17 thoughts on “Don’t Try This At Home, Kids”

  4. There’s no danger here.. they could have sent a guy with a clipboard and a Geiger counter. After determining that he was not endangering the public, some safety advice could have been offered, etc. It’s really sad that educated home tinkerers are being targeted.

  5. Well, very little danger. David Hahn’s a good example of why they might have had reason to worry. Of course, Farnsworth Fusors don’t require any pesky radioactive materials to do your own atom mangling.

  8. Thinking is now illegal. Please turn yourselves in.

    Everything has a quantity for a 50% toxicity level.

  9. Without forming a critical mass, it’s hard to see how he could have caused a “meltdown”. One driven by nuclear decay heat seems physically impossible in his setup.

    If he *did* have the material to form a critical mass (which would have required quite a bit of uranium if it isn’t separated), then he might actually be in any sort of danger, but the article mentions the wrong materials in insufficient quantity.

    I wish reporters could get high-school physics right in their articles. Sigh.

  10. A partial melt down on his stove?

    I guess those “Glad Ware” containers ain’t as tough as the TV ads would lead you to believe!
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    Ken,
    thinking is only outlawed INSIDE the Beltway. And in certain northeast and far westerly states. Or is it ALL northeast and far westerly states? I can’t think about this now, I’ll think about it tomorrow…

  11. I remember the old Amateur Scientist column in Scientific American, back when C.L.Stong wrote it. It had cool things like building your own DD fusion neutron machine with a van de Graaf generator.

  12. Reminds me of that episode of SG-1 where Sam’s ancient “boyfriend” builds a stargate in her basement using parts from a toaster and stuff he bought online using her credit card.

    We need another “October Sky” movie where the starry-eyed teenager sneaks quantities of deuterium and boron from his dad’s industrial lab and builds a successful cold-fusion reactor in his garage.

  13. Der Schtumpy,

    I see your confusion. Inside the beltway it’s considered bad taste not to think you are smarter than everyone. You demonstrate your superior individuality by parroting all the daily talking points in the proper senatorial voice. The more political clout you have, the higher your presumed IQ regardless of any evidence to the contrary which can only be hidden by the united efforts of all cocktail party goers otherwise known as the media.

    Thinking is now a terrorist act. Not marching in lockstep with our betters is a serious problem requiring swat teams in some cases. The elites will be happy to explain it to us using techniques first perfected in a clockwork orange.

  14. I’d like to remind people that this was in Sweden, not the United States.

    (Though it’s interesting that the only reason he got in any trouble at all is that he asked them if it was okay.

    Sweden is, as far as I can tell, the sort of place where he’ll get a small lecture and let go, precisely because of that.)

  15. Sigivald said: “Though it’s interesting that the only reason he got in any trouble at all is that he asked them if it was okay”

    Perhaps he should have taken the advice attributed to U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.”

  16. I’d like to remind people that this was in Sweden, not the United States.

    Unfortunately, in the US, they take away your lemonade stand before you even get close to making a home built nuclear reactor.

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