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Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:33 am
by Jim Kovalchick
Several years in the making, Tom Clynes book about Taylor Wilson is now out for general release. Titled, The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star, the book meintions the fusor community with specific mention and quotes for a couple individuals here including Richard Hull and Frank Sanns. Carl Willis's special role as a mentor for Taylor gets lots of mention.

I haven't finished the entire book, but it does come across as an interesting study on what can happen when parents with adequate financial means accomodate the early enthusiasm of a child. A couple quick thoughts on Taylor's story as told in the book:
1. Taylor's overt ability to call the attention of others to his special talents has proven to be invaluable in getting people to help him almost to a fault.
2. Gifted people who happen to be more typically shy and introverted are not as special in the eyes of the author and others.
3. Taylor's parents come across as giving a high priority to helping their children develop to their maximum potential in a very self sacrificing way.
4. Taylor's enthusiasm and high aptitude seems to be misinterpreted at times for creative genius. While certainly special for his ability to grasp topics at a young age, his 'ideas' don't really seem to be his own. All of it such as the fusor and his proposed uses as well as his most recent touting of molten salt reactors are all the ideas of others.
5. The author calls the fusor community "unsettling." It's hard for me to argue against the true perspective of another, but I really wish that we came across another way.
6. The author only vaguely hints at this, but the impact that Taylor had on his student peers at the 2012 Pittsburgh ISEF was not necessarily positive. Within the physics and astronomy category, other ISEF finalists were clearly put off by Taylor and his 'look at me' attitude. I wonder if this characteristic will have a negative impact on his ability to collaborate in the future.
7. Taylor both exagerates and under plays the hazards of radioactive material. When he wanted to make his work look special he sometimes grossly overstated the danger to others. In other cases, he was perhaps overly cavalier by doing things like digging in a pile of uranium ore with bare hands and no mask and by climbing over the fence of a closed mine. I blame the latter on his father who climbed over the fence with him. This action was not only reckless, it was illegal. I don't think this is helpful for those of us who pursue amateur science interests.
8. Taylor is a valuable proponent of nuclear energy, and the power industry should look to leverage his fame and showman skills while he is still young. He clearly has the ability to capture people's attention.
9. Time will tell whether Taylor made the right decision to skip college. Trying to make it with pure innovation and showmanship in the nuclear industry which is currently on the ropes because of of wind, gas, and Fukishima perceptions, will be tough.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 7:47 pm
by Richard Hull
Fabulous review Jim. As I value your thoughts on the review, it seems that Clynes is selling Taylor as a marketable entity. I'll have to read the book myself, of course.

As for the author's view of the fusor community as unsettling.... Well he is viewing it from the perspect of so many out there who know truly little or nothing about the nuclear world. Anything nuclear is at the very finest "suspect" and nuclear stuff done by private citizens is often downright scary. I think he was actually quite mild in the use of "unsettling", for a lay person.

His parents are the real heros in my estimation. They accomplished something. They gave their boy all that he needed, when he needed it with a whole bunch of attaboys all along the way.

Will Clynes book create another tidal wave of newbie/DIY/fringe/new energy freaks, sweeping over this serious effort to create and assist serious amateur scientists interested in nuclear science? We will see.

We each have our own take on Taylor. Self-agrandizing and self-promoting would be my take. Obviously, intelligent and outgoing, As well. Still, what has he actually done for all the hype? Is it too early to tell? Will he be a Carl Sagan for the nuclear power biz with billions and billions of megawatt lectures and TV appearances? Like the fusion energy of the future, we will have to wait and wait and see.

Sadly, Taylor may ultimately be likened to the great predicted comet Kohoutek that fizzled in a big way with books being written about it before it ever arrived only to have those tomes doomed to forever remind us of a joke we played on ourselves.

I'll try and write a review once I read it. Thanks ever so much for taking your time to share your thoughts with us.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 2:01 pm
by Mark Scott-Nash
Thanks for the review, sounds interesting.

As for Taylor, and not having read this book, you have to give the guy credit for being articulate and able to sell himself. I find it amusing that people judge him based on whether he is a show-off or not.

Being intelligent is a great personal asset but if you can't learn to be outgoing and communicative then you've severely handicapped yourself in the real world. He's got the assets for success and of course time will tell if he can negotiate the other hundred roadblocks out there.

Personally, I find David Hahn far more intriguing. He was truly creative in many ways, notwithstanding whether he was technically correct or it was a good idea. Not only that, his story likely inspired and continues to inspire a lot of interest in amateur fusor building.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 4:54 pm
by Jim Kovalchick
Mark,
You raise some very good points about Wilson and Hahn that have parallels to lots of other modern human success stories. In the case of Taylor Wilson, his enthusiasm, intelligence, and ability to connect with lay persons arre his recipe for success. He doesn't have to be a Da Vinci to make it when he can sell an idea like that. At the other end of the spectrum you have Hahn who kept to himself. For people like him, success will be a rockier road. You need to work with others for resources, challenges, validation, and finally to sell the idea. If you clam up and go underground you may not make it even if you are a creative genius. Taylor Wilson, in all his pompous exhuberance, is proving that his formula works better.

