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Category: energy

Scientists harness quantum tunneling to boost heavy water production efficiency

A study by scientists at Hunan University introduces a new hydrogen isotope separation method that leverages proton quantum tunneling to produce heavy water, overcoming the key physical limitation faced by current methods that have made the production process difficult and expensive for decades.

According to results published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this new strategy achieves a record-high H2O separation factor of 276 at room temperature by designing through-barriers that allow hydrogen nuclei to pass through them via quantum tunneling, leaving deuterium behind.

By leveraging quantum mechanics, the method could pave the way for cleaner and more efficient production of a critical material for future energy technologies.

3D-printed photonic lanterns combine up to 37 multimode lasers into one fiber

Researchers have developed a microscopic 3D-printed optical device that can efficiently combine light from dozens of small semiconductor lasers into a single multimode optical fiber with very low loss. The team demonstrated photonic lanterns that multiplex 7, 19, and 37 multimode VCSEL lasers directly into a fiber while preserving brightness and easing alignment constraints. By enabling scalable incoherent beam combining of many multimode lasers, the technology could simplify and improve high-power laser systems, optical communications, and other photonic applications where efficiently delivering large optical power through fibers is critical.

A new study published in Nature Communications by Ph.D. student Yoav Dana, under the guidance of Professor Dan M. Marom and his team at the Institute of Applied Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, demonstrate a significant breakthrough in system scale and miniaturization for an optical beam combining apparatus, as those required in high-power laser systems.

The research, conducted in collaboration with Civan Lasers, introduces a novel 3D-printed microscale Photonic Lantern (PL) designed for the efficient incoherent combining of multimode sources. This innovation addresses the long-standing challenge of coupling light from large Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) arrays, each of said VCSEL sources being multimoded, into multimode fibers (MMFs) while preserving the brightness and modal capacity of the system.

2D topological Kondo insulator observed in a moiré superlattice

When mobile charge carriers, also known as itinerant electrons, interact with the strong exchange magnetic fields associated with the intrinsic angular momentum of localized electrons, this can give rise to the so-called Kondo effect. A Kondo insulator is a state of matter with an energy gap opened by the Kondo effect that forbids electrical conduction at low temperatures.

Like Kondo insulators, topological Kondo insulators are materials that behave as insulators (i.e., not conducting electricity) in their interior, but, unlike their counterparts without topology, can conduct electricity at their surface or edges. This unique, quantum phase of matter is protected by a material’s internal symmetry and topology; thus, it is not easily disrupted.

So far, hints of this phase have been primarily observed in 3D quantum materials, such as samarium hexaboride (SmB₆) and ytterbium dodecaboride. Some physicists and material scientists have also been exploring the possible existence of this phase in 2D structures comprised of two materials stacked with a slight mismatch between them, producing a pattern known as a moiré superlattice.

Hybrid ‘super foam’ uses 3D-printed struts to absorb up to 10 times more energy

Aerospace engineering and materials science researchers at Texas A&M University and the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory have developed a “super foam” that can absorb up to 10 times more energy than conventional padding.

The composite, published and described in the journal of Composite Structures, combines an ordinary foam with 3D-printed injections of stretchy, plastic columns known as struts.

The result? An affordable, lightweight and ultra-durable hybrid foam poised to redefine the defense, automotive, aerospace and consumer industries.

The Day the Sky Wouldn’t Stop Exploding: the Mystery of the Ultra-Long Gamma-Ray Burst

On July 2, 2025, space telescopes monitoring the sky for brief, one-and-done flashes of high-energy light saw something that nobody expected: a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that came back again and again, stretching what is usually a single “burst” lasting seconds to minutes into an all-day event. NASA’s Fermi spacecraft triggered on multiple gamma-ray episodes from the same patch of sky over several hours, and other satellites soon reported compatible detections. Compared to the known population of GRBs that have been studied for decades, this was an outlier beast of a different species.

At first, the event’s location near the crowded plane of the Milky Way made it tempting to suspect something closer to home, located in our own Galaxy. But follow-up imaging overturned that assumption. Observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile narrowed down the position and, together with Hubble and JWST, revealed that the transient was coincident with a dusty, irregular host galaxy. The distance is extreme: the light from the explosion began its journey roughly 8 billion years ago. In other words, whatever happened was not a local flare—it was a truly cosmic-scale detonation, or, rather, a string of detonations.

