The Star Builders

Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet

By: Arthur Turrell

Narrated by: Arthur Turrell

From a young, award-winning scientist, a “thoughtful and illuminating” (Nature) look at one of the most compelling and historic turning points of our time - the race to harness the power of the stars and produce controlled fusion, creating a practically unlimited supply of clean energy.

The most important energy-making process in the universe takes place inside stars. The ability to duplicate that process in a lab, once thought impossible, may now be closer than we think. Today, teams of scientists around the world are being assembled by the boldest entrepreneurs, big business, and governments to solve what is the most difficult technological challenge humanity has ever faced: building the equivalent of a star on earth. If their plans to capture star power are successful, they will unlock thousands, potentially millions, of years of clean, carbon-free energy.

Not only would controlled nuclear fusion help solve the climate crisis, it could also make other highly desired technological ambitions possible - like journeying to the stars. Given the rising alarm over deterioration of the environment, and the strides being made in laser and magnetic field technology, powerful momentum is gathering behind fusion and the possibilities it offers.

In The Star Builders, award-winning young plasma physicist Arthur Turrell “offers an optimistic outlook for the future of fusion power and is adamant about the need to invest in it” (The New York Times). Turrell describes fascinating star machines with ten times as many parts as the NASA Space Shuttle, and structures that extend over 400 acres in an accessible and entertaining account, spotlighting the individuals, firms, and institutions racing for the finish line: science-minded entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel, companies like Goldman Sachs and Google, universities like Oxford and MIT, and virtually every rich nation.

It’s an exciting and game-changing international quest that will make all of us winners.

©2021 Arthur Turrell. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Orion Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

Good entry level insight on Fusion

Decent and informative for the entry level person trying to understand Fusion.
Wish it was less story telling and more informative. I personally dont care how enthusiastic someone is or to hesr countdowns of experiments nust tell me the facts and the stats. These are in limited quantities but some are there nonetheless.

Reasonable edutainment, but trivial viewpoint

If this is your first exposure to the world of nuclear fusion, and if you don't mind a shallow and somewhat naïvely-presented overview of up-to-date developments (through 2020) around the world, it might be worth your time.

I assume the author was suckered into cutting out a lot of material from this book, because pretty much everything is trivialized to the level of an average middle-school kid. Too many missed opportunities to go into just enough depth and detail to make it interesting for both the lay people (including average middle-schoolers) and a more sophisticated audience.

Anything by James Mahaffey on this subject is better - deeper analyses, less naïve viewpoints, more entertaining, and more relevant. Hopefully, current developments in fusion will motivate Mahaffey to write an update to Atomic Awakening.

Incessant use of ‘star builders’

Why could he not talk about ‘Fusion Scientists’? Or ‘Physicists’? The incessant use of the annoying phrase ‘star builders’ meant concentrating on anything else that was said became impossible

I’m sure there is an excellent outline of the current state of fusion but it was impenetrable thanks to the irritating phrasing. Although not covering the same ground, Mahaffey’s book ‘Atomic Awakening’ is a much more solid listen