergence of the complex retroviruses of vertebrate lines at or just before the Cambrian Explosion of ∼500 Ma. Such viruses are known to be plausibly associated with major evolutionary genomic processes. We believe this coincidence is not fortuitous but is consistent with a key prediction of H-W theory whereby major extinction-diversification evolutionary boundaries coincide with virus-bearing cometary-bolide bombardment events. A second focus is the remarkable evolution of intelligent complexity (Cephalopods) culminating in the emergence of the Octopus. A third focus concerns the micro-organism fossil evidence contained within meteorites as well as the detection in the upper atmosphere of apparent incoming life-bearing particles from space. In our view the totality of the multifactorial data and critical analyses assembled by Fred Hoyle, Chandra Wickramasinghe and their many colleagues since the 1960s leads to a very plausible conclusion – life may have been seeded here on Earth by life-bearing comets as soon as conditions on Earth allowed it to flourish (about or just before 4.1 Billion years ago); and living organisms such as space-resistant and space-hardy bacteria, viruses, more complex eukaryotic cells, fertilised ova and seeds have been continuously delivered ever since to Earth so being one important driver of further terrestrial evolution which has resulted in considerable genetic diversity and which has led to the emergence of mankind.

The event, which was held at a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps last week, drew some of the world’s richest people along with some of its most controversial scientists.

Harvard Medical School genetics professor George Church, SENS Research Foundation chief of science offices Aubrey de Grey, Buck Institute for Research on Aging president and CEO Eric Verdin, Institute for Ageing Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine director Nir Barzilai, Forever Healthy Foundation founder Michael Greve, Human Longevity Inc. associate professor, internal medicine Evelyne Yehudit Bischof, founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine Alex Zhavoronkov, creator of First Longevity and Longevity. Technology editor-in-chief Phil Newman, and Wei-Wu He, executive chairman of Human Longevity Inc., CEO and chairman of Casi Pharmaceuticals Inc., and founder and chairman of Genetron Health.

According to MIT Technology Review, Mega-Rich investors met with scientists and biotech founders in a swanky resort town of Gstaad, Switzerland, to advance the “longevity science,” which is a new field that could extend human life spans. The conference included some of the richest investors and entrepreneurs on earth.