Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) have announced the first ultrafast laser delivering 1.05 nanojoules of energy in extremely short pulses as short as 147 femtoseconds integrated onto a photonic chip.

The research team behind the accomplishment said that successfully scaling down ultrafast lasers of this magnitude from large tabletop models to microchip integration could enable extremely advanced sensing technologies, improve medical imaging, and potentially enable next-generation atomic clocks for yet-to-be-developed communication and navigation applications.

Ultrafast Lasers on a Microchip Scale Have Remained an Elusive Photonics ‘Holy Grail’

In a statement announcing the breakthrough, team leader and EPFL Professor Tobias J. Kippenberg explained that ultrafast lasers emit extremely short pulses of light energy lasting only a few hundred femtoseconds, which are quadrillionths of a second. Although the development of this category of lasers has enabled ultraprecise micromachining, atomic clocks, and advanced eye surgery, the team notes that the “bulky” technology has been limited to optical laser tables.

On the other end of the spectrum, engineers have built extremely small photonic chips that channel light in a similar way to how traditional microprocessors channel electricity to perform calculations. Some photonic chip designs are already widely used in the communications industry. However, integrating the ultrafast laser technology at the power levels demonstrated by the research team into a smaller chip has remained particularly elusive.

“For more than twenty years, a high-pulse-energy femtosecond laser on chip was widely regarded as a holy grail of integrated photonics,” Professor Kippenberg explained.

“Overlooked, Surprisingly Elegant Technology” Could Enable Futuristic Technologies

To find the nexus between size, speed, and power that could enable a true high-energy, ultrafast laser on a chip, the EPFL team opted to turn away from traditional laser designs and instead took advantage of what they termed a “largely overlooked” design: a Mamyshev oscillator.

Unlike some designs, this oscillator uses a nonlinear waveguide placed between the two optical filters in the laser cavity, each of which allows a different color of the spectrum to pass through. When a strong light pulse travels through the installed waveguide, the beam broadens into a wider range of colors.

The team notes that this effect allows part of the light pulse to pass through both filters and remain in circulation. However, they also note that “weak light” does not broaden enough when impacting the waveguide and is ‘rejected.’

Zheru Qiu, a co-lead author of the paper, said that beyond speed and power, their chip has commercial potential due to its material simplicity.

“This design is especially attractive because it does not require any component that is difficult to make on this erbium-doped silicon nitride chip,” Qiu explained.

Another advantage to the team’s design is its resistance to nonlinear interaction. Put simply, when waveguides squeeze light into tiny spaces, that same light interacts strongly with itself.

The resulting nonlinear interactions can degrade the performance of traditional photonic chip designs. However, Qiu said that a laser with a Mamyshev oscillator is “well suited to the tight confinement of light in photonic chips.”

“Our result shows that it is not only possible, but that it can be achieved with a surprisingly elegant architecture that the integrated-photonics community had overlooked,” Qiu explained of their revolutionary architecture. 

Integrated Chips Could Replace Large, Expensive Laboratory Lasers

When discussing the versatility of their ultrafast laser on a chip, the researchers noted that the prototype’s 42-cm-long laser cavity can be folded down to a size smaller than a matchhead. For comparison, they noted that 42 centimeters is “far smaller than optical fiber-based lasers.”

For potential commercial applications, the team said their chips can be manufactured “at-scale,” with an excess of 1,000 individual laser cavities per chip. Although currently in the demonstration phase, the team suggested that a fully realized commercial-grade ultrafast laser-on-a-chip could provide engineers with a critical microengineering tool they have lacked.

“With kilowatt-level peak powers, the chip can drive demanding applications that have long depended on large, expensive laboratory lasers,” says Qiu.

The researchers suggested their chip could impact several technologies, such as advanced sensing and medical imaging, and potentially pave the way for futuristic technologies based on ultraprecise atomic clocks.

The study “High-pulse-energy integrated mode-locked laser using a Mamyshev oscillator” was published in Nature.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

An international team of astronomers has uncovered what they are calling the clearest evidence yet for dying white dwarf stars as the origin of a class of mysterious cosmic signals called long-period radio transients.

The research, led by University of Sydney PhD student Kovi Rose, potentially offers researchers a ‘Rosetta Stone’ capable of deciphering and categorizing other such signals.

“For the first time, we have pinpointed the origin of these signals, confirming the source to be a ‘cataclysmic variable’, or an accreting white dwarf star,” Rose explained in an email to The Debrief.

The team behind the discovery, including the astronomers at CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope, said that identifying the origin of these transient cosmic signals that come from a few remote regions of the Milky Way galaxy could also offer researchers a “natural laboratory” to study the extreme physics that occur in such environments.

Mysterious Cosmic Signals “Have Puzzled Astronomers for Years”

According to the same email, long-period radio transients were initially thought to be slow-spinning neutron stars, known as pulsars, emitting periodic energy bursts. However, the team notes that mathematical models suggest that slow-rotating neutron stars cannot generate enough energy to produce the mysterious cosmic signals.

“Long-period radio transients have puzzled astronomers for years,” Mr. Rose explained. “We’ve only found about a dozen, and their origins have been unclear.”

Hoping to solve the mystery, the University of Sydney-led team aimed their instruments at a region of space and discovered a small, dense star called a white dwarf. However, unlike our solitary Sun, this white dwarf is part of a binary star system, named ASKAP J1745−5051, with a much larger but less dense red dwarf as its companion.

After several scans with ASKAP, the team discovered that the smaller white dwarf, about the size of Earth but with a mass closer to the Sun’s, was shedding or accreting material onto the larger but less dense red dwarf star. As the material heats up, it releases X-rays.

The team also detected periodic bursts of radio signals from the binary system. Although these regular emissions are tied to the system’s orbital motion, the researchers found that the bursts of X-rays and radio signals didn’t peak at the same time. According to Mr. Rose, this lack of synchronicity “tells us they’re being produced in different regions of the system.”

Analysis Reveals Long-Period Radio Transient Match

A closer analysis suggested that, due to the proximity of the two stars, which orbit each other in just one hour, their interacting magnetic fields were producing regular radio-wave bursts, which the team clocked at 1.4-hour intervals.

Professor Murphy, Head of School at the University of Sydney School of Physics and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), said that similar objects have previously been linked to binary star systems, “but this is the first one where we can clearly see both stars and the accretion process in action.”

When the team compared the emissions from the binary system with those of previously detected long-period radio transients, the data were a clear match. According to Rose, this comparison proved definitively that this elusive category of mysterious cosmic signals “comes from a white dwarf actively pulling material from a companion star.”

Natural Laboratories for Exploring Extreme Plasma Physics

Although the team’s findings do not rule out other causes of these mysterious cosmic signals, they said their discovery “strengthens an alternative explanation” that at least some are caused by binary star systems involving white dwarfs.

“The system is also only the second known long-period radio transient to emit regular X-rays – and the first where the cause of the regularity has been confirmed,” they explained.

When discussing the potential impact of their findings on future research, the team noted that ASKAP J1745-5051 could provide astronomers “a reference point” for understanding other long-period radio transients that have remained uncharacterized.

Mr. Rose said that the system could help researchers determine whether other long-period transients are more like pulsars or like white dwarf systems, “acting like a stellar Rosetta stone,” referencing the famous stone tablet that helped modern researchers decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. He also noted that the system offers researchers a unique opportunity to study extreme plasma physics and magnetic-field interactions “under conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth.”

“These systems are natural laboratories,” Mr Rose said. “They allow us to test our understanding of how matter behaves in strong magnetic fields and under intense gravitational forces.”

In the future, the University of Sydney-led team said they are planning future observations of the system with a combination of optical, radio, and X-ray telescopes “to better understand how these emissions are generated” and to determine whether similar mechanisms found in this system can explain the full population of long-period radio transients spotted to date.

“Each new discovery is helping us piece together the bigger picture,” Mr Rose explained. “We’re only just beginning to understand this new class of cosmic events.”

The findings are published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

 Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Brown University researchers have revealed a new video processing method called PackUV, which they are describing as a “key step” towards realistic, storable, 3D volumetric video that can be viewed from all angles and is compatible with the video codecs that currently power most video on the internet, making it streamable.

The team behind the new volumetric video processing approach said their technique could enable practical 3D video streaming on everyday devices like smartphones, computers, and smart TVs without requiring new display technologies, ushering in a new era of realistic 3D video entertainment.

3D Volumetric Video Offers Unprecedented Versatility and Challenges

According to Brown computer science graduate student and study leader Aashish Rai, volumetric video involves capturing actions with multiple synchronized cameras encircling the target scene. After the scene is recorded, specialized algorithms rebuild the location in three dimensions. Notably, the newly constructed volumetric video can be viewed from any perspective within the recording space.

“With volumetric video, you can basically explore a scene from any vantage point you want,” Rai explained, adding that capturing three dimensions plus a time dimension actually makes the resulting recording “a 4D video.”

Capturing video in this manner allows directors to show scenes from perspectives unattainable by conventional filming techniques. In theory, such a video could be combined with a user interface that lets viewers navigate through a scene, including options such as viewing a sports play from on the field or a concert from the stage.

Still, the Brown researchers note, several challenges have kept volumetric 3D video from wider adoption. This includes compressing the video enough to make streaming 3D volumetric content viable with current internet infrastructure and protocols.

“Volumetric video is incredibly hard to store and stream,” Rai explained, adding that a 30-minute clip “can balloon to terabytes of data, and the formats it comes in are completely alien to the infrastructure the internet already runs on — your computer, your streaming service, your video codec.”

Rendering 3D Video Onto a 2D ‘Surface’ Creates Internet-Capable Files

To overcome the obstacles preventing the wider adoption of the technology, the Brown team started with the 3D scene rendering method currently in use, called 3D Gaussian Splatting. According to the team’s statement, this approach renders 3D images using “fuzzy blobs that encode the color, opacity, and shape of points in space,” called Gaussians.

In the new approach, the team found a way of mapping a 3D scene and its millions of Gaussians into a more manageable 2D image. According to Rai, the approach is similar to how a mapmaker projects a 3D globe onto a flat, 2D surface, resulting in “a structured, multi-scale image” that encodes all the information contained in the original dynamic 3D scene.

Next, the team’s process involves stacking the 3D-encoded images together. The result is a video with a much more manageable file size than traditional 3D volumetric videos, which the team notes “is compatible with stalwart video codecs that run Netflix, YouTube and most of the rest of the internet.”

“We basically convert this entire 4D scene into a normal video that you can stream over the internet and share with friends,” Rai explained.

Renders Scenes Up to 30 Minutes Without Breaking Down

In addition to overcoming file-size and streaming limitations that have plagued current 3D volumetric video strategies, the Brown team said their work addresses the tendency of current methods to “break down” over time, thereby limiting the length of potential videos.

The primary challenge is tracking objects when they go out of camera view, such as a ball temporarily “disappearing” behind a competitor. The team said the existing technology also has trouble handling “novel movement,” such as a person entering a room midway through another sequence of events.

According to Rai, their approach solves this limitation by splitting a longer video file “into small chunks.” Once separated, their system checks the start of each video segment to determine whether something has entered or left the scene. Once PackUV makes that determination, Rai said it instructs the software to “model accordingly.”

“By restarting the tracking process more frequently, the new technique is better able to reacquire objects that have been temporarily blocked and deal appropriately with new movements,” the research team explained, adding that their approach can seamlessly render complex 3D volumetric video scenes up to 30 minutes in length without failure, “far longer than other Gaussian Splatting approaches.”

3D Volumetric Video Could Impact Entertainment, Manufacturing, and “Other Areas”

To validate their approach, the Brown team put together what they described as potentially “the largest dataset of multi-view video ever assembled” and made it publicly available to other researchers. This includes video of all kinds of activities, including cooking, woodworking, and various sports.

Critically, the assembled dataset was all captured with arrays of 50 to 90 synchronized cameras. Rai’s team said these included actions captured in laboratory settings, specially equipped with cameras, as well as mobile camera arrays capturing action “in the real world.”

Although this work is just a first step toward streamable, 3D volumetric video at the viewer’s fingertips, Rai said that their work helps advance a technology with a wealth of potential future applications, in which building a ‘digital twin’ of the real world is critical to seamless streaming.

“There are real-world applications in entertainment and sports, for example, but also other use cases — manufacturing and other areas — where you need to create digital twins of the real world,” Sridhar said. “Fundamentally, that’s what this work is about.”

Rai will present the work, PackUV: Packed Gaussian UV Maps for 4D Volumetric Video, at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in June.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

47 years after the first of a series of mystery quakes shook Utah area residents, scientists have determined that these Earth-shaking events originate deep in the mantle rather than in the crust, where typical earthquakes originate.

Although the research team behind the published study outlining their mystery quake origin theory suggests a potential cause of these continental mantle earthquakes (CMEs), they said that there remain inherent challenges in studying these transient events, which occur in isolation without foreshocks or aftershocks, helping explain the decades-long mystery surrounding them.

“It’s sort of a mystery in terms of fundamental physics,” said the study’s leader, geology professor Keith Koper, “How in the world can these things happen?”

How a 1979 Mystery Quake Shook up Science for Decades

According to a statement announcing the new mystery quake findings, the enigma began on February 24th, 1979, when the University of Utah’s seismographic instruments detected an earthquake beneath the town of Randolph, near the Montana-Wyoming border. Although the relatively sophisticated instruments indicated it was a respectable 3.8 on the Richter scale, there was a surprising lack of public reports of shaking and rumbling that typically accompany such events.

When the young researcher decided to try to pinpoint the origin of the mystery quake that appeared suddenly without a foreshock, civilian reports, or a local fault line, his calculations didn’t make sense. According to Zandt, his data revealed that the mystery quake had originated 90 kilometers (about 56 miles) beneath the surface.

Because earthquakes originating below the so-called ‘Moho’ (Mohorovičić) region separating the Earth’s upper crust and lower mantle were considered impossible, the researcher was initially perplexed at the stubbornly consistent data. Still, he noted, the depth would help explain why people hadn’t felt the event, despite its relatively robust energy signature.

After some further analysis, Zandt, who has enjoyed a long career on the University of Arizona’s geology faculty since the initial mystery quakes investigation that he performed as a postdoctoral candidate and came out of retirement to co-author this new study, said the results “convinced me of the reality of the deep depth.” However, he added, “It was hard to convince others of the highly anomalous mantle earthquake occurring in a region where none should exist.”

 New Analysis Finds Eight Additional CME’s and a Possible Cause

After submitting an abstract about the mystery quake for the journal Earthquake Notes, the young researcher’s findings of a mantle-originating event remained largely unnoticed. Then, in 2025, a new generation of university geologists took a fresh look at the data. According to the team’s published study, this included reexamining the waveform data from the original mystery quake and from eight other events that had occurred since then in the same general region.

After a thorough analysis and some input from Zandt, Professor Koper’s team confirmed that all nine events originated below the crust, resulting in the creation of the new CME category. Before the team published their findings, another CME was detected on September 10^th, 2025. Measured at a magnitude of 4.1, the event originated approximately 68 kilometers beneath the surface, or over 20 km below the Moho line.

According to Koper, the ‘archetypical continental mantle event’ was an example of an earthquake “nucleating in very unusual conditions.”

“The high temperature, the high pressure, and almost all the material at that depth is going to flow,” the professor explained, adding that the stretched deep Earth material is more like “taffy on long time scales, millions of years.”

“Nevertheless, you can still see it in rocks that have made their way back up to the surface; you can see how they were stretched,” he added.

‘Little Icebergs’ of Earth’s Lithosphere Direct the Mantle’s Flow, Like a Ship’s Rudder

Although the University of Utah team is confident in their identification of a new type of earthquake that originates beneath the crust in the mantle, they note that the newly identified CME’s still present a few mysteries. For example, the nine events characterized in their study occurred without any foreshocks or aftershocks. Koper said that another point that makes the study’s findings “a big deal” is that researchers have no idea how big a CME can be.

“With crustal earthquakes, we can measure what we think their maximum size is going to be,” the professor explained. “We measure the faults that we can map out near the surface. We can measure the length of a fault segment, and that clues us into how big it can be, which helps us estimate seismic hazard.”

More research will be needed to further understand the mystery quakes that randomly shake the relatively isolated region, but the study authors said they already have a working theory to explain these little-understood, transient events.

Resting within the Earth’s mantle are ancient blocks of the planet’s lithosphere, structures that the team compared to icebergs. According to the team’s theory, the area where the quakes are occurring has a geological composition and history that make it susceptible to the events leading up to a CME.

“On the scale of millions of years, the mantle is hitting the craton and then flowing around it,” Koper explained. “It’s that interaction where that mantle flow is being diverted around this hard cratonic root that’s causing the increased strain rate, the increased deformation, and it’s also creating extra stresses.”

“We think it’s that interaction between the keel of the iceberg and the medium around it that’s leading to these earthquakes,” the professor added.

The study “The 10 September 2025  4.1 Earthquake in Northeastern Utah, United States: An Archetypal Continental Mantle Event” was published in The Seismic Record.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

When George Mason University‌‌ scientists ran thousands of virtual simulations looking for the best ways to optimize group dynamics in future Moon bases, including NASA’s planned ARTEMIS mission base facility, they found that smaller crew sizes and longer mission durations adversely affected task completion, whereas shorter missions and frequent astronaut replacement mitigated challenges.

The Moon base simulations also found that extreme events such as moonquakes and radiation exposure increased group stress, resulting in what they described as an “emotional penalty that is applied multiplicatively” to the likelihood that the entire crew would execute the task.

Although the team behind the model reported no scenarios that resulted in a complete Lord of the Flies-level breakdown of crew cooperation, they said that their simulations explored the internal human and external environmental factors “that are more likely to lead to sustainable versus catastrophic scenarios on the Moon in the next couple of decades,” including planned NASA missions to the Moon and Mars as well as the burgeoning commercial space market.

Virtual Astronauts Evaluated on Task Performance

In a published paper detailing the study’s results, the George Mason University team behind the Lunar Base simulations noted that recent technological advancements and the emergence of the burgeoning commercial space industry “have led to substantial leaps in planning for future space missions.”

“The largest planned upcoming mission is the Artemis program, supported by NASA and the international Artemis Accords, which aims to create the first permanent human presence on the Moon and in deep space (the Moon to Mars architecture),” the study authors explain.

While engineers will test and plan for potential equipment failures, the authors also note that the success of any future base on the Moon, Mars, in orbit, or elsewhere in deep space will depend on how well the astronauts interact with each other in an extremely challenging environment. This gap led researcher Raymond Vera and colleagues at George Mason University in Virginia, USA, to develop their agent-based module (ABM) simulation tool for the Lunar Base.

According to the study authors, the model’s main objective is to “simulate a theoretical lunar mission environment” including the primary surface habitat (Moon Base) and the orbiting Gateway station, “for astronauts to perform relevant space mission tasks.”

“The successful completion of the mission is measured by task performance, which is significantly influenced by cognitive skills, psychological state, and interpersonal relationships, in addition to the exogenous factors of the extreme environment,” they explain.

Different Personality Types and Skillsets Improve Simulation Accuracy

To make their simulated astronauts as realistic as possible, the George Mason team said they randomly assigned each one with “DISC personality types” such as dominant, influential, steady, or conscientious. The virtual astronauts were also given different professional skills, physical health parameters, and what the researchers termed “other characteristics.”

With their virtual astronauts programmed and ready, Vera’s team had to create the perfect simulated Moon base, complete with task assignments, base operations requirements, and environmental factors gleaned from previous isolated, extreme environment missions and simulations.

“Drawing from the literature on proxy environments (extreme environments on Earth (i.e., Antarctica), space analogs, and past space missions), and on theories of small group complex systems and team science, we created a highly probable representation or simulation of expected social interactions between astronauts, and astronauts with the lunar environment for the Artemis program (i.e., Artemis IV (Lunar Gateway) and Artemis V (Lunar South Pole Base)),” the study authors explained.

Like real humans, the virtual astronauts learned to adapt over time in response to interpersonal dynamics and environmental conditions, becoming more efficient at performing routine tasks. These improvements resulted in the virtual astronauts advancing in skill level over time.

Because the Moon, Mars, and space itself are all challenging environments for humans, Vera’s team periodically introduced ‘extreme’ events into the virtual astronauts’ daily routine. In more basic scenarios, the astronauts had to work together to overcome broken equipment or a malfunctioning rover. During more challenging conditions, the virtual astronauts inhabiting the simulated Lunar Base were exposed to moonquakes and “intense radiation events.”

Thousands of Simulations Including Moonquakes and Radiation Events

First, the researchers noted that “Monte Carlo simulations consisting of tens of thousands of iterations show trade-offs in productivity and psychological well-being.” For example, a subset of the thousands of Moon base simulations involving more mundane tasks was mostly successful, with compatible personality and skill types working together to complete tasks accurately and in a timely fashion.

However, as mission duration became extended, incidents of task failure and virtual astronaut stress increased. To address this issue, a statement announcing the findings noted that “increasing crew size helped to optimize advancement in professional skill levels and boosted chances of teamwork-enhancing personality compatibility.” In short, adding more virtual astronauts with more diverse skills and personality types to the existing group of overworked or overtasked astronauts helped to stabilize the base’s operations.

To evaluate psychological health, the model evaluated coping capacity (the astronaut’s internal emotional state), and group tension defined by the researchers as “interpersonal strain.”

“These factors change over time based on personality interactions, environmental stressors, and unexpected activities,” the researchers explained.

For example, while increased crew size and improved virtual astronaut skills “boosted chances of teamwork-enhancing personality compatibility,” the team found that factors such as “longer mission duration and lack of astronaut replacements” introduced unnecessary psychological stress that “decreased performance on mission tasks” across the entire crew.

When the virtual astronauts experienced more extreme events, such as simulated radiation or moonquakes, they showed increased signs of stress, including reduced coping capacity and higher tension levels. The researchers said this convergence of stresses and reduced coping capacity can add up over time, resulting in an “emotional penalty that is applied multiplicatively to the task execution likelihood.”

“Scenario analysis shows that increasing crew size results in optimizing skill specialization and increasing the chance of teamwork personality compatibility,” the team explained in their findings. “In contrast, prolonged mission durations, higher learning rates, and the absence of astronaut replacements introduces additional psychological stress resulting in a decrease of task performance.”

Human Factors Increasingly Important in the Commercial 21st Century Space Age

The researchers suggested that future efforts could include examining the physiological effects of extended space missions and communication delays with Earth, which can reach several minutes depending on the base’s distance.

When discussing the implications of their work, the team said that using simulations like theirs “demonstrates how agent-based modeling can help mission planners evaluate operational resilience, team structures, and workload dynamics in support of future lunar exploration.”

“As humanity prepares to establish a permanent presence on the Moon, understanding human behavior becomes just as important as understanding engineering systems,” the study authors conclude. “Although human psychology and team science have been crucial for the success of past space missions, from the Apollo program and Skylab to the Space Shuttle (STS) and the International Space Station (ISS), human factors and social behavior will become even more ubiquitous and essential for space missions in the new era of commercial space.”

The study “Lunar base agent-based modeling – A benchmark for simulating crewed space missions” was published in PLOS One.

 Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Scientists from the Advanced Robotics Research Center at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have developed a new process to weave ultra-thin fibers of shape-memory alloy (SMA) into fabric artificial muscles, enabling wearable robotic clothing that tests have shown can increase the wearer’s strength and reduce muscle load by up to 40%.

Although wearable robots designed with the new fabric-weaving process are currently limited to the laboratory phase, the KIMM research team behind the breakthrough method is already working on prototype designs for individuals suffering from strength and mobility limitations, with the ultimate goal of finding a commercial partner to bring their super-strength fabric manufacturing process to the wider marketplace.

Current Wearable Robot Technologies Face Severe Limitations

In an email to The Debrief, Dr. Cheol Hoon Park, Principal Researcher at KIMM’s Advanced Robotics Research Center and the leader of the wearable robot project, explained that many countries are entering a “super-aged” phase of society, and the demand for wearable robot technology that can increase strength and mobility is expected to dramatically increase.

However, Dr. Park noted that for such technologies to become more widely available, the limitations of current technologies must be overcome.

“They must be lightweight, comfortable to wear, and affordable,” the project leader explained.

For example, conventional wearable robots designed to provide strength and support to multiple joints, such as the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, rely on heavy, noisy motors or pneumatic actuators. The research team noted that these components make systems bulky, expensive, and uncomfortable to wear, especially during extended use. The answer has been an increased reliance on simpler, single-joint, wearable robots. Still, assisting large, complex joints like the shoulder has remained a major obstacle.

Now, Dr. Park and the KIMM team said they’ve created a system for weaving fabric muscles into fabric, resulting in a scalable method for mass-producing wearable-robot clothing that is quiet, streamlined, easy to use, and consumes very little power.

Heat From a Battery Pack Causes Artificial Muscle Fibers to Contract

Instead of air-powered actuators or bulky electric motors that add power to human muscles and joints, Dr. Park’s team created fabric muscles using small fibers of a material called shape-memory alloy. SMAs are materials that regain their original shape when exposed to elevated temperatures or pressures.

For this application, the team used an SMA wire with a diameter of 25 μm, or roughly one-fourth the width of a human hair. Next, the KIMM team processed the individual wires into coil-shaped ‘yarn.’ Like traditional yarn, this SMA yarn can enable the continuous weaving of fabric muscles.

When asked by The Debrief how their fabric muscle wearable robot works, Dr. Park explained that the SMA coil fibers that make up the muscles contract when heated to “about 40–50 °C.” However, he notes, the user is unlikely to notice the material being heated, so it can exert a directional force to assist muscle movement and reduce joint load, “thanks to an insulating fabric layer.”

“Like human muscles, the fabric muscle contracts as it heats up and relaxes as it cools down,” Dr. Park told The Debrief. “Cooling fans are not required when the user simply holds a load, but for repetitive lifting tasks, faster cooling is needed, so the fans help accelerate the process.” Park added that fans can be integrated in future consumer versions of the jacket, “depending on the use case.”

The wearable robot is powered by a 200 g battery pack mounted on the back of the jacket, which also includes a compact controller to change settings. Park said that the contraction force exerted by the fabric muscles can be altered by changing “the amount and duration of electric current” supplied to the system’s SMA fibers.

Depending on the setting level the user selects and their activity level, Dr. Park told The Debrief that the system “can typically operate for about four hours on a single charge.”

Tests Show 40% Reduced Muscle Effort and 57% Increase in Range of Motion

According to the team’s announcement, the KIMM team’s prototype wearable robot, a jacket with the SMA fiber muscles built in, was able to simultaneously assist the wearer’s elbow, shoulder, and waist. Tests showed that the less-than-2-kilogram jacket reduced muscle effort by more than 40% during repetitive physical tasks. Notably, the 10g of wearable robot fabric at the core of the system can light 10-15 kilograms (22-33 lbs.)

 

A more complex shoulder-assist, wearable robot weighing just 840 grams (less than 2 pounds), tested in clinical trials at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) on patients with muscular weakness, including those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, improved average shoulder movement range by over 57%.

When discussing the next phase of development, Dr. Park told The Debrief that they are currently “developing and evaluating a prototype of the clothing-type wearable robot in the form of pants.”

“We expect that it could help people who have difficulty walking on slopes or stairs, or standing for long periods of time,” the project leader explained.

Wearable Robot Clothing Could Reach the Market Within 1-2 Years After Agreement

Although the current version of the wearable is not yet commercially available, Dr. Park noted that the core technology for weaving SMA fibers into fabric muscles was developed at a non-profit research institute, “so it will need to be transferred to an industrial partner for commercialization.”

We have already developed both the manufacturing equipment for mass-producing the fabric muscle — the core component — and a working prototype of the wearable robot,” he added.

Although there is no pending agreement with a commercial partner to date, Dr. Park told The Debrief that once they transfer their technology to a commercial partner, they expect it could reach the commercial market “within one to two years.”

Although there are potential uses for the team’s fiber muscle-weaving process, including enhanced strength “super soldiers,” Dr. Park told The Debrief, “We hope that the fabric muscle we developed—and the clothing-type wearable robot based on it—will help make wearable robotics more accessible and ultimately improve the quality of life for many people.”

The paper “Soft Exosuit Based on Fabric Muscle to Assist Shoulder Joint Movements in Patients With Neuromuscular Diseases” was published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Chinese scientists say they have set a new visible-light transmission standard by demonstrating a laser-driven communication engine that uses a light-based, easy-to-use ceramic material capable of transmitting information over distances exceeding 1.2 kilometers.

“This is really a record with attractive performance beyond the traditional technology,” says Zhiguo Xia of South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, China.

The research team behind the potentially historic achievment said exceeding current LED-based light-based transmission distances, which are typically confined to a few meters could usher in ‘intelligent’ 6G communication networks, including streetlamps, smartphones, and other devices that “would be able to ‘see,’ ‘hear,’ and ‘think,’” by detecting people and objects and integrating that information into network-wide active processing.

Laser-Powered Engines & the Elusive Future of AI-Driven Intelligent 6G Networks

According to a statement announcing the laser-powered engine breakthrough, conventional LED-based visible light communication (VLC) systems typically operate at short distances ranging from a few inches to “a few meters.” This has limited their applications to mostly laboratory demonstrations. Still, the technology is considered an integral part of planned intelligent, AI-enabled 6G networks that would replace current 5G standards.

Unlike current 5G networks, 6G networks would enable significantly more information and enable systems to act in concert to improve performance and add previously unavailable features. According to the study authors, 6G networks built into future smartphones and other electrically wired objects such as streetlamps and stoplights would not allow information to move through networks an order of magnitude faster. They note that this added capacity would fundamentally change these systems, turning them from single-use systems into connected components of a larger, intelligent network.

“They would be able to ‘see,’ ‘hear,’ and ‘think,’ detecting people and objects and their subtle movements,” the researchers explained.

Still, several technological barriers have limited the emergence of 6G, including what the research team described as “challenges in combining high-performance lighting materials and high-speed photodetectors into compact devices that can be mass-produced at low cost.”

“A Paradigm Shift from Connection to Intelligent Connection”

To extend the range of data transmission, Xia’s team explored ceramics capable of emitting light and withstanding high temperatures. The final process involved mixing calcium ions with a powder of chemical compounds typically used in glass formation.

According to the study authors, this simple formula “eliminates the need for high-pressure manufacturing,” typically associated with electronic ceramic production. The ceramic used in the process also transfers heat 20 times more efficiently than silicon, the favored material in laser-driven transmission technologies. This durability dramatically increases the amount of laser energy the material can withstand compared to other VLC options.

After experimenting with several prototypes, the team said that tests showed light coherence and data consistency up to 1.2 kilometers, offering “direct experimental evidence” for 6G technology.

Xia conceded that dreams of intelligent AI-enabled networks with this level of data transmission capability have so far existed “largely at the visionary level.” However, the team’s result could make “a paradigm shift from connection to intelligent connection possible.”

Team Eyeing Future Improvements to Increase Speed and Reliability

Although the initial experiments were encouraging, Xia’s team said their current version has some limitations. For example, it mainly emits light in the yellow region, ranging between 500 and 650 nanometers. This lack of red-light components would limit its use to what the team described as “applications requiring a very high color rendering index,” a measure of an object’s true color relative to a natural sunlight standard.

The new laser-powered engine also operates at what the team termed “far below” fiber-optic speeds, limiting its usefulness in intelligent network applications.

To address these and other limitations, Xia’s team said they plan to investigate light-emitting materials beyond ceramics. These include exploring materials with shorter fluorescence lifetimes and tunable emission bandwidths, which the team notes “can further speed up (transmission) rates.”

Another possible future improvement is to integrate the laser-driven engine with an RF (radio-frequency) system to ensure continued data transmission in bad weather, which can degrade VLC performance. Because future intelligent 6G networks will include satellites, the team said, adding that their technology could enable high-speed coverage in “tough-to-reach” regions of the planet, such as deserts, oceans, and mountains.

“AI‑driven link adaptation can dynamically adjust data rate and optical power, ultimately supporting a future 6G network that is space‑air‑ground integrated, fully covered, and highly reliable,” Xia explained, adding that their work “also provides compelling experimental support for the application of laser lighting in scenarios such as drone logistics and low‑altitude air travel.”

The study “Tailoring quasi-transparent ceramic as a laser-driven photonic engine for kilometer-level white light communication” was published in the journal Matter.

 Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census has announced the discovery of over 1,100 new marine species in just the last year, marking what they described as “a significant step forward in efforts to document life in the world’s oceans.”

The discoveries included the exotic ‘Ghost Shark’ chimera in the Coral Sea and a symbiotic worm that lives in a ‘glass house’ organism off the coast of Japan, adding to the increasing array of complex marine organisms living beneath the ocean’s surface.

Ghost Shark Chimera and ‘Glass House’ Worm Among 1,100+ New Species

According to a Nippon Foundation statement, the new census marks its third year with 13 separate species-hunting expeditions “across some of the world’s most remote and least explored ocean regions.” Although the new work includes the discovery and characterization of 1,121 new species from depths up to 6,575 meters, the authors, including JAMSTEC, CSIRO, and the Schmidt Ocean Institute, noted that up to 90% of the ocean’s species remain undiscovered.

“The findings highlight both the sheer scale of life yet to be documented and the importance of building scientific data that policymakers and marine managers need to protect the ocean,” they explained.

Mitsuyuku Unno, Executive Director of The Nippon Foundation, said that this record-breaking census shows what can be achieved “when scientific ambition is matched by global collaboration at scale.”

“Through expeditions reaching polar depths to tropical seas, and the science to turn samples into discoveries, this team is revealing the extraordinary richness of ocean life,” Unno added.

