The ocean has quietly absorbed billions of tons of humanity’s carbon emissions over the past two centuries, but scientists and companies racing to supercharge that natural service have long been hampered by a stubborn and costly engineering problem. Now researchers at Stony Brook University, working with the Research Foundation for the State University of New York, have unveiled a method for electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement that they say can dramatically lower the cost of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal by eliminating one of the most expensive steps in the entire process: the pretreatment of seawater before it enters an electrochemical reactor. The innovation, now available for licensing through SUNY TechConnect, promises high-quality carbon offsets at a substantially reduced cost while simultaneously helping to counteract the acidification that threatens marine ecosystems worldwide.

At the heart of the challenge is a delicate chemical balancing act. As atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolves into seawater, it forms carbonic acid, which lowers the ocean’s pH and erodes the carbonate chemistry that corals, shellfish and other calcifying organisms depend upon. Ocean carbon dioxide capture exploits a simple principle: if the ocean becomes more alkaline, it can absorb more CO2 from the air and lock it away safely as bicarbonate, one of the most stable and abundant forms of inorganic carbon on Earth. This process, known as ocean alkalinity enhancement, effectively turns the surface ocean into a vast, distributed carbon sink. But adding alkalinity to seawater is not trivial, and doing it in a way that is energy-efficient, scalable and safe has become one of the central engineering puzzles of the emerging carbon removal industry.

One of the most promising approaches relies on electrochemistry, specifically a technique called bipolar membrane electrodialysis. In this system, ion-selective membranes are stacked between two end electrodes, and the arrangement allows operators to split ordinary saltwater into its constituent acid and base. When brine containing sodium chloride flows through the stack, the process generates hydrochloric acid on one side and sodium hydroxide, a strong base, on the other. The elegance of the scheme lies in its product handling: if the hydrochloric acid is kept on land, where it can be stored, neutralized or put to industrial use, and only the sodium hydroxide along with the treated seawater is returned to the ocean, the receiving waters gain a net infusion of alkalinity. That added alkalinity shifts the carbonate equilibrium, allowing the ocean to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into dissolved bicarbonate that remains stable for millennia.

This electrochemical pathway has attracted serious commercial interest precisely because it produces what carbon markets call negative emissions, meaning carbon dioxide is durably removed from the atmosphere rather than merely avoided. Companies pursuing net-zero targets increasingly rely on such carbon removal credits to offset their residual emissions, and ocean alkalinity enhancement is widely regarded as one of the largest-capacity avenues available, given the sheer scale of the world’s oceans. Yet the technology has been held back by a deceptively mundane problem: what flows into the reactor matters just as much as what flows out.

Seawater, and many other brine streams that might feed these systems, contains divalent cations, most notably calcium and magnesium ions, alongside the sodium and chloride that the process is designed to split. When these divalent ions encounter the high-pH conditions created at the base-producing side of a bipolar membrane stack, they precipitate as solid calcium and magnesium compounds that coat the membranes in a crust known as scale. The consequences are cascading. Scaled membranes lose their ion-selective efficiency, forcing the system to push harder and consume more electricity to achieve the same output. Over time, the deposits shorten membrane lifetime, increasing maintenance frequency and replacement costs. The conventional answer has been water softening pretreatment, in which the incoming seawater is stripped of calcium and magnesium before it ever reaches the electrodialysis unit. While effective, such pretreatment adds significant capital and operating expense, undermining the economic case for the entire carbon removal operation and eroding the value proposition of the resulting carbon credits.

The Stony Brook researchers behind the new method have essentially designed around this bottleneck. Their technology enables electrochemical enhancement of ocean alkalinity without any pretreatment of the incoming seawater at all. By rethinking how the electrochemical system handles brine streams laden with divalent cations, the researchers have created a process that tolerates raw seawater directly, sidestepping the water softening infrastructure that previous designs demanded. According to the announcement from the Research Foundation for SUNY, the result is a system that produces negative emission carbon offsets of very high quality at a substantially reduced cost, simply because the most expensive upstream step has been engineered out of existence. The advantages claimed for the approach are straightforward and commercially significant: it is cheaper, more energy efficient, and requires no expensive water softening pretreatment.

The implications ripple across both the carbon markets and the broader climate technology landscape. Carbon offset buyers, including corporations striving to meet net-zero commitments, place a premium on removal credits that are durable, verifiable and cost-competitive. Ocean alkalinity enhancement already offers exceptional permanence, since bicarbonate dissolved in seawater represents one of the most long-lived forms of carbon storage known. By cutting costs at the front end, the Stony Brook method could help push the price of these high-quality ocean-based offsets toward levels that make them viable at gigatonne scale, a threshold that analysts consider essential if carbon removal is to play a meaningful role in stabilizing the global climate. Cheaper alkalinity generation also strengthens the second major application of the technology: mitigating ocean acidification directly, without necessarily framing it as a carbon market product at all.

Ocean acidification itself is a mounting crisis. Since the industrial revolution, the average surface ocean pH has dropped measurably as the sea has absorbed roughly a quarter to a third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The consequences have been documented across coral reefs, oyster hatcheries, pteropods and other calcifying organisms whose shells and skeletons become harder to build in increasingly acidic waters. A technology that adds alkalinity to coastal waters and open ocean regions simultaneously addresses this chemical stress and harvests the carbon removal benefit, a dual function that distinguishes ocean alkalinity enhancement from many other carbon removal approaches. In regions where fisheries, aquaculture and reef ecosystems are economically vital, localized deployment of alkalinity-enhancing electrochemical systems could offer both environmental resilience and revenue through carbon credit sales.