The duration of this event was not the only weird thing about it. Archival data showed that low-energy X-rays were already present almost a day before the main gamma-ray fireworks—an “X-ray precursor” that is hard to reconcile with standard models of GRBs. Meanwhile, the gamma-ray behavior itself looked like a stuttering engine. Fermi detected a sequence of short flares separated by long gaps, collectively implying multi-hour activity from a central engine rather than the single, clean explosion typical of such events.

Ancient Greece’s most famous oracle was just high on gas fumes

For centuries, people traveled to Delphi in southern Greece hoping for a glimpse of their future. There, at the temple of the god Apollo, a priestess was said to enter a trance and issue prophecies in the voice of Apollo himself. Everyday people, kings, even Alexander the Great traveled for miles to hear the priestess’s input on important decisions, from personal finance to matters of state.

Known as the Pythia or the Oracle of Delphi, the priestess wasn’t believed to be a psychic. Ancient writers like Plutarch, who served as a priest at Delphi in the first and second centuries, described her as a vessel for a power that came from the Earth.

According to Plutarch’s account, the temple of Delphi was constructed around a natural spring, where the water and fissures in the rock produced a sweet-smelling gas called pneuma. On designated days a few times per year, the chosen priestess sat amidst the pneuma on a tripod stool and inhaled enough to enter her trance. This was an exhausting ordeal for the woman. She might cry out, become hysterical, or collapse.

Inside the push to make ice rinks sustainable

Stefania Impellizzeri, a sustainable-materials chemist at Toronto Metropolitan University, is trying to make ice rinks more efficient and sustainable by fine-tuning water chemistry and rink-related materials.

Rinks use energy, water, and refrigerants, and they create microplastics. People are trying to reduce this footprint by .

BaSi₂-supported nickel catalyst boosts low-temperature hydrogen production

A new catalyst strategy developed at Institute of Science Tokyo uses BaSi2 as a support for nickel and cobalt to decompose ammonia at lower temperatures. By forming unique ternary transition metal–nitrogen–barium intermediates that facilitate nitrogen coupling, the system lowers the energy barrier for ammonia decomposition. This enables nickel-and cobalt-based catalysts to achieve high hydrogen-production activity at reduced temperatures, matching the performance of ruthenium while relying on Earth-abundant metals for cleaner hydrogen generation.

As the world turns toward cleaner energy sources, hydrogen has emerged as a promising alternative to fossil fuels. Hydrogen can be obtained from various sources such as natural gas, water, biomass, and hydrogen-rich carriers. Ammonia is one such source attracting growing attention as an efficient hydrogen carrier because it stores large amounts of hydrogen and is easier to transport. However, releasing hydrogen from ammonia is typically challenging, as it either requires precious metal catalysts such as ruthenium or non-precious metal catalysts operating at very high temperatures.

Addressing this challenge, a team of researchers led by Dr. Qing Guo and Dr. Shiyao Wang, together with Professor Masaaki Kitano and Specially Appointed Professor Hideo Hosono from the MDX Research Center for Element Strategy, Institute of Integrated Research, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, developed a new catalyst design strategy for ammonia decomposition. Instead of solely relying on the catalyst metal, this strategy focuses on using barium silicide (BaSi2) as an active support that directly participates in the catalytic process. The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on February 19, 2026.

Poking a nanostring: Scientists uncover energy cascades in tiny resonators

Scientists at TU Delft have designed a nanostring that, when poked, doesn’t lose its energy to the environment immediately. Instead, the energy leaks out within the string, triggering a cascade of distinct vibrational modes. For the first time, researchers have observed this cascade reaching all the way up to the fifth mode, while only actuating the first mode.

This discovery offers new insights that could benefit the development of extremely sensitive sensors. The results have been published in Physical Review Letters.

“Imagine plucking a guitar string,” associate professor Farbod Alijani begins to explain. “Eventually its energy dissipates into its surroundings and the vibrations slowly die out.” The team engineered a nanoscale string that behaves in a very distinct manner.

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