The other interesting story is about parenting. There is a fine line between nourishing and spoiling. I think the Wilsons crossed the line a few times, but how can you fault their passionate engagement in their children's lives? The top colleges in the country are full of students who were raised by engaged and even intrusive parents. This data point is sufficient to validate that parenting model in comparison to one where parents are not as engaged. Hats off the the Wilsons and parents like them.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 6:52 pm
by Carl Willis
Tom kindly sent me an advance copy of his book, which I read last weekend.

He has chronicled an inspirational phenomenon in nuclear physics: the ability of an enthusiastic child (a bright one, necessarily with the support of committed parents and mentors) to participate meaningfully in this domain popularly imagined to be the exclusive redoubt of "big science." He documents a victory for the "hands-on imperative," learning by doing, indulging curiosity about the physical world by actively exploring it. That's a foundational value of the Fusor.net community, of course, and we have numerous success stories to point to now.

Tom's book, while adulatory at times, is not a hagiography. He doesn't shy away from some important and uncomfortable questions: What do the quiet children endure in a family where one sibling is the focus of outsized public acclaim? How does being in the media spotlight shape the social outlook and character of a child prodigy? What do higher education and the professional realm have in store for the mature Taylor as an ex-Wunderkind with a highly-unconventional and very specialized background? Tom notes that while childhood achievement is often defined by knowing the answers, adult achievement is more about asking the questions, drawing upon a more introspective and deliberate type of genius. Transitioning from one mode to the other is hardly a sure thing. Tom breaks up the episodic biographical material with a more general discussion about the challenges of raising and educating intellectually-gifted children. He draws a distinction between positively-indulgent and "helicopter" parenting. He notes that a child's opportunities, independent of intellectual capacity, come from the parents and from the fortuitous constellation of resources in the wider community; obviously, many capable and curious kids do not have such a supportive environment. (What can be done to address the great imbalance of such opportunities is a very important, highly-politicized, question that this book doesn't really treat.)

There is a notable shortcoming in one respect, and it is a bias one finds in a tremendous amount of popular science writing that I call the "lone genius" trope. In this work, a casual reader without a nuclear background would probably be led to think--mistakenly--that Taylor invented Cherenkov detection for neutrons (the basis of his winningest ISEF project) or that his Scotch-tape neutron generator experiment described late in the book were without precedent, for example. The truth here is that Taylor made incremental, well-informed, synthetic adaptations of established understanding. That's the reality of most scientific progress. To acknowledge this doesn't dull the story and is not demeaning to Taylor's intellect, and in fact, being able to understand the genesis of his projects by way of his influences and his synthetic thinking and his experiential knowledge-base are are some of the most interesting aspects of his character to me. Folks like Zane Bell at ORNL did pioneering work on Cherenkov neutron detection in the preceding decade involving the same materials (Gd in water, for instance) and in pursuit of the same application: efficient detection of fissile materials without the expense of He-3 counters. (Jon R. and I posted on the use of a rhodium plating bath-based Cherenkov detector for fusor neutrons back in 2010 on this forum.) The use of Scotch tape in vacuum to generate electrons and x-rays was reported in 2008 by UCLA postdoc Carlos Camara, and to get from high voltage (generated with tape or by any other means) to neutrons is the sort of logical progression that comes second-hand to a fusor builder. Taylor's achievements arise from a process that is far more collaborative and communal than the fashionable trope would have us believe--a process that is more representative of science generally.

The anecdotes in the book that involve me are mostly very flattering. I do have one unfortunate quote (on p. 149) relating to the degree of support I got from my parents for my own youthful science activities. The comment could be read to infer that my parents were generally unsupportive, which isn't the intended reading and isn't fair to their considerable efforts on my behalf. While I am certain the quote is accurate (Tom is a very careful researcher), the context was that of Taylor wishing his folks had scientific backgrounds, and my rejoinder (from experience) that this is a double-edged sword: while my parents were powerful advocates for me (they helped me scrounge parts for my first Tesla coil, took me on trips, notably to visit Richard Hull when I was twelve or thirteen, gave me space in the workshop, and helped me find plenty to read), they also drew the line on safety in a very different place from Taylor's parents and were more effectively able to enforce their chosen limits because of their own enhanced understanding about what I wanted to do. I had to take a lot of activities "underground" or at least partially underground in order to have fun with radiation and explosives, notably. I don't have a strong opinion about which style of parenting is or was "better;" I recall wishing at times that I had less-scientifically-educated parents who kept me on a longer leash, a la Taylor's. On the other hand, there are obvious advantages to having experienced scientists in the family, even at the expense of living on a shorter leash. I think my parents did a commendable job and mostly struck the right balance.

-Carl

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:43 pm
by Jim Kovalchick
Carl,
Let me start by saying that I too think your parents did a commendable job! Your positive and sharing bias makes all the amazing things you do that much more amazing. Thanks for being one of the heros of this community.

I think your post is a fantastic commentary, and given your front row seat, it would be difficult to argue against your positions.

