Terrific piece from the New Yorker on the latest prospects for fusion power: a solution at the scale of our energy problems.

Let’s say that you’ve devoted your entire adult life to developing a carbon-free way to power a household for a year on the fuel of a single glass of water, and that you’ve had moments, even years, when you were pretty sure you would succeed. Let’s say also that you’re not crazy. This is a reasonable description of many of the physicists working in the field of nuclear fusion.

Read the whole thing.