Sharks and Worms and Shrimps, Oh My

Among the most fascinating of the ocean organisms included in the new census was the Ghost Shark chimera. Discovered by taxonomist Dr. William White during a CSIRO expedition in Coral Sea Marine Park off the Queensland coast of Australia, living at depths between 802 and 838 meters, the research team said that the elusive predator is “among the most mysterious inhabitants of the deep ocean.”

A distant relative of both sharks and rays, the Ghost Shark is an evolutionarily distinct “diversion” that took place nearly 400 million years ago. As the research notes, the evolution of the ghost shark chimera predates the dinosaurs’ reign. Along with its scientific value as a distinct species, the team said the discovery of the Ghost Shark is significant, as a third of sharks, rays, and chimeras are vulnerable to extinction.

Another discovery noted by the Nippon Foundation includes the ‘Life in a Glass Castle’ symbiotic worm. Part of a 2025 Ocean Census JAMSTEC-Shinkai Japan expedition to the Shichiyo Seamount Chain, off the coast of Japan, this unusual organism was found living at a depth of 791 meters on a volcanic seamount.

However, instead of living in rock or coral, the worm makes its home inside a sponge whose skeleton is made of crystalline silica, aka glass.

Named after the mission’s principal investigator, Dr. Akinori Yabuki, this discovery of (Dalhousiella yabukii) was made by Dr. Nato Jimi and published in The Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Other notable organisms discovered in the last year include a ribbon worm belonging to the Phylum Nemertea, a species with toxins that have been investigated as a potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment, and a bright orange species of shrimp in a sea cave off the coast of Marseille that could provide critical conservation data in what the researchers termed the “pressured Mediterranean region.”

“We Are in a Race Against Time to Understand and Protect Ocean Life”

When discussing the significance of the foundation’s work, Dr. Michelle Taylor, Head of Science at Ocean Census, noted that many undiscovered species are at risk of disappearing before researchers have the chance to document them, adding that “we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life.”

“For too long, thousands of species have remained in a scientific ‘limbo’ because the pace of discovery couldn’t keep up,” Dr. Taylor explained. “We are now breaking that bottleneck. By accelerating discovery and sharing data globally, we are not just finding new life, but generating the evidence needed to drive global science and policy at a critical moment.”

The director of Ocean Census, Oliver Steeds, agreed, noting the significant discoveries that could be achieved with a comparatively small budget for space exploration research.

“We spend billions searching for life on Mars or going to the dark side of the moon,” Steeds explained. “Discovering the majority of life on our own planet – in our own ocean – costs a fraction of that.”

To facilitate the discovery of more species like the Ghost Shark chimera and other similarly elusive species, the organization’s co-founder is seeking “$100M in catalytic capital to unlock $75M+ already pledged by partners.” With a stated goal of discovering 100,000 new marine species.

“The question is not whether we can afford to do this. It is whether we can afford not to,” Steeds added.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

New genetic analysis of remains recovered from two 5,000-year-old Neolithic stone monument sites in present-day Germany has revealed a previously unknown biological connection between distant megalithic societies.

The new findings include the discovery that two individuals buried at separate sites over 250 kilometers apart were father and son.

In an email to The Debrief, study co-author Ben Krause-Kyora from Kiel University said their findings reveal surprisingly long-distance familial ties between the people from the Western Funnel Beaker (TRB-West) and the neighboring Wartberg (WBC) communities despite their distinct archaeological differences, suggesting that these Stone Age megalithic communities “were much more interconnected than previously assumed.”

Although the study found little evidence for a genetic connection between the Sorsum and WBC megalithic communities and those found in more distant parts of northern Europe, Britain, and Scandinavia, the research team behind the new study said there may be cultural or social connections between these ancient societies that would account for the archaeological and cultural similarities.

Previously ‘Unrelated’ Megalithic Communities Share Cultural and Architectural Features

Although archaeologists have documented large ancient stone monuments around the world, some of the oldest and most complex megalithic structures began to appear across Europe between 4,500 and 2,800 BCE. The TRB-West community was responsible for some of the most elaborate stone burial chambers of the time, and also stood out for other distinct traditions.

Unfortunately, very little is known about these ancient stone monument builders or any possible relationship with other nearby megalithic cultures due to a lack of genetic data. To date, the TRB-West site studied by Krause-Kyora and colleagues, called Sorsum, is the only one where human remains have been recovered.

Still, the researcher told The Debrief that previous studies had noted general similarities in burial chamber features between Sorsum and the nearby Wartberg culture, suggesting a potentially deeper connection.

“Most notably, Sorsum contains an underground rock-cut burial chamber with an elongated form, which is unusual for the Western Funnel Beaker (TRB-West) tradition and instead resembles the subterranean gallery graves characteristic of WBC communities,” the study co-author explained.

When asked if any of these architectural features were also observed in other, more distant megalithic cultures beyond Wartburg, Krause-Kyora said that some of the site’s broader features, including collective burial practices and monumental stone architecture, “are shared across many European megalithic cultures.” However, the researcher also cautioned that their findings suggest that even when similarly aged communities shared monument styles, “the social meaning and burial organization behind these structures could differ substantially from region to region.”

Genetic Tests Show Hunter-Gatherer Heritage & Father/Son Duo Buried over 250 Kilometers Apart

To explore any possible genetic connection between the people buried at the TRB-west Sorsum site and remains collected from the Wartburg site of Niedertiefenbach, study leader Nicolas Antonio da Silva from Kiel University’s Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) and colleagues analyzed the genomes of 203 separate individuals collected from Sorsum and five local WBC sites.

When the researchers compared the results, they found that the people buried at Sorsum were more closely related to the WBC groups than other groups classified within the TRB-west culture. This deep genetic connection was unexpected since previous studies have identified the two groups with different archaeological labels.

The two groups also shared what the research team termed “high levels of ancestry” with Western hunter-gatherer cultures. The study authors said the hunter-gatherer ancestry was higher in male lineages, suggesting that the seemingly disparate groups shared “deep-sustained biological connections.”

Perhaps the most shocking discovery involved the genetic connection between two individuals buried separately at the Sorsum and WBC sites. Krause-Kyora told The Debrief that the biological father was buried at the WBC site of Niedertiefenbach, whereas his “subadult son” was buried far away at Sorsum.

“This was one of the most surprising findings of the study because the two sites are separated by more than 250 km,” the researcher told The Debrief.

Site Differences: “Primarily Archaeological & Stylistic” Rather Than Genetic

Although the father-son pair buried over 250km apart was the most unexpected familial relationship identified between the two cultures, the genetic analysis did reveal other, first and second-degree genetic connections between individuals. The researchers suggest that these signs of interbreeding across stylistically independent cultures living at substantial distances from one another indicate occasional movement between the sites, potential intermarriage, and social or cultural exchanges that defy the distance.

“The major differences between Sorsum/TRB-West and WBC are primarily archaeological and stylistic rather than genetic,” Krause-Kyora told The Debrief.

For example, TRB-West communities like Sorsum are usually associated with decorated funeral beaker pottery and the manufacture of transverse arrowheads, which are razor-sharp, arrow-shaped stones wider than they are long. Conversely, the researcher explained, WBC assemblages like the ones examined in this study “are characterized by mostly undecorated barrel-shaped pottery and gallery graves.”

“Despite these cultural distinctions, genetically the groups were remarkably closely related,” Krause-Koyra told The Debrief.

Taken as a whole, the team said the evidence suggests that Sorsum and the WBC communities represented a “genetically continuous population,” including the possibility that Sorsum was a northern branch of the WBC collective that integrated various TRB-West traditions and methods distinct from those of typical TRB-West groups.

Exploring Potential Connections with Other Ancient European Megalithic Societies

While the genetic analysis revealed unexpected connections between these seemingly disparate megalithic groups, the research team found no genetic connections between the tested groups and more distant megalithic populations in the British Isles or Scandinavia to the north. When asked if these unrelated groups may have shared knowledge or displayed stylistic or cultural similarities that may indicate a similar cultural cross-contamination with the groups they studied, Krause-Koyra told The Debrief that there are “definitely broader stylistic and cultural similarities across European megalithic societies.”

“Monumental stone constructions, communal burials, and certain ritual traditions appear widely shared,” the researcher explained.

Still, he cautioned, their genetic results suggest these similarities were not indicative of a large-scale migration or long-distance biological networks spanning thousands of kilometers. Instead, the study co-author said that previously observed similarities in ideas and cultural practices “likely spread through cultural exchange and interaction between neighboring regions over time.”

When asked about the broader significance of their findings, the researcher told The Debrief that their genetic analysis successfully identified close biological relatives buried over 250 km apart, “showing substantial long-distance mobility and interaction during the Late Neolithic.”

