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Reactor Never Dark watches glow for ten years
Watches with tritium illumination elements have been around for a while, and although they glow for a long time, they're much dimmer than traditional phosphorescence solutions, which are extremely bright but tend to fade quickly. Reactor's new Never Dark line goes for the best of both worlds, with an extremely bright phosphorescent compound called Superluminova backed up by tritium illumination. According to Reactor, the Superluminova can recharge instantly with even the smallest exposure to light and the tritium remains illuminated for up to ten years. You probably have bigger problems than punctuality if you've been in the dark for ten years, but people expecting the unexpected can also expect to fork over $300-$450 for the Reactor Trident, the first Never Dark watch.[Via Sci-Fi]
Nilay Patel07.27.2007
Detroit-area teen builds nuclear fusion reactor
We've heard of plenty of DIY projects, ranging from an MP3 player to a Wacom tablet, but a kid building a small nuclear fusion device in his parents' basement? That's something special. Thiago Olson, a 17-year-old from Oakland Township, outside Detroit, has just completed a 1,000-hour (that's over 40 days worth, but he spread it out over two years) project to build a small-scale nuclear fusion reactor. How does it work? The short of it is that Olson takes a vacuum chamber, fills it with deuterium gas and then jolts it up with 40,000 volts, which creates a very small amount of nuclear fusion. That sounds easy enough -- but now the question is, can young Dr. Strangelove hook up his reactor to the house so he can pay his parents' electrical bill? [Via MAKE: Blog, photo courtesy Detroit Free Press]
Cyrus Farivar11.23.2006