Spectrum Energy Research Foundation
Spectrum — the complete range (Oxford)
Energy — the ability to do work (from Greek "energeia" — in work)
Every form of energy, put to work
Welcome
When I was a young man in my twenties, I asked a question: why do we only boil water with atomic energy? And the follow-up question: why not use the energy directly from the reaction?
Those two questions haunted me for forty years.
I knew I would have to work out how the full spectrum of energy from a reactor could be controlled at the same time — and I would need specific materials to do it. Another question: How do I isolate the materials? My answer was an interactive chart with every band of energy across the top. Press one — like light — and it would rearrange the periodic table into the materials that controlled that energy.
It was a massive undertaking to build such a chart. Until Claude AI.
Now, multiple charts have been built covering 118 elements, 80 man-made compounds, and more. And the research has begun!
You are invited to explore the charts and the discoveries they have made possible. And you are invited to use them, with imagination and intelligence, to improve the way we all use energy.
Let's start here. What is this research about, why does it matter, and what question is it trying to answer?
Have a look at one of the charts. This one shows elements organized by how they react with light.
Now you have briefly seen how a chart looks. The next step is to learn how to read it — what the colors mean, how to easily work with any of these charts. Once you learn one, you can easily use the rest.
Here is a list of every chart in the collection with a brief description of the types of materials each one covers.
The Organizing Principle
I understood that to handle the energy from an atomic reaction, I would have to control every form of energy at once. So, how was I going to do that?
What can you do with energy? You can start it, change it, or stop it. That turns out to cover everything.
Research Library
As progress was made in how to control energy, research notes were written to document the physics discoveries along the way — each one self-contained and citable.
The notes are organized not by sequence, but by topic. And within each topic, they are arranged from fundamental information to the more advanced.
Additional research notes will be added as the research progresses, so feel free to come back and see if anything new has been added in your favorite subject. Also, there is a glossary that you can use to define words you are not familiar with.
For Students
As a student, everything on this site is free. The charts, the research notes, the data — all of it. If you're studying physics, chemistry, materials science, or engineering, these tools were built for you to use. Pick any form of energy that interests you and look through the research notes. As you study, you'll start having your own questions. Be curious enough to get answers. With what you learn here, you can find them.
About
My name is David R. Young. I started the Spectrum Energy Research Foundation to answer the questions that started this work — and to build the tools that make answering them possible.
The research breaks down the electromagnetic wave and how best to control it — from where textbook explanations went astray to the materials that do the work and the designs that could get it right.
Some of the systems being designed from this research include a warm fission reactor that harvests the spectrum of energy a nuclear reaction produces, and a Spectrum Energy Cell powered by decay materials currently considered deadly waste.
Goal: A civilization powered by the full spectrum of energy, every form of energy put to work, leaving no radioactive waste to pollute any environment.