The seventeen-year-old who created a star

His name is Taylor Wilson. He's from Texarkana, Arkansas. He now attends a private high school for the highly gifted in Reno, Nevada. At 14, with help from several adult advisors and a technician, he became the youngest person in world history to build a nuclear reactor. He went on to win nine prizes at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, including first prize overall.

The following article online, reprinted in its entirity by Popular Science magazine from their current newsstand issue (March 2012), tells how he achieved these remarkable scientific feats:

www.popsci.com...

Reminds me of the radioactive boy scout, although I suppose this young man is even more successful.

But is a nuclear reactor the same as a star? It may be similar but I don't think it's the same. I feel a bit misled by the title.

Edit: How is it that he is allowed to manufacture yellowcake? The mind boggles.

reply to post by Uphill


are you serious? If anything a very good fairy story and nothing more

The reason i cant take this seriously is this quote under one of the photos

Taylor set up a nuclear laboratory in the family garage. Occasionally he uses it to process uranium ore into yellowcake.

reply to post by minor007


I read that too!
I was like holy shnikes! Yellow Cake!

Why isn't the FBI all over this kids house!

I hear his parents just bought a house with a TWO car garage and he is currently working on a Large Hadron Collider.

um no not made up read it all ...... he's incredible

so a 17 year old kid can have a nuclear reactor but Iran can't?

You guys don't seriously believe this, do you?

I mean, honestly.... This has HOAX written all over it.

Here is the same story back in 2007, only with a DIFFERENT high school student: Thiago Olson

www.wired.com...

Here's one with a video of the kid....

videosift.com...

You can see his "Neutron Dosimeter", which he unscrews just before setting it up on his machine so that the carbon dioxide in the "Soda" can collect around the sides of the vial, and "Appear" to be "Neutron absorption."

IF this story was REAL, it wouldn't be a story about "OMG! Teenager Makes Nuclear Reactor" it would read more like "Teenager irradiates himself with lethal dose of neutron radiation, and DIES"



P.S. Oh, and here is ANOUTHER one of these little Trash articles about teens making Fusion Reactors "Youngest Ever", "Breakthrough", "Absolute Genius" and all of that bullcrap.

www.deseretnews.com...



And here is the article as discussed on physics forums with actual Physicists from M.I.T, explaining why it's absolute bunk.

www.physicsforums.com...

And of course the popsci link is showing Page not found
So, does this article exist regarding this kid or not ?

The link works for me

The kid who played with fusion

Let's see here.... here is a fusion reactor built by Michael Li

www.simplysharing.com...

Seems this list of people is growing, isn't it?


Oh, and it seems that there is a few websites that have pretty detailed information on creating these devices.

spectrum.ieee.org...

And here is the forums where they have all of the plans that you can follow to turn yourself into a "Genius"

www.fusor.net...

A google search on this kid comes up! I'm shocked, I thought this was a hoax, but now I think it's real! This is his site: Taylor's Nuke Site

Originally posted by WhoDat09
The link works for me

The kid who played with fusion

When clicking on the link in the 1st post ...

reply to post by Uphill


Wow.. A real life Dr. Sheldon Cooper... Its nice to see that we have some very gifted, intelligent young people taking the spot light once again. Without having to worry about politics, worry about national relationships, congressional infighting etc its going to be people like this that will be bale to cut through all the BS to find real solutions to problems that affect us all, and not just one group or one country.

reply to post by tauristercus


Tauristercus, I'm sorry you're unable to get the whole link from your location. Here is the basic website for Popular Science magazine ... at the middle of that homepage, they have embedded the article I described at the beginning of this link. This shorter link should definitely work for you:

www.popsci.com...

Actually that homepage has 2 versions of that story. The 1st version is in the upper left corner of the homepage. The story on Taylor Wilson is story 1 of 5 stories in flash file format ... where each of the 5 stories is shown for about 5 seconds each, then that view rotates to the next story. The 2nd spot on the homepage where the same story on Taylor Wilson appears is about halfway down the homepage.

If the above shorter link does not work either, go to the Gibiru internet search engine and type in the 2 words popular science which should give you a list of results with the Popular Science magazine website at the top of the list ... then just click on the Popular Science magazine link, which will take you to that website.

www.gibiru.com...

If that option does not work either, remember that Popular Science website is loaded with flash files, as many popular press websites are nowadays (Newsweek magazine is a good example of a heavy user of flash files). Is there a public library near you that you could do this same internet search on tomorrow? Trying the same search from a different computer might do the trick, for whatever reason. Hang in there.

The Popular Science story about Taylor Wilson culminates with an experiment (where 2 physicists are with him, all 3 standing behind a heavy lead wall for safety) where Taylor uses 50,000 volts of electric power to bring the temperature of his plasma device up to 580 million degrees (much much hotter than Earth's own sun).

reply to post by WhoDat09


Yes, I think that's Taylor's blog, or website, or something. For further confirmation, here is a link to the website of Taylor Wilson's high school in Reno, Nevada. On the school's homepage, in the upper right corner, that's Taylor on the left side of the photo. On the left side of the homepage at the top, there are 3 stories about Taylor's achievements ... they are very proud of him. Here's the link to that school:

www.davidsonacademy.unr.edu...

Originally posted by ErtaiNaGia
Let's see here.... here is a fusion reactor built by Michael Li

www.simplysharing.com...

Seems this list of people is growing, isn't it?


Oh, and it seems that there is a few websites that have pretty detailed information on creating these devices.

spectrum.ieee.org...

And here is the forums where they have all of the plans that you can follow to turn yourself into a "Genius"

www.fusor.net...

edit on 14-2-2012 by ErtaiNaGia because: (no reason given)

Yes you keep throwing out names and articles to discredit this boy but seems you have failed to actually read the article he has won national and international science fairs and has been well documented so good try but he is the real deal

reply to post by FightHard


As the PopSci article says on the last page, Taylor was able to create a ball of plasma whose temperature was 580 million degrees, which is a temperature that is much much hotter than Earth's own sun.

Originally posted by Basilisk
so a 17 year old kid can have a nuclear reactor but Iran can't?

Exactly! What if he was a 17 year old Iranian in the US? Could he still have it? I think its a crime to even say "yellowcake" in a crowded room, but this kid is making it. He can't buy alcohol, or vote, or see boobies at the moobies, but he can split an atom.

OMG people. FAKE, HOAX, CGI?!?! Is that all you know? Holy Crap. Do some research before you start hating:

Taylor Wilson at the White House

The kid is the real deal. He was recently a guest at the White House for a Science Fair that Obama hosted.