Meet the 16-Year-Old ‘Fusioneer’ — Youngest Ever to Build a Nuclear Fusion Reactor
- Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:08pm by
Liz Klimas
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Taylor Wilson has met with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Taylor Wilson has a website called “Taylor’s Nuke Site.” Taylor Wilson is only 16 years old, and for at least six years — since he built his first bomb out of a pill bottle at age 10 — Wilson has been working with radioactive materials.
Last month, Mental Floss — a magazine and blogsite for science junkies — (via CNN) named Wilson its Mad Scientist of the Month and has the prodigy’s amazing — and at times slightly disturbing –story. Here are a few interesting snip-its about this “Fusioneer:”
- Wilson was 14 when he became the youngest person in the world to build a nuclear fusion reactor. Getting his start on Fusor.net, Wilson joined the ranks of only 30 hobbyist ‘Fusioneers’ before him who were able to fuse two atoms together.
- He began collecting radioactive material in relatively common items like smoke detectors and pottery he found in an antique store that an orange uranium glaze.
- Wilson felt the 35 million cargo ships that enter the United States each year could pose a threat as potential smugglers of nuclear weapons. “If I were a terrorist, that‘s how I’d do it,” he said according to Mental Floss. But with the most sensitive radiation detectors using Helium-3, a supply that is running out, Wilson came up with another idea. He created a similar detector using water, a chemical that emits light when it detects radioactive particles and a light sensor. His invention, which he has put in for a patent, works and costs only a few hundred dollars compared to thousands. Watch Wilson explain the device on this Fox News video:
- Wilson tested his milk and spinach after the nuclear meltdown in Japan and found radioactive isotopes. When people got upset with him for speaking about his findings with the Associated Press he said, ”pop culture has instilled in Americans an irrational fear of radiation, when in fact the household chemicals under your sink are more dangerous. I also think it unsettles people because I’m so young. They associate age with experience. But that isn’t always true.”
According to Mental Floss, Wilson has visited with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Energy. And he has been contact by Raytheon, one of the country’s largest defense contractors.
Wilson and scientist Bill Brinsmead in a lab at the University of Nevada, Reno. (Photo: Mental Floss)
And were his parents ever worried? Yes! Mental Floss has the details:
Wilson’s growing obsession with all things radioactive “worried me a whole lot,” admits Kenneth, who turned to pharmacists and professors he knew around town to ask if what his son was doing was safe.
“After they talked to Taylor, they’d tell me not to worry so much, because they said Taylor understands what he’s doing,” Kenneth says. He and his wife, Tiffany, tried to tell themselves that Wilson’s “nuclear phase” would pass, just like his previous obsessions.
. . .
“It would scare my mom to know I’m in some hostile country, tracking down terrorists,” Wilson admits. But if his parents have learned anything over the years, it’s to trust their son and let go. “Sometimes I‘ll blow up something in the backyard that’ll rattle all the windows in the house,” Wilson says. “My mom will come out, shake her head, and then head back in.”
And it hasn’t passed yet. Though Wilson has a few vials of deadly powdered radium, which Mental Floss reports he doesn‘t open though he’s been tempted, it may be comforting to note he does have fears: he’s scared by roller coasters.
(Mental Floss via CNN)
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Comments (101)
Str8talk
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:40pmHis IQ must be off the chart!! I’m not sure that I believe all of it, especially the fusion reactor that he’s supposedly made, but this kid is leaps and bounds above the rest of his age group. I hope the FED‘s don’t try to put him in a lab for study. He needs to keep working on his inventions…who know‘s he’ll come up with next.
Report Post »wtd
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:04pmMcGyver 2.0
Report Post »Bullhorn Guy
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:12pmThe rest of his age group? How about leaps and bounds above 90% of the general population? Unless…have you fused two atoms together in YOUR parents basement?
Report Post »Dr Vel
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:59pmBelieve it. I have been experimenting with electrostatic confinement fusion for decades. Philo Farnsworth invented it long ago in the late 50′s, building most of His working models in the early 60′s. Problem was the grant money was in hot fusion so His peers did all they could to suppress the idea. It is nothing more than a vacuum chamber with spherical electrodes at high voltage where you introduce tritium or Deuterium gas in small amounts, producing neutrons. By the way Farnsworth invented the first electronic (phosphor screen) television which He was cheated out of by big business. RCA comes to mind. I look at His life as tragic yet historic in science much like Nikola Tesla. Together they gave us the 20th and 21st centuries and neither received anything for it all. This kid is what I call the best of mad science, I hope He goes far. Go to Fusor.net and do some reading.
Report Post »teamarcheson
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 10:14pmCold Fusion? He will disappear shortly and his device will vanish. On one in government wants a small and cheap fusion reactor that could be used to generate electricity. Let us not forget that German scientist Werner Heisenberg at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut for Chemistry was investigating Cold Fusion in the 1930s. The Allies after the war captured all of his work and suppressed all knowledge of it after the war.
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 10:51amGood question. what are the Homeland Security, Department of Energy and corporate America doing? sitting on their hands, of course.
