The Fusion Dream is getting closer...

Scientists have taken one step closer to the dream of sustainable nuclear fusion! If they can figure out how to control the instabilities, nuclear fusion power plants would use hydrogen (the most common element in the universe) as fuel, and the "waste product" would be helium, which is actually far more valuable than your funny high-pitched voice might suggest.

Deuterium and Tritium isotopes are just fancy words for Hydrogen atoms with extra neutrons (Source)

Fusion requires so much pressure and heat that it only occurs in the CORE of the sun. When the sun runs out of hydrogen to fuse, it will burn out - that's how a star's age is determined, by the amount of hydrogen left. It's called "nuclear" fusion because it changes the nucleus - and it's one of the only processes that do that, besides the atomic bomb (nuclear fission).

Because separating nuclei is also difficult and creates energy. More here

And yes, nuclear fusion is the main plot point of Spiderman 2:

Sorry about the mustache.

These scenes are actually relatively accurate, except for the "out of control" part - because the heat point for fusion is so hard to maintain, unplugging the machine would end the reaction. The goal is to get enough energy out of the fusion to power the lasers that create the heat so that fusion is possible, with a little extra energy for us to power our laptops with :)

While all of this fusion business is being worked out, clean energy is gaining ground (and shedding costs). At peak hours, Texas (WHOOP!) wind farms have hit 30% of the energy demand for the area; every kilowatt produced by wind replaces burning coal, to everyone's advantage.

Photographer: Eddie Seal/Bloomberg News