Detecting An Eight Magnetic Pole State Using Chiral Phonons

November 3, 2026 by Maya Posch 5 Comments

The idea that magnetism doesn’t necessarily always have a dipolar configuration is not a new one, but it’s not an easy theory to find evidence for. Most recently a team of scientists at the University of Toronto used a new method involving vibrational energy in the form of phonons to find evidence for an octupolar magnetic order.

In the associated paper in Physical Review Letters (paywalled, arXiv version) by [Ruairidh Sutcliffe] et al. we can find more details on this method and what their findings may mean for various fields. Naturally, this is a quantum-level phenomenon that requires Raman spectroscopy to be detectable via said phonons.

The materials investigated here are also somewhat exotic, ranging from actinides like NpO₂ to transition metal oxides like Sr₂MgReO₆, while having on common strong spin-orbit coupling. Where the phonons come into play is that they can be used to indirectly measure crystal lattice distortions due to the pseudo-angular momentum assigned to the phonons. This generates pseudo-chiral phonons which then show up in the Raman spectroscopy.

Although finding evidence for octopolar magnetic order is interesting in itself, this way to measuring a crystal lattice’s structure makes for another fascinating research tool that can be used to study many similar phenomenon.

These quantum-level magnetic states could conceivably be used for anything from sensors to magnetic data storage, though any such research is unlikely to be commercialized any time soon.

The Components For Life May Not Have Arrived By Comet

November 3, 2026 by Maya Posch 15 Comments

When it comes to abiogenesis, i.e. the formation of the first biological cells on Earth, there are many theories on how this got kickstarted. One of the more popular theories involves the primordial Earth being seeded with the organic building blocks by comets hurtling through the atmosphere. Although organic compounds have been discovered on such comets, the question of whether these compounds could survive hurtling through Earth’s atmosphere and the rapid deceleration upon impact remained unanswered.

Hydrothermal vent in the Atlantic Ocean. (Source: NOAA)

Now a study by [Richard J. Anslow] et al. in Scientific Reports posits that the answer here is a very probable ‘no’. Using detailed cometary impact simulations and our current understanding of the formation and presence of these volatile organic molecules on comets it was found that the possibility of such molecules surviving the impact was extremely low.

The focus here was on hydrogen cyanide (HCN), with simulations showing a negligible amount of it surviving to make it onto Earth’s surface. Naturally from there other influences like hydrolysis will further dilute and degrade such molecules, making their effect on any biological activity highly unlikely. Meanwhile this comet-based delivery method was much more effective on a historical Mars – one capable of retaining liquid water – with more than five times successful deliveries of HCN.

Realistically, the much more likely source of such ingredients and the energy for the formation of the first biological cells on Earth would have been found near hydrothermal vents, which even today provide a rich mixture of chemicals that sustains entire ecosystems that are quite unlike those found here on the surface. For smaller planets like Mars the cometary route could however been a viable method for biological activity, which provides exciting prospects for similar bodies like Europa once we start exploring its oceans.

Flying An RC Airplane With Twin Airblower EDFs

November 2, 2026 by Maya Posch 14 Comments

Shortly after [RCMakerLab] posted his question on potentially equipping an RC airplane with the electronic ducted fans (EDFs) from those airblower devices – are sold mostly as a replacement for canned air – the comment sections pretty much exploded with comments that he should just have strapped them onto an RC airplane and see for himself. In a new video this is exactly what is done, creating a somewhat A-10 Warthog-esque RC plane with its twin EDF turbines.

After we first covered this journey, the next question that got answered in the subsequent video was whether replacing the default electronic speed control (ESC) would make sense, mostly to lighten the load and optimize it for use with a typical RC avionics controller. This turned out to be the case, and thus it’s time for a test flight.

The aircraft created from largely styrofoam board seems to be largely designed for stability, with its large wings and the very A-10-like placement of the turbines right above the tail with its twin vertical stabilizers. It wasn’t really a shocker to see that the resulting 368 gram light airplane actually flies pretty well, with it taking off almost immediately.

With the used 2S1P, 1300 mAh Li-Po battery total flight time is about 3-4 minutes, which seems about on par with typical numbers. With a larger airplane and battery these two EDFs probably could be pushed even further, which we fully expect to see in a future video.

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Investigating Whether Zener Diodes Work For ESD Protection

November 2, 2026 by Maya Posch 14 Comments

Sometimes the naming of parts in electronics can contribute to confusion about what they are good for, with the topic of Zener diodes in the context of fast surges like those from electrostatic discharge (ESD) being a good example. In a recent video by [BTT Lab] this particular question regarding Zener suitability for suppressing ESD is addressed, as compared to transient-voltage-suppression (TVS) diodes.

The main argument against using Zener diodes for ESD and similar surge suppression is that they react too slowly, which obviously gives said surge time to cause some real damage. This is where a special form of avalanche effect-based diodes called TVS diodes are recommended, as their response time is in the picoseconds rather than nanoseconds or slower as for Zener diodes.

Although this is technically true, as also pointed out in the video, a Zener diode also uses the avalanche effect, with the diode starting off conducting in the reverse direction using the Zener effect before transitioning to the much faster avalanche effect. The transition point is hereby determined by how heavily the p-n junction is doped, making effectively all Zener diodes also avalanche diodes.

TVS diodes consequently are basically Zener diodes that are optimized for a very early transition to said avalanche effect. They are also generally larger than typical Zener diodes as they generate a lot of internal thermal energy while in reverse conducting mode, which has to be contained and shed without causing permanent damage.

The short version is thus that diodes marked as ‘TVS’ are the best choice for surge protection, while those marked as ‘Zener’ are best used for voltage clamping, reference voltages and all other typical Zener diode things.

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Solar Light Shows Why Replacing NiMH With Li-Ion Is Dangerous

November 2, 2026 by Maya Posch 49 Comments

Recently [DiodeGoneWild] got his paws on a purportedly IP44-rated outdoor solar light with PIR motion sensor that also contains an 18650 Li-ion cell. Since it’s being sold in Czechia in a supermarket by a Czech company you’d expect it to meet at least some quality standards, but once he got inside the device a true horror show unfolded.

The best guess here is that someone took an originally cheap NiMH cell-based solar light circuit and simply replaced said NiMH cell with an – unprotected – Li-ion 18650 cell, as there is absolutely no charging management or cell protection. This is important as while NiMH will throttle charging current by rejecting it as heat the more it is in a charged state, Li-ion is not as tolerant.

Even ignoring that the ‘IP44’ enclosure has more gaps and holes in it than the average slice of Swiss cheese, the 5.5 V-rated PV solar panel happily tried charging the Li-ion cell at around 6 V. This raises the potential that on a particularly sunny day with an already charged Li-ion cell sitting at 4.2+ V, it’ll effectively grenade this cell.

During an outdoors test the 18650 cell was charged to 4.8 V before the sun vanished behind the building, which probably isn’t an amazing sign if you are expecting for this light to keep working for more than a few weeks. Or not violently explode/catch on fire on the side of your house for that matter.

Of course, treating a NiMH cell better than in this particular circuit will extend its lifespan as well, but the failure mode of that battery chemistry tends to be a bit less aggressive. Hence why people keep getting away with dodgy circuit designs like this.

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Turning Syngas Into Hydrocarbons With The Right Alpha

November 1, 2026 by Maya Posch 12 Comments

Although the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (F-T synthesis) process is well-known and on face value quite straightforward, using it for DIY production of a somewhat defined length hydrocarbons is fairly tricky. This is the topic of a recent video by [Hyperspace Pirate], in which he goes over getting the right alpha value for his FT reactor in order to not just create the equivalent of crude oil.

This alpha value is determined by the temperature and pressure inside the reactor as the syngas – consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen – is encouraged by the catalyst material to turn into proper carbohydrates. At very low alpha values this process will finish very quickly, creating mostly methane (CH₄), while a higher number creates increasingly longer carbohydrate chains before they terminