Every now and then, one of these basement fusor projects makes the local news. Here's an article from a recent edition of the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle about the fusor that Matthew Honickman built to start the New Year:
"This is fun," he said. "For a lot of people, fusion seems kind of like something that's only done in really, really large, expensive government facilities."
Ted Kinsman, one of Honickman's science teachers at Brighton High School, said that he is aware of only a few high school
students who have ever constructed fusors."It's quite an accomplishment," he said. "Basically, I applaud him. That's a lot of work."
The article says that Matthew hopes to be admited to either Cal-Tech or MIT next year. Either one of those institutions will do well to have a student like Matthew in their halls and classrooms — assuming those institutions can give him free reign, as opposed to grinding his brain into orthodox forms of thinking.