The Boy Who Played with Fusion

September 14, 2015
In this insightful work, Popular Science editor Clynes goes beyond the fascinating story of fusion prodigy Taylor Wilson to offer cogent thoughts on our nation's education of gifted children, as well as sketching nuclear engineering's history and present status. In 2008 at age 14, Wilson became by far the youngest person in the world ever to achieve nuclear fusion. Clynes takes readers back to Taylor's early interest in rocketry and then all the way to his present as a young adult who wants "to grow a business that allows to create really useful things," like "a specialized particle accelerator that could revolutionize the production of diagnostic pharmaceuticals" or his "counterterrorism detection devices." Clynes helpfully matches passages on discoveries in chemistry, physics, and engineering to Taylor's own learning curve over the course of the book. He uses Taylor's story to illuminate examples of parenting and teaching of gifted children as well as to discuss more broadly the American education system's less-than-optimal treatment of the gifted. Amid this analytical content, the details of Taylor's life, achievements, and collaborators steal the show.