Controlled nuclear fusion, which occurs in the Sun, is the holy grail of energy physicists. Such a reaction creates more energy than is needed for the reaction itself. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has created a moment of such controlled nuclear fusion and published their results in Nature. Per Omar Hurricane, the lead researcher, in a report on CNN:
“You’re not going to power a car with it. You’re not going to power a house with it,” Hurricane told CNN. “It’ll be a while before we address all the needed scientific challenges and then the engineering challenges to make it more practical, but we’re excited. It’s a great step forward scientifically.”
(image credit: CNN)
Read more at CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/12/tech/innovation/energy-fusion/index.html?hpt=hp_t5