Fraser Doherty: the 14-year-old ‘businessteen' who earned a fortune by making jam
While most successful young entrepreneurs make their money building popular Web sites, Fraser Doherty built his empire using a more traditional way. Fraser started making jams at the age of 14 from his grandmother's recipes in his parents' Scotland kitchen, and by 16 left school to work on his jam business SuperJam full-time. SuperJam sells around 500,000 jars a year, which currently has around 10 percent of UK jam market. Doherty's stake is now worth $1 to 2 million.
Milan Karki: the 18-year-old who invented a £23 solar panel made from human hair
A new type of solar panel using human hair could provide the world with cheap, green electricity, as its teenage inventor believes. Milan Karki, 18, who comes from a village in rural Nepal, thinks he has found the solution to the developing world's energy needs. The young inventor says hair is easy to use as a conductor in solar panels and could revolutionize renewable energy. The hair replaces silicon, an expensive component typically used in solar panels, meaning the panels can be produced at a low cost for those with no access to power. In Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, many rural areas lack access to electricity, even in areas connected to power lines, where users face shortages of up to 16 hours a day. Milan and four classmates initially made the solar panel as an experiment but the teens are convinced it has wide applicability and commercial viability. The solar panel, which produces 9 V (18 W) of energy, costs around £23 to make from raw materials.
Melanin, a pigment that gives hair its colour, is light sensitive and also acts as a type of conductor. Because hair is far cheaper than silicon the appliance is less costly. The solar panel can charge a mobile phone or a pack of batteries capable of providing light all evening.
NOTE: Several scientists believe this 'invention' is a hoax.
Jordan Romero: the 13-year-old who became the youngest person to summit the Everest
13-year old Jordan Romero became the youngest person to ever summit Mt. Everest. He completed the climb with his dad, his girlfriend and a trusty team of Sherpas; since they couldn't tackle it from the Nepal side due to age restrictions, the team headed to China and ended up summiting via a much more difficult route. He's one summit away from completing the Seven Summit — the highest peaks on each continent — he climbed Kilamanjaro at age nine, and is planning a trip to the last summit, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, in December 2010.
Cameron Johnson: the teenager who sold websites for a six-figure amount
At 15 years old, Cameron Johnson was receiving monthly checks of $300,000 to $400,000. At 19, he sold one of his Web sites for an undisclosed "six-figure" amount. It all started at the age of 9 when Johnson began his first business. Using Photoshop in his Virginia home, he began making and selling greeting cards. From there it was one venture after another: Selling Ty Beanie Babies on his Cheers and Tears Web site, My EZ Mail, an e-mail forwarding service, Surfingprizes.com and Certificateswap.com.
Deitrich Ludwig: the 13-year-old who became the youngest person to build an electric truck
At the age of 16, when most of us are just learning to drive a car, Deitrich Ludwig from Monclova, Ohio, has become the youngest person on the planet to build a 2000 Chevrolet S-10 pickup electric truck, setting a new world record for the youngest person to have built an electric truck. The truck has been built by replacing the gas-guzzling engine with a 100 percent emission-free electric drive train. The young creator removed the four-cylinder engine, radiator and exhaust system and installed a DC electric motor, control system, battery charger and a bank of batteries. After a successful first ride, the creator now wants to reduce the charging times and improve the vehicle's performance.
Mohamed Altoumaimi: the 16-year-old who cracked a 300-year-old math puzzle
A 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in central Sweden, Mohamed Altoumaimi, figured out a formula that has challenged great mathematical minds for 300 hundred years, the so called Bernoulli numbers problem. The immigrant who arrived in Sweden in 2003 during the Iraq War, Mohamed Altoumami, is now earning praise from professors at the prestigious Uppsala University when teachers of Mohamed Altoumaimi were at first sceptical. The High School student said his teachers in Falun, Sweden, were not convinced at the whiz kids work at first. Toying over his trusty notebook for four months, Mohamed Altoumaimi had found a formula to explain and simplify a sequence of calculations named after the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli. However Mohamed Altourmaimi's teachers were not convinced. But undeterred by the doubts of his teachers, Altoumaimi decided to contact professors at Uppsala University in hopes they would validate his work. After verifying the calculations, Uppsala University senior maths lecturer Lars-Åke Lindahl later contacted Mohamed Altoumaimi's teachers to tell them what a gifted student he was. Now Altoumaimi's high school plans to take advantage of the teenager's skills with numbers next autumn by having him serve as an instructor for several math teachers in Falun and explain his work to them.
Thiago Olson: the 17-year-old student who built a nuclear device in his basement.
Thiago Olson, a 17 year-old high school student, is called "the mad scientist" by his friends for a good reason: he created a nuclear fusion reactor in his home. In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build — a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion. The machine uses a 40,000 volt charge and deuterium gas to create the small reaction, which he says looks like a 'small intense ball of energy.' The teen's fusion device is obviously not a self-sustaining reactor, but it still shows how fusion technology is becoming more accessible.
Jonathan James: the 15 year-old cybercriminal who hacked the NASA computer system
James gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16 years old. According to him, he was just looking around, playing around. James's major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive emails and capture employee usernames and passwords. James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, "The software supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed." Given the extent of his intrusions, if James, also known as "c0mrade," had been an adult he likely would have served at least 10 years. Years later, James killed himself.
Evan Graham: the solo pilot who could fly five different aircrafts by the age of 16
Evan Graham celebrated his 16th birthday (on August 6th) by soloing five different aircrafts: a vintage WWII L-4 Piper Cub taildrager, a R-22 Robinson helicopter, a Cessna 150 Aerobat, a Robinson 44 Raven II and a 1965 Cessna 150-150 - setting the world record for the Youngest solo pilot to fly five different aircrafts. On a grass runway, with three flight instructors present and three sign off, Evan logged 2 hours of solo time in 5 different aircrafts, ending the morning before noon with the traditional bucket drench.
Alia Sabur: the 18-year-old student who became the world's youngest college professor
Alia Sabur, who was appointed as a full-time faculty Professor at Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, as research liaison with Stony Brook University set the world record for the youngest College professor. The child prodigy from Northport enrolled at Stony Brook University at age 10 and played clarinet with the Rockland Symphony Orchestra at 11.
Sabur was three days shy of her 19th birthday when she became a professor at Konkuk University, in Seoul. The previous record was held by a student of physicist Isaac Newton, Colin Maclaurin, who set the mark in 1717. Despite her numerous accomplishments -- she started reading at age 2 -- Sabur had never earned a world record before.
