DocM Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 <speechless> http://www.popsci.co...fusion?page=all The Boy Who Played With FusionTaylor Wilson always dreamed of creating a star. Now he?s become one ?Propulsion,? the nine-year-old says as he leads his dad through the gates of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. ?I just want to see the propulsion stuff.? A young woman guides their group toward a full-scale replica of the massive Saturn V rocket that brought America to the moon. As they duck under the exhaust nozzles, Kenneth Wilson glances at his awestruck boy and feels his burden beginning to lighten. For a few minutes, at least, someone else will feed his son?s boundless appetite for knowledge. Then Taylor raises his hand, not with a question but an answer. He knows what makes this thing, the biggest rocket ever launched, go up. And he wants?no, he obviously needs?to tell everyone about it, about how speed relates to exhaust velocity and dynamic mass, about payload ratios, about the pros and cons of liquid versus solid fuel. The tour guide takes a step back, yielding the floor to this slender kid with a deep-Arkansas drawl, pouring out a torrent of Ph.D.-level concepts as if there might not be enough seconds in the day to blurt it all out. The other adults take a step back too, perhaps jolted off balance by the incongruities of age and audacity, intelligence and exuberance. As the guide runs off to fetch the center?s director?You gotta see this kid!?Kenneth feels the weight coming down on him again. What he doesn?t understand just yet is that he will come to look back on these days as the uncomplicated ones, when his scary-smart son was into simple things, like rocket science. This is before Taylor would transform the family?s garage into a mysterious, glow-in-the-dark cache of rocks and metals and liquids with unimaginable powers. Before he would conceive, in a series of unlikely epiphanies, new ways to use neutrons to confront some of the biggest challenges of our time: cancer and nuclear terrorism. Before he would build a reactor that could hurl atoms together in a 500-million-degree plasma core?becoming, at 14, the youngest individual on Earth to achieve nuclear fusion. > > Willis says that when Taylor first contacted him, he was struck by the 12-year-old?s focus and forwardness?and by the fact that he couldn?t plumb the depth of Taylor?s knowledge with a few difficult technical questions. After checking with Kenneth, Willis sent Taylor some papers on fusion reactors. Then Taylor began acquiring pieces for his new machine. Through his first year at Davidson, Taylor spent his afternoons in a corner of Phaneuf?s lab that the professor had cleared out for him, designing the reactor, overcoming tricky technical issues, tracking down critical parts. Phaneuf helped him find a surplus high-voltage insulator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Willis, then working at a company that builds particle accelerators, talked his boss into parting with an extremely expensive high-voltage power supply. With Brinsmead and Phaneuf?s help, Taylor stretched himself, applying knowledge from more than 20 technical fields, including nuclear and plasma physics, chemistry, radiation metrology and electrical engineering. Slowly he began to test-assemble the reactor, troubleshooting pesky vacuum leaks, electrical problems and an intermittent plasma field. Shortly after his 14th birthday, Taylor and Brinsmead loaded deuterium fuel into the machine, brought up the power, and confirmed the presence of neutrons. With that, Taylor became the 32nd individual on the planet to achieve a nuclear-fusion reaction. Yet what would set Taylor apart from the others was not the machine itself but what he decided to do with it. While still developing his medical isotope application, Taylor came across a report about how the thousands of shipping containers entering the country daily had become the nation?s most vulnerable ?soft belly,? the easiest entry point for weapons of mass destruction. Lying in bed one night, he hit on an idea: Why not use a fusion reactor to produce weapons-sniffing neutrons that could scan the contents of containers as they passed through ports? Over the next few weeks, he devised a concept for a drive-through device that would use a small reactor to bombard passing containers with neutrons. If weapons were inside, the neutrons would force the atoms into fission, emitting gamma radiation (in the case of nuclear material) or nitrogen (in the case of conventional explosives). A detector, mounted opposite, would pick up the signature and alert the operator. He entered the reactor, and the design for his bomb-sniffing application, into the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Super Bowl of pre-college science events, the fair attracts 1,500 of the world?s most switched-on kids from some 50 countries. When Intel CEO Paul Otellini heard the buzz that a 14-year-old had built a working nuclear-fusion reactor, he went straight for Taylor?s exhibit. After a 20-minute conversation, Otellini was seen walking away, smiling and shaking his head in what looked like disbelief. Later, I would ask him what he was thinking. ?All I could think was, ?I am so glad that kid is on our side.? ? For the past three years, Taylor has dominated the international science fair, walking away with nine awards (including first place overall), overseas trips and more than $100,000 in prizes. After the Department of Homeland Security learned of Taylor?s design, he traveled to Washington for a meeting with the DHS?s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, which invited Taylor to submit a grant proposal to develop the detector. Taylor also met with then?Under Secretary of Energy Kristina Johnson, who says the encounter left her ?stunned.? ?I would say someone like him comes along maybe once in a generation,? Johnson says. ?He?s not just smart; he?s cool and articulate. I think he may be the most amazing kid I?ve ever met.? > > (4 pages....) </speechless> Charisma, Muhammad Farrukh and FMH 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detection Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I don't often read big stories like this but that had me gripped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan R. Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Speechless doesn't begin to explain it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HawkMan Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 To bad the article chose to focus on something "relatively simple" like achieving fusion. Cool kid though. Wonderif hell remain in practical developement or enter into theoretical science as he starts getting degrees. He seems more like the practical type that can find ways to apply existing technology than the guy who helps develop new theoretical models and brand new stuff like actual sustained fusion with a positive output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjoswald Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Cool, a real life Jimmy Neutron. Good to know this kid is doing something beneficial not only to himself, but the entire race (since Obama apparently hates space now). We need more people like this to motivate others into pursuing intellectual careers, rather than endless on again-off again flings at fast food joints. Charisma 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Johnny Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 The advantages of having well connected and over-induldent parents :p (And great genes!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 We need more kids like him that are interested in the application of science and engineering. Hopefully this kid finds himself at MIT and makes something great of himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 I think he'll have major universities breaking down the doors with full-ticket rides. Proceed straight to multiple PhD's. Charisma 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I would be extremely curious as to what percentage of his brain this kid has tapped into. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfirth Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 I would be extremely curious as to what percentage of his brain this kid has tapped into. Probably 100%. Just like everyone else. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth xfx 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted February 14, 2012 Veteran Share Posted February 14, 2012 The most interesting part of this story isn't that he made a fusion reactor, but how he went about it and his new idea for scanning for radioactive materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris123NT Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 We need more kids like him that are interested in the application of science and engineering. Hopefully this kid finds himself at MIT and makes something great of himself. I think he'll have major universities breaking down the doors with full-ticket rides. Proceed straight to multiple PhD's. Sounds to me like this kid could already teach classes at MIT lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Growled Member Posted February 15, 2012 Member Share Posted February 15, 2012 Wow, he has more knowledge in his little pinky than I have in my entire body. Cool kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 CNN story - he's patenting his reactor design. http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/living/teen-nuclear-scientist/index.html?c=&page=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted February 15, 2012 Veteran Share Posted February 15, 2012 CNN story - he's patenting his reactor design. http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/living/teen-nuclear-scientist/index.html?c=&page=0 He's patenting his detector design, the reactor design he's using was (most likely) created by Philo Farnsworth and Robert Hirsch, and is already patented. Edit: His detector design is similar to neutrino detectors, so that's pretty good (Simple but effective) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 Improvements on an existing design are patentable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nekkidtruth Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 $10 says this kid is an alien! ;) Kidding aside, this is an awesome kid. So much potential. It's almost comforting to know we can still produce such inanely high intelligence. Until you remember how corrupt our government(s) and others in this world are. I hope this kid makes a difference, against all of the odds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Ship him to Iran. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexcyn Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 This kid should sounds straight out of Starfleet (lol). I wish more people were this smart! Hell, I wish I was that smart. FMH 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted February 16, 2012 Veteran Share Posted February 16, 2012 Improvements on an existing design are patentable. Has he improved upon the design though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 That's for the Patent Office to decide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ci7 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Ship him to Iran. genius! finish the WMD with 72 hr but in the 71th nuke them to hell!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
123456789A Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Someone get this kid a Delorean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted February 16, 2012 Veteran Share Posted February 16, 2012 That's for the Patent Office to decide. But where did you read that he's attempting to patent his fusor? The article you linked to said he's patenting his detector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 To make the detector work as described he'd have to up the neutron production rate, and that means a more efficient fusor. Mods to decrease production cost and add stability would also qualify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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