You seem to take some difference with one of the more troubling aspects of the story. Specifically about whether the author should be assigning credit to Taylor for his apparent discoveries or instead giving him credit for his early understanding of complex topics while also communicating them with his unbounded enthusiasm. I would certainly credit Taylor for the later, but not necessarily the former. The author doesn't seem to want to communicate that, but he is not alone. This is why I worry about young talent like Taylor. Is it possible for others to so misinterpret the true aspect of the story that they push him down the wrong path? Or even mislead Taylor himself into believing the hype. That would be tragic.

In Taylor's defense, I'm not sure that it is his fault. Take the example of the scotch tape neutron generator. In the book's description of that story, I did not see words indicating that Taylor did anything other than show excitement for the new experiment he had done. It was the author who suggested it belonged in Nature. Surely the author is unaware that Camara and Putterman were already in Nature for adhesive triboelectric acceleration. I agree that a fusor builder would find the connection to neutron generation obvious. My son mimicked the UCLA experiment before he built his fusor. When he made neutrons in the -20 kV range with his fusor he realized that the 27 kV xrays he previously measured from his scotch tape generator meant that it could accelerate to fusion relevant energy. Taylor probably came to the same conclusion. Not really a big deal, and more of a parlor trick than anything else especially when you know that even Camara has moved past using tape as a good way to make the effect. Except that Clyne makes a huge deal of it further adding to the Taylor Wilson myth to the discredit of the good parts of the young man. All that being said, the science fairs where Taylor gained his biggest fame and accolades were full of projects that were also good science done by teenagers but were otherwise ideas that were hatched up by others. Taylor just used the ideas of others better than most.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:33 am
by Richard Hull
I have my copy of Clynes book on order and it has supposedly shipped. I will hold comments regarding it until it is read.

As regards parenting, I was fortunate in having a mother (father left - divorce at 5 years of age) who demanded I read. I could read whatever I wished, but I had to read. I was twice blessed by the time of my birth. As a Baby-Boomer, and a son of a Great-Depression survivor, I was exhorted to be more than my parents and to get an education regardless of all obstacles.

The glorious "Atomic Age was upon me from birth. Boys were especially pressed to be engineers and scientists during the ice cold war for the sake of the nation. To this end, the U.S. government supplied U.S. Army artillery ranges twice yearly to amateur rocketeers like me to launch homemade steel missles. President Eisenhower and his Atoms for Peace program supplied me with an endless supply of general licensed radio-isotopes from Oak Ridge. Everything came to me that most any boy could want at that time. I had a good parenting and a supportive government aimed at arming itself with the best and brightest in engineering and the sciences. It was a "hands on imperative" world then. You could get real chemicals for rocket fuel with ease, radio nuclides, all manner of electronic surplus from WWII, live biological specimens and a good deal of scientific gear either through purchase, trade or self-manufacture. You learned to scrounge as a way of life to get what you needed. No internet, no computers, only a public library and local group activities of similarly minded youth.

Taylor seems to have mastered much of this in a world that had grown a bit cold, prohibitive and terse towards the youthful, hands on imperative that often blossoms in youth. Thanks to his parents, Carl and others, he has had a lot of the bumps on the road in the modern, post nuclear world smoothed out for him in his quest.

How much greater are the successes of those here in the neutron club who have had none of this? How many of these success stories had to work around scared and concerned parents in the vein of Carl Willis or suffered the slings and arrows of overbearing, curmudgeonly retorts from such as myself on this forum? These are the bold, the brave, and the successful who stand as good a chance as any in the real world, regardless of whatever they undertake in life.

Here endeth the lesson.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:47 am
by Richard Hull
I have finally completed my reading of Clyne’s book on Taylor Wilson. Interesting read that was a good one, though I winced a bit in places.

A huge portion of the book was devoted not to Taylor, but about how we educate ”whiz kids”. It delved into how their education is or has been done wrong and how it might be done better. A large number of experts are consulted, each with their own slant on the issue. Studies were quoted and suggestions made throughout the book. The public, especially parents who just know their kid is special, will lap this up.

As a populist tome, this book is surely a huge success. The tale is spun……. Incredibly brainy kid outstrips his environment at every turn. His parents are befuddled, but proud, frightened, yet supportive. Taylor gets good, supportive schooling in elementary school, yet founders in junior high school. His parents send him to a special high school where he is supported in an incredible fashion. He is sent to herd among the finest mentors anyone might ask for in the Physics Dept. at UNR. Taylor’s Davidson School is located on the UNR campus. With all this help, support, and his own verve he creates a working fusor in a corner of the high energy plasma physics lab at the university,which was cleared and set aside for his fusor. Who wouldn’t class this as an amazing win for a pre-destined winner? A fabulous tale, well told.

How many in the fusor Neutron Club had this easy path? Virtually all the members of this group had no easy row to hoe. Many had no mentors outside of this forum. Many picked up the technology, the physics, electronics, material science, etc. by reading and study. Others blundered through to a win via sheer force of will with machines of many different stripes. As noted earlier, this in no way detracts from Taylor’s abilities or good fortune in his win. What it does for me is amplify to the nth degree the work of others who won due to packing the gear needed to win under trying and difficult circumstances, bordering on the near impossible.

