The Boy Who Played With Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star

Clynes, Tom

ISBN 10: 150464011X ISBN 13: 9781504640114

Publisher: Blackstone Pub, 2015

Synopsis

This is the story of how an American teenager became the youngest person ever to build a working nuclear fusion reactor.By the age of nine, Taylor Wilson had mastered the science of rocket propulsion. At eleven, his grandmother s cancer diagnosis drove him to investigate new ways to produce medical isotopes. And by fourteen, Wilson had built a 500-million-degree reactor and become the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. How could someone so young achieve so much, and what can Wilson s story teach parents and teachers about how to support high-achieving kids?In "The Boy Who Played with Fusion," science journalist Tom Clynes narrates Taylor s extraordinary journey from his Arkansas home where his parents fully supported his intellectual passions; to a unique Reno, Nevada, public high school just for academic superstars; to the present, when now nineteen-year-old Wilson is winning international science competitions with devices designed to prevent terrorists from shipping radioactive material into the country. Along the way, Clynes reveals how our education system shortchanges gifted students and what we can do to fix it."

About this title

Review:

Here is the amazing story of an unbelievable boy - somebody who seems more like a figure out of fiction (science fiction, to be specific) than reality. But the story is true, the boy is true, and the science is true. And the world that opens up to us through his story is both fascinating and slightly terrifying ... but in a good way. You won't be able to walk away from this tale. (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Imagine if cartoon whiz-kid Jimmy Neutron were real and had a brainchild with MacGyver and his adolescence got told as a rollicking bildungsroman about American prodigies and DIY nuclear reactors - well, that's this book. (Jack Hitt)

In this delightful book, Tom Clynes proves that when we allow young people to take risks and give them freedom, resources, and mentorship, they can do amazing things. (Nikhil Goyal)

Wow! This is a very human manual on how to deal with having a genius at home. But it also details how single individuals can drive discovery, economic growth, political change, and wonder out of a single brain. If you want to understand where true power and change comes from, read this now. (Juan Enriquez)

Book Description:

The incredible true story of how a teenager became the youngest person ever to build a working nuclear fusion reactor.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Pub
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 150464011X
• ISBN 13: 9781504640114
• Binding: Audio CD