Report Post »Truthbeliever2
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 12:32pmThe gov’t has already snatched this kid up…
Heck they probably grew him in a lab…
Report Post »dr_funk
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 1:38pmThis kid deserves to be made a very rich man for his his work.
THIS is what I’m talking about when I say we need to create an environment where innovation, entrepreneurship, and hard work are rewarded!
Report Post »dr_funk
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 1:42pmAnd this is also another reminder of why we need to protect patent rights, as mandated by the constitution.
With the new “patent reform” BS they’re trying to ram through, some bank can come along and sue this kid to get his patent “for the greater good”, leaving him penniless. We can’t allow such blatant legalization of theft to go through.
Report Post »corbecket
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 3:38pm@teamarcheson
Or it could very well be that the technique (like 150 mpg cars) isn’t achievable. Not everything is a conspiracy. Sometimes an unworkable concept, is just that.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:39pmNice to hear a story about good, smart people! Thanks, Blaze!
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:58pmThis is a prime example of how America could be great again, if we could just get the Feds out of our schools and off our backs. Americans are still the most inventive people in the world, and when turned loose to dream, we can do anything. However, I’m sure this kids inventive nature will be squashed somehow soon, by our nannystate.
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:35pmA proud product of public education!
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:36pmHe goes to a public school you idiot.
Report Post »OlefromMN
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:11pmThis young man has a very prosperous future ahead of him. One can only hope the right people help guide him.
Report Post »crazedbanshee
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:52pmThis is a great example of parents using good judgement about their child‘s capabilities and the Gov’t staying out. Stories like this will not exist if this gov’t keeps getting larger. They shut everything down because it is to dangerous.
They usually get the idea that it is to dangerous is because when they were younger they were dumbasses that thought they were smart (much like now), but when they tried to do something got hurt. Now that they are older they don’t want to see other kids get hurt like they did.
Report Post »codygreenhalgh
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:30pmSounds a lot like another kid I read about ( google “Radioactive Boyscout”) buy this kid seems like he has a much “brighter” future.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:08pmYes, the “Radioactive Boy Scout” story is very sad. This kid is working with fusion, not fission, so maybe his life will come together and not come apart.
Report Post »OniKaze
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:13pmFuture Great American (if you don’t already think he is one). God I only hope whatever happend to this boy is contagious. Too many stupid children with brains contaminated by MTV/BET lately… We drastically need a NERD boom in the USA.
Report Post »Ookspay
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:44pmYes we do, scientists don’t need to be nerds, this kid looks pretty hip. The article didn’t say but I bet this kid is home schooled.
Amazing, now come on kid please invent a personal fussion reactor the size of a dishwasher to power an entire house, $2,999 retail. That should save the Earth nicely, unless global cooling sets in and then we can start burning coal and oill again.
Is this John Galt?
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:20pmThe fusion he is working with is for neutron generation — not a power reactor.
Report Post »beans bullets and bandaids
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:27pmOokspay, I wondered the same thing, but he is not homeschooled. He goes to Davidson Academy, a school for exceptionally gifted students. Here is their eligibility requirement:
*Eligible candidates have SAT, ACT or IQ scores in the top 1/10th of 1%, and perform academically at the middle or high school level.
He is concurrently attending University of Nevada, Reno.
Report Post »fatjack
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:08pmWow, Look at the proof of the success our federal educational system.
Just kidding folks, calm down, it was a little funny.
Great work kid. Now, can I say brilliant, yes the kid is brilliant.
Report Post »zoro51
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:08pmTOTALLY AMERICAN INGENUITY! not chinease.. THIS is what america is all about HOW many more smart kids do we have n what will they create. GET ready america WERE COMING BACK STRONG in 2012 NEW leader NEW adm OUT goes the SOCIALIST FIODDER n his“friends in office” IN wiht new energy new discoveries NEW leaders NEW vision n this kid is but ONE.. 3rd world nations you poo pooed the usa watch the USA OVERTAKE europe n GO STRONG. AMERICAN STRONG! not SOCIALISM like its been tried to be placed here n FAILED like OBAMMY failed kids like this one is whats GOOD in americfa what makes america strong NOT wanna bea leaders n VACATIONING losers who DONT CARE but tend to thier own agendas or follow what thier FALSE GODS DICTATE TO THEM
Report Post »mossbrain
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:10pmYour spelling has disproved everything you posted.
Report Post »Saveouramerica
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 2:46amOh Jeez the spelling police are out again.
On a further note the kid is brilliant, good for him.
Report Post »gpk
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:07pmBravo Taylor.
Report Post »platitude
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:03pmyea, and i am sure mommy and daddy did not help him one bit, completely did it on his own. kind of like modern day “self made men”.
Report Post »Mike N
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:47pmIf you knew anything about mental floss, you probably would not be so doubtful.
Report Post »platitude
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:40pmAh, so doubt is diametrically opposed to “mental floss”. I disagree, I see it as a requisite for understanding. But you are obviously a man of faith, a man who kneels down in acquiescence to authority, so keep suckling on that innocuous teat and see where it gets you.
Report Post »Weasel Hound 83
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 12:45amOnce his parents were able to determine that his interest and experiments were not a danger to him or to them I’m sure they both helped and encouraged him a lot. The primary responsibility for the education of children rests with the parents, including that they do all possible to insure that what happens in public schools is education not indoctrination. The tone of your comment sounds like you are envious of this young man, and jealous that you either do not have the same level of IQ, and/or did not have the same parental support. So, why don’t you expend some effort to learn something and actually go to the mental floss site. Or are negative platitudes your only forte?
Report Post »Perspective
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 2:11pmHe only can spout negative. I guess that’s what life as a troll gets you to. Get back under the bridge Platitude.
Report Post »c.rozycki
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:58pmSo good to see a kid who’s not hooked on watching TV/Internet 8 hours a day. Study study study. Just proves that an education is a great thing to have. And so good to see this in America!
Report Post »Defends the TRUTH
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:48pmi have to say that “High Skrool” obviously isn’t all that BAD!!!! Way to go kid.
Report Post »Slowman101
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:47pmSmart kid!
Report Post »Av8r1969
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:47pmhope we keep hearing from him…. watch your six.
Report Post »Gary Fishaholic
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:46pmCessna152 I am still laughing too much. Great to hear some kids are learning.
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:45pmThis is what Americans do. We push the envelope. This young man is typical of our greatness.
Report Post »V-Forge
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:42pminteresting. I have made the regular chemical bombs. many kids have. common stuff from walmart. This is quite a step above that. this kid is really smart. he is right about the ways terrorists could do stuff under the radar. we are lucky there are very few to no smart terrorists. After all, they are a group that will kill themselves to get their enemy. Call it a scorched As$ policy. It would be easy to kill thousands here in the us if they just took their nose out of a koran and put it in a chemistry book.
Report Post »Diego Roswell
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:40pmSo Smart!
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:53pmEverybody needs a hobby, some have good imagination and set their sights a tad higher than others. Rock the world kid.
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:39pmSome of your comments makes no understanding…
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:38pmThis is really great and I hope he has a great future.
Report Post »FEMALL
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:37pmIt’s Mini-Me!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!
14 year old + nuclear fusion=1 Worried Mama
Report Post »RA0725
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:32pmMy brother and I used to make those pill bottle bombs. That was cool. Then we tried to make a cannon and…….well, Dad took away our gunpowder.
Report Post »JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:25pmWow!
Report Post »randy
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:22pmSmart kid!
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:54pmIt‘s good to see that not ALL of them ride skateboards down stair rails and live in their mother’s basements blogging all day.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:15pmOkay, now a 16 year old has done the fusion routine; so why do people still in the administration insist that a terrorist nuclear device is impossible to build or deploy in the US? Which city or cities need to die in a fiery inferno before they admit to being wrong?
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:23pmBig deal… I colored in an entire page of a coloring book all by myself. …and I stayed in the lines.
Report Post »NSDQ
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:27pmYoure employing common sense and logic, something the govt will not tolerate. Back in-line for your spoon feeding of state media pseudo-news and welfare check also be sure to vote only for people w/ D’s next to their names.
Report Post »urrybr
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:31pmBecause the people in the present administration are complete morons, and are too arrogant to admit that someone is smarter than them. I‘m getting so tired of O’bummer and his band of thugs, and clowns. 2012 can’t come soon enough. And if he is re-elected, I’m moving to another country. What a bunch of totally asinine human beings. There has never been a bigger collection of asses, before now.
Report Post »biggreenboo
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:32pm“Which city or cities need to die in a fiery inferno before they admit to being wrong?”
I don’t know… where do you live?
Just kidding Snow.
Report Post »Gary Fishaholic
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:49pmSnow I agree Cessna thanks for the laugh.
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:05pmYou’re welcome Gary. Every time I read these stories I get so ticked off and it ruins my day. Diffuse with humor I guess until it’s time.
Report Post »NEOBIO
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:36pmAgree with you, I would feel safer spending 500 mil. on this gentlemen than spending on solar plant that when under.
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 5:33pmObama’s re-election is a near certainty, you might start thinking about which country you’re moving to.
Report Post »Captain Crunch
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:14pmBetter keep an eye on this young man. Some radical musssslem will try to kidnap him and force him to build a bomb.
Report Post »Better Dead Than Red
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:20pmbut then he’s smart enough to turn it around and make an iron man suit and escape.
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:38pmFunny I was thinking the same thing…
Report Post »scjeff
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:47pmNot to worry. He’ll tell them, “Just hold this for a second” and they will vaporize themselves.
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:14pmLook for this kid to disappear, mysteriously.
Report Post »WeMustNeverForget
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 3:35pmThe same thought crossed my mind. I hope not. Pray for his safety.
Report Post »LOLReally
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:01pmyup
Report Post »WeMustNeverForget
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:31pmLike what happened to Tom Ogle of El Paso Texas…
Report Post »WeMustNeverForget
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 4:32pmCheck out what Tom Ogle invented back in 1977.
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