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A comment on Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' studies suggest. Parent comment

Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by rurp on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @05:59PM (#24633531)
Do you think that a better approach, given a lot of resources, would be to push more general/fundamental research without a clear end goal in mind? That approach makes sense to me intuitively given how many surprising breakthroughs there have been throughout history, but I admittedly know very little about actual research.
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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by andi999 on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @01:01AM (#24635833)
Most surprising breakthroughs (am not a historian though) were found with a clear goal in mind. It was just that the goal was very different from the breakthrough.
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Re:Compact nuclear fusion reactor is 'very likely to work,' ... by rurp on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @10:07AM (#24638841)
Ah ok, thanks. I guess in that case a good strategy could be to pursue a lot of specific goals, even if they don't seem worth it on the face of it. Seems like an approach the Ig Nobel awards would appreciate.
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