Teen builds working nuclear fusion reactor in Memphis home

FoxNews.com/Science ^ | Feb 19, 2019 | Charles Watson | Fox News

[SpaceBar]

Still laughing at #15... opportunities at Aleppo technical institute.

[Clay Moore]

“I’m going to guess the 50K volts he uses is going to be at a fairly low non lethal current unless he is getting is power from somewhere special.”

Flyback transformer out of a CRT TV?

Automotive ignition coil? We got TSB’s in the late 70’s or early 80’s that the Cadillac coils were capable of killing you.

[bgill]

Thankfully, we live a few states away from this kid.

[Phlyer]

Fusion - so simple a 12 year old can do it.

Actually, yeah. What's difficult is getting net power out of it in a sustainable reaction. Without the 'sustainable' part you have a bomb. Without the net power out part you have . . . what he has. A tiny amount of material is fused by zapping it with enough energy (voltage or laser) to get an even tinier amount of fusion for a large (relative to the size of the reaction) net loss in power.

Good for him, though. Even if he's just repeating what others have done, he's at least doing something better than playing video games.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Didn’t they do this on “Barney Miller” ?

[shotgun]

He’s too busy doing the knuckle shuffle on his piss pump...

[preacher]

L8r

[JoeFromSidney]

I used to make black powder and put it in fireworks. This kid has sure gone a long at beyond that. Hope he doesn't kill himself with neutron radiation before he becomes a successful scientist.

[Don W]

I built that one and the visible Wankel Rotary.

I wonder where they ended up?

[ExGeeEye]

An independent author (and very casual acquaintance) has written a pretty good sci-fi book about serendipitous discoveries associated with young people playing with fusion.

https://www.amazon.com/Far-Side-Gina-Marie-Wylie/dp/1482303027/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=gina+wylie&qid=1550620657&s=gateway&sr=8-6

[Vaquero]

Here. Hold mah beer and watch this.

[PLMerite]

[an amused spectator]

Hope he doesn't kill himself with neutron radiation before he becomes a successful scientist.

Hey - 0bama didn't kill himself with moron radiation before he became UselessGasbag-In-Chief... ;-)

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

I'm unimpressed, especially when I remember that both my kids were operating Particle Accelerators under the age of 18 months!!

I shoulda called the local TV & newspapers, I guess.

Yes indeedy, we had particle accelerators in both the family room and study. The first was the Cathode Ray Tube in our old-style TV, and the 2nd CRT was in our PC's bulky, heavy monitor.

My kids were even able to remotely control the Particle Accelerator in the family room.

Why I even recall that before the age of 5, they were assembling and disassembling Particle Accelerators with no parental help! (ie, pulling & re-inserting the loose VGA cable from the back of the monitor).

We shoulda applied for Baby Einstein Genius Grants for them.

[TexasRepublic]

You very nearly missed not being born! I heard stories growing up of kids that blew themselves up.

[metmom]

He’s really raising the bar, isn’t he.

[Kommodor]

Methinks someone might have had a little help with that science project.

[Texas Fossil]

Yes, I’m sure it was with a small quantity. But it is very unstable stuff.

[ETL]

both my kids were operating Particle Accelerators under the age of 18 months

Throwing food items at the wall and watching them break into a million pieces is not quite the same as building and operating an atom smasher. :)

[JohnnyP]

“Hopefully some strawberry-perfumed bimbo doesn’t draw his attention to “the dark side”.”

Weird Science?