Boy, 12, receives shocking visit from FBI after achieving nuclear fusion in his bedroom
Can you recall your activities at age 12?
At 12, I eagerly awaited the release of "Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie" and spent many evenings playing the Wii. Jackson Oswalt from Memphis, Tennessee, has quite different recollections from that age. This young boy experienced a "sudden epiphany" during his tween years.
According to the Guinness World Records website, Jackson stated: "I recognized that I could excel at any video game, but ultimately it wouldn't be significant. Video games played no important role in the bigger picture. So I altered my approach."
Unlike other children who might turn to comic books or films, Jackson chose what he described as "the closest thing to video games in real life: science." The young boy immersed himself in scientific topics, viewing YouTube videos about nuclear fusion and investigating materials that could help him perform the process independently.
For those unfamiliar with nuclear fusion, it involves combining atomic nuclei under extreme pressure and heat, causing them to form new atomic nuclei and neutrons. This process results in energy release or absorption.
Jackson detailed his journey toward nuclear fusion in a Twitter thread last year: "Initially, I constructed a 'demo fusor' - a device creating plasma without achieving fusion. This required a vacuum chamber, vacuum pump, and a neon sign transformer with a homemade AC-DC converter."
"I brought this version to my school's science fair. I only got it working the night before. Looking back, it's surprising they allowed me to enter with it."
After buying necessary materials and testing his experiment for over a year, Jackson officially became the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion in 2018. His accomplishment—completed the day before his 13th birthday—was confirmed by Fusor.net, The Open Source Fusor Research Consortium.
This achievement seems impressive enough, but the story takes another unexpected turn when two FBI agents visited Jackson one Saturday morning. Having learned about his success, the agents conducted a sweep of the boy's home using a geiger counter to ensure his experiments hadn't caused radiation. Fortunately, the agency's involvement ended there.
Seven years after Jackson's achievement, the young scientist now works for research laboratories including Midjourney. At this company, he focuses on hardware development and AI research.
"Luckily I stayed out of trouble," Jackson remarked about his encounter with the FBI agents.
