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12-Year-Old Boy Reportedly Builds A Nuclear Fusion Reactor (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian:
An American 14-year-old has reportedly become the youngest known person in the world to create a successful nuclear reaction. The Open Source Fusor Research Consortium, a hobbyist group, has recognised the achievement by Jackson Oswalt, from Memphis, Tennessee, when he was aged 12 in January 2018....
The enterprising teenager said he transformed an old playroom in his parents' house into a nuclear laboratory with $10,000 (£7,700) worth of equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity to heat deuterium gas and fuse the nuclei to release energy. "The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors," Jackson told Fox. "After that, I assembled a list of parts I needed. I got those parts off eBay primarily and then oftentimes the parts that I managed to scrounge off of eBay weren't exactly what I needed. So I'd have to modify them to be able to do what I needed to do for my project...."
[S]cientists are likely to remain sceptical until Oswalt's workings are subject to verification from an official organisation and are published in an academic journal. Still, the teenager may now have usurped the previous record holder, Taylor Wilson, who works in nuclear energy research after achieving fusion aged 14.
The enterprising teenager said he transformed an old playroom in his parents' house into a nuclear laboratory with $10,000 (£7,700) worth of equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity to heat deuterium gas and fuse the nuclei to release energy. "The start of the process was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors," Jackson told Fox. "After that, I assembled a list of parts I needed. I got those parts off eBay primarily and then oftentimes the parts that I managed to scrounge off of eBay weren't exactly what I needed. So I'd have to modify them to be able to do what I needed to do for my project...."
[S]cientists are likely to remain sceptical until Oswalt's workings are subject to verification from an official organisation and are published in an academic journal. Still, the teenager may now have usurped the previous record holder, Taylor Wilson, who works in nuclear energy research after achieving fusion aged 14.
General media for reporting the preposterous, or, Slashdot editors for even considering it?
He aged two years in the last 13 months.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Also, he said he built a time machine in his garage based on a 1976 Toyota Corolla. The only problem was he couldn't get it up to 88 mph.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I can see the conversation.
"Hey Jackson, can you come out and play?"
"Not right now. I'm building a fusion reactor."
"Okay, maybe tomorrow."
Yeah, given *that* amount of opportunity and aid, we all can build non-energy-positive fusion reactors.
Kids are not dumber than us, you know? They just have less experience. Add experienced wealthy parents, and they can do anything! That's why opportunities are so important.
While we just had marbles and toilet paper rolls to play with. (Literally the indoor toys of my youth until I was 12 and got a shitty i8088 PC.)
every time creimer farts the pressure creates degenerate matter and the gamma ray bursts are visible from Tau Ceti V
The device in question is a fusor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor which does involve actual nuclear fusion. They aren't easy to build but they do engage in actual fusion. They are used for a bunch of practical purposes, including as neutron generators. Hobbyists have built them before. Still, a 12 year old doing it is pretty impressive.
Well I think young Jackson is about to receive a visit from some of my friends who dress in black suits.
Jackson, these men are what you young people call *bad asses*.
PS #NEVERTRUMP2020!
Because all 12 year old boys have $10,000 to do whatever they want with.
Next, the small thermonuclear device will win first prize at the science fair, winning over a CO2 volcano.
Every single FUCKING year this story does the rounds. Some kid builds a Fansworth fusor.
If journalists weren't so fucking stupid, and had even the slightest scrap of science literacy then this wouldn't happen.
Fuck journalists.
Really? What do I do with that number?
A bit early, isn't it?
Here is Make magazine's article on "Learn How to Build a Nuclear Fusor":
https://makezine.com/projects/make-36-boards/nuclear-fusor/
Wtf?
Sig?
This story is one of those tropes that simply won't fuck off.
Kids making fusors only make the news because it has teh NUCULARS in it. Liberal arts retards are attracted to it like flies on shit.
Literally the only thing more irresistible to "journalists" is micro-power generation.
"Liberal arts dropout chargers his iphone using a generator in his shoe!" The world must seem so magical to science illiterates.
They love it when mere 'kid' make potential wepons of mass destruction. At the same time they refuse to use the words "radical islamic terror" and then wonder why no one supports democrat party any more.
Now I start to get a little bit afraid of 13 year old keyboard warriors...
"12-Year-Old Boy's Parents Build Nuclear Fusion Reactor, Boy Helps"
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
He was 12 in January 2018
And now in February 2019 he is 14 ???
I want the date of birth of this guy to justify is he born in a date in between January and February !!
Or else I cry at counting wrong!!
My son created a vaccine that nullifies all previous vaccines!
equipment that uses 50,000 volts of electricity
Just by converting that "uses" into "generates", we would get usable fusion power! He is soooo close! Why not trying with a bigger dictionary or something? He should definitively scale his vocabulary up! LOL.
