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Michigan Teen Creates Fusion Device
Josh Lindenmuth writes "The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Thiago Olson, a 17 year old Michigan teen, was able to create a small fusion device in his parents' basement. The machine uses a 40,000 volt charge and deuterium gas to create the small reaction, which he says looks like a 'small intense ball of energy.' The teen's fusion device is obviously not a self-sustaining reactor, but it still shows how fusion technology is becoming more accessible. Hopefully this points to a future where large scale fusion reactors are both economical and widely used."
Becoming more accessible? Electrostatic fusion was first demonstrated in the 20s.
That looks good on a college application
How does a 17 year old come by deuterium? I mean the bush administration has a fit when Iran tries to buy some, and in this country you don't even have to be 18 to get it?
I'm lost.
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
It is good to see how the youth can innovate in any field.
I always maintained that innovation for the young scientist will be limited almost completely to computer and software because of the ease with which you can buy a machine, connect to the internet and start hacking.
Good that this young man proved me wrong. Perhaps we will start seeing innovations by high schoolers in all the branches of the sciences and engineering: biology, chemistry, aeronautics, space research, engineering, etc.
No computer will be a better innovating machine than the one between our ears.
I'm sorry... but while this teenagers work is certainly commendable and nothing to sneeze at (in fact, Large engineering firms such as Siemens seem to take an interest in him). His work does nothing to further research in the field. Non-sustaining fusion reactors have been around for decades, and its been widely known how to build one for at least 20 years. For most people, the cost is the limiting factor. Why would you want to spend $50k-100k on something that uses more energy than it produces?
Now when we finally get a sustainable fusion reaction that produces more energy that it uses, that would be something to write about!
Yahma
ProxyStorm - An apache based anonymous proxy service.
Any kid who ever built a Van De Graff generator has played with far more than 40kV... I mean, that's only a few centimeters worth of spark at STP. If you've ever gotten 3-4" sparks in dry air, you're playing with way higher voltage than that.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Perhaps in today's 'lets assume every teenager who is not out trying to score nookie, or hang at the mall' society. But some of us do remember a time when experimentation was encouraged and nurtured. To be honest, I'll be surprised if some state or gov agency doesn't pop by his house and have a little chat or worse the next time he wants to fly any where, his name 'magically' now appears on the no-fly lists.
What's really sad is that people are so frightened, that they would willingly give up personal freedoms and stifle overly creative children for some ill-perception of national security.
Regards,
MBC1977,
this is the statement of an asshole. Why make an almost asinine comment like this?... a 17 year old applied himself in a very unsual way that shows intelligence, aptitude, application, and determination. Researched, developed and built a remarkable machine. Sure, it's been demonstrated since the 20's, but you probably read about it in a book at best. Or looked up on wikipedia that it was first done in the 20's.
Most people just read about things. Others do things. Knowing things and not doing is borderline redundant. Hearing of something being done for a long time and never even remotely applying yourself even within 1%, and then criticising and reducing the absolutely remarkable efforts of others is borderline criminal. Get a life, but more importantly, get some perspective.
I'd love to see a picture of your fusion machine, or anything even remotely demonstrating the independent application of intelligence. People that make these kinds of comments rarely partake in anything of the kind.
Alternatively, he might have bought a small quantity from a scientific supplier. Even the Government is going to realise, especially if his teachers wrote in, that the size of fusion bomb you can build with a couple of grammes of heavy water and the tritium from a beta light is less of a threat to the US than one NRA member with a hangover and a grudge against his ex-wife.
Pining for the fjords
Right. First he's playing with fusion, the next thing you know, he's building terrorist bombs! Let's ban Deuterium right quick "for the children". (End sarcasm)
Your comment is symptomatic of a larger problem in society. We're scared of our own shadows. "Oooooh the evil scary nukular stuff is in the hands of the teens! Run for your life!!!" - Is this even slightly rational? He can't hurt anyone with electrostatic confined fusion (if you could weaponize that, the powers that be would have done so already). If he fries himself with X-rays or high voltage, then that's a risk he took for himself; his parents may have a say in what risks he exposes himself to, but it's not my concern or yours.
Personally, I'm far more worried about what a government will do when given powerful toys than I am about what a lone teenager will.
Relatively speaking, they still aren't.
Every time someone makes a point that the NRA is extreme, I like to point out that to many gun owners the NRA is a bunch of pussies. Compare them to The Second Amendment Foundation or Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. (I'm at work, so filtering prevents me from visiting their sites to gather URLs.) By that measure, the NRA is the voice of reason.
