The Pope of Plasma Physics

[AntonioLao]

Marshall Rosenbluth (1927-2003) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Rosenbluth was The Pope of Plasma Physics. This recognition was only limited within the small circle of plasma physicists circa 1970s and 1980s and especially and fondly nicknamed by some Russian fusion scientists, in particular by Lev Artsimovich (1909-1973) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Artsimovich, the director of the Soviet Union’s controlled fusion program from 1950 till his death in 1973. The most probable reason for Rosenbluth to be called the Pope of Plasma Physics is his belief for a “god” of fusion. This “god” of fusion is the one and only power source of the physical universe as can be observed in many stellar systems of every galaxy and particularly along the main sequence of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. This “god” of fusion is the stellar energy of which as early as the 1920s Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington believed to comprise “The internal constitution of the stars.” The “god” of fusion justifies the ancient Egyptian’s belief of Ra and the ancient Greek and Roman’s belief of Apollo.

The personification of fusion as the “god” of creation would certainly give the wrong impression that fusion scientists are trying to play “god” or trying to be like “god.” For all that matter, the big bang singularity should have been worshipped as the true “god” of creation, while black hole should have been revered as the true “god” of absolute attraction and the galactic redshift should have been construed as the true “god” of universal accelerated expansion. In this sense, George Gamow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gamow should have been the Pope of Big Bang, Hubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble is the Pope of Universal Expansion, and Chandrasekhar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subrahmanyan_Chandrasekhar is the Pope of Black Hole. That is to say any person is a pope of what s(he) believed charismatically to be the true state of matter or energy. Nonetheless, the person whose charismatic belief is the quantization of the space-time continuum is the Pope of Square of Energy as the true state of existence of everything.

[G_burnett]

yes a charlies circus .. baker, banker, teacher, candlestick maker..

[AntonioLao]

Wondering who is the charismatic person who has earned the title of the Pope of Fusion Power for the second millennium? Maybe we can elect some and vote for one?