Twilight of the Elements

In the middle of the twenty-second century, human beings have not achieved true equality because they have left the solar system. Instead, civilization is locked in a noose called the "chain of heavy elements." 99% Of the visible matter in the universe is hydrogen and helium. The platinum group metals needed to manufacture interstellar engines, the rare earths needed for superconducting circuits, and the heavy nuclear elements needed to maintain the tokamak magnetic poles of fusion reactors are all firmly controlled by the interstellar giant "Atlas Heavy Mineral Union" AHMU. They have a monopoly on heavy metal veins and deep space mining rights in the asteroid belt. The earth has become a cheap labor factory for AMC due to depletion of resources, and the pioneers of outer space have been saddled with debt for life due to the high "element tax". This book tells the heroic story of a group of fringe physicists, materials scientists and low-level engineers who used "hadron resonance shearing" technology to break the strong interaction barrier between protons and neutrons and achieve "free conversion of elements" at room temperature and low energy consumption, thereby completely smashing the monopoly of interstellar mining giants and reshaping the pattern of human civilization. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.