The scientific pedigree of the work reflects the growing maturity of the carbon removal field. Stony Brook University, a flagship research institution within the SUNY system, has become an active hub for climate and energy innovation, and the new method is protected under intellectual property identified in the licensing announcement. The Research Foundation for the State University of New York, the nation’s largest research foundation supporting the nation’s largest public university system, is actively seeking development partners, commercial partners and licensees to translate the laboratory advance into deployed systems. The foundation describes a broad portfolio of SUNY-led research spanning artificial intelligence for the public good, quantum technologies, next-generation semiconductors, biotechnology and medicine, and energy and climate solutions, with system-wide research expenditures approaching 1.5 billion dollars in fiscal year 2025.

For the carbon removal industry, the timing of the announcement is notable. As voluntary and compliance carbon markets mature, buyers are demanding higher fidelity in the offsets they purchase, favoring durable removal over avoidance-based credits. Electrochemical ocean alkalinity enhancement, with its well-understood chemistry and measurable inputs and outputs, is well positioned to meet rigorous monitoring, reporting and verification standards. The obstacle has always been cost, and the pretreatment bottleneck has been a substantial contributor. If the Stony Brook design performs as described at industrial scale, it could remove one of the largest cost wedges standing between laboratory demonstration and commercial deployment, accelerating a technology class that many climate analysts view as indispensable to achieving deep decarbonization.

The broader lesson of the advance may be as important as the technology itself. In the race to scale carbon removal, progress often comes not from exotic new chemistry but from eliminating the hidden costs and fragilities that make promising concepts uneconomic in practice. Water softening pretreatment is exactly the kind of unglamorous engineering detail that determines whether a climate technology remains a paper exercise or becomes infrastructure. By designing a bipolar membrane electrodialysis system that thrives on untreated seawater, the Stony Brook researchers have addressed one of those decisive details. The ocean, meanwhile, stands ready. Every unit of alkalinity added is an invitation for the sea to take up more carbon dioxide and, in doing so, to heal a little of the acidification that a warming world has inflicted upon it. What remains now is the work of scaling, partnering and commercializing, and the SUNY licensing announcement signals that the researchers and their institution intend to see this chemistry leave the laboratory and reach the sea.

A new 50-ton electric excavator from Volvo Construction Equipment is designed to never need a battery recharge. It uses a 35-meter cable reel to draw power directly from the grid instead. The EC500 Electric is now undergoing pre-production testing in Norway, running real work at active job sites months before its official production launch.

Volvo built the EC500 Electric to match the performance of its diesel-powered counterpart, a machine the company’s customers already know well. Saying the two perform identically is one thing, though. Proving it in the field is another matter entirely. The new model is significantly larger than Volvo’s existing 30-ton EC230 Electric, and the excavator remains so early in development that it isn’t yet in full production.

Grid power, no downtime

The excavator carries an onboard high-voltage battery rated for two to three hours of continuous use on its own. Its 35-meter cable reel lets the 50-ton machine plug directly into grid power instead. That connection enables operation around the clock across shift after shift without ever needing to stop and recharge.

That grid dependency comes with its own tradeoff, since reliable power access can’t always be taken for granted on every job site. Mike Switzer, a heavy equipment fleet buyer and co-host of The Heavy Equipment Podcast, said that reality applies broadly across the industry. Working for a company, he said, doesn’t automatically guarantee power is available wherever that work happens.

Handling uneven power

Volvo’s battery-electric system runs on a 400-volt base designed specifically to adapt to varying grid conditions on different job sites. That flexibility is meant to help customers manage the practical realities of fluctuating site power while reducing the demands the excavator places on existing job site infrastructure.

The first EC500 Electric unit in customer hands is currently working across quarrying, road building, and tunneling applications in Norway. Volvo said the ongoing test program is designed to funnel real-world feedback on the machine’s behavior, performance, and operator experience directly into its final development stages.

Volvo described the approach as ensuring the machine gets developed around more than technical specifications alone. It also incorporates the daily requirements of customers working in some of the most demanding applications the equipment will actually face. Early data gathered from the pilot program is already shaping refinements ahead of the EC500 Electric’s planned production launch in spring 2027.

Honda Motor has invested in Niron Magnetics, a US company commercializing rare-earth-free Iron Nitride permanent magnets.

Announced on September 9, the investment will support the continued commercialization of Niron’s technology and help scale its manufacturing operations.

The move reflects Honda’s interest in next-generation magnetic materials that could reduce reliance on rare-earth elements in electrified systems.

Reducing reliance on rare-earth materials

Permanent magnets are used in electric propulsion motors and several other technologies. However, many conventional high-performance magnets depend on rare-earth metals that face resource constraints and changing market conditions.

Niron’s Iron Nitride technology offers an alternative that does not require rare-earth materials. It is intended to support performance, cost stability, and sustainability goals while reducing reliance on constrained global supply chains.

“This investment reflects the increasing focus on rare-earth-free magnet technology as manufacturers look for more resilient solutions,” said Jonathan Rowntree, CEO of Niron Magnetics.

“Following investment from Honda, we are encouraged by their confidence in our technology and vision for scaling rare-earth-free permanent magnets across a broad range of applications. The investment adds to growing industry momentum as manufacturers increasingly direct resources to alternatives to rare-earth-based magnets,” he added.

