The Max Planck Institute in Greifswald reached a true milestone in physics and technical engineering today right in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s eyes. The brand-new reactor, an experimental stellarator design called Wendelstein 7-X, was successfully booted up to an extent where it created hydrogen plasma.

The news is not only a scientific sensation—a welcome one after building the reactor alone took 19 years and cost 1.2 billion euros. But it was the first time researchers were able to simulate the energy-producing reactions of our Sun in a laboratory setting.

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