Now, to the wincing I did while reading….This in no way hurt the book’s effort towards the satisfaction that might be gleaned by the general public’s reading. Folks in the Neutron Club here might take issue with many statements regarding the fusor. I will give a few examples that I found amazing.

It was stated that Taylor needed a vacuum orders of magnitude greater than outer space. Wrong, of course! Few opertional vacuum systems can achieve a vacuum equal to that of true outer space. Near space, maybe. The definition of outer space can be quibbled over, of course. Outer space typically means the space clear of any trace of atmospheric molecules....Say, midway between Earth and Mars perhaps ~10e-9 torr. Interstellar space is far below this figure. Fusors function at a pressure of 10e-2 torr, but need to go to about 10e-5 torr prior to pumping in deuterium.

Taylor supposedly could not get a sufficient vacuum with a fore pump and a diff pump. He had to link the diff pump in tandem with a turbo pump! Two of his best mentors in the physics dept. advised Taylor they doubted he could get the desired vacuum with just a diff pump! He must have had leaks as the vast majority of winners went well over the finish line with rather crude systems using only a diff pump as their secondary pump. I have logged over 2 million fusions a second in fusor IV with a diff pump.

It was stated that the grid was one of the most challenging items to construct in the fusor when it is actually one of the easiest. The typical quote of how it had to survive the vicissitudes of hundreds of millions of degrees in the fusion zone was predictable. The author swallowed the fusion scientist's blab fed to the public telling why fusion is so difficult. We can forgive him as he could not have known that the temperature he quoted is not a thermal temperature as the public would know and perceive it, but a "physicist speak" of the statement of deuteron kinetic energy in a highly rarified gas. This Boltzmann based equivalency temperature, (kelvins), is fully explained in some detail in our FAQs.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=9223&p=62526#p62526

Fusion, in our fusors, takes place in "velocity space" by quantum tunneling as none of our acceleratory voltages allow for full potential well defeat. In other words, it is a quantum probalisitic crap shoot. What we lack in fusionistic elegance, we make up for by herding quadrillions of cats towards an opening suitable for just a few million per second to get through. The ones that don't get through each second, die a horrible death, falling into cat hell where their burning bodies heat the fusor shell with real finger burning degrees centigrade.

Taylor was told the stuff he needed to build his fusor was incredibly expensive. Yes, if you purchase 100% of it at list price! Many winners here cobbled up winning systems with less than desirable gear and have found some amazing work-arounds.

Taylor was told it was impossible to build a fusion reactor, and impossible to understand how the particles interacted to create fusion without an understanding of nuclear physics and mathematics. You really do not need to know this to build a successful fusor, but you can find out all you need to know right here at fusor.net. Many here have won without this in-depth knowledge, though most ultimately absorbed it from the FAQs or self-paced side reading and study. This is something we highly advise of our would-be fusioneers.

I do not know if the author reported what he was told or not, but he got a number of fine and important points in the sciences and of fusor construction just flat-out wrong.

Finally, the idea that the machine is simple and that the physics of its specific operational modality would seem straight-forward is advanced in the book along the often parroted "path of re-circulation". We now know this not to be the whole story by half. The fusor is working on many functional planes to achieve fusion. Many of these “other paths to fusion” within a working fusor have been covered in the theory and operational forums over the years.

All in all, it was a good read, but we read with a more critical eye having done fusion ourselves. The general public could never understand or be capable of understanding the finer points. Those few that might comprehend, probably wouldn't take the time to study the process to the depth where they would "own" the overall picture.

I hope, in the end, Taylor’s star continues to shine as a star which is born to shine for a long time and not that of a brilliant and short lived super nova whose explosion is seen and heralded in lore and media only to fade from view in short order.

Them's my thoughts..

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 3:50 pm
by Richard Hull
A follow up on the theme of this thread…..

The hardback copy of the book I bought by Tom Clynes was only $9.50 and listed as used on Amazon. It arrived here only three days after my original posting here in which I noted that I had a copy on order….. More on this later.

A bit about me and those early “Sputnik days”.

I am a tediously slow reader. Twenty pages read in an evening is a true accomplishment. Do not get me wrong, I love to read and was taught the value of reading by my mom at a very young age. As an amateur scientist and hands-on guy in the mid-late 50’s and 60’s, reading was the only way to get highly detailed information I needed to advance my amateur efforts. This meant many regular trips to the city library via the bus…We had no automobile. The Richmond city library was vast and the only library containing any significant books on the kind of science in which I was interested. There was no Internet and the gulf affixed between the true scientist of the time and an 8-15 year old kid was great indeed. My reading was held back by the type of content I was reading. You had to absorb every word to gain in-depth understanding. I discovered true, gut-level, understanding came rapidly with "the doing". I owned what I did and once ensconced in the soul of my brain, new ideas and thoughts came fast. I paid large late fees on books on loan that I just had to keep far beyond the two weeks allowed. I checked out certain favorite tomes many times.

