An awe-inspiring science project by a Dallas ISD seventh-grader is now drawing national attention, as the student works to secure a Guinness World Record as the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion.
Aiden McMillan’s work has helped inspire Launchpad, a nonprofit makerspace for students housed inside an unassuming brick building in West Dallas. The space was created in part to support ambitious projects like McMillan’s — a nuclear fusion machine he began building at just 8 years old.
McMillan spent two years studying concepts of nuclear physics before he ever started assembling early prototypes of the machine. What followed was a long process filled with trial and error, persistence and problem-solving…