Microsoft’s Greninger builds nuclear reactor with students
Most garages are used to store junk and occasionally a car or two. Some may have workshops and a few have led to great inventions. Bill Gates started Microsoft in a garage. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a garage. Now a Microsoft project manager has built a nuclear reactor in a garage with the help of high school students as a way to get them excited about science.
Carl Greninger, program manager at Microsoft, started the science project because most schools were doing a lousy job of teaching science. The science classes were so “safe” that they were boring and uninteresting turning students off rather than exciting their imaginations. Jayce Glenn, a 17-year-old junior at Kentwood High School who is in Greninger’s garage group said:
“They hand us strings and paper cups and tell us we’re working with plasma. I just don’t see any point in having science classes like that where you can’t do anything with science,” he said. “It’s pretend. It’s play.”
It’s the same syndrome questioned in last month’s New York Time’s article Can a playground be too safe? Science classes like playgrounds have been getting less risky and less interesting. Unfortunately much of the blame falls on the shoulders of attorneys. My first thoughts when I read about the garage nuclear reactor was,”OMG what about the liability? Does he know he could lose everything he has if one student gets hurt?” Yes, I am an attorney and this is the way we are taught to think. CYA and make sure your client does too.
In spite of the automatic cringe I felt, I was impressed by the professors enthusiasm, smarts and yes, bravery in turning his garage into a nuclear physics classroom. He decided to actually teach students by including them in the building and running of a small legal nuclear reactor. The lucky kids included will be miles ahead of their classmates when they get to college.
Can’t you imagine those college entrance essays? They will be able to talk about building and running a Farnsworth–Hirsch Fusor aka IEC-9000. It fuses atoms and produces neutrons but doesn’t involve using radio isotopes for fuel.
What happens inside the IEC-9000 is straightforward, as far as nuclear reactors go, Glenn said. A glass jug sits inside the machine, and inside the jug is a ball of wire. When the machine is turned on, it sucks all the air out of the jug and creates a vacuum. Add a miniscule amount of gas. Then, the controller runs an electric charge through the ball of wire, which attracts all the atoms from the gas. As the atoms head toward the ball of wire they collide, causing some of them to fuse. When they do, they release a neutron and a bunch of energy. Voila – fusion.
The students have been able to “play with real plasma and explore thermonuclear fusion, gamma spectroscopy, high power lasers, chemistry and high-voltage physics.” They have actually been doing nuclear physics.
Greninger and the students are going to be taking their reactor around to different schools to excite and energize other students with the possibilities and coolness of science. The “dangerous and sharp and electrifying” aspects of science need to continue to exist in classrooms for kids to remain interested. It sure seems that the Greninger’s nuclear garage band could indeed keep things interesting for years to come.
Photo from Microsoft. Pictured in the photo: Microsoft employee Carl Greninger (second from left) helped a group of young students build a working thermonuclear reactor. From left: students Chase Price, Kaylee O’Neal, Krystal Schuh, Eriik Snyder, and Jayce Glenn.
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August 23rd, 2011
Good to see someone with the balls to make this happen.
If more people did the same we would probably not be facing the crisis with the lack of new talent in the industry.
November 1st, 2011
Safety is important but not when it stifles all creativity and innovation.