Brooklyn Man Builds Nuclear Reactor

After a hard day at the office, Brooklyn man Mark Suppes likes to unwind by tinkering with his pet project: a homemade nuclear reactor. Suppes built the fusion reactor after spending $40,000 on eBay buying parts. The machine—which joins atoms instead of splitting them—produces energy, although like every fusion reactor created so far, it doesn't give out more energy than it consumes.

Experts say that since there's no plutonium or uranium involved, Suppes' machine poses no danger to the neighbors, although some are still wary. "I would have thought there would be some sort of rules and laws about messing around with nuclear fusion in your apartment," a Brooklyn resident tells the BBC. "I'm not sure I'd like that living right next to me." Suppes is believed to be the 38th independent amateur physicist in the world to achieve nuclear fusion. (More nuclear reactor stories.)