TED2012
Taylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor
Taylor Wilson: Jep, jeg byggede en kernefusionsreaktor
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Taylor Wilson tror kernefusion er en løsning til vores fremtidige energibehov, og at børn kan ændre verden. Og han ved noget om begge dele: Da han var 14 byggede han en fungerende fusionsreaktor i sin forældres garage. Nu som 17-årig står han på TED scenen med kort varsel for at fortælle (den korte version af) hans historie.
Taylor Wilson - Nuclear scientist
At 14, Taylor Wilson became the youngest person to achieve fusion -- with a reactor born in his garage. Now he wants to save our seaports from nuclear terror. Full bio
At 14, Taylor Wilson became the youngest person to achieve fusion -- with a reactor born in his garage. Now he wants to save our seaports from nuclear terror. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
So my name is Taylor Wilson.
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Jeg hedder Taylor Wilson.
00:17
I am 17 years old
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Jeg er 17 år,
00:19
and I am a nuclear physicist,
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og jeg er kernefysiker,
00:21
which may be a little hard to believe, but I am.
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hvilket kan være en smule svært at tro,
men det er jeg.
men det er jeg.
00:24
And I would like to make the case
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Og jeg vil argumentere for,
00:27
that nuclear fusion
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at kernefusion
00:29
will be that point,
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vil være det punkt,
00:31
that the bridge that T. Boone Pickens talked about
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som den bro, T. Boone Pickens talte om,
00:33
will get us to.
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vil tage os til.
00:35
So nuclear fusion is our energy future.
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Kernefusion er vores fremtids energi.
00:38
And the second point,
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Og den anden pointe,
00:40
making the case that kids can really change the world.
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at forsvare, at børn virkelig kan ændre verden.
00:42
So you may ask --
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Så I spørger måske --
00:44
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
00:48
You may ask me,
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I spørger mig måske,
00:50
well how do you know what our energy future is?
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hvordan ved du, hvordan vores fremtids energi er?
00:52
Well I built a fusion reactor
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Jeg byggede en fusionsreaktor,
00:54
when I was 14 years old.
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da jeg var 14.
00:56
That is the inside of my nuclear fusion reactor.
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Det er indersiden af min kernefusionsreaktor.
00:59
I started building this project
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Jeg begyndte at bygge dette projekt,
01:01
when I was about 12 or 13 years old.
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da jeg var 12 eller 13.
01:04
I decided I wanted to make a star.
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Jeg besluttede at lave en stjerne.
01:06
Now most of you are probably saying,
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De fleste af jer siger nok,
01:08
well there's no such thing as nuclear fusion.
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kernefusion findes slet ikke.
01:11
I don't see any nuclear power plants with fusion energy.
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Jeg ser ingen atomkraftværker med fusionsenergi.
01:14
Well it doesn't break even.
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Det går ikke op endnu.
01:16
It doesn't produce more energy out than I put in,
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Det producerer ikke mere energi, end jeg tilfører,
01:18
but it still does some pretty cool stuff.
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men det gør nogle ret seje ting.
01:21
And I assembled this in my garage,
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Jeg samlede dette i min garage,
01:23
and it now lives in the physics department
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og nu lever det i fysikafdelingen
01:25
of the University of Nevada, Reno.
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på University of Nevada, Reno.
01:27
And it slams together deuterium,
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Og det slår deuterium sammen,
01:29
which is just hydrogen with an extra neutron in it.
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hvilket bare er hydrogen med en ekstra neutron.
01:32
So this is similar to the reaction
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Dette ligner reaktionen
01:35
of the proton chain that's going on inside the Sun.
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af protonkæden, der foregår inden i Solen.
01:37
And I'm slamming it together so hard
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Og jeg slår det sammen så hårdt,
01:40
that that hydrogen fuses together,
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at hydrogenet sammensmelter,
01:42
and in the process it has some byproducts,
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og i processen har det nogle biprodukter,
01:44
and I utilize those byproducts.
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og jeg udnytter de biprodukter.
01:47
So this previous year,
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Sidste år
01:50
I won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
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vandt jeg Intel International Science
and Engineering Fair.
and Engineering Fair.
01:54
I developed a detector that replaces the current detectors
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Jeg udviklede en detektor, der erstatter de nuværende,
01:56
that Homeland Security has.
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som Homeland Security har.
01:58
For hundreds of dollars,
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For hundreder af dollars
02:00
I've developed a system that exceeds the sensitivity
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har jeg udviklet et system, der overgår følsomheden
02:03
of detectors that are hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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af detektorer, der koster hundredtusindvis af dollars.
02:06
I built this in my garage.
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Jeg byggede denne i min garage.
02:08
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
02:10
And I've developed a system
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Og jeg har udviklet et system
02:12
to produce medical isotopes.
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til at producere medicinske isotoper.
02:14
Instead of requiring multi-million-dollar facilities
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I stedet for at behøve multi-million-dollars faciliteter
02:16
I've developed a device that, on a very small scale,
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har jeg udviklet et apparat, der på lille skala
02:19
can produce these isotopes.
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kan producere disse isotoper.
02:21
So that's my fusion reactor in the background there.
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Det er min fusionsreaktor i baggrunden.
02:26
That is me at the control panel
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Det er mig ved kontrolpanelet
02:28
of my fusion reactor.
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til min fusionsreaktor.
02:30
Oh, by the way, I make yellowcake in my garage,
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Forresten laver jeg urankoncentrat i min garage,
02:33
so my nuclear program is as advanced as the Iranians.
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så mit atomprogram er lige så
avanceret som iranernes.
avanceret som iranernes.
02:36
So maybe I don't want to admit to that.
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Måske vil jeg ikke erkende det.
02:39
This is me at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland,
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Dette er mig på CERN i Geneve, Schweiz,
02:42
which is the preeminent particle physics laboratory in the world.
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som er verdens førende partikelfysiklaboratorium.
02:46
And this is me with President Obama,
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Og her er jeg med Præsident Obama,
02:48
showing him my Homeland Security research.
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visende min Homeland Security forskning.
02:51
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
02:56
So in about seven years
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Så på omkring syv år
02:58
of doing nuclear research,
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med atomforskning
03:00
I started out with a dream
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startede jeg med en drøm
03:02
to make a "star in a jar," a star in my garage,
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om at lave en "stjerne i en krukke," i min garage,
03:04
and I ended up meeting the president
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og jeg endte med at møde præsidenten
03:06
and developing things that I think can change the world,
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og udvikle ting, som jeg tror kan ændre verden,
03:09
and I think other kids can too.
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og jeg tror andre børn også kan.
03:11
So thank you very much.
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Så mange tak.
03:13
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Taylor Wilson - Nuclear scientistAt 14, Taylor Wilson became the youngest person to achieve fusion -- with a reactor born in his garage. Now he wants to save our seaports from nuclear terror.
Why you should listen
Physics wunderkind Taylor Wilson astounded the science world when, at age 14, he became the youngest person in history to produce fusion. The University of Nevada-Reno offered a home for his early experiments when Wilson’s worried parents realized he had every intention of building his reactor in the garage.
Wilson now intends to fight nuclear terror in the nation's ports, with a homemade radiation detector priced an order of magnitude lower than most current devices. In 2012, Wilson's dreams received a boost when he became a recipient of the $100,000 Thiel Prize. Wilson now intends revolutionize the way we produce energy, fight cancer, and combat terrorism using nuclear technology.
Taylor Wilson | Speaker | TED.com