Acknowledgments

Firstly I would like to thank my colleagues at Science magazine who have aided and abetted my attempts to chronicle fusion’s progress, including Colin Norman, Robert Coontz, John Travis, Richard Stone, Eliot Marshall, Jeffrey Mervis, Adrian Cho, Robert F. Service, Dennis Normile, and Andrey Allakhverdov.

This book would be nothing without the scores of scientists and science administrators who have given their time and effort to talk to me and explain the intricacies of their work. For that I would like to thank Roberto Andreani, Robert Aymar, Michael Bell, Stephen Bodner, Harald Bolt, Duarte Borba, Richard J. Buttery, David Campbell, Valery Chuyanov, Tom Cochran, John Collier, Bruno Coppi, Glenn Counsell, Michael Cuneo, Ron Davidson, Anne Davies, Stephen O. Dean, Arnaud Devred, Mike Dunne, Jacques Ebrardt, Chris Edwards, Umberto Finzi, Eric Fredrickson, Richard Garwin, David Gates, Alan Gibson, Siegfried Glenzer, Robert Goldston, Martin Greenwald, Greg Hammett, David Hammer, Norbert Holtkamp, Lorne Horton, Kaname Ikeda, Kimihiro Ioki, Jean Jacquinot, Gunter Janeschitz, Raymond Jeanloz, Bob Kaita, Marylia Kelley, Thomas Klinger, Russell Kulsrud, Joe Kwan, John Lindl, Steven Lisgo, Christopher Llewellyn-Smith, Dick Majeski, Guy Matthews, Keith Matzen, Robert McCrory, Dale Meade, Sergei Mirnov, Neil Mitchell, Achilleas Mitsos, Edward Moses, Osamu Motojima, Dennis Mueller, Vladimir Semenovich Mukhovatov, Steve Obenschain, Chris Paine, Jerome Pamela, Richard Pitts, Stewart Prager, Sergei Putvinski, Rezwan Razani, Ksenia Aleksandrovna Razumova, Paul-Henri Rebut, Michael Roberts, Francesco Romanelli, Steven Sabbagh, Ned Sauthoff, Roy Schwitters, John Sethian, Yasuo Shimomura, Jim Strachan, Vyacheslav Sergeevich Strelkov, Edmund Synakowski, Bryan Taylor, Paul Vandenplas, Evgeniy Velikhov, Michael Watkins, Peide Weng, Randy Wilson, Glen A. Wurden, Ken Young, Michael Zarnstorff and Hartmut Zohm. If I’ve forgotten anyone, please accept my apologies. Your contribution was no less valuable.

I’m also eternally grateful to the unsung heroes of science writing: lab and university press officers. My thanks go to Aris Apollonatos, Neil Calder, Chris Carpenter, Michel Claessens, Mark Constance, Sabina Griffith, Jennifer Hay, Bonnie Hébert, Judith Hollands, Nick Holloway, Kitta MacPherson, Isabella Milch, John Parris, Paul Preuss, Lynda Seaver, Jeff Sherwood, Bill Spears, Eleanor Starkman, Chris Warwick, Patti Wieser, and Mark Woollard.

Special thanks go to Steven Cowley, director of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, for reading the manuscript and helping me avoid some terrible mistakes, and to my agent Peter Tallack of the Science Factory for nursing this project through to publication.

I’m indebted to my editors, Jon Jackson at Duckworth and Dan Crissman at Overlook, for polishing up the manuscript so nicely, and to everyone there, including Tracy Carns, Michael Goldsmith, Peter Mayer and Jamie-Lee Nardone, for turning my words into such a fabulous book.

I’d also like to thank Adam, Giles, Jeremy, Jo, June, Marek, Megan, Natalie, Philip and Tig of the Ufford House Book Group for their six-weekly doses of encouragement.

And finally, love and thanks to Bernadette Lawrence, Sam Lawrence-Clery and Ellen Lawrence-Clery for your constant support and encouragement and for being the most exceptional family.