Kids research the darndest things!

March 17, 2007 9:30 AM

Teenager Thiogo Olson achieved nuclear fusion with an apparatus built in his basement from parts found at his local hardware store and on eBay. Another teenager put together her very own Littrow Spectrograph for $300. Young people have been doing some fascinating science ever since the first kid combined vinegar and baking soda in their model volcano. Not only are they making some remarkable discoveries, they're finding it pretty lucrative.
posted by Toekneesan (9 comments total)

I'm sure the Homeland Security people cry about this in their sleep.
posted by GavinR at 9:31 AM on March 17, 2007

This kind of stuff always reminds me of another Westinghouse (now Intel) winner, Adam Cohen, who built a cheap scanning-tunneling microscope out of legos, and then apparently modified it into something new and even more wonderful.
posted by grobstein at 9:39 AM on March 17, 2007

I loved these links. For some reason, the young cancer researcher worried me a little - what did happen to her childhood? but I think my different reaction to her represents a different presentation in the article about her.

Also, I would love some details on building a scanning tunneling microscope out of legos!
posted by serazin at 10:42 AM on March 17, 2007

But no matter how much fusion he achieves, he'll always be named "Thiago Olson".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:52 PM on March 17, 2007

Hey. If enough fame can make "Viggo" sound appealing, anything's possible.
posted by nebulawindphone at 1:30 PM on March 17, 2007

But no matter how much fusion he achieves, he'll always be named "Thiago Olson".

This from one "Joakim Ziegler", natch. You're supposed to step outside of your glass house before throwing rocks at your neighbor's place.
posted by loquacious at 7:36 PM on March 17, 2007

previously
Metafilter is filled with radioactive boy scouts. Not that that's a bad thing.
posted by caddis at 7:37 PM on March 17, 2007

loq: I'm not from an English-speaking country, my first name is quite common in Norway, and my last name is common both in Germany, where my father's from, and in the US, AFAIK. None of them are even close to the unusualness of "Thiago" in the US.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:43 AM on March 18, 2007

None of them are even close to the unusualness of "Thiago" in the US.

You presume to inform us of the unusualness of names in the United States? No offense but this place is a melting pot. Among many odd names I've known a Viggo, a Christobel, a Thadius, an Athel, a Kwame, a Joichi, a Joachim, a Joakim and best of all was my Vietnamese friend I had in high school. I dare not try to spell the Romanji version of his name, but his name was pronounced more or less exactly like the epithet "fuck you". That guy was the best. That class was a special treat for substitute teachers, the poor bastards.

I'm just saying. Your name might be as common as John Doe in Nor-Germany-way, but from here it looks just about as odd, if not even more odd, as "Thiago", which is what made your comment so amusing.
posted by loquacious at 3:51 AM on March 18, 2007