“At the same time, the collective graves were not simply family tombs,” Krause-Koyra added. “Many unrelated individuals were buried together, indicating that social kinship and community identity were just as important as biological relationships.”

Researcher Pleas for Enhancing Research Integrity “Across the Field”

In a separate statement to journalists covering their discovery, Krause-Kyora said those working in ancient DNA research have increasingly emphasized authentication standards, reproducibility, open data sharing, and contamination control. The researcher also noted that a community-wide adoption of transparent bioinformatic pipelines and independent replication of test data has “substantially strengthened confidence in results.”

“Moving forward, stronger support for long-term data accessibility, standardized metadata reporting, and interdisciplinary validation approaches would further enhance research integrity across the field,” Krause-Kyora added.

The study “Long-distance genetic relatedness in megalithic central Europe” was published in Science.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

An international team of researchers has demonstrated a theoretical framework showing that state-of-the-art trapped-ion atomic clocks could be tuned to a sensitivity precise enough to measure the quantum superposition of time, in which different flows of time exist simultaneously at the quantum level.

The researchers behind the framework said the next step will be to prove their concept experimentally. If successful, they suggest that trapped-ion atomic clocks could potentially help unravel physics’ other fundamental question: the elusive nature of gravity.

Quantum Superposition, Gravity, Atomic Clocks, Albert Einstein, and the Flow of Time

In the macro world, time moves in one direction. Although famed 20th-century scientist Albert Einstein showed that gravity and speed can alter the rate at which time flows, his theory of relativity conceded that time at the macro scale inexorably flows in a forward direction.

As recently reported by The Debrief, the research team behind the new theoretical framework notes that this arrow of time remains poorly understood, leading to several theories attempting to explain how it actually works. For scientists studying behavior at the quantum scale, the movement of time becomes even more complex. That’s because time can exist in superposition, a state where different flows of time all exist at the same moment. However, the team notes, this “interplay of time” between relativity and quantum physics has not yet been experimentally verified.

Curious if new, state-of-the-art trapped-ion atomic clocks were precise enough to measure the quantum superposition of time to quantify different flows of time occurring at the same moment, researchers from Kyushu University, in collaboration with the Stevens Institute of Technology, University of Waterloo, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Colorado State University, and Stockholm University, explored a theoretical framework capable pf capturing this elusive phenomenon.

Theoretical Framework Improves Sensitivity ‘By 100 to 1000 Times’

According to a statement announcing a potential breakthrough in measuring the quantum superposition of time, atomic clocks work by monitoring the frequency of certain atoms. This fundamental design enabled unprecedented timekeeping accuracy, with applications in satellite navigation and GPS systems.

The team notes that state-of-the-art trapped-ion configurations of atomic clocks are so precise and sensitive that “they can detect the time dilation predicted by Einstein’s theory over a height difference of a few millimeters.”

Associate Professor Joshua Foo of Kyushu University’s Institute for Advanced Studies, and one of the lead authors of the paper detailing the measurement framework, said it is the precision of these cutting-edge instruments that motivated his team to design their theoretical model.

“We found that the atomic clock’s motion becomes ‘entangled’ with its internal energy,” Professor Foo explained. “The signature of this entanglement is that the clock itself loses some of its quantum properties, which can be detected using modern techniques.”

When Foo and colleagues introduced a new technique for controlling the motion of these advanced atomic clocks, the professor said their framework indicates an improvement in sensitivity to this effect “by 100 to 1000 times.”

Experimental Proof and Probing the Nature of Gravity

When discussing the possible impact of their new theoretical framework, should it ultimately be used to quantify the quantum superposition of time, the researchers noted that it established atomic clocks as a viable tool for exploring several phenomena in the quantum world that had previously proven difficult to measure accurately, including the quantum nature of time. They also note that it “opens a new experimental frontier in fundamental physics,” as well as offering a viable path to more precise, next-generation atomic clocks.

Next, Foo said that the team is developing a detailed real-world experiment “bringing our theoretical model to reality.” If successful, these upcoming efforts will provide further insights into their model that do not appear in the theoretical version. The research also said his team is interested in whether atomic clocks based on their model could be used to probe the quantum realm of gravity, which he calls “the other fundamental question in physics.”

The study “Quantum Signatures of Proper Time in Optical Ion Clocks” was published in Physical Review Letters.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Scientists from the Università di Firenze studying a crystal formed during the 1945 Trinity nuclear test detonation in the New Mexico desert have identified a form of trinitite-encased clathrate structure that had not been observed before.

The research team behind the discovery said that the extreme heat and pressure conditions released during the early atomic weapons test created the unique glass, including rare “mineral and metallic” specimens trapped within its crystalline structure, which are not commonly seen outside the laboratory.

“The Trinity nuclear test of July 16, 1945, generated extreme transient conditions that produced trinitite, a silicate glass containing rare metallic phases,” the researchers explained in a recent study.

A Peek Inside a ‘Mystery’ Crystal from a Nuclear Explosion

According to a statement announcing the study and its findings, the first author and team leader, Luca Bindi, and colleagues began by examining and structurally classifying a “previously unknown chemical structure within a copper-rich metal droplet” encased in the trinitite sample.

Initial analysis revealed that the structure was rich in silicon. Tests showed that it contained calcium and copper, but in lesser amounts. The team ultimately determined that the mystery specimen was in the clathrate class of chemical structures.

“We report the discovery of a previously unknown Ca–Cu–Si type-I clathrate formed during the 1945 Trinity nuclear test,” the study authors explained.

To take a deeper look at the mystery specimen’s chemical structure, the team performed an X-ray diffraction analysis. According to their statement, that analysis revealed that the cubic clathrate hidden within a sample of trinitite “is the first identified clathrate formed by a nuclear explosion.”

Although the team was not involved in the original collection of the trinitite sample, the authors note that it formed near a “previously described” area composed of a silicon-rich quasicrystal. Because scientists know that quasicrystal forms from the same conditions as clathrate and shares a similar elemental composition, the team investigated the possibility that the nearby quasicrystal was formed from the clathrate.

Due to the complexities of recreating the quasicrystal and clathrate formations in the laboratory, the team used mathematical models to explore potential connections. According to the researchers, those models showed that “quasicrystal formation from clathrates is possible but unlikely at the high copper concentrations found in the trinitite quasicrystal.”

Nuclear Explosions & Lightning Strikes Can Produce ‘Unexpected Crystalline Configurations’

When discussing the implications of their findings, the researchers noted that the extreme conditions produced by high-energy events such as lightning strikes or nuclear explosions, “can produce unexpected crystalline configurations.”

They also note that the unexpected structures produced during some of these events revealed constraints on mineral formation “beyond those found in conventional geological or laboratory processes.”

“Extreme, transient conditions produced by nuclear detonations can generate solid-state phases inaccessible to conventional synthesis,” they write.

The researchers also highlighted the “contextual association” with previously reported silicon-rich quasicrystals formed during the same nuclear explosion in 1945.

“Both phases formed under identical extreme conditions, occur within similar Cu-rich droplets, and share an unusually Si-rich Ca–Cu–Si–(Fe) chemistry, motivating an evaluation of whether the quasicrystal could be structurally derived from a clathrate framework,” they explained.

From an overall scientific value perspective, the researchers point out that this newly identified crystalline phase expands the known family of clathrate crystals, and “provides a reference for interpreting other rare Si-rich phases formed in the same event, including an icosahedral quasicrystal.”

“By combining crystallographic characterization with first-principles calculations, this work informs materials science, condensed-matter physics, and nuclear forensics, illustrating how extreme environments can shape crystalline matter far from equilibrium,” they conclude.

The study “Extreme nonequilibrium synthesis of a Ca–Cu–Si clathrate during the Trinity nuclear test” was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

 Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

A team of Canadian researchers studying the possible anxiety-reducing effects of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms, has revealed that the chemical compound makes an innately aggressive species of fish less aggressive and lazier compared to undrugged fish without reducing its overall social activities.

The research team behind the discovery said future research will be needed to confirm their findings, explore how the active ingredient in magic mushrooms alters neural signaling, identify the active serotonin pathways involved in these behavioral changes, and determine why certain behaviors are altered by exposure while others appear to remain unaffected.

Testing Magic Mushrooms to Evaluate Changes in Fish Aggressiveness

According to a statement announcing the research, over 200 mushroom species contain the active compound psilocybin. The majority of these species belong to the genus Psilocybe, including the well-known magic mushrooms popularized in the counterculture era for their psychoactive properties.

When this substance is ingested by mammals, it can bind to serotonin receptors that are involved in the regulation of behavior and emotions. Notably, these chemically induced changes can affect aggression, appetite, and overall mood. However, the researchers note, the effect of psilocybin on animals “remains largely undescribed.”

