Political Quotes

“Madam President, stop me if you have heard this one before: Two atoms walk into a bar, they collide into one other at extreme speeds, under extreme heat, and they leave later that evening combined--as one, single element. The process I have just described is known as nuclear fusion. For the past 60 years, it is a process that has only existed in theory--written on chalkboards and debated in lecture halls. But last week, everything changed, when the brilliant minds at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California made a breakthrough. For the first time in human history, these American researchers achieved what is known as fusion ignition. They constructed the world's largest laser system--the size of a sports stadium--to recreate conditions that can only be found in the cores of stars and giant planets. And they harnessed that power to combine two particles into one, and as a result, they created more energy than was used to start the process. In other words, these federally funded researchers achieved a scientific feat that could pave the way for unlimited, carbon-free energy. And in the words of our Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, it is a breakthrough that ``[only] happened because we invested in our national labs . . . and we invested in fundamental research.'' Now, let's be clear, this technology is a long way off from powering our homes and businesses, but it is a revolutionary proof of concept.…”