I could spin out of control here about my youth and scientific efforts which followed Taylor’s path, though less rapid or elevated due to a blue collar yet loving household consisting of me, my mom, a brother, and two grandparents. My grandfather was a lone-wolf custom cabinet maker and had a shop on our property. His tools and tutoring in their use help breed the hands-on imperative.

The upshot of the foregoing is that I was a Taylor Wilson along with a large number of my peers in the Atomic Age – Sputnik – Cold War era. Clynes caught on to this in his book and this buoyed my feeling for his overall understanding of that period. The government supported and stressed the need for youthful science under Eisenhower. His administration showered money and material on schools and made available what might today be considered deadly, dangerous or hazardous tools and supplies, to youthful amateur scientists. There were virtually zero restrictions on the purchase of chemicals and many items that are today, totally controlled within the bowels of litigious-conscious corporations or bloated government bureaucracies designed, ostensibly, to “keep us safe”.

A stunning crossover has occurred for the Taylor Wilsons of today that is a horridly painful situation as observed by myself who did things and lived in an age when you could do most anything as a youth if you were fortunate enough to have money. The thing that your parents did then, having lived through the Great Depression, was to stress the need to get an education above all things. Educate, educate, educate, was the clarion call. Forget what you were interested in now, get educated and you will figure it out in late high school before college. It was all about getting a good job and having a happy family for the rest of your life. It wasn’t so much about being happy in your job as the job was a means to an end…..Money and, thereby, happiness. The work ethic was the thing. Almost no one loved their job. That was a dream for the very few. The type of job would define you and your family’s future through simple economics. It was a simplistic philosophy that worked at the time.

The stunning crossover that I noted above is that I and my fellow Taylor Wilsons had access to any materials we dare dream of, yet, functioned with little money and no easy access to information, at least not with the ease of today. There was no Internet or e-mails or forums for the like-minded. You had to seek out and identify kindred spirits among your school chums to form school based “bunds” or, at best, form local city wide rocket clubs, chemistry, electronic and science clubs. Within these limited means, you “did things”! The doing was the thing!

The Taylors of today have instant access to any depth of knowledge they choose to follow. They have 1000 ++ like-minded folks to commune with daily. Unfortunately, many are handicapped with 5 thumbs on each hand. This handicap is sponsored by a world which has manufactured things that are safe and wonderful that are ready made for them and dropped into their hands. For the few who have capable and inquisitive hands, raw materials of in-depth science are expensive or absolutely unobtainable at most any price. The true Taylors of today will win due to sheer verve, of course, just as we did in my day. It is just everything in the process is juxtaposed.

Today, if it is not a manufactured goody then you don't need it or certainly shouldn't want it or any of the materials needed to make it yourself.

The dissolution of the family and home structured values, coupled with apathy on the part of many single parents can create monsters that are left to prey upon society. Inner city education is, for the most part a joke. Is it any wonder why a Taylor Wilson is so vaunted today? He is the result of a perfect chain of events in a crumbling society.

Much of the foregoing is an attempt to show that fusor.net is a gathering place for those few Taylor Wilsons who are interested in nuclear science at a core level and why it is our responsibility to shepherd their efforts. Within this mantle of responsibility we will see the best complete the task they start out upon. Others we will see, for a myriad of reasons, fail and disappear. It is unfortunate that we can’t all sit down and tell our tales in person. A written epic would fall short. Without interaction as a group, we would not be able to ask questions and learn the “work-arounds” so hard won related to getting around recalcitrant or failed parenting, indifferent schooling, non extant mentoring and lack of access to critical materials, etc.

I plan on instituting just such a session at HEAS this year for those youthful in attendance. A group of old guys will tell their tales and the youthful will tell theirs with good interactive comments and questions as the flow develops.

Back to the book itself….I have just received what appears to be a complimentary copy of the book from Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt, probably from a list given to them by Tom Cylnes, perhaps in appreciation for the interviews and assistance given. What amazes me is that I was able to get a used copy in my hands on the 16th when the publication release date was 9 June 2015!

I did put forth a great effort to carefully read the book at a blindingly rare pace once my Amazon copy arrived. With the new complimentary copy came several cut sheets with reviews of the book. Across the board, the focus of the bulk of the reviews were on Tom’s main theme which, in my view, had Taylor as a back story and the science of fusion, itself, as an also-ran. The great emphasis was on parenting and schooling and recognition of bright kids. It is more of a parenting and educators book than a tale of Taylor Wilson and his perfect, “guided missile-like” path to fusion.

Taylor’s story is told well in spite of certain obvious gaps, extensions and mis-statements related to the precise science involved. As a populace effort it is a cool story. But, we read with a hyper-critical eye having traveled the trajectory ourselves.

Blessedly for most here, this might be my last significant epistle entered in this thread.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:35 pm
by Paul_Schatzkin
Ah, sorry, not so fast there Richard...

Actually, I've been sorta off the reservation for a while... thankfully Richard gave me a call this afternoon and a heads up on this book.

I've downloaded it to my Kindle so that I can read it over the coming long weekend (we're going camping near the Nantahala River in North Carolina).

