Posted
on January 24, 2016
How
would you like to be a futurist?
That's
someone who tries to systematically make and develop predictions of
the future based on trends in the present – and on cutting-edge
scientific developments and technological advances – and on
knowledge and reason.
It
is definitely NOT someone who makes predictions based on so-called
ESP or magic or some sort of mystical force.
Michio
Kaku is a lot of things. He's a writer, a speaker, and a television
personality. He's a theoretical physicist and a college professor.
He's a popularizer of science.
But
the FIRST thing that Wikipedia lists about Kaku is that he is
a futurist. How cool is that?
Michio
Kaku was born in California. Kaku's parents met in an internment
center, where Americans who just happened to be of Japanese descent
were locked up during World War II. Kaku's parents were not able to
surmount the prejudice against Japanese Americans in order to have
well-paid careers, so Kaku grew up fairly poor. However, Kaku's
parents did manage to support his interests. He took him to
university libraries when he was still just a kid, and they also
allowed him to do experiments in the house.
And
in the garage.
Yeah,
about those experiments...
When
Michio Kaku was still in high school, he built an “atom smasher”
(a particle accelerator) in his parents' garage! He used 400 pounds
of scrap metal and 22 miles of copper wire and ended up creating a
2.3 million volt accelerator that generated a magnetic field 20
thousand times greater than Earth's. It was powerful enough to create
antimatter.
Yikes!
Luckily,
his parents didn't say, “No, honey, you cannot build a 2.3 million
volt ANYTHING in our garage,” like every other parent on the planet
would surely say...And luckily, Kaku didn't kill himself with his
atom smasher!
What
DID result from this science fair project is that famed physicist
Edward Teller took Kaku as a protege.
Despite
the fact that Kaku had showed so much promise, so young, despite the
fact that he graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University and
was first in his physics class, despite the fact that he received a
Ph.D. and held a lectureship at Princeton University –
Despite
all of that oh-so-special brainiac stuff, Michio Kaku was drafted
into the United States Army during the Vietnam War! He completed
basic training and advanced infantry training, but luckily the war
ended before he was put in harm's way. (!)
Luckily
not just for him and his loved ones, but for all of us. Kaku has made
a lot of progress in physics – he was one of the founders of string
field theory – but has also dedicated a lot of time and effort to
explaining science to the general public. Take advantage of all of
our luck by checking out his books and TV shows and videos. Here's a
few to get you started:
 |
| Kaku has written at least 8 books! |
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