Wyoming Teen Ejected from Science Fair (odd news)

[Anymouse]

From the Scottsbluff (Nebr) Star-Herald: (full article at link), odd news . . .

NEWCASTLE, Wyo. (AP) — A Wyoming high school student who built a nuclear reactor in his dad’s garage was disqualified from the International Science and Engineering Fair this month on a technicality.

His crime: competing in too many science fairs.

[Scuba]

1. How can he be a science student if he can't count?

[htuttle]

2. It's time for him to go pro

[DetlefK]

3. He built a nuclear fusion-reactor in the garage. For sure.

Quote: "Conrad Farnsworth is the first person in Wyoming to build a nuclear fusion reactor. He is one of only 15 high school students in the world to successfully achieve the feat."

Another "Cold Fusion"-wacko.

Maybe he copied the reactor-design from the research-group from the University of Bologna, where one metal supposedly turns into another metal and creates excess-heat in the process. You know, the design they are desperately trying to sell but don't understand and can't explain. The design that was never tested or reviewed by an outsider. The design that they claim nevertheless employs cold fusion. For sure.

[Socialistlemur]

4. Don't pick on the guy

He may honestly think he's fusing something.

[DetlefK]

5. Can I pick on the incompetent referees who fall for this?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. No, it's the 'fusor' that his namesake developed in the 60s

Of possible use as a neutron source, but nothing else, so far.

Farnsworth's other patented inventions include the first "cold" cathode ray tube, an air traffic control system, a baby incubator, the gastroscope, and the first (albeit primitive) electronic microscope. From the 1950s until his death, his major interest was nuclear fusion. In fact, he patented an array of tubes, called "fusors," that produced a 30-second fusion reaction (1965).

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/farnsworth.html

Based on research at the University of Illinois, a commercial neutron source has been developed by Daimler Chrysler Aerospace using a small grided-type Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) plasma device (Miley and Sved, 1997) This device employs a unique "Star-Mode" deuterium plasma discharge to create ion-beam driven fusion reactions in a plasma target (Miley et al., 1997a, 1997b, 1997c; Miley, 1999). As such, it represents the first commercial application of a confined fusing plasma. The Star-Mode discharge is an essential feature of this device since it minimizes ion-grid collisions and also allows tight beam focussing.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11003520

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusor