An American boy is believed to be the youngest person in the world to successfully generate a nuclear reaction and he did it in his play room.
The Open Source Fusor Research Consortium has just recognised Jackson Oswalt as having created a successful nuclear reaction last year at the age of 13.
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Jackson, now 14, did it by creating a steel machine capable of smashing atoms together and releasing a burst of fusion energy a process comparable to how the sun is powered.
With the support of his parents, he spent between US$8000 and US$10,000 collecting the parts he needed before putting them together in his playroom.
"After a while, it became pretty simple to realise how it all worked together, but at the start it was definitely figuring out one aspect of it, memorising what that actually meant and then moving on to a different aspect of it," Jackson told Fox News.
"Eventually all those pieces of the puzzle came together to make a good project."
The consortium gave Jackson advice throughout the process and after he finished his project in January 2018, retired engineer Richard Hull began working to verify Jackson's results.
"You have to jump through the right hoops, and we have to believe you and see what you've done," said Mr Hull.
Jackson is now believed to be the youngest person to ever generate nuclear fusion, but it won't become official until more official organisations check the results and publish his work in an academic journal.
Newshub.
