Mayo is weirdly nice for understanding nuclear fusion experiments

This elastic-to-plastic transition can even happen in experiments that use lasers to kick off nuclear fusion. In such experiments, lasers blast a metallic capsule containing the gasoline, elevating pressures and temperatures so excessive that atomic nuclei within the gasoline fuse collectively, releasing power (SN: 2/16/24). Scientists hope to ultimately use nuclear fusion as a supply of energy.

Nevertheless it’s troublesome to check how supplies behave underneath the acute situations required for fusion. So of their newest experiment, the scientists checked out how mayo combined with a fuel — air — as they rotated a wheel that they’d dolloped the mayonnaise into. The centrifugal pressure of the spinning wheel accelerated the mayo into the fuel. 

After the wheel stopped spinning, the scientists noticed whether or not the glob returned to its unique form, modified form or broke aside. This decided the border between the elastic and plastic conduct, they reported within the Might Bodily Assessment E. 

The mayo and air are akin to the molten metallic of a fusion gasoline capsule and the fuel it comprises. The molten capsule has some properties of a stable — like gloopy mayo, it doesn’t stream by itself — however it may break aside underneath sufficient pressure. If the metallic turns into plastic earlier than fusion happens, the fuel may escape, spoiling the fusion try.

Working with mayo does have one disadvantage. Once you present up within the grocery store checkout line with 48 containers of mayo, you’re sure to draw consideration. “We typically get a variety of questions from the grocery shops,” Banerjee says, “why we’re shopping for that a lot mayonnaise.”