Researchers at MIT have set a new world record in creating the conditions thought to enable nuclear fusion, the reaction that powers the sun. Fusion depends on a combination of temperature, pressure and time. The research team increased the pressure by more than 16% on the previous world record, set in 2005, to more than two atmospheres, using a very high magnetic field. This pressure was combined with a temperature of 35 million degrees C, lasting for two seconds. All of this was achieved in a reactor measuring just one cubic metre.
