On family day, my brother took us to visit Lawrence Livermore Lab. I remember the Shiva Project.

 It was a Fusion Nuclear Power Plant Prototype. You may have seen it as the movie "TRON" had a few scenes filmed there. It was a fundamentally valid idea but it never created more power than it took to run the machine. They took a drop of "Heavy" Water and focused many giant laser beams on it from all directions. The idea was that the heat would cause the hydrogen to FUSE into helium. Just like it does in the SUN. When they turned on the power the lights of the city of Livermore would dim. Martin worked in Biology at the Lab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_laser

One time Martin took me to a Biology Trade Show in Washington DC at a big Hotel. A BioTech Company from England had invented a single celled animal that TASTED LIKE CHICKEN. We ate some... It was illegal for a BioTech Company to design and grow food in the USA but the laws allowed it in England. Quite like Zymoveal out of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Books. I still believe that it's a good idea. I think it ate oil... Could solve World Hunger.

Read more of my autobiography at: http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2018/03/growing-up-in-los-gatos-california-in.html