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

Here is the amazing story of an unbelievable boy - somebody who seems more like a figure out of fiction (science fiction, to be specific) than reality. But the story is true, the boy is true, and the science is true. And 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)

In this delightful book, Tom Clynes proves that when we allow young people to take risks and give them freedom, resources, and mentorship, they can do amazing things. (Nikhil Goyal)

Wow! This is a very human manual on how to deal with having a genius at home. But it also details how single individuals can drive discovery, economic growth, political change, and wonder out of a single brain. If you want to understand where true power and change comes from, read this now. (Juan Enriquez)

From the opening page, where we meet 16-year-old Taylor Wilson digging in an abandoned uranium mine, it is clear we are in remarkable company. (Rob Kingston Sunday Times Books of the Year)

A compelling study of the thrills - and burdens - of being born with an alpha intellect. (Financial Times)

This book can be read with interest by a scientific dunce like me. ... Clynes's book is as much about 'extreme parenting' as it is about nuclear science. (Charlotte Moore Spectator)

A gripping narrative ... If you have a budding genius at home, this book could be a handy companion. (Emma Smith Sunday Times)

By the age of nine, Taylor had mastered the science of rocket propulsion. At eleven, his grandmother's cancer diagnosis inspired him to seek new ways to produce medical isotopes. And by fourteen, Taylor had built a reactor which produces temperatures hotter than the sun, becoming the youngest person in history to achieve nuclear fusion. How did Taylor manage all this? And how did his parents find the courage to give their son the support and freedom he needed to succeed? Here is an astonishing story of audacity, perseverance and passion -- and a boy whose world seems to have no limits.