The technology can be used across automotive systems, robotics, industrial automation and emerging mobility platforms. Other potential applications include artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure, as well as consumer electronics.

Honda sees potential for electric propulsion

Most electric propulsion motors currently use permanent magnets made from rare-earth metals. Honda expects Niron’s technology to help address some of the supply and market challenges associated with these materials.

“Niron Magnetics has an innovative permanent magnet technology that does not require rare earth materials. Most electric propulsion motors today use permanent magnets made from rare earth metals, which are subject to resource constraints and fluctuations in market conditions,” said Mahito Shikama, Director, Executive Officer of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

“Niron Magnetics is addressing these challenges, and Honda has high hopes for its potential,” he added.

The investment further supports Niron’s effort to establish Iron Nitride as a new category of permanent magnetic material. It will also help the company expand the technology’s adoption across a growing range of products and applications.

Honda’s backing adds to the resources being directed toward alternatives to rare-earth-based permanent magnets. For Niron, it supports the transition from commercializing its technology to producing the magnets at a larger scale.

US facility to scale magnet production

Niron recently announced a new 287,000-square-foot facility in Sartell, Minnesota, for magnet manufacturing. The plant is scheduled to begin operating in 2027.

Once operational, the facility is expected to produce up to 1,500 tons of rare-earth-free Iron Nitride permanent magnets annually. This output will serve the company’s targeted automotive, industrial and advanced technology applications.

The facility forms a central part of Niron’s manufacturing expansion. Honda’s investment will support the company as it works to scale production and broaden the use of Iron Nitride magnets across electrified systems.

A satellite has fired a Hall-effect thruster fueled by solid zinc in orbit for the first time, giving spacecraft designers a new option for electric propulsion.

Muon Space completed the test on July 1 aboard SERT-III, a dedicated propulsion test spacecraft. The mission tested the company’s Starlight propulsion system under real orbital conditions.

The thruster fired successfully on its first attempt. Telemetry matched ground-test predictions, while orbital tracking detected a measurable change in the spacecraft’s trajectory.

Zinc aims at xenon

Hall-effect thrusters have become a standard choice for efficient satellite propulsion. Most systems use xenon or krypton, which require high-pressure storage and add complexity to spacecraft designs.

Starlight takes a different approach. Its propellant comes as solid zinc, which remains stable at room temperature and does not need a pressurized tank.

That could simplify spacecraft integration and ground operations. Zinc also costs less than traditional noble-gas propellants and has a much broader supply base.

Those factors matter as satellite operators deploy larger constellations. Cutting propulsion hardware and propellant costs can become significant when the same system flies across dozens of spacecraft.

Muon says Starlight can support orbit raising, station keeping, and controlled deorbiting on small and medium-sized satellites.

The system also addresses a practical challenge that has followed electric propulsion for years. Satellite operators need efficient thrusters, but propulsion hardware must also fit tight spacecraft mass and integration constraints.

SERT-III tests hardware

Muon designed SERT-III specifically to examine how the propulsion system behaves in space. The spacecraft carried sensors to measure performance, spacecraft interactions, and material deposited by the thruster plume.

Ground testing had already established expected performance across different throttle levels and operating conditions. The orbital test provided a chance to see whether those results held up in microgravity.

They did. The thruster fed and vaporized zinc reliably during the firing, according to Muon. Tracking data also confirmed that the spacecraft experienced the expected thrust.

Engineers also watched for unwanted zinc deposition around the spacecraft. Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalance sensors detected less deposition near the thruster than conservative preflight models predicted.

That result gives engineers more data for understanding how zinc behaves after leaving the thruster. It should also help refine plume and contamination models for future spacecraft.

Muon CEO Jonny Dyer called the orbital firing a major milestone for electric propulsion. He said the company chose to acquire Starlight Propulsion because zinc could address persistent problems in the propulsion supply chain.

The test also avoided putting experimental hardware on a primary customer mission. SERT-III gave engineers a spacecraft dedicated to collecting propulsion data without placing another mission at risk.

Customer missions next

Muon now plans to incorporate the flight data into further development of Starlight. Engineers will focus on reliability, manufacturing, and plume management as the system moves toward production.

The company expects its current-generation thruster to reach customer spacecraft before the end of 2026. Muon is also developing a larger second-generation system. It plans to test Gen2 in orbit during the first quarter of 2027.

That version will target larger spacecraft and could expand zinc-based Hall propulsion beyond the smaller satellite market. If the upcoming tests confirm the early results, solid-metal propellant could become a practical alternative for more commercial spacecraft.

A controversy around OpenAI’s latest math proof raises a fear that might become increasingly common: that A.I. tools could take valuable insights from one user and hand them to another.

A future in which AI can recognize a person's unspoken "that's not what I meant" response from brain signals and adjust its behavior on its own is coming closer. KAIST researchers have developed a technology that detects cognitive mismatch between humans and AI through brainwaves, enabling AI systems to revise their actions in real time according to human goals. The achievement is expected to accelerate the shift from AI that follows explicit commands to AI that can infer human intent.

Le 8 octobre prochain, l’Accor Arena à Paris va redevenir, le temps d’une journée, le centre de gravité de l’entrepreneuriat français à l’occasion de Big 2026, organisé par Bpifrance. Le thème de cette 12e édition : le culot. Le culot d’entreprendre, d’investir, de voir plus grand. Mais aussi le...

My guest in this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast is Marco Caffio, who is co-founder of iGii. The UK-based company has developed a porous 3D carbon nanomaterial called Gii, which it manufactures for a range of customers and applications.

Caffio describes Gii as a 3D version of graphene that delivers many of the useful electronic, structural and chemical properties of that 2D wonder material. Unlike graphene, which can be difficult to manufacture and integrate into devices, Caffio explains that Gii can be customized for use in practical technologies such as chemical sensors, batteries and heaters.

We also chat about the genesis of the company and Caffio offers career advice to physicists who are keen on working in the materials-technology sector.

The post Porous material offers the benefits of graphene in 3D appeared first on Physics World.

Researchers in Brazil have demonstrated that a hybrid advanced oxidation process can transform pharmaceutical-laden wastewater into an effluent that is dramatically safer for plants, earthworms, onion root cells, and beneficial microorganisms, offering a rigorous ecotoxicological case for reusing treated sewage in agriculture. The study, published in Environmental Science and Pollution Research, addresses a long-standing blind spot in water treatment: proving that a chemically “clean” effluent is also biologically compatible.

Conventional wastewater treatment plants were never designed to strip out recalcitrant organic micropollutants such as pharmaceuticals, and trace amounts routinely slip through into receiving waters. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) attack these stubborn compounds by generating highly reactive free radicals that fragment contaminant molecules. But chemical degradation alone does not guarantee safety. As contaminants break down, they spawn transformation products (TPs) that can, in some cases, be as toxic as—or more toxic than—the parent compounds. The research team, led by Lucas Gustavo da Costa and Alam Gustavo Trovó of the Federal University of Uberlândia, together with collaborators at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, set out to answer a deceptively simple question: does measurable chemical removal of micropollutants actually translate into reduced biological harm?

The centerpiece of their work is the H₂O₂/S₂O₈²⁻/UVC process, a hybrid system that combines hydrogen peroxide and persulfate with short-wave ultraviolet C radiation. UVC photons cleave both oxidants simultaneously, generating hydroxyl radicals (HO•) and sulfate radicals (SO₄•⁻) in the same reaction volume. This dual-radical strategy outperforms systems relying on either oxidant alone, or on peroxymonosulfate (HSO₅⁻), which is costlier and demands more energy for activation. The hybrid route also resists interference from inorganic species commonly found in real effluents, making it an economically attractive candidate for deployment at full-scale treatment plants. The process had already been chemically optimized in the team’s earlier work using multivariate mixture design and rotatable central composite design experiments; the new study is its first integrated biological stress test.

The experiments used real municipal effluent from a wastewater treatment plant in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, sampled after the plant’s final tertiary treatment stage of coagulation-flocculation with ferric chloride and flotation. The effluent was enriched with three pharmaceuticals representing different therapeutic classes: colchicine (COL, an antimitotic agent), nitazoxanide (NTZ, an antiparasitic), and sulfamethoxazole (SMX, a widely detected antibiotic), each at 325 nmol L⁻¹—equivalent to 130, 100, and 82 micrograms per liter, respectively. That concentration was deliberately chosen as high enough for direct HPLC–DAD analysis without preconcentration, yet low enough to be environmentally representative. Treatment was carried out in an amber glass reactor irradiated by two 8-watt UVC mercury lamps emitting at 254 nm, with a measured irradiance of 4.9 W m⁻². Residual oxidants were neutralized with sodium thiosulfate before any biological testing, ensuring that observed effects could not be attributed to leftover peroxide chemistry.

The ecotoxicological battery spanned multiple trophic levels and levels of biological organization. Oxidative stress was assessed in the earthworm Eisenia andrei by measuring malondialdehyde (MDA), a marker of lipid peroxidation, and protein carbonylation, an irreversible oxidative modification of proteins. Phytotoxicity was evaluated using lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seeds and a growth index combining germination rate and root elongation. Cytotoxicity and genotoxicity were quantified in onion (Allium cepa) root meristems through the mitotic index and the frequency of chromosomal and nuclear aberrations—micronuclei, chromosome breaks, stickiness, bridges, and nuclear buds—across 5,000 cells per sample. Finally, growth inhibition was tested in two environmentally relevant microbes: Azospirillum brasilense, a plant growth-promoting bacterium used in soybean cultivation, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a yeast that persists in soils and fermentative niches.

The untreated enriched effluent told a worrying story. It exhibited substantial genotoxicity in onion cells—21%, approaching the 24% seen with the positive control, methyl methanesulfonate—and severe phytotoxicity, with lettuce growth indices far below the 80% threshold that signals absence of toxicity. Even the unspiked effluent itself suppressed lettuce growth, achieving a growth index of only 47%, evidence that bioactive compounds survive conventional treatment. In earthworms, individual aqueous solutions of NTZ and SMX raised MDA levels by 37.2% and 23.5% respectively, while the three-compound mixture increased lipid peroxidation by 38.0%, pointing to additive or synergistic oxidative stress mechanisms involving reactive oxygen species and Fenton-type chemistry within cells.

The picture changed decisively after oxidation. Following 10 minutes of UVC-driven treatment—the point at which 80% chemical degradation had been achieved, matching the minimum removal target proposed in the European Union’s COM(2022)541 directive—genotoxicity fell to 10%, and after 20 minutes, corresponding to the limit of quantification for the parent compounds, it dropped further to 6%, a statistically significant reduction. The plant growth index climbed above 80%, crossing from toxic territory into biocompatibility. The mitotic index in onion cells remained statistically indistinguishable from the deionized-water control (around 39–40% versus 40%), demonstrating that the process generated no cytotoxic byproducts capable of arresting cell division. And crucially for agricultural applications, neither the treated effluent nor its transformation products inhibited growth of A. brasilense or S. cerevisiae.

The mechanistic details are instructive. In the untreated enriched effluent, micronuclei—membrane-bound DNA fragments expelled from the nucleus during flawed cell division—were among the most frequent aberrations, indicating clastogenic and aneugenic damage. Colchicine exposure predictably produced C-metaphase accumulation, a signature of its tubulin-binding, spindle-disrupting mechanism first described in Allium nearly a century ago. SMX depressed the mitotic index and induced chromosomal damage, consistent with prior findings in Vicia faba. NTZ, whose genotoxicity had never before been reported, produced chromosome breaks, stickiness, and nuclear buds. After oxidation, the overall aberration burden fell sharply, particularly micronuclei and stickiness, although a few bridges and polyploid cells persisted even at 20 minutes—a reminder that some transformation products or resistant residuals may linger.

The microbial results came with a subtlety. Reduced A. brasilense growth after treatment initially looked like a red flag, but the team attributes it to depletion of assimilable organic matter, which serves as radical scavenger during oxidation and as a nutrient source afterward—not to toxicity. The negative control likewise grew slowly. This distinction matters because AOPs are designed to mineralize organic carbon, and a nutrient-poorer medium should not be misread as a more toxic one. For S. cerevisiae, no inhibition occurred at any stage of treatment, although NTZ alone significantly depressed yeast optical density, reinforcing the compound’s cell-cycle interference potential even at nanomolar-scale exposures.

The study’s broader significance lies in its methodological stance. By adopting an “effect-driven approach,” the team evaluated the toxicity of whole reaction mixtures without needing to isolate and identify individual transformation products—an impractical task given that many degradation byproducts are not commercially available. Their findings align with a growing consensus that treatment efficacy must be judged not merely by parent-compound removal but by the nature and reactivity of the resulting transformation products. Biochemical biomarkers such as MDA and protein carbonylation detected sublethal disturbances that mortality-based endpoints would have missed entirely, providing early warnings of cellular distress at environmentally relevant concentrations.

One caveat deserves attention: while lipid peroxidation declined after treatment, protein carbonylation rose slightly—1.05-fold above control—suggesting some transformation products may still provoke protein oxidation even as lipid damage subsides. The authors flag this discrepancy and call for future identification of the specific TPs responsible, alongside expanded organism panels, longer-term exposure studies, and pilot-scale validation across different environmental matrices.

The regulatory context sharpens the urgency. The EU’s proposed urban wastewater treatment directive mandates at least 80% removal of specified organic micropollutants and microbiological control for agricultural reuse, yet it conspicuously omits eco-compatibility assessment of the treated water itself. This study supplies exactly that missing dimension, showing that a process satisfying the chemical benchmark also delivers measurable biological benefit—lower genotoxicity, restored plant growth, intact cell division, and unharmed beneficial microbes. As water scarcity intensifies globally and reuse becomes less optional, the Brazilian team’s integrated bioassay framework offers a template for ensuring that the water farmers irrigate with is not merely chemically compliant, but genuinely ecologically safe.

Apple unveiled the $1,999 iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12, and AirPods 5 as it expands its AI ecosystem.

IonQ’s Superion 256 pairs semiconductor manufacturing with trapped-ion quantum hardware, but full-system performance data is still pending.

Their warnings echo concerns that other artificial intelligence experts have voiced in recent months, as calls increase for a slowdown in the pace of development.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and industry partners are deploying advanced manufacturing technologies, such as heavy 3D printing and AI-driven automation, to repair broken US industrial supply chains.

For instance, inside an advanced Tennessee facility, a giant three-armed robot called MedUSA crafted a three-by-five-foot nuclear pressure vessel by guiding molten steel into place. Nearby was a large 12-foot model of an impact limiter, made from strong plastic instead of the usual wood. These were battle tests for the future of American industry.

America’s industrial sector is facing severe operational hurdles, driven by irregular supply chains and a shortage of skilled workers. These issues have created extreme delays in infrastructure sectors like hydropower, where acquiring major custom components can now take over ten years.

Over 350 leaders gathered at ORNL for the Materials and Manufacturing Innovation Days. They discussed ways to speed up the adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies.

The goal of M2IND was simple yet ambitious: remove the administrative and technical obstacles slowing advanced technology, and turn laboratory breakthroughs into factory-floor reality before time runs out.

“We want to make sure we have input from industry to help guide our research and ensure that the work at Oak Ridge and the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) is valuable to U.S. manufacturers and takes into account the supply chains needed to commercialize new technologies,” said MDF Director Ryan Dehoff.

Fast-track advanced manufacturing

The event featured two large 3D-printed nuclear energy structures. Researchers worked with the University of Maine to print a glass-fiber polymer model of an impact limiter. This massive component protects spent nuclear fuel shipping containers during transport and replaces traditional wood designs. 

Scientists also used a three-arm robotic system to print a steel pressure vessel with complex domed geometry. This project shows how additive manufacturing can produce large metal parts that usually face production issues. 

Standard reactor vessels use large-scale forging and welding, which face severe domestic capacity limits. The 3D-printed vessel served as a test case to evaluate additive manufacturing as a viable alternative. 

Supply chain issues

Participants highlighted urgent needs for resilient supply chains, alternative materials, and faster part qualification. They also pushed to combine manufacturing with AI, robotics, and digital engineering. New partnerships were formed to quickly turn laboratory research into practical tools for manufacturers.

Representatives from four Department of Energy offices and defense officials joined leaders from energy, manufacturing, and technology sectors at the event. Together, several key obstacles facing American industry were identified. These challenges include limited local capacity for large metal parts and long component lead times. 

ORNL formed key industrial partnerships to bring research into practical factory use. Yet, as forum participants repeatedly emphasized, printing a part is only half the battle. Getting it certified for real-world use is where momentum often dies.

To bridge that gap, ORNL announced a joint research effort with Idaho National Laboratory to standardize digital qualification methods across different facilities

Researchers hope to give regulators the data needed to certify 3D-printed nuclear and energy components in months rather than years. They plan to do this using real-time sensors, machine learning, and defect-tracking algorithms during the build process.

With new partnerships signed with energy titans like SLB and Kairos Power, the push is clear. Urgency has replaced routine. America is racing to rebuild its domestic manufacturing core, starting right on the laboratory floor.

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The MacVoices Live!  examines Apple’s transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus, weighing Cook’s legacy, Apple’s dramatic financial growth, Vision Pro, and criticism of his tenure. They consider what Ternus’ engineering background could mean for hardware and software, while discussing Phil Schiller, Eddie Cue, other executive changes, succession planning, and the importance of preserving institutional […]

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The Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology (MSIT) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) have announced that the next-generation national supercomputer will be launched by December this year.

Dubbed Supercomputer No.6, the machine will be equipped with 8,496 graphics processing units (GPUs) and boast a 614 petaflops performance, likely pushing it into the Top 10 supercomputers in the world. 

Supercomputers are extremely fast and large computers that can carry out extremely complex mathematics to solve problems of engineering and science that regular computers cannot handle. From energy exploration to weather forecasting, space research to drug discovery, supercomputers are tasked with carrying out simulations that help us better understand these fields and help scientists make discoveries. 

Countries typically built these large-scale computers at their national institutes to make scientific breakthroughs and attain economic leadership, while also deploying them for national security measures. 

The world’s top supercomputers are listed in the TOP500, with the latest edition listing China’s LineShine and ending US dominance at the top of the list. South Korea has 15 supercomputers on the list, with KISTI’s Supercomputer No. 5 occupying the 109th spot. KISTI and MSIT aim to break into the top 10, with Supercomputer No. 6 coming this December. 

Supercomputer No.6

KISTI’s Supercomputer No. 6 is built around NVIDIA’s GraceHopper 200 chips that integrate the central processing units (CPUs) and GPU units. The upcoming unit will feature 8,496 GPUs and 9,936 CPUs, 205 petabytes (PB) of onboard storage, and networking speeds that exceed 400 Gbps. 

Theoretically, Supercomputer No. 6’s computing performance is 614 petaflops, which is a huge leap when compared to its predecessor, Supercomputer No. 5, “Nurion, unveiled in 2017 with computing performance of 25.7 petaflops. Apart from a 24x increase in theoretical computing performance, the successor supercomputer will also get a 10x increase in storage and 4x faster networking speed. 

MSIT and KISTI signed an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise for system installation last year. Post-installation inspections began last month, and performance and stability testing is underway as South Korea looks for a December launch. 

Once operational, the supercomputer will enable access to massive computing resources for researchers engaged in computational science, data simulation, and AI-based scientific research. Plans include redistributing the resources across three programs: National Strategy (30 percent), R&D Innovation (55 percent), and Industrial Innovation (15 percent). 

Not smooth sailing

The announcement of the new supercomputer and its likely availability in the near term is great news for researchers. However, the acquisition was not this smooth sailing. Soon after the Supercomputer No. 5 was introduced in 2018, South Korean researchers began looking for its successor as early as 2021. 

However, the boom in generative AI, which has matured with ChatGPT and Claude, has now caused a huge surge in demand for GPUs. As prices for GPUs skyrocketed, South Korea couldn’t secure the chips at budgeted prices and had to spend 448.3 billion won (~US $334.9 million), a 53 percent jump over its initial budget of 292.9 billion won (~ US$218.8 million) to make the supercomputer a reality. 

“Supercomputer No. 6 is core infrastructure that will drive a major leap in scientific and technological research productivity in the AI era,” said Kim Sung-soo, Director General of the R&D Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT in a press release. 

“We expect it to generate tangible outcomes that contribute to securing national strategic technologies, including K-Moonshot and the 7 Major SEEDs, as well as research innovation across industry, academia, and research institutes.”

OpenAI is expanding its AI infrastructure footprint in Malaysia through a Firmus deal for two data centers deploying Nvidia Vera Rubin systems.

The US finalized up to $300M in quantum awards for three architectures, targeting optics, cryogenics, control hardware, and fabrication.

Machine vision is becoming a practical part of Apple’s U.S. factory training strategy, giving smaller manufacturers access to techniques that help production systems inspect what they make. The recent opening of the Houston manufacturing training center extends that effort into a working electronics production campus, while courses developed with Michigan State University introduce businesses to image analysis, machine learning, and automated quality checks.

For a manufacturer, the attraction can be straightforward: finding a missing component before a product leaves the line, identifying a surface defect before more material is added, or recognizing an assembly error while it can still be corrected cheaply.

These are manageable problems with measurable costs. They also offer an accessible starting point for businesses interested in AI but unsure where it belongs inside their operations.

Machine Vision Enters the Manufacturing Curriculum

The Apple Manufacturing Academy’s current course catalog includes Machine Learning with Vision, a course introducing machine learning and deep learning through practical activities using Apple devices. It sits alongside instruction in automation, quality fundamentals, manufacturing data, maintenance, and process improvement.

That placement gives the subject useful context. A camera can produce an image, but a factory needs a decision: accept the part, flag it for review, check its position, or investigate a process that may be drifting out of tolerance.

Machine vision connects image capture to those operational decisions. Some applications use established rules to measure dimensions or identify patterns. Others use machine learning to recognize acceptable variations and defects that are difficult to describe through fixed rules.

The academy’s public description confirms introductory activities with Apple devices. It does not identify a particular iPhone, Mac configuration, software framework, or industrial camera package that every participant must use.

For smaller businesses, the educational value is learning how to define an inspection problem before purchasing equipment. A company that understands what it needs to detect can have a much more productive conversation with an automation supplier.

Houston Brings Training Closer to Production

Apple opened its 20,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center on August 13. According to the Houston opening announcement, the free program offers small and medium-sized businesses instruction in advanced manufacturing, interactive labs, and experience with representative production equipment.

The first cohort worked with machine learning for quality control and advanced automation. Participants also explored production challenges, used a holographic table, and assembled and laser etched a product.

The location adds context: the center occupies the same Houston facility that builds advanced AI servers and is scheduled to begin Mac mini manufacturing this year. Its teaching program includes final assembly principles and design considerations for printed circuit board assembly.

Houston is the company’s second U.S. manufacturing learning site, following the Detroit academy established with Michigan State University in August 2025. By the Houston opening, Apple said the academy had helped nearly 1,000 workers, students, and entrepreneurs.

That figure measures people reached through the program. It should not be interpreted as 1,000 factories already operating AI inspection systems.

A Useful Inspection Starts With a Specific Problem

Imagine a small business assembling control panels. Each panel needs the same set of connectors, positioned correctly before the enclosure closes. A machine vision station could check for a missing connector while the assembly remains accessible.

The value comes from catching that error at the right moment. Discovering it after packaging creates extra handling and rework. Discovering it after delivery may involve a return, a service visit, and an unhappy customer.

A useful pilot would therefore begin with that single inspection point. The business could compare the existing process with the assisted one, recording missed defects, unnecessary rechecks, inspection time, and the cost of correcting mistakes.

The camera is only part of the exercise. Workers must agree on what constitutes a defect, collect representative examples, and decide what happens when the result is uncertain.

Those decisions draw heavily on experience already present on the factory floor. An operator may know that an unusual mark is harmless, while a barely visible change in alignment predicts a later assembly problem. Turning that knowledge into consistent inspection criteria is valuable work in its own right.

These are examples of how manufacturers could apply the training, rather than projects Apple has announced for individual participants.

Teaching Machine Vision to Handle Ordinary Variation

A demonstration can look impressive when every part arrives clean, centered, and evenly lit. Production introduces variation: different surface finishes, reflections, changing positions, and batches that look slightly different while remaining within specification.

The inspection system must distinguish those acceptable differences from actual failures. Otherwise, it can reject good products or allow defective ones to continue.

Industrial vision supplier Cognex’s deployment guidance recommends validating systems across product models, defect types, and manufacturing lines. It also describes an approach in which automated inspection handles preliminary checks while experienced inspectors review borderline cases.

For a business learning machine vision, that offers a realistic way to introduce the technology. Employees can compare its decisions with their own, investigate disagreements, and determine whether the results justify extending its role.

An inspection system also needs an owner after installation. Someone must understand when a product change requires new examples, when equipment needs attention, and when performance has slipped. Training that responsibility into the workforce helps prevent an initially successful project from becoming an unreliable fixture.

Smaller Manufacturers Are Already Applying the Training

The academy’s reach extends beyond companies producing consumer electronics. In its May update on participating manufacturers, Apple highlighted Block Imaging, a Michigan business that services and refurbishes medical imaging equipment.

The company hosted visitors during the academy’s Spring Forum and described applying techniques learned from Apple engineers and Michigan State experts to its operations. Apple reported that the academy had supported more than 150 American businesses at that point.

The announcement did not identify a particular machine vision deployment at Block Imaging or publish a percentage improvement attributable to visual inspection. It does provide an example of the training reaching businesses whose work differs substantially from building an iPhone.

That wider participation could benefit Apple indirectly. More capable domestic manufacturers can support equipment maintenance, tooling, components, and specialized production services. Participation itself does not establish a supplier relationship, but the skills can be used across customers and industries.

Access Without a Large Training Budget

The academy’s participation information says eligible small and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers can take courses free of charge. Online learning includes on-demand materials and interactive modules, while in-person sessions add workshops and more personalized instruction.

Digital badges are available for different topics, and completed course materials remain accessible for review. That gives a business room to train an employee around existing production commitments and return to the material when an actual project begins.

Free instruction does not remove the eventual cost of cameras, lighting, integration, maintenance, or employee time. It can help a manufacturer understand those costs before committing to a system.

