The National Ignition Facility is an amazing place in Livermore, California. It houses the world's larges and highest-energy laser in the world, all with the goal of "creating a miniature star on Earth." Why would they want to do that? Two words: free energy.
The goal is to achieve fusion, which would create more energy than it would take to do it. That would, in theory, allow us to create a limitless supply of free energy. Not a bad goal.
The Big Picture has an amazing photo set of shots from the NIF, well worth checking out for fans of very, very complicated equipment.
Via The Big Picture
Posts
