Michio Kaku, the theoretical physicist, made an atom smasher in his garage when he was in high school. Man, what in the heck was I doing in high school? Not this. Certainly not this. I barely knew what an atom was, that’s for sure.

“I asked my mother for permission to build a 2.3-million electron volt particle accelerator in the garage. She was a bit startled but gave me the okay.” [from Physics of the Future, pg. 2]

He goes on to note that he frequently blew out all the fuses in his home.