The first proposal brought back to the factory might be modest: inspect one recurring defect at one station and record the results for several weeks. A supervisor can then weigh the time saved against the extra reviews, maintenance, and mistakes. That is the kind of evidence a business owner can use when deciding whether to install a second station.

The post Machine Vision Joins Apple’s U.S. Factory Training Push appeared first on AppleMagazine.

Adam Engst looks back at HyperCard as an early tool that democratized software creation, then connects its legacy to today’s AI-assisted development. He outlines how Claude helped turn an idea for tracking macOS setting changes into a working Mac app, SetShot. Adam discusses Xcode, GitHub, rapid iteration, and the value of visual feedback in his development process, and how AI lowers programming barriers without eliminating the need for thought, judgment, and effort. 

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When John Ternus becomes Apple’s chief executive on Tuesday, he inherits a company that looks, on paper, unbeatable. Apple is valued at nearly $5 trillion and remains one of the most profitable businesses on Earth. That is also the problem. Starting at the summit is harder than climbing it. As The Wall Street Journal’s Rolfe Winkler has put it, Ternus must take Apple beyond Tim Cook’s iterative supply-chain mastery if the company is going to reach new heights from already extraordinary ones.

Ternus takes over from Cook, who will stay on as executive chairman. Cook spent 15 years turning Steve Jobs’s product company into a supply-chain, services, and cash-flow machine. He extracted enormous value from the iPhone, expanded the App Store and iCloud, and built Apple into a colossus. What he did not leave behind is an undisputed next act.

The question hanging over Cupertino is whether Ternus can do more than keep the machine running. Can he revive the kind of product-led risk that defined Jobs, without throwing away the operational discipline that made Cook’s era so lucrative?

The hardware lifer

Ternus is not a celebrity CEO. He is a mechanical engineer who joined Apple in 2001, rose through Mac hardware, and eventually ran engineering for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, AirPods, and Vision Pro. He is 50 — the same age Cook was when he succeeded Jobs. Colleagues describe him as even-tempered, detail-obsessed, and fluent in Apple’s internal politics.

That profile is both his advantage and his constraint. He knows how Apple products are actually built. He helped shepherd the shift to Apple silicon, one of the most consequential engineering moves of the last two decades. He also oversaw incremental refinements that made devices thinner, more durable, and easier to repair. Those are real achievements. They are not, by themselves, a new category.

If Jobs was the visionary and Cook the operator, Ternus sits in the middle: a hardware savant asked to become a public strategist. He will have to lean on other executives for finance, sales, legal, government relations, and procurement — areas where Cook excelled.

The AI gap

Apple’s most visible vulnerability is artificial intelligence. Since ChatGPT arrived in late 2022, rivals have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into models and data centers. Apple has emphasized on-device intelligence, privacy, and integration with existing gadgets. That is a coherent strategy. It has not yet produced a moment that reset the industry conversation.

Ternus’s bet is that hardware is still the point. Apple’s argument is that people will use AI through devices they already love—phones, earbuds, glasses, home screens — rather than through chat windows alone. Camera-equipped AirPods, smart glasses, a voice-aware home display, a robotic-arm screen, and a wearable pendant are all in various stages of development. Some are expected this fall. Others are further out. All of them depend on making AI feel native, private, and physical.

That is a harder product problem than buying more GPUs. It is also the only problem Apple is uniquely positioned to solve. Whether investors will wait for it is another matter. Apple’s stock has lagged other megacap tech names for much of the generative-AI boom, even as its profits stayed enormous.

A first act already scheduled

Ternus will not get a quiet first month. Apple’s fall event is set for September 9th at the Steve Jobs Theater, under the tagline “Surprise and shine.” The centerpiece is widely expected to be Apple’s first foldable iPhone, alongside new Pro models. The timing was not accidental. Ternus led the hardware work on the foldable, and the CEO transition was aligned with its debut.

A foldable is not a new idea. Samsung has sold them for years. Apple’s version will be judged on crease, durability, software, and whether unfolding a phone feels inevitable rather than novelty. Reports describe a book-style device with a compact outer screen and a roughly tablet-sized inner display, priced well above $2,000. Early supply is expected to be tight.

That product is a test of more than engineering. It is a test of whether Apple can still introduce a form factor that changes how people use a phone — the last time it did that at this scale was the iPhone X in 2017.

What “innovation” actually means now

There is a temptation to frame Ternus as “the next Jobs” or “Cook 2.0.” Neither is useful. Jobs could force the company through a single product vision because Apple was smaller and more desperate. Cook could optimize a global manufacturing system because the iPhone had already won. Ternus faces a third problem: how to invent the next platform while defending a $5 trillion franchise, a China-centric supply chain under political strain, and regulators who treat Apple as infrastructure rather than a gadget maker.

The Jobs engine was never just “think different.” It was an integrated loop of hardware, software, and a willingness to kill good-enough products. Cook’s engine was iteration, predictability, scale, and services attached to devices people already owned. Ternus has to run both at once.

That means new devices that justify themselves, not annual spec bumps. It means an AI strategy that does not look like a late partnership bolted onto Siri. It means keeping Apple’s culture of secrecy and craft without freezing the company in the last successful decade.

Cook built the Apple colossus. Ternus has to decide whether the next decade is about defending it — or risking another product that makes the last one look incomplete. The foldable iPhone will be the first public answer. It will not be the last.
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MacDailyNews Take: Good luck, John. No pressure!

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The post Can Apple’s new CEO restart the Steve Jobs innovation engine? appeared first on MacDailyNews.