The Sun at the center of our own Solar System is a great advert for nuclear fusion: ultra-high temperatures and pressures combining to fuse hydrogen nuclei together into helium nuclei, releasing a huge amount of energy along the way.

If we can get the same reactions happening on Earth, nuclear fusion has the potential to drive a revolution in abundant, carbon-free energy – but replicating a star inside a science lab is proving as challenging as you might expect.

Now, researchers from Princeton University have published a study in Physical Review Letters that details how we might get to nuclear fusion more quickly. It outlines what is effectively a shortcut to something called ignition, where plasma can maintain the necessary heat levels through its own fusion reactions.