Since conducting experiments on human subjects poses significant challenges and limitations, the researchers examined whether these behavioral and mood changes also occur in fish. This led the team to choose the amphibious mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus), which they described as “innately aggressive,” especially when paired with another fish.

“Their aggressive behaviors are straightforward, and subtle changes can easily be detected,” the team explained. “Therefore, this model ensures all observed effects are caused by psilocybin treatment rather than genetic differences between fish.”

‘Dosed’ Fish Appear to Selectively Reduce Energetically Costly Behaviors

After selecting three genetically distinct laboratory-bred lines of mangrove rivulus, they exposed one to psilocybin, whereas the second line served as  “stimulus fish,” intended to trigger behaviors in the ‘drugged’ fish. The team said that the third selected line was used to “quantify whole-body concentrations and absorption of psilocybin” rather than for behavioral evaluation.

During the experiment’s first phase, fish from the first group were placed in a tank already containing the second line of ‘stimulus’ fish. Critically, the two groups were separated by an opaque cover placed over a fiberglass mesh barrier. The researchers said this arrangement allowed the fish to see and smell each other but prevented direct contact.

During this five-minute adjustment period, the team measured behavior to establish a baseline. When the five minutes expired, the barrier was removed, and the interaction between the two fish groups was closely monitored for signs of behavioral or mood changes.

Twenty-four hours after the first phase was completed, the team placed the fish from the first ‘focal’ group in a water tank containing dissolved psilocybin. The fish remained in the psilocybin-enriched tank for 20 minutes to ensure sufficient saturation, then were returned to the tank with the stimulus fish from the previous day’s experiments. Like before, the fish remained separated for five minutes by the opaque mesh barrier before it was removed.

Once again, the team monitored interactions between the two groups to determine whether the ‘drugged’ fish exhibited any behavioral changes. They also looked for potential clues to the fish’s mood. This included measuring the time the fish spent moving and their aggression levels, such as the frequency of swimming ‘bursts’ toward other fish.

According to the researchers, when they compared the fish in the first group’s activities before and after exposure to psilocybin, several changes were observed. Among the most prevalent was an overall reduction in activity after exposure to magic mushrooms’ key ingredient.

“Dosed fish (spent) less time moving than control fish when paired with a conspecific,” they explained, “and performed fewer swimming bursts compared to specimens that hadn’t received psilocybin treatment.”

The study’s senior author, Dr. Suzie Currie, a biologist at The University of British Columbia, defined swimming bursts as “high‑energy attack behaviors that represent an escalation of aggression towards the stimulus fish” but stop short of making physical contact.

“Other types of aggressive behaviors, like head‑on displays, are more about communication and social assessment and require very little energy,” Dr. Currie explained.

The study’s first author, Dayna Forsyth, a research associate and former MSc student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, said the calming effect of psilocybin observed during their experiments appeared to “selectively reduce energetically costly, escalated behaviors” while other social display behaviors that require less energy remained largely unchanged.

“This suggests that this compound can selectively dampen escalated social conflict rather than shutting down behavior altogether,” Forsyth added.

Reducing Escalated Aggression Without Suppressing Social Interaction

When discussing the implications of their findings, Forsyth said their findings show that an acute, low dose of the active ingredient from magic mushrooms “significantly reduces activity and aggressive attack behavior during social interactions in adult mangrove rivulus fish.” The research added that the observed change was particularly significant, as the selected fish is a “naturally highly aggressive” species.

“These findings provide the first evidence that psilocybin can selectively reduce escalated aggression in a vertebrate model without suppressing social interaction,” added Currie.

When discussing the potential long-term impacts of their findings, the team said their work can provide “robust results” that can, in theory, ultimately be translated to humans. They also noted that their work could “help inform therapeutic research” by helping scientists further clarify which aspects of social behavior are most sensitive to psilocybin exposure.

Although the results were statistically significant, the researchers caution that their study faced several limitations that should be explored by future efforts. For example, they did not test any potential clinical treatments. They also noted that their findings “cannot be directly extrapolated” to humans exposed to psilocybin.

“The study also focused on single doses and short periods of exposure, and didn’t examine long-term effects, repeated dosing, or adaptation over time,” they added.

The team noted that future studies will be needed to determine whether the social changes observed after magic mushroom ingestion are sustained or transitory.

“Future studies can build on this work to explore how psilocybin alters neural signaling, which serotonin pathways are involved, and why some aspects of social behavior are affected while others are not,” Currie said, adding that “these are questions that are difficult or impossible to answer directly in humans.”

The study “The magic of mushrooms: Psilocybin influences behaviour in the mangrove rivulus fish, Kryptolebias marmoratus” was published in Frontiers in Behavioral Science.

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

Casimir Inc, a company founded and led by former DARPA-funded NASA warp drive pioneer and founder of the EagleWorks Lab, Harold G. “Sonny” White, has exited stealth mode to announce the pending 2028 commercialization of MicroSparc, a chip that the company claims uses customized microscale geometries to capture unlimited ‘free’ energy from the quantum world.

“Think: no batteries, no cords, and no charging—just continuous power from harvested quantum vacuum fields,” a company spokesperson explained in an email to The Debrief.

While several previous efforts have attempted to exploit the unusual, sometimes counterintuitive properties of the quantum realm to generate “free energy,” these attempts have consistently been met with skepticism or labeled pseudoscience due to their seeming violations of the law of conservation of momentum.

Similar sentiments were shared with The Debrief by scientists we spoke with, who declined to comment publicly on Casimir, MicroSparc, or the peer-reviewed study “Emergent quantization from a dynamic vacuum,” which details the underlying physics.

In an email to The Debrief, Dr. White, who recently added his partner from the non-profit Limitless Space Institute, Kam Ghaffarian (Intuitive Machines, Axiom Space, and X-energy) as a Casimir investor and board member, explained that MicroSparc’s use of customized Casimir cavities, which his team had researched with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), does not violate the laws of physics.

“This concept became a central part of our DARPA Defense Sciences Office (DSO) research effort at the Limitless Space Institute, where DARPA funded early theoretical and experimental investigations into custom Casimir cavity structures and their interaction with the quantum vacuum,” White told The Debrief.

Instead, the noted advanced propulsion physics researcher said their MicroSparc design leverages 20th-century discoveries in quantum physics, such as quantum tunneling and Casimir cavities, to capture usable energy that could fuel small, low-power electronics in the near future. The company also suggests that its technology can potentially be scaled to power cars, homes, or even entire cities without the need for harmful fossil fuels or other greener, yet costly, fuel alternatives.

“Much of modern electronics is constrained by batteries, charging cycles, wiring, maintenance, or environmental limitations,” Dr. White told The Debrief. “If this technology scales successfully, its long-term implications could extend from ultra-low-power sensors and consumer electronics to remote infrastructure, defense systems, and eventually space applications, where persistent power is especially valuable.”

100 Years of Quantum Science & Understanding “The Vacuum”

Dr. White told The Debrief that to understand how MicroSparc extracts energy from the quantum vacuum requires first understanding the properties of a vacuum.

“Most people picture a vacuum as completely empty space: a sealed chamber with all air removed,” White explained, adding that at “our everyday scale, this makes sense.”

However, in the quantum realm, empty space is not exactly empty. Instead, White told The Debrief, decades of research in quantum physics and mechanics have revealed that at the quantum level, the classically ‘empty’ vacuum is filled with “fluctuating electromagnetic fields and virtual particles that constantly appear and disappear.” White noted that the Casimir Effect, on which its company is based and for which it is named, provides clear proof of this quantum vacuum behavior.

“Place two small metallic plates inside a vacuum chamber with a separation of roughly 100 nanometers, about 1/1,000th of a human hair,” White explained. “After removing all air, the pressure on the outer sides of the plates reads zero, as expected.”

However, he noted, a quick measurement between the plates shows that the pressure is negative. In traditionally constructed Casimir cavities, this region of negative pressure pulls the plates together. Dr. White told The Debrief that this happens because of “wave-particle duality.”

“Outside the plates, fluctuations of every wavelength are possible,” he explained. However, he also noted, inside the narrow gap of a Casimir cavity, only wavelengths narrow enough to fit can exist.

“Longer wavelengths are excluded, so the energy density between the plates is lower than outside them,” White said. “The resulting imbalance produces the measurable Casimir force. Hendrik Casimir predicted this in 1948.”

Although the pressure imbalance due to the limitation of some potential wavelengths between the conductive plates was first experimentally confirmed in the 1990s and has been observed several times since, engineers have struggled to convert the “work” performed by the cavities into usable energy when the unequal pressure causes the plates to collapse. According to Dr. White, the issue lies in the often-cited conservation of momentum.

