This week in stories we’re covering at The Debrief… NASA and DARPA warp drive pioneer Sonny White’s new company, Casimir, has unveiled a potentially breakthrough chip technology that allegedly draws power directly from the quantum vacuum. Meanwhile, NASA has revealed that something is invading the ocean waters off the northeastern U.S. coast, and recent satellite imagery just caught it in the act. And finally, the Pentagon has released a trove of U.S. government documents related to UFOs under its new Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). Here’s everything we know so far.

In the meantime, here’s a quick look at all the other stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief: 

• 11,000-Year-Old Major Discovery in Canada Could Challenge “Everything We Thought We Knew” About North American Prehistory
  A major archaeological discovery at Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Canada is challenging long-held ideas about life in early North America.
• Japan Just Unveiled a Game-Changing New Combat Drone—And You Won’t Believe What It’s Made Of
  A new Japanese combat drone recently unveiled by the country’s defense minister is made from an unlikely source material.
• Did Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Predict Impact Physics Hundreds of Years Before Its Invention?
  Dante Alighieri’s Inferno turns out to be an excellent model of impact physics, with Satan taking the role of an extinction-causing asteroid.
• A Hot Pink Katydid Just Pulled Off One of Nature’s Most Surprising Camouflage Tricks
  The findings, published in Ecology, center on Arota festae, a leaf-mimicking katydid found in Panama, Colombia, and Suriname.
• Massive 11,000-Carat Ruby Discovery Now Ranked One of the Largest Ever Found in Its Country of Origin
  A massive ruby found in Myanmar could be one of the most valuable of its kind, according to officials who revealed the discovery last week.
• 146,000-Year-Old Tool Discovery Reveals Unexpected Adaptations to Harsh Ice Age Life
  Ice Age tools dating back 146,000 years, discovered in an ancient Chinese cave, reveal surprising human adaptations to a harsh environment.
• New Study Reveals Language Evolves in Predictable, Weather-Like Patterns, Researchers Say
  A new study from the University of Portsmouth suggests that changes in language may not be random, but instead follow predictable patterns.
• These ‘Three Horsemen’ of Antarctic Instability Could Transform the Oceans into a Driver of Climate Change by 2030
  Antarctica has been affected by a “perfect storm” of major events that could finally trigger widespread melting on the icy continent.
• Fusion Breakthrough? Magnetizing Plasmas with High-Powered Lasers Paves the Way Toward “Direct Drive” Fusion
  New fusion research reveals how plasma can spontaneously generate its magnetic field, in a fundamental breakthrough.
• Dreams May Reflect More Than Past Experiences, New Study Finds
  A new study shows that our personal traits, as well as real-life events and experiences, actually shape what we dream about, creating patterns in our subconscious.
• Violent Space Weather Can Send Orbital Space Junk Careening Toward Earth, Endangering Launch Missions
  Volatile solar activity increases the amount of space debris entering Earth’s atmosphere, creating unpredictable hazards for space launches.
• New Research Reveals How Dancers’ Brains Align in Real Time During Movement
  New research reveals how dancing partners can align their brain activity in real time as they move.
• “This is not a Routine Launch Update”: EarthDaily Analytics Launches Six Satellites Capable of Detecting Complex Planetary-Wide Changes ‘At Scale’
  EarthDaily Analytics has announced the successful launch of six satellites capable of unprecedented daily monitoring of the Earth’s surface.
• A Subtle Shift in the Nile May Explain the Rise of an Ancient African Empire
  Recent research from the University of Michigan now provides a geological explanation for why this part of the Nile became the foundation for Kushite civilization.
• A Bizarre New Humpback Whale Behavior Dubbed “Gaping” Leaves Scientists Baffled
  A strange, newly observed humpback whale behavior has left scientists perplexed, according to a new research study.
• Something Deep in the Ocean is Causing Global Sea Levels to Rise—Now Scientists Reveal What’s Driving the Anomaly
  Scientists tracking the factors driving a global rise in sea levels over recent years say a key missing piece of the puzzle may have finally been revealed.

In 1775, British diplomat Sir William Hamilton developed plans for a mechanical model that would recreate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius through light, movement, and clockwork. While the device was never built, his design was preserved in a Bordeaux library for more than 200 years.

Now, a pair of engineering students at the University of Melbourne has brought Hamilton’s concept to life for the first time.

Sir William Hamilton was more than a diplomat. Serving as ambassador to Naples and Sicily from 1765 to 1800, he became a leading amateur volcanologist of his time. He observed eruptions of Vesuvius in 1767, 1779, and 1794, and meticulously recorded the changes to the volcano’s 4,000-foot crater after each event.

Hamilton based his design for the Vesuvius model on a 1771 watercolor by British-Italian artist Pietro Fabris, Night View of a Current of Lava, which showed the bright glow of lava at night. He intended to recreate this effect mechanically, using light and movement to simulate an eruption. Although it is unclear whether he ever built a prototype, his detailed plans, which survived at the Bordeaux Municipal Library, served as the basis for the recent reconstruction.

Reconstructing a Lost Design

Dr. Richard Gillespie, Senior Curator in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, initiated the reconstruction project and oversaw its progress from concept to completion.

“It is fitting that after 250 years exactly, our students have brought this dormant project to life,” Gillespie said. “It is a wonderful piece of science communication. People around the world have always been fascinated by the immense power of volcanoes.”

Master of Mechatronics student Xinyu (Jasmine) Xu and Master of Mechanical Engineering student Yuji (Andy) Zeng spent three months constructing the device in the university’s Creator Space workshop. They adapted Hamilton’s original clockwork design to use modern materials, including laser-cut timber, acrylic, programmable LED lighting, and electronic control systems, while maintaining the intended visual effect. Many of the engineering challenges they encountered were similar to those Hamilton likely faced with his original concept.

“We still faced some of the challenges that Hamilton faced,” Zeng said. “The light had to be designed and balanced so the mechanisms were hidden from view.”

Concealing the machinery to maintain the illusion was central to Hamilton’s vision. To achieve this, the students had to think as both engineers and visual effects designers.

Science Education in a Different Era

Hamilton designed the mechanical volcano as an early way to share scientific concepts with the public, allowing people to see how a volcanic eruption works without traveling to Vesuvius. By the mid-1700s, Italy had become a destination for European scholars and nobility, with Vesuvius as a main attraction. Hamilton saw that scientific shows and excitement could spark the public’s curiosity.

The finished project is now a main feature of The Grand Tour exhibition at the university’s Baillieu Library, on display until June 28, 2026. The show features artwork, records, and objects that show the importance of eighteenth-century European travel, while Hamilton’s device shows how art and engineering come together.

Research engineer Andrew Kogios, who supervised the students during construction, noted that the experience gave them hands-on engineering beyond the classroom.

“From selecting materials and 3D printing, to troubleshooting electronics and satisfying requirements, working collaboratively with Yuji and Xinyu has been extremely rewarding,” Kogios said. “Experiences like these, supplementing their university studies, position them well for their future endeavors.”

Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.

A massive underwater volcanic eruption in the South Pacific, climaxing in January 2022, is offering new hope for an “emergency brake” on climate change, after it surprisingly cleaned up its own methane release.

The volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai lies 40 miles north of the Kingdom of Tonga’s main island, which was hard hit by a tsunami resulting from the 2022 eruption. Now, in a recent paper published in Nature Communications, researchers have identified an unexpected process where the eruption removed methane from the atmosphere, offering a possible tool to slow climate change.

Volcanic Evidence

Satellite data on the massive 2022 volcanic eruption provided researchers with important new information, revealing the presence of formaldehyde in the plume. This was noteworthy because formaldehyde results from intermediate stages of methane destruction, suggesting that the material was breaking down at an extremely rapid rate.

“When we analysed the satellite images, we were surprised to see a cloud with a record-high concentration of formaldehyde,” said first author Dr. Maarten van Herpen from Acacia Impact Innovation BV. “We were able to track the cloud for 10 days, all the way to South America. Because formaldehyde only exists for a few hours, this showed that the cloud must have been destroying methane continuously for more than a week.”

While prior research identified methane emissions during volcanic eruptions, never before has one been observed cleaning up its own mess. This could offer an important new technique to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.

Reviewing the Climate Change Data

The process at play here is a recent discovery, only coming to light in 2023, during analyses of Saharan dust storms. That research identified how dust blown from the Sahara would mix with salt as it drifted over the Atlantic Ocean, producing iron salt aerosols, which then converted into chlorine atoms when impacted by sunlight.

That airborne chlorine, in turn, would break down atmospheric methane, a surprising chain of events that restructured scientists’ understanding of tropospheric chemistry.

“What is new—and completely surprising—is that the same mechanism appears to occur in a volcanic plume high up in the stratosphere, where the physical conditions are entirely different,” said Professor Matthew Johnson from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, who worked on both discoveries.

The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai event mirrored this, but instead of dust drifting over the ocean, the event’s force pushed large amounts of saltwater into the atmosphere alongside volcanic ash. Again, sunlight piercing the ash plume produced chlorine, which broke down the methane, as evidenced by the formaldehyde detections.

Halting Climate Change

While methane is far more potent than CO2, the leading cause of climate change, it breaks down much more rapidly—in just about a decade. In this balance, methane accounts for roughly a third of all global warming.

Given its short lifespan, reducing methane emissions would have a more immediate effect on climate change than reducing CO₂, which persists longer. While CO₂ reduction is a long-term goal, the relatively quick results have led some researchers to dub methane reductions as an “emergency brake” on climate change. The team says their findings could be an essential key to this new field of methane reduction research, although more work remains to quantify the rate of removal.

“How do you prove that methane has been removed from the atmosphere? How do you know your method works? It’s very difficult, said senior author Dr. Jos de Laat from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. “But here we address that problem by showing that methane breakdown can in fact be observed using satellites.”

“It’s an obvious idea for industry to try to replicate this natural phenomenon—but only if it can be proven to be safe and effective, “Johnson concluded. “Our satellite method could offer a way to help figure out how humans might slow global warming.”

The paper, “Satellite Quantification of Enhanced Methane Oxidation Applied to the Stratospheric Plume Following Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Eruption,” appeared in Nature Communications on May 7, 2026.

Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

By studying fungal microfossils in 66-million-year-old rock samples from the Denver Basin in Colorado, Johns Hopkins University microbiologists have confirmed that the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact triggered a worldwide fungal takeover, and uncovered a second, previously unknown ecological crisis just before it.

The post Fungi Bloomed Twice around End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Mauna Loa in Hawaii is the world’s largest active volcano, and its 2022 eruption was the volcano’s 34th since 1843. But why is such a giant volcano located in the middle of the...

The post Why is the world’s largest volcano in the middle of nowhere? first appeared on Science Illustrated.