Mayo is weirdly nice for working out nuclear fusion experiments

This elastic-to-plastic transition too can happen in experiments that use lasers to kick off nuclear fusion. In such experiments, lasers blast a steel tablet containing the gas, elevating pressures and temperatures so top that atomic nuclei within the gas fuse in combination, freeing power (SN: 2/16/24). Scientists hope to in the end use nuclear fusion as a supply of energy.

But it surely’s tricky to check how fabrics behave beneath the intense prerequisites required for fusion. So of their newest experiment, the scientists checked out how mayo combined with a fuel — air — as they circled a wheel that they’d dolloped the mayonnaise into. The centrifugal power of the spinning wheel speeded up the mayo into the fuel. 

After the wheel stopped spinning, the scientists seen whether or not the glob returned to its unique form, modified form or broke aside. This made up our minds the border between the elastic and plastic conduct, they reported within the Might Bodily Evaluate E. 

The mayo and air are comparable to the molten steel of a fusion gas tablet and the fuel it comprises. The molten tablet has some homes of a cast — like gloopy mayo, it doesn’t drift by itself — however it might probably ruin aside beneath sufficient power. If the steel turns into plastic ahead of fusion happens, the fuel may break out, spoiling the fusion try.

Running with mayo does have one downside. While you display up within the grocery store checkout line with 48 bins of mayo, you’re certain to draw consideration. “We on occasion get numerous questions from the grocery shops,” Banerjee says, “why we’re purchasing that a lot mayonnaise.”