Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support





















« Peter Jackson Won't Direct "The Hobbit" | Main | Romney Notes "Three-Man Race" Between Himself, McCain, and Rudy; Calls McCain "Disingenuous" On Gay Marriage »
November 21, 2006

Teen Builds Small Fusion Reactor In Parents' Garage

I'm not sure if this is verified. The article cites a website naming him as the eighteenth amateur to achieve nuclear fusion -- but, you know, websites aren't really the Gold Standard of verification.

Still, that number -- "the eigtheenth amateur" -- maybe indicates that doing this on a small scale isn't as impossible as I imagined.

Anyway, he is, at the very least, a driven and precocious tinkerer:

On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.

He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college.

But to his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist."

In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build -- a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion.

Nuclear fusion -- when atoms are combined to create energy -- is "kind of like the holy grail of physics," he said.

In fact, on www.fusor.net, the Stoney Creek senior is ranked as the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion. So, how does he do it?

Pointing to the steel chamber where all the magic happens, Thiago said on Friday that this piece of the puzzle serves as a vacuum. The air is sucked out and into a filter.

Then, deuterium gas -- a form of hydrogen -- is injected into the vacuum. About 40,000 volts of electricity are charged into the chamber from a piece of equipment taken from an old mammogram machine. As the machine runs, the atoms in the chamber are attracted to the center and soon -- ta da -- nuclear fusion.

Thiago said when that happens, a small intense ball of energy forms.

He first achieved fusion in September and has been perfecting the machine he built in his parents' garage ever since.

Cute, but couldn't he be using his scientific know-how to do something important?

Like build a flyin' car?

Thanks to RobG.


digg this
posted by Ace at 05:31 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
fd: "First tighten it up on the drums. ..."

Disinformation Expert Ace: "wow, I did not know that "segue" was pronounced se ..."

ShainS -- Deplorable AND Listless Vessel AND Overimaginative Scamp [/b][/i][/s][/u]: "Once heard someone insightfully say that "There's ..."

Jordan61: "GAINZZZ: doing pretty well, diet-wise. I'm determi ..."

JT: "Windy out thar. ..."

moviegique: "Spooky gainz! 50th Halloween Haunt at Knott's. ..."

Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) [/b][/i][/s][/u]: "[i] garrett better wear something... uncomplicate ..."

fd: ""I found that my anxiety decreased if I told peopl ..."

Catherine: "What if that was totally false from the start? ..."

Archie Bell and the Drells: "[i]Booze is the only therapy I need. These people ..."

spindrift: "[i] for a segueway,[/i] seg-way-way? ..."

JT: "hiya ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64