Freshman's nuclear fusion reactor has USU physics faculty in awe

deseretnews.com ^ | 9-16-03 | Alan Edwards

[Old Professer]

Perfectionment??????

[RightWhale]

many boys who also have scientific aspirations will feel cheated as they watch girls given headstarts and extra aid.

Actually it should come as a relief to realize there are twice as many potential scientists and engineers on earth as was first thought.

[Old Professer]

They'll find a cure for cancer the same day they find a cure for wrinkles.

[RadioAstronomer]

yeah my wife is always throwing out my spare neutron detectors without asking. I hate that.

I bought a small neutron detector that counts both fast and slow neutrons at a surplus store. It first converts them to alpha and then uses a conventional alpha scintillometer. :-)

[proud American in Canada]

"what won first place??

Probably, something celebrating multiculturalism."


LOL! That or some performance art involving chocolate, urine, genitalia and crucifixes. :)

[wafflehouse]

ok that is pretty cool.. much better than it sounded at first

[wafflehouse]

true, but they could have gotten the number wrong in the article..

[fella]

SECOND PLACE?? what won first place??

First place went to a punch-card voteing machine called a vote-o-matic.

[chimera]

Yes, there were a few misstatements in the article. Still, I'll give the kid a lot of credit for effort, creativity, and learning experience. These are the kind of students I try to encourage to consider science as a career, when I talk to them at science fairs and the like. Trouble is, when they get older and see how some very capable and talented people trained in the hard sciences end up on the economic ladder, its hard to convince them not to switch to business programs or pre-law.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The title and the first few paragraphs tend to imply that the kid invented this thing from scratch. He didn't, he built something that has been around for awhile. The most amazing thing is that he did it on the cheap from stuff that he found in junk yards and thrift stores. I'm not trying to take away anything from the kid, what he did was pretty cool.

I wonder how much money Los Alamos and NASA spent on their apparatuses (apparati?)

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I wonder how much money Los Alamos and NASA spent on their apparatuses (apparati?)

Why don't you apply for a governmental grant? You could see what wonderful things you could make in your spare time? (I know you could do it!) :)

[Starrgaizr]

First place?

'My Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator! That creature has stolen the space modulator!'

[Cooter]

For cool surplus stuff, go here:

The Black Hole of Los Alamos