“In a conventional Casimir setup, the force does perform work as the plates are pulled together,” the Casimir Inc. founder explained. “Once they collapse, however, no further energy can be extracted; you must use external energy to separate the plates again and reset the system.”

White noted that this limitation makes a traditionally constructed Casimir cavity operate more like a battery than a genuine energy-generation device. However, he also noted that his team’s work designing MicroSparc was focused on creating a ‘static’ Casimir cavity that “overcomes this limitation.”

“The underlying physics itself is not new,” White told The Debrief. “The Casimir effect has been part of established quantum mechanics since the mid-20th century and has been experimentally verified by laboratories around the world.”

How the MicroSparc Custom Casimir Cavity “Overcomes” Traditional Limitations

In their design, Casimir Inc’s scientists placed the two walls of their cavity on a substrate so that it cannot move and therefore cannot collapse under negative internal pressure. Notably, the two plates are also electrically connected.

Along the midplane of the cavity, White’s team placed a series of what they described as ‘micropillars’, or antennas. Similar to the conductive plates, these intentionally placed pillars are also electrically connected to one another. Critically, MicroSparc’s micropillars are electrically isolated from the cavity walls and also anchored so that they remain completely stationary under pressure.

To understand how this MicroSparc chip set-up generates seemingly free energy from nowhere, Dr. White told The Debrief that readers should “consider an atoll in the Pacific Ocean.” Specifically, White pointed out that powerful waves constantly batter the atoll’s outer shore, “while the lagoon inside remains much calmer,” because many of the large waves cannot enter.

“In our device, the quantum vacuum outside the cavity walls vigorously stimulates electrons in the wall atoms,” Dr. White explained. “Occasionally, an electron will quantum tunnel from the wall to one of the central pillars.”

For clarification, quantum tunneling is a still-unexplained process in which an electron or other quantum particle can seemingly pass through a barrier without the classically required energy to do so. Like Casimir cavities, this phenomenon has been repeatedly demonstrated in various experimental setups.

“Once inside the protected cavity, the environment is far quieter, (so) the probability of the electron tunneling back to the wall is orders of magnitude lower,” White told The Debrief.

White said this phenomenon creates a one-way flow of electrons toward the pillars, a process he compared to “a kind of quantum ratchet.” By fabricating millions of these microscopic cavities on a single chip, White said his team was able to produce “a continuous electrical current drawn from the quantum vacuum.”

When asked if MicroSparc would constitute a “zero-point” energy device like those featured in science fiction, including the extended Stargate universe, Dr. White appeared to agree in general terms, while noting that “Zero-point energy (German: Nullpunktsenergie) is a term Einstein coined in 1913 connected to the community discussion on the topic.”

“I suspect sci-fi happily made use of the term,” White added, having previously conceded to The Debrief a general lack of specific knowledge about the appearances in science fiction of such scientific concepts.

“We Already Have Functioning Prototype Devices”

When asked if the newly completed round of capital investment is intended to advance theoretical designs to the prototype phase, Dr. White told The Debrief that the Casimir team has already fabricated “hundreds of prototype chips” in several university nanofabrication facilities, including the Texas A&M AggieFab facility and MIT.nano.

Once a prototype MicroSparc chip is fabricated, the Casimir team tests it using low-noise experimental setups designed to reduce electromagnetic interference. Dr. White said these tests were performed in dark, RF (radio frequency)-sealed enclosures over several weeks “using precision electrometers capable of measuring signals down to microvolt and attoamp sensitivities.”

“Across these tests, we observed device outputs ranging from millivolts to volts at picoamp current levels, well above our instrumentation’s noise floor,” White told The Debrief.

The team also directly measured polarization fields at the microscale in individual custom Casimir cavities using Atomic Force Microscopy, which White noted was operating in “Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy mode.”

“The purpose of the current seed round is not to move from theory to a first proof of concept,” White told The Debrief. “We already have functioning prototype devices fabricated and tested in research nanofabrication environments.”

Instead, he said that the Casimir team will use the next phase of development and the new infusion of capital to focus on rapid design iteration, material system optimization, and facilitate a transition toward scalable semiconductor manufacturing.

“Over the next two years, we plan to work across multiple nanofabrication partners and material approaches aimed at increasing tunnel current magnitude and overall device performance, while developing the commercial pathway for first-generation products,” White explained.

As part of the announcement, the team said its primary target is a 5mm × 5mm semiconductor chip capable of producing approximately 1.5 volts at 25 microamps. Dr. White said this goal represents “roughly 40 microwatts of continuous power.”

“This output level is well suited for ultra-low-power electronics and sensor applications,” White explained, adding that the team’s “current target for initial commercial availability” is sometime in 2028.

Scaling for Large Scale Applications: “The Primary Constraints” are not Physics

When asked if this approach is limited to powering smaller, less energy-intensive devices, or if it could be scaled for cars, homes, or industrial applications, Dr. White told The Debrief that “there are no inherent quantum or physical limits that make large-scale energy harvesting from the vacuum impractical.”

“Once we reach our minimum viable performance target of 1.5 volts and 25 microamps from a 5mm × 5mm chip, we can multiply output through multi-layer chips, die stacking, and chip aggregation,” White explained, adding that a single, identically sized chip “can deliver roughly 200 times the power, moving us into the milliwatt range.”

From there, White said that the Casimir team could simply aggregate numerous chips onto printed circuit boards “to reach higher power levels.”

In one proposed example, the researcher stated that a 0.5-watt Casimir generator based on their design could provide a continuous trickle charge to a smartphone battery. In this scenario, White said that the phone would be fully recharged in roughly 24 hours under normal use, “effectively making the device immortal for typical daily operation.”

“Imagine five years from today, when you upgrade your favorite smartphone, there is a radio button option labeled “immortal phone upgrade — $500,” White hypothesized to The Debrief. “You might take advantage of that.”

When scaling to larger applications, the advanced propulsion physics pioneer noted that once his team successfully reduces costs to “around $100 per watt,” which they presently see as a viable target, Casimir could construct a 500-watt charging assembly approximately the size of a loaf of bread capable of delivering around 12 kilowatt-hours per day. White told The Debrief that this output level would be “sufficient for most daily driving needs, excluding long trips.”

Should the team reach its next goal of achieving a $10-per-watt threshold, Casimir’s founder said his company hopes to offer systems capable of powering homes and businesses “entirely off the grid.”

“Our roadmap begins with ultra-low-power applications such as IoT sensors, wearables, and tire pressure monitors, where the initial chips already fit the power profile,” White told The Debrief when describing his company’s larger vision. “From there, we expand into consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and eventually larger residential and commercial systems.”

“The primary constraints today are engineering and manufacturing maturity, not fundamental physics,” he added.

Expanding Humanity’s Reach Beyond the Solar System

When discussing the personal impact of this potentially historic accomplishment, Dr. White told The Debrief that his roughly 20 years in the space industry, “and much of my career,” have been shaped by trying to understand what it will take for humanity to reach the outer solar system, and eventually another star system. He said that the search has revealed two critical “needs” that science must address.

“First, we need a deeper understanding of fundamental physics,” Dr. White said. “Second, we need persistent power systems that can operate for extremely long durations in difficult environments.”

Although the current generation of Casimir prototypes operates at microwatt levels and is designed to fuel low-power electronics, the Casimir founder told The Debrief that he believes the device’s architecture is “fundamentally scalable over time.” White also noted the unusual connection between the negative vacuum energy generated in his team’s work and research in the advanced spacetime physics literature, including space-time warp metrics designed to propel a spacecraft to faster-than-light speeds.

Fundamentally, when asked about the most important part of his team’s work that he hopes curious readers will understand, White said that his company’s design is new, but the underlying physics is not.

“The Casimir effect and the quantum vacuum have been part of mainstream quantum mechanics for decades and have been experimentally studied by laboratories around the world,” White told The Debrief. “What is new is the attempt to engineer these effects into practical semiconductor devices using modern nanofabrication techniques.”

“The second important point is that even very small amounts of continuous power can be highly disruptive when delivered in the right applications,” White said.

When discussing MicroSparc’s potential applications, including scaling the technology to fulfill his personal dreams, White noted that the company’s achievement could mark an important advancement toward capabilities that may one day carry humans farther from Earth than present technologies allow.

“While a microwatt-scale chip may seem far removed from deep-space exploration to us,” White conceded, “it represents a small but meaningful step toward technologies that could ultimately expand humanity’s reach into the solar system and beyond.”

Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.