(Viking)
The author explores attempts to harness the power of the sun as a possible source of cheap energy. He explains what nuclear fission and fusion are and traces the failure of scientists and governments in their quest for fusion energy, including an incident in 1989 when several researchers announced that they had produced fusion in a laboratory at room temperature (later, it was revealed that they had fudged data). Seife is an associate professor of journalism at New York University.