An ambitious teenager in Rochester Hills, Mich., is
ranked as
the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear
fusion --
combining atoms to create energy. The Detroit Free
Press
reported that 17-year-old Thiago Olson set up a
machine in his
parents' garage and has been working exhaustively
for more than
two years. His machine creates nuclear fusion on a
small scale.
Nuclear fusion is "kind of like the holy grail of
physics," Olson
told the Free Press. Olson's machine consists of a
vacuum that
sucks air out, and then deuterium -- a form of
hydrogen -- is
injected into the vacuum. He then charges
electricity into the
vacuum, causing the atoms in the center to be
attracted to one
another, creating nuclear fusion. Olson -- who wants
to work for
the federal government, as his grandfather did -- is
an otherwise
typical teen, the newspaper said. He is on the track
team at
Stoney Creek High School and plans to go to college.
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