ForeverNoobie

Hi, So I'm a computer scientist with no real background in molecular physics or anything of that sort but I think the science community is really dragging their feet on fusion for some reason. I go look at experiments done in the 90s and it's almost like we've made no progress towards it since then, so I want to take matters in my own hand. I realize I have a lot of learning to do, and it'll probably be a lifelong thing but I want to design a cold fusion reactor myself. Hopefully I'll be able to make a full computer simulation, although I know a working prototype would be extremely expensive to build. So what kind of things should I read up on? What software I can use? Or just any general advice for an undertaking this size?

I hope this is the right section. So I'm working on a science fiction story where people crash land on an alien planet. The first thing they need is a heat source but none of the plants on that planet are flammable. I thought it would be cool if they found a type of rock that gets really hot if you strike it with something hard. Is such a material scientifically feasible? If so how could I explain that in science terms? Can anyone come up with a better heat source?

Ok so I'm writing a science fiction story in which law enforcement uses non-leathal weapons based on laser induced plasma channel technology (found it on google). So a gun shoots a laser, turns the air between the gun and the target into plasma, and then sends a bolt of electricity through the channel. In my book a criminal is wearing thick rubber boots so this brings up a few questions (and I'm sorry if any are innately retarded but...): A) Would those boots protect him from all non-lethal levels of shock? If not what would be an idea for futuristic, makeshift, super-insolation that a criminal might employ. B) If the guy is fired at, there would be no current of electricity right? If the bolt cant find the ground it wouldn't shoot in the first place? C) lets say the gun is dialed up some. The bolt then would travel down the plasma stream and then stray hitting the first grounded person in the area. It might even curve around him and hit someone behind him? Or would it go through him? D) Voltage is what makes a bolt able to jump through air right? So you can have extremely high voltage but low current and the weapon would stay non-lethal? or is a certain voltage range lethal no matter the current? E) Assuming A) is true, is there any theoretical way to work around the rubber boot problem? Seems a little ridiculous to rely primarily on a technology that's so easily foiled. Also what other future weapons might be cool?

This is for science fiction I'm working on. Basically I have a spaceship that transports detachable cargo boxes (which would weigh like 10,000 pounds or so). In deep space the box detaches and one of the crew members goes out on a tether and grabs it. The ship keeps moving and he holds onto the box dragging it through space. Ok so I figure that much is definitely possible, but what if the ship slows and the box keeps drifting towards it. Would he be able stop what little forward momentum the box had by putting himself between it and the ship without being smashed? Would he be able to push the box around a little if he was sort of using the more massive ship as grounding?

This if for a science fiction novel I'm writing. I'm not much of a science nerd but I really want to get the science right so I'm probably going to ask a lot more dumb questions around here. So my question is, If you freeze oxygen to a solid state and pressurize it to say red oxygen how much could you reduce it's volume? Do you think you could store more oxygen in a smaller space if you used some sort of chemical oxygen generator instead? like an 'oxygen candle'? What method would most likely be used for personal breathing devices in the distant future? On one hand the oxygen candles require extremely hot exothermic reactions, but solid oxygen requires high pressures and extremely low temperatures. Which one would people most likely be carrying on their person in the future while out in space?