ZETA was an early experiment in fusion power research. Built at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in England, it was much larger and more powerful than any other fusion machine at that time. It went into operation in August 1957, and by the end of the month was giving off bursts of about a million neutrons per pulse. Measurements suggested temperatures between 1 and 5 million kelvins, hot enough to produce nuclear fusion reactions. Early results were leaked to the press, and front-page headlines announced a breakthrough. Further experiments revealed measurement errors, and the claim of fusion was publicly withdrawn, casting a chill over the entire fusion establishment. The neutrons were later explained as the product of instabilities in the fuel. ZETA went on to have a long experimental lifetime, supporting work in plasma theory and originating more accurate laser-based temperature measurements that supported the tokamak approach a decade later.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZETA_%28fusion_reactor%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1704:

English colonists from the Province of Carolina and their native allies began a series of raids against a largely peaceful population of Apalachee in Spanish Florida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apalachee_massacre

1949:

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented the first Emmy Awards to honor excellence in the American television industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmy_Award

1995:

A team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which was mistaken for a Trident missile by Russian forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_rocket_incident

2011:

The Day of Anger during the Egyptian revolution began, eventually leading to the removal of Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Egyptian_revolution_of_2011

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

Cullen skink: A thick soup made of smoked finnan haddock, milk, onions, and potatoes, a local speciality of Cullen in Moray, Scotland. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cullen_skink

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Time, unfortunately, though it makes animals and vegetables bloom and fade with amazing punctuality, has no such simple effect upon the mind of man. The mind of man, moreover, works with equal strangeness upon the body of time. An hour, once it lodges in the queer element of the human spirit, may be stretched to fifty or a hundred times its clock length; on the other hand, an hour may be accurately represented on the timepiece of the mind by one second. This extraordinary discrepancy between time on the clock and time in the mind is less known than it should be and deserves fuller investigation.   --Orlando: A Biography https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orlando:_A_Biography