[tanzam75]

> They've since had ignition

No. Notice how it is worded.

> "More importantly, Moses said, the mechanism that generated the powerful energy burst appeared to be the self-sustaining thermonuclear fusion process that defines ignition."

In other words, they did not achieve ignition. They achieved something that is necessary to get ignition. Specifically, alpha heating.

This is another important step on the road to ignition. It is not, however, ignition itself.

Why do you think the title of the article says "Marks Progress Toward Ignition," rather than "Finally Achieves Ignition?"

[bandy]

And this seems to hand out a wealth of information as to why they haven't gotten there yet: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1nxtyb/nuclear_f...

[bandy]

You're right. In my head "ignition"=fusion, so I was auto-translating as I was skimming. They're looking for something slightly different, and probably using energy output (among other things) as indications of self-sustained fusion, which we've certainly obtained in bombs (fission explosion sets off fusion reaction ☞ big bada boom).