Personally, I take a middle tack. The NRA is the only gun rights organization big enough to make a difference on a national scale, so I support them. However, they have majorly screwed up in more ways than I can count. First, there's PR. Back in the day (until the late 1980s) the NRA was the national governing body for international shooting sports. That meant that the road to the Olympics went through the NRA. The people that worked that program weren't political animals and they failed to defend their turf; the NRA gave up NGB status and let is slide over to U.S. Shooting. That was the single stupidest PR mistake I've ever seen. Almost no one can argue against gun ownership for the purpose of winning Olympic medals, yet the NRA can no longer use that as an example. Way back in the day, it was possible for an NRA rep to hold up a S&W M52 target pistol and say "This is the pistol that Ruby Fox used to win a silver at the L.A. Olympics. We are the organization that provided the infrastructure for that to happen. The assault rifle bill before Congress would ban this gun, thus proving that gun control is a bad thing." (Yes, the original Matzenbaum assault rifle bill, the grandaddy of all that sort of legislation, would have outlawed as "assault rifles" nearly all semiautomatic pistols and shotguns as well as rifles.) The NRA can no longer stand up and say they represent potential Olympians. I'm still shocked that they don't seem to realize what a powerful PR tool they lost when they gave up sanctioning authority.
Another PR error? Here's one, drawn from your own post. You say the NRA has changed. It hasn't. The NRA is still a competition, safety, conservation, and training outfit. All the political stuff belongs to the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. But does the general public realize that the organization that teaches Boy Scouts and the organization that lobbies Congress are two different things? Not really. The NRA has failed to differentiate, thus contaminating their functions that nearly anyone would agree are wholesome with the stench of their political activities. That's bad PR and I see no way to correct it.
Second, they have wussed out at any number of innopportune times. Check the website of any "NRA watchdog" and you'll find instances when they backed down instead of going for the jugular, usually in the name of preserving future relationships. The earliest I can remember was the so-called "cop killer" bullets, a fiction dreamed up by anti-gun types that the NRA caved on. Now, the notion that there are teflon-coated pistol bullets out there that magically slide through bulletproof vests (and that those objects only exist because the NRA wants them to exist) is ingrained in the minds of most people who don't know any better. It's just crazy. Just this last week, in that Law & Order episode where the escaped con kills all the little schoolgirls, there was an obviously dubbed line thrown in about the bad guy having obtained a .45 with "teflon bullets." Argh! That kind of willful ignorance makes me crazy; if the NRA had done a better job back when they had the chance, such ignorance wouldn't be so common.
Third, they've simply failed far too many times. How in the bloody hell did the machine gun ban get passed? I've seen the video of the voice vote. It wasn't even close to passage, yet the Speaker simply pronounced it p
The key here is that he had "some help" from his dad. I've seen this before, its so common. Parents completing 4-H projects, and sumbmitting them for the children. Boyscott dads completing wooden race cars for the kids, and submitting them as if the kid did it him/herself. I'm looking at this thing, and the amount of tools including metal milling equipment are beyond what most "children" have access to, let alone the ability to use them effectively.
Sadly, this young man is being set up for failure, as once his dad is not there to help him, he will fall below average compared to those kids who do things on their own. This is the type of kid that ends up working at a gas station, stoned once highschool is over and he is sent out on his own.
While I am impressed with the reactor, I am not impressed that it was built by his dad and submitted as if his son did it all. Not believing it for a second. As I said, seen it a millions times before, related to "helicopter parenting"
I'll bet the Department of Homeland Security is giving him his fifteen minutes...
Back then, the NRA was a gun safety and training organization. They struck everyone as being straight-forward and calm, more interested in making sure that people knew how to prevent gun accidents and how to responsibly own firearms. Then things changed, and they transformed themselves into a political organization
Thing is, the NRA _still is_ that gun safety and training organization. Unfortunately, clueless legislators have made it necessary for us to also worry about the real risk of legislation making us all less safe by disarming us. The gun safety programs are successful; the training programs are successful - these things are still going on, probably as much or more than they were before. You won't hear about it from the press, of course, because they've got an agenda, and something as uninteresting as "The NRA's gun safety programs continue to work just as they have for the last many decades", just isn't newsworthy.
It's always interesting to see someone telling what the NRA is "all about", when they just don't have their facts right. It's no different than any other topic, I suppose - you'll always have people disagreeing with (thing), and when you ask them why, they give reasons that aren't true. It shows that they disagree with the lies, not with the organization being lied about.