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
When I was twelve, I had trouble scraping together 10 bucks. Rich kids, hmph.
Bloom County Elementry School would like to state that the school evacuation during the Science Fair was not a drill. The NRC has safely removed the dangerous device from the school.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
our research organizations are pumping millions into a black hole and can't get steady state operation on a commercial Fusor yet
Don't bring Plutonium to home.
Fusion is something else. Nobody will build that privately for a long, long time.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Keep on going and make Lithium. We will need more for batteries.
Still, a 12 year old doing it is pretty impressive.
How impressive it is really depends a lot on how much help he got from his parents. They clearly provided very significant financial support...
Just be thankful that's all he did. With all the neutron and gamma radiation from the fusion reaction, the side effects could have been a lot more serious.
I got those parts off eBay primarily
"Aren't you a little young to be building a fusion reactor??"
"Yes ... yes I am."
Better build that wall with Lincoln Logs!
Better protect your copyrights or risk losing them.
FTFY!
It doesn't matter if you need to abuse DMCA as hell to do it.
Then, on the plus side, on a reverse psychology move, you can even make videos about others doing it thus insuring your long tail revenue streams.
MEMPHIS TENNESSEE
Creimer donated $71 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley. #SomethingPositive
that's a shrewd investment
next week you'll raid about 350$ of food for the week from them
I think the kid's name is Dexter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Creimer donated $71 [twitter.com] to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley. #SomethingPositive
You are such a double faced hypocrite and an a pathological liar that you are probably lying about giving that money as well.
Not a big challenge for you to fake that receipt since you are so used to fake things.
Why shouldn't they? We live in a prosperous country, and spend more than that on educating a child for a year. Kids wanting to learn something like this should be able to apply for a government grant for "interesting project done by a kid." Not many kids would take them up on it, and we could even insist on having completed easier and cheaper projects before that. There are under 5 million 12-year-olds in the US. Assuming only 2% want to do something as ambitious as build a fusion reactor, that's under a billion a year.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
... doesnt even begin to come that close all years combined lol
They caught onto him and are making him pay it back in installments. Make no mistake: that is NOT a donation. The value of the food that he swiped means that he will be paying it back until he dies.
Chris Reimer (aka CDReimer aka C.D. Reimer aka Christopher Dale Reimer aka creimer aka IEatFatCashews et al.) is a LIAR and a THIEF.
I'm pretty sure the do-it-yourself kit also includes radiation poisoning, shorter life span, and investigation by a nuclear regulatory agency since the persons involved would be glowing ...
Not with a Farnsworth Fusor. These only put out a few million neutrons a second.
So you don't get radiation poisoning and don't become (substantially) radioactive from the neutron flux.
But a Farsnworth-Hirsch or Hirsch-Meeks fusor puts out a LOT of X-rays, from loose electrons accelerated across tens of kV slamming into electrodes. So you can take a lot of damage quickly if it isn't properly shielded.
Fortunately X-rays in the relevant range of energies are moderately easy to stop. A good thick metal vacuum enclosure will do it. Use thick leaded glass for any viewports and/or don't make a practice of hanging around it when it's running.
Small, cheap, TV cameras are a fusor-user's friend.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
You just triggered 100 SJW's to shit their pants!
Think of the children!!!
This device is more properly named a Fusor. More at this link The open source fusor research consortium.
Is his name Dexter?
Wrong.
I voted for the Democrats because society owes me.
The earth is still flat, God created the universe, global warming is a corporate hoax, and scientists don't know everything.
But have you TRIED to eat a fusor?
More would imply you said something already. Still waiting for it...
Nice chris. Seriously.
Now I make the joke: Was this donation to the food bank or did you open a cd on a thanksgiving turkey? After a year of interest it'll come back with a duck and a cornish game hen stuffed inside.
Shouldn't the title have "fission", not "fusion" since the latter it's not yet a reality?
He'll grow five inches in the next year.
...when you have parents that can throw huge amounts of money and help at a project.
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.
Even if his device never achieved fusion, 50 kV is more than enough potential to produce copious X-Rays. A steel chamber is likely thick enough to stop most emissions at energy level, especially since you get a broad spectra *up to* 50 KeV. However, failure to get this right such as by using plain glass for windows can be nasty. Lower energy X-Rays can be worse since they tend to be absorbed by rather than sailing through tissue
If we knew how many μA or mA his Fusor draws in operation along with chamber material and thickness, it'd be pretty easy to calculate a ball-park of the intensity.
On a related note, Slashdot seems to have changed over the years. There are still high quality posts, but the ratio of quality vs. ignorant statements has become disappointing
~Any apparent grammatical or typographic errors are caused by defects in your display device.