I'm intrigued to learn what the perspective of this book is, and glad to hear it's giving some credit where it is due for Fusor.net.

Actually, I think I'll print these pages and take 'em with me, too. I'm told there's not a whole lot in the way of connectivity where we're going. Which is probably a good thing.

Have a good weekend and I'll check in with y'all next week.

--PS

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 10:49 pm
by Frank Sanns
I will have to get a copy of the book as see what it is all about. Tom was a great to meet and have lunch with. He is quite talented to tell a story. I will be curious to see what I have quoted as saying. The one item that came up on Google from the book was a comment that I made about the Marx Generator being the most dangerous thing at HEAS and it probably is. The point was for high voltage. As we all know, if there is ever an accident, it will most likely be from that than from any other cause except maybe an imploding inferior glass vessel used as a chamber. And I am fairly certain, that I have never used the word gonad. No, I am certain that I never have. Still, it must make for good reading with a little embellishment. After all, normal life is rather boring for many.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 1:59 am
by Richard Hull
There was plenty of hype, but all within the artistic license of telling a story for effect to the general audience. Everyone involved with Taylor and his efforts here should read the book. According to Th' perfesser it is on Kindle if you dare attempt to read it that way. I gotta' have it in print, personally.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 1:25 pm
by Paul_Schatzkin
Richard, I read about half the book over this past weekend while Ann and I were camping in the woods of North Carolina.

As for Kindle -v- print, I often order both; the Kindle is incredibly convenient to carry, and enabled me to get the book on a moment's notice before leaving for the trip. One upside of the Kindle version is that as I've highlighted certain passages, I can cull all those highlights into a single doc via the Amazon Kindle site. Try doing that with print.

In fact, I often buy THREE versions of a book: the Kindle, the print, and the audio book. I do more "reading" by listening to books in the car than I have time for otherwise.

My first, surface impression of the book is that it makes for a compelling read on a lot of levels. The author does a good job of setup-and-payoff. And his narrative is about much more than just Taylor... which is a probably a good thing, since the other subject matter gives him cover for Taylor's... well, shortcomings.

I hope to have more to say about the book and post a "review" on the front of the fusor site over the weekend/next week. But, then, I tend to hope a lot of things these days...

And, Frank: you've never used the word "gonads" Damn, it takes balls to admit to a thing like that...

--P

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 10:01 pm
by Kotobuki Herdler
Hi,

I know that this is an old thread, please forgive me. This is the first post that I have made in years, and the first with my changed name. I am Kotobuki Herdler, real name. I did not know about this book until today (May 27, 18). I have just ordered it and will enjoy reading it I am sure. I liked the reviews and commentary from everyone about the book and its subject.

Before I go any further, I do not want to in any way take away from the accomplishments and successes of Tayler. Just building a fusor is and of itself is no small feat. To be as outgoing, and self confidant along with his innate intelligence and motivation is what will make him successful. However, I have some observations of life in general and young people that are also intelligent and "gifted" (I hate that word in this context). Taylor's success as noted by several others can be attributed to two parents with the willingness and financial resources to let him flourish, as well as plain old good fortune. That said, for every Taylor, there are hundreds of kids that could be thought of as being just as "intelligent" and "gifted" as Taylor. However, they do not have the Charisma, looks, financial resources, publicity, parental support, access to mentors, and all the rest. And I am not just talking about nuclear physics or building fusors. Part of Taylor's success in my opinion, is that he was able to build his machine at such a young age, and that is what brought him his first fame. And that was a good foundation for him to build on, which he obviously has done. He has my respect for this.

The flip side of this is as I mentioned, is that there are many kids out there who could be considered "geniuses", but are not because they do not self promote, have never been discovered, don't have the looks to be on the cover of Tigerbeat (if you do not know what TIgerbeat is, consider yourself lucky), are shy and introvert, and or do not have an open and well funded checking account to tap into. They do not have mentors, anyone to encourage them or teachers that have the time to understand the "gifted" student when they have a classroom full of dunces that they have to teach enough to get them to pass state mandated tests.

There is one young man that I have met several years ago, through a mutual friend of his mothers. He is a math genius. I will say that outright. The public fool system where he went to in high school had to their credit a math teacher that was qualified to teach calculus, and the school (surprisingly) let her set up calculus classes just for him, after hours. When he went to university as a freshman, he tested out of calc 1 and 2. Took calc 3 his first semester, aced it and took differential equations his second semester of his freshman year. Most undergrads today have a hard time getting through pre-algebra. This kid wants to go into physics, and I have encouraged him to do so. The on thing that I know is that he will understand the math.

He comes from a single parent family, consisting of him, his mother and a sister. Like most university students, he is broke, going to school on scholarship. (Doing well, I might add...) His mother simply does not have the financial resources that would have been needed for him to build anything like a fusor or such. The two of them would come over to my place so that he could see and use the gear that I had which was a gamma spectroscopy lab. (I have never built a fusor, I know incredibly little about them except that they are complex.) I had three NIM bins full of gear, including a NIM MCA that I bought from Carl, probes of various manufacture and types, a good sized castle, plotters, an alpha spectrograph, and the like.

When he went to university last fall, I gave him all of my NIM gear, bins and a rack to put it in, thinking that he would sell it. To my surprise, he and a friend used the gear to do something that I was not able to do, and that is to set up a working gamma spectrograph using the various modules. So, here is an 4.0 student, math genius, physics major, who has taken cast off NIM gear and a NaI(Ti) probe and made a working spectrograph. For his birthday, I bought him a set of exempt sources. There are no magazine articles about him, no sponsors, no fame, no tigerbeat looks, no huge personality, no famous mentors, no invites to the white house, etc. Anyone who does not know him would assume that he is just one more typical student partying his way through parent funded university. And therein lies the shame. When he graduates, I am certain that he will pursue graduate studies. If he doesn't I will kick his tail end. But he and hundreds of others like him get no recognition. No one considers them "geniuses" unless they know them and of their accomplishments.

This is what bothers me about the Taylor story. Again, I am very happy for him, and wish him all of the success in the world, and expect to hear great things about him in the future. He will have no problem getting that position that he might want, whether corporately or with his own company. He will have no trouble getting capital, or if he chooses to go the philanthropic route, he will have no trouble getting funding. Everyone who counts knows of him, and he will do very well.

However, there are many people out there who should also have the same opportunity, but who do not for the many reasons that I have stated above. My young friend will at least only graduate university broke, but not in huge debt. Most have to build up un-payable debt to go to university today. I am sure that he too will get a good position somewhere, but he will have to sell himself... he has no Popular Science magazine with his story, no Obama to faun over him. I know that the world is not fair, and that is just the way it is. I do not have the answer to this issue. However, there should be a way to celebrate kids that are truly "gifted" but do not have the charisma to command attention. I wish that I had the answer.

Today, due in part to a little windfall that I had, my rad lab now lives in a five drawer roll around tool chest, and consists of a survey meter, various probes, a scaler-counter (both Ludlum), Rainbow MCA, custom MCA, toughbook computer, toughpad tablet, He3 probe and moderator, and other things like cables, camera, signal splitters etc. This setup is much more flexible and much more conducive to teaching. I am working with local high school and community college teachers developing rad curriculum, and tutoring and mentoring students. I do hope to change in a very small way the situation that i describe.

Again, my salute to Taylor Wilson and his accomplishments. But I also salute other young people's innate intelligence and "genius" and hope someday there will be more opportunities for them as well.

Best,

K

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 10:25 pm
by Dan Knapp
Does anyone know what’s become of Taylor? I was very concerned when he got the award that paid him not to go to college. Regardless of how gifted he might be, he should still have gone to college, and to graduate school. There is no way he could make any significant contribution to fusion physics without having completed a Ph.D. Bill Gates made big money with computer software withou completing his degree, but I would challenge anyone to name a contemporary scientist that made a significant contribution without having completed a degree. His parents did a great job supporting his development, but they dropped the ball when they went along with people puffing him up and telling him he didn’t need to go to college.

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 2:36 am
by Richard Hull
I do not know if Carl keeps up with Taylor or has info from his parents. Carl really did foster Taylor's early efforts in a significant manner. It is important to realize that in the end, Taylor's fusor was an assist in parts and mentoring of the on-campus college physics dept while in the special accelerated high school he was sent to by his parents.

Taylor is no longer the youngest person to do fusion here. I assume everyone here knows this as I have noted this in the fusioneer's listing.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 10:23 am
by Kotobuki Herdler
I too hope that he goes to university. Maybe in his case, it was wise not to go right away. Without that mighty PhD. it is impossible to gain the attention of the scientific community... not the pop science community, but the real cats who control the money of science. And today, money is what drives science. All one has to do is remember the sad tale of the superconducting super collider down in Texas. It would have been the world's largest accelerator and more powerful than CERN. The brain drain would have been here in the U.S. rather than France and Switzerland. But we all know what happened. It was shut down (IMHO) by ignorants who did not understand science. And today, our premier synchrotron facility Fermi, is a ghost of what it should be despite their protestations to the contrary.

Do I think that a university education is the ticket to riches and fame? No. I am a prime example. No complaining either, I loved my studies and to this day am a life long learner. (To give my age away, my first computer experience was on an IBM 360 programing FORTRAN watIV with punch cards.) The day I cannot learn something new is the day the undertaker cometh to my house. That said, I agree completely that Taylor needs to eschew the spotlight for a few years, get his butt to university, exercise that potent intellect of his and get at the very least his undergraduate degree. Otherwise, I fear that he will wind up very disappointed with life.

Best,

K

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 3:12 am
by Rex Allers
So I was flipping channels tonight and saw a teaser for the current episode of the weekly program "Vice" on HBO. I thought I recognized the interviewer in one segment, so I recorded the show. Title: "Printing Tomorrow and Are We Alone?"

Haven't watched in detail but the second segment is largely about SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence). The interviewer is introduced as, "Nuclear Physicist, Taylor Wilson".

