Most kids his age were playing video games, but Aiden McMillan of Dallas, Texas spent four years quietly working toward something that professional scientists spend entire careers chasing. At just 12 years old, the seventh-grader has successfully achieved nuclear fusion at home, making him the youngest person in history to ever build a working fusion device. Aiden started researching nuclear physics at age eight simply because he found it fascinating, and after studying the science thoroughly and constructing a series of early prototypes, he eventually built a machine capable of smashing two atoms together with enough force that they merge and release energy, the very same process that powers the sun. He knew the moment it worked, he said, because his machine began producing neutrons, the unmistakable sign that genuine nuclear fusion was taking place right there in his house.
Nuclear fusion produces no radioactive waste and releases no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is why scientists around the world consider it one of the most important and promising energy breakthroughs humanity could ever achieve. Aiden has now submitted his achievement to Guinness World Records, where the current record is held by a young man from Tennessee who accomplished the same feat just hours before his thirteenth birthday after beginning his own project at age eleven. Aiden’s mother admitted there were several anxious moments along the way, and that she wanted to fully understand every possible risk before allowing the project to continue in their home. Her son navigated every concern carefully, and described finishing the four-year project as the end of a very long journey, one that started with pure curiosity and a deep stack of books, and ended with a machine in his living room that replicates the energy of stars.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/physics-nuclear-fusion-12-year-old-world-record-11585263
