Middle school student achieved nuclear fusion in his family playroom

To do this you would need a way to create a good vacuum and a way to generate some seriously high voltages. For confirmations, you would also need a neutron detector. Totally achievable stuff, many people have done it with home setups, there is even an Instructable here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.instructables.com&#x2F;Build-A-Fusion-Reactor&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.instructables.com&#x2F;Build-A-Fusion-Reactor&#x2F;</a><p>Impressive build by the kid!<p>The kind of nuclear fusion that governments spend billions of dollars of research on though is the kind where you actually get some net energy out of the reaction.

Youngest? Maybe, but the slickness of those pictures tells me that the real achievement comes from the parents who...nurtured...his inclinations.<p>IMO David Hahn&#x27;s reactor is still more impressive. Kids these days can&#x27;t even make a DIY superfund site properly...<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;harpers.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;1998&#x2F;11&#x2F;the-radioactive-boy-scout&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;harpers.org&#x2F;archive&#x2F;1998&#x2F;11&#x2F;the-radioactive-boy-scou...</a>

Whenever I see a young success story like this, I get even more curious about the parents, which should be a whole nother article imho.

There&#x27;s lots of interesting threads about how hard this is and how much help he received but no one is asking the important question - why is he wearing a hard hat?

&gt;&gt;This ultimately inspired him to attempt to build a reactor himself, but Jackson clarified that he was the only person to have any involvement in its design or production.<p>What a crock of shit. I understand the whole worship of individualism, but this is just taking it absurdly far. Look at Schwarzenegger, and how frequently he keeps saying that he only got to where he is because of help from other people - nothing that you do is ever only your own accomplishment. And then on the other side you have a 13 year old kid who says he was the only one involved in design and production(!!!) of this device - give me a break. He might be super bright, but somehow this kind of article grinds my gears like nothing else.

It&#x27;s really strange they insist on calling it a playroom. Sure, he is a child (young man &#x2F; young teen) but it seems weirdly demeaning and distracting. It&#x27;s a laboratory, which they correctly name it later on, but why not in the title is beyond me.

This article is rather misleading, for most people it evokes the idea of net positive nuclear fusion, which of course is not the case here.<p>Also, a damn neat home project!

Nuclear fusion is a middle school physics experiment, so yeah.

For posterity I would like to underline 3 of the top 5 comments on HN[1]<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24706414" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24706414</a><p>&gt; What a crock of shit. I understand the whole worship of individualism, but this is just taking it absurdly far. Look at Schwarzenegger, and how frequently he keeps saying that he only got to where he is because of help from other people - nothing that you do is ever only your own accomplishment. And then on the other side you have a 13 year old kid who says he was the only one involved in design and production(!!!) of this device - give me a break. He might be super bright, but somehow this kind of article grinds my gears like nothing else.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24706132" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24706132</a><p>&gt; Whenever I see a young success story like this, I get even more curious about the parents, which should be a whole nother article imho.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24705954" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=24705954</a><p>&gt; Youngest? Maybe, but the slickness of those pictures tells me that the real achievement comes from the parents who...nurtured...his inclinations. IMO David Hahn&#x27;s reactor is still more impressive. Kids these days can&#x27;t even make a DIY superfund site properly...<p>1. hacker (definition): Someone who is brilliantly persistent in solving technical problems, whether these involve golfing, fighting orcs, or programming. Hacker is a neutral term, morally speaking.

I smell bullshit

Fake news