What’s in your basement?

A few old golf clubs?

Maybe a broken down baby crib or perhaps an old electric train set that you still use from time to time.

What ever is down there, it’s a pretty sure thing it’s nothing like the sci-fi set up in 16-year-old Nick Nothom’s basement.

For the last eight months he’s been building an electron particle accelerator. Nothom said there is no easy way to explain what exactly the device measures, but his efforts in creating it were successful enough to earn him a trip to the International Science & Engineering Fair in Los Angeles May 8-13.

The device he built with $3,000 of his own money apparently uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds.