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Monday, December 14, 2015
Taylor Wilson is "The Boy Who Played with
Fusion" (by Tom Clynes)
Authors: Tom Clynes (and
Taylor Wilson)
Title: “The Boy Who Played with Fusion”
Subtitle: “Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How
to Make a Star” (pun)
Publication: New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
Eamon Damon Books, 2015; ISBN 978-0-544-08511-4; hardcover, 303 pages (plus 5
roman Introduction pages); four parts, 29 chapters, indexed.
also, e-book and audio format are available.
The cover of the
book is yellow – the brightest color, in the center of human visible spectrum,
because Taylor likes the uranium compound mix called yellowcake (the subject of
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 mystery “Notorious.”
Taylor isn’t just a “brain”, but he is very good working
with his hands “in the lab” – something I was not, when I encountered college
organic chemistry in the fall of 1963.
By age 14, he had built his first fusion reactor near the family home,
relocated to the Reno, Nevada area so that he (and brother Joey) could attend
the Davidson Academy. (See Issues blog,
Nov. 7, 2015 and TV blog, report by Sanjay Gupta on
the Academy, Dec. 6.)
I’ll leave readers to go through the book (or look up
on Wikipedia) to meaning of fusion and fission.
Clynes discusses Taylor’s gradual accumulation
of hardware and the chemistry and physics or his experiments in great
detail. Often Taylor is in yellow
protective clothing (in the book and Internet pictures, and in videos).
Yes, Taylor literally created a star of plasma (the fourth
state of matter and most common in the universe) in his garage. One wonders, could he create a black hole or
wormhole? Is this the first step in
playing god? It
seems the natural progress of the universe (if there is intelligent design from
a creator) for new independent conscious lives to form, with free-will, that
will try to master creation on their own.
Clynes
does discuss the safety issues, and it is more “legal” to acquire these raw
materials than one might think. It’s easy to imagine the potential security
problems in housing them.
Taylor, 21 now (2015), and often speaking in Ted talks
and at all kinds of events, has apparently “skipped college” and with the help
of investors like Peter Thiel (maybe Mark Zuckerberg but not Donald Trump) started
laying out his plans for innovation, including the necessary patents (which
apparently have to be secured early).
His ideas touch many areas. He wants to make the electric power grids
safer (more resilient from cascading failures, which could be caused by cyberterror, as in Ted Koppel’s book Nov. 10) by providing
electric utilities with the ability to build small backup fission reactors,
which he says could have prevented the disasters in Japan after the tsunami in
2011. He wants to improve screening of
cargo by Homeland Security with newer devices that don’t depend as much on very
rare materials (like an unusual isotope of helium). The book, by the way, goes
into some detail on how interdependent we are on other countries (from Canada
to China) to get the rare minerals that new green power sources will
require. Clynes
spends some space on the dirty bomb threat and believes Taylor’s ideas could
make a future incident much less likely. The also has ideas for innovation in
nuclear medical (especially cancer) diagnosis, which may be in some part
inspired by Jack Andraka. The book describes his “loss” to Jack in the
“Science Fair Superbowl” in 2013.
(Jack’s book is reviewed here March 18.)
Clynes
gives a lot of space to the education of gifted children, including Taylor and
his brother Joey (described as more introverted), who could be compared to the Andraka brothers, or Param Jaggi.
Clynes discusses Malcolm Galdwell's
earlier writings ("Outliers", Nov. 27, 2008) that include, with a
moral perspective, life circumstances and luck (even birth order or time of
year) as to the opportunity to make the most of one's gifts. But Taylor’s capability to make stuff
requiring intricate knowledge and manual skill is so amazing that one wonders
if he acquired the knowledge in a past life.
(One of his videos seems to give a subtle hint.) It sounds like a pretty good deal, to trade
in a 90 year old body and start adulthood again at 14
(after a short respite in the Afterlife at the appropriate Focus Level). Maybe there is a way to have a 21-year-old body
forever (drinking age), or 25 (car rental age).
But the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy) gets in the way. Hence,
biological life must reproduce.
If you can make a fusion reactor, can you possibly
make a black hole? Then could you
generate a universe and become a god?
The book describes his attempts at relationships, and
gradual improvement in personal life.
Like Jack Andraka, he reminds quite articulate
and charismatic in public appearances.
Taylor’s “Nuke site” is this. I believe he has been associated with Helena.
Posted by Bill Boushka at 5:22 PM
Labels: differences among individuals, energy,
homeland security, national security topics, teen prodigies