“There were a lot of times where people, even leadership, were like, ‘It’s not going to work. Why was this experiment so important?įor one thing, it’s a sign that persistence and collaboration can pay off after decades of effort dating back as far as the 1950s. Where fusion involves light gases (types of hydrogen), fission generally uses heavy elements like uranium. Less energy is produced with nuclear fission, and the resulting waste is much more radioactive. Fission involves splitting a nucleus into two smaller nuclei. When applied to energy production on Earth, fusion will be very different from the fission reactions used in nuclear power plants today. Fusion releases energy because the mass of the new singular nucleus is less than the mass of the two before, and the leftover mass becomes energy. It occurs when two atoms combine, or fuse together, to make a heavier one. Nuclear fusion is the energy that powers the sun and other stars – a process first theorized by British physicist Arthur Eddington in 1920. A lot of people are having to bring their talents together, too, to move this hope closer to reality. Scientists see a path to abundant clean energy from nuclear fusion – in which atoms come together rather than split apart. As for tolerance as a personal value, 58% said it was very important.Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson describes the poll as showing “Americans advancing in the right direction, toward inclusion rather than exclusion.” Asked about society’s acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people, only 29% of respondents said it had gone too far the majority said it was about right or needed to go further. Other longitudinal polling has found Americans to be increasingly pessimistic about the future and less trustful of each other.But the NORC poll also revealed a bedrock of tolerance of those who are different from us. We tend to be less of a curmudgeon with a live interviewer, while happily grousing in an anonymous online survey, which sullies an apples-to-apples comparison.Does this mean that the latest poll is more accurate? Perhaps. That can make a big difference in how people talk about their values, as Patrick Ruffini, a veteran GOP pollster, noted. But the methodology used by NORC to test these beliefs may explain the trend more than any groundswell in opinion.In 2019, NORC called people to elicit responses. Capitol, runaway inflation, war in Ukraine – to shake our belief in shared values and institutions. Community involvement and having children were also deemed less important.Certainly, a lot has happened in the last four years – a pandemic, racial justice protests, the attack on the U.S. For religion, the decline was similar, if less precipitous: Thirty-nine percent said it was very important, down from 48% in 2019. The same question elicited a 70% “very important” response in 1998. The poll got a lot of attention – mostly laments for a nation supposedly in decline.Take patriotism: Only 38% said it was very important, down from 60% in 2019. Compared with four years ago, far fewer respondents said values like patriotism and religion were “very important” to them. To find a trend means asking the same question over time and comparing the results.When it comes to the values that Americans hold dear, the latest poll conducted for The Wall Street Journal by the University of Chicago’s NORC appears to show a dramatic trend. A public opinion poll is a snapshot in time.
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