Teen Builds Nuke Detecting Device, Saves Us All From Horrible Death [Terrorism]
Source: http://gizmodo.com/5813207/teen-builds-nuke-detecting-device-saves-us-all-from-horrible-death
Taylor Wilson was just honored at the Intel International Science Fair for his project, which he's dubbed "Countering Nuclear Terrorism." It's a scanner that can automatically check to see if a cargo container might have a nuclear bomb hidden inside. Today that has to be done manually, and given the scope of how many containers come into the country, that essentially means most aren't checked. Wilson wants to solve that.
In his own words:
[B]asically how it works is it fuses together heavy hydrogen – deuterium. And when these deuterium atoms fuse together, they give off neutrons. It's that neutron radiation that goes into the cargo container, and depending on what the makeup of the cargo container is, it will react in such a way that it gives off radiation. I detect that radiation and it's specific to whatever that cargo container's contents are.
He goes on to talk about science, and it's pretty much the greatest thing I've ever heard a teenager say:
Some people may not go into science because they think, just nerds go into science, or science isn't cool. But the thing is, science is cool, and me and my friends who do science are cooler than the people who don't. So, I really think that science is a cool thing and if you really want to change the world, go into science. Because that's the future and that's who will really change the world.
Sheesh. What a fantastic human being. When I was 17, I could barely build a gravity bong. (Oh, but I tried!)
[PBS via Steve Silberman]
The interactive map informs users of the maximum solar output that can be installed on a particular building, as well as the savings that would be amassed over the course of a year. The hope is that the information will nudge New Yorkers toward installing the panels themselves. The maximum solar capacity for the city as a whole is 5,847 megawatts of solar power, but right now only 6.6 megawatts are generated by 400 installations. A similar project in San Francisco increased the number of installations from 551 in 2007 to 2,300 today. [
Posts
