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A Dream Deferred Need Not "Dry Up in the Sun" [1]

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Date: 2022-12-14

Paul Kanter: Teacher, Dreamer

Paul Kanter, the legendar Physics teacher at Agoura High School where I once taught, used to love explaining (or trying to) some elementary principles governing the Universe to me in the 15 minutes we sometimes spent together at nutrition (I believe he really enjoyed my abject failure to understand even his most enthusiastically optimistic attempts). Among these was one of his favorites: the Conservation of Matter: Matter can change form through physical and chemical changes, but through any of these changes, matter itself is conserved - the same amount of matter exists before and after the change -- none is created or destroyed.

Today's Department of Energy announcement of the first ever successful production of Nuclear Fusion made me smile, thinking of a thirty three year old memory.

I remember one day in the spring of 1989 when Paul grabbed me at nutrition, exclaiming with genuine excitement that Nuclear Fusion had been achieved -- and he was alive to witness one of the great moments in the History of Science. More than that, he felt he was witnessing the dawn of a whole new age that would transform the way humanity would live -- with abundant free energy, the end of the economic and political tyranny of fossil fuel dependence, and our planet saved for future generations.

Within a day or two, it turned out the experiment was deeply flawed, and Paul had to put his dream on hold -- for more than three decades. Today's announcement is Paul's dream realized.

Much beloved after more than 30 years of teaching, Paul retired in 2010, and died seven years later. I know that some will say he did not live to see his dream fulfilled, and I suppose physically, at least, that may be true.

But I can't help thinking of Paul's Conservation of Matter: the changes physical and chemical that occur in the Universe do not change the "Matter" itself.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/14/2141855/-A-Dream-Deferred-Need-Not-Dry-Up-in-the-Sun

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