> a strong focused light source on a bit of well-insulated black material might be able to raise it to several thousand degrees;
Here's some well focused sunlight. It gets to 3500 C. Apparently, "nothing is known that can withstand this".
> Certainly no non-crackpot scientist would subject his or anyone's hand to a blowtorching without considerably more convincing previous tests. But maybe that claim about the human hand was just rhetoric - it's hard to tell.
He appeared on a BBC Radio four programme many years ago (Start the Week with Melvyn Bragg) where they used a blow torch on the material and someone touched the back of it immediately after the torch was turned off.
Here's some well focused sunlight. It gets to 3500 C. Apparently, "nothing is known that can withstand this".
> Certainly no non-crackpot scientist would subject his or anyone's hand to a blowtorching without considerably more convincing previous tests. But maybe that claim about the human hand was just rhetoric - it's hard to tell.
He appeared on a BBC Radio four programme many years ago (Start the Week with Melvyn Bragg) where they used a blow torch on the material and someone touched the back of it immediately after the torch was turned off.