The Boy Who Played with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme Parenting, and How to Make a Star

2016 PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist

"The amazing story of an unbelievable boy . . . The world that opens up to us through his story is both fascinating and slightly terrifying . . . but in a good way. You won't be able to walk away from this tale." -- Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

"Imagine if cartoon whiz kid Jimmy Neutron were real and had a brainchild with MacGyver and his adolescence got told as a rollicking bildungsroman about American prodigies and DIY nuclear reactors--well, that's this book." --Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs

By the age of nine, Taylor Wilson had mastered the science of rocket propulsion. At eleven, his grandmother's cancer diagnosis inspired him to investigate new ways to produce medical isotopes. And by fourteen, Wilson had built a 500-million-degree reactor and become the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. How could someone so young achieve so much, and what can Wilson's story teach parents and teachers about how to support high-achieving kids?

In The Boy Who Played with Fusion, science journalist Tom Clynes narrates Taylor's extraordinary journey--from his Arkansas home, to a unique public high school just for academic superstars, to the present, when Wilson is designing devices to prevent terrorists from shipping radioactive material and inspiring a new generation to take on the challenges of science.

"Clynes guides us on an engrossing journey to the outer realms of science and parenting. The Boy Who Played with Fusion is a fascinating exploration of 'giftedness' and all its consequences." --Paul Greenberg, author of Four Fish and American Catch

"An essential contribution to our understanding of the most important underlying questions about the development of giftedness, talent, creativity, and intelligence." --Psychology Today


About the Author
TOM CLYNES is a contributing editor at Popular Science and regularly writes for National Geographic and Men's Journal. His work has also appeared in GQ, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Conservation, Bicycling, and many other publications.