I won't say anything by way of review, just putting the information here since this thread recently has kicked back to life. Never would have expected to see him in this kind of role. Synchronicity?

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 1:18 pm
by Richard Hull
Found Taylor all over the HBO Vice series. Here is one on you tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd8O5YE8Uak

Bizarre...Plenty of hype, some mis-statements. The fusion discussion, of course, hovers around NIF and ITER, the latest billions and billions spent on the still 10 years off first operation of ITER according to the people actually at ITER. They just know it will work. No power produced from ITER, of course.

Finally, a must see for all here.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggn6P-6USr4

Lots of great advice and introspection but not much on leaping in and getting one's hands dirty via the doing, though his words about getting passionate should ultimately lead to dirty hands. How many passionate people with ideas born of genius die on the vine due to a failure to pursue to the level of the doing. Pushing ideas and concepts is great and very easy as they have no mass, and thus, no momentum. Ideas need mass, (physical embodiment), and the physical application of force in order to gain momentum enough to proceed to a next stage.

Richard Hull

Re: Book about Taylor Wilson is out

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:03 am
by Kotobuki Herdler
O.K., now I have a teensy weensy little problem. "Nuclear Physicist"? Really?

My medical doctor went to university, did his undergrad with me, then went to medical school, did an internship, then residency (I think that I got that backwards). After years and years of hard work, study and education, his title is "Doctor". Has been for years, and is such a good doc that he only takes a few new patients a year. I was one of his first patients. To me, he is Mike, but when I see him for his professional services, he is "Doctor".

The veterinarian that I take my kitties and doggies to did the same educational gig, only longer as unlike my physician, who only studied humans, he had to study many animals. He hates to be called "doctor", so, I call him "Doc". He likes that, as he is like an old country doc.

My undergrad mentor was Dr. Y. He did his undergrad, then went to the U.S. Navy that put him right back into university, where he did a Master's then a PhD. After years of study, Naval service and teaching both in the civilian world and the military, his title is "Professor Y, emeritus". I am not sure what his rank was in the Navy, but I can assure you that his students and subordinates called him by his rank.

When I was studying the Japanese language, my teacher's title was "sensei". That is what he wanted to be called, as he did not have his PhD, and did not want to be confused for having a PhD by being called "professor". (The proper way was his family name followed by his title "sensei".

My graduate mentor was Dr. Wei, a Chinese-American citizen, holder of two PhD.s, speaks multiple languages, and is well known in his field. His preferred title is "Professor". He earned that title, and to this day, that is what I call him by, even though I am no longer a student.

When I built my ion source/150Kev Neon ion accelerator, I had some help from several technologists at Fermi. One was a mathematician, that helped me limp through some troublesome differential equations as well as mass energy equations. He was working on his PhD., so when I would call him and ask his receptionist for him, and since all of his classwork was complete and he was writing his dissertation, I called him "Candidate X" (I did not get his permission to use his name publicly.)

Now, my problem. Taylor comes along, charisma, intelligence and all the trappings of fame, and is suddenly a "Nuclear Physicist?" As the great bard would have said, 'therein lies the rub'. Sure, he built a Farnsworth type of fusion machine. With lots of help and donated parts in a university physics lab, with lots of mentorship. Sure, he was only fourteen or something at the time. But he has in no way paid his dues to be called a nuclear physicist! Fame, magazine articles about yourself and Obama fawning over you doth not a Nuclear Physicist make. Just because I cobbled a little Neon ion accelerator slash hazardous X-ray generator in no way makes me an Accelerator Physicist. And if someone called me one, I would correct them. I am NOT an accelerator physicist, even thought I wish I was! If I were an accelerator physicist, I, A. would not have had to have any help with relatively simple differentiation, B. would have been able to calculate the lengths of the acceleration segments myself, C. the reverse electron flow would not have been greater than the Neon ion beam current going on its way to the Faraday cup (that another Fermi technologist machined for me out of graphite). Hell, Jimmy Carter was far more of a Nuclear Physicist than Taylor.

Sorry Taylor, I am not dissing you. I am impressed with your achievements to date, especially at such a young age. But, one will find in life that as unfair as it may seem, that in order to have the honor and respect of a certain title, whether "Doctor", "Doc", "Professor", "Accelerator Physicist", "General", or even "Nuclear Physicist", one has to have paid their dues, get the education, be proficient (and known) in their field which is earned through publications that are peer reviewed in recognized journals. The old saw "publish or perish" is decidedly true in the marble halls of the Academy. And none of any this will happen without the hooding ceremony and PhD honor awarded after writing and defending a very in depth dissertation as your magnum opus. A Popular Science article, TV shows, Obama and a Fusor (or little accelerator) will not earn one that title. Only hard work, education and "paying your dues" will. That is just the way it is.

Now get yourself to University, get your degrees and become a Nuclear Physicist. With your intelligence and charm, you will find it to be richly rewarding if not outright fun. Then, (as unfair as it may seem), you will be listened too by the Academy, the science establishment and the political money cats who have to fund it all. Then, you will truly be a Nuclear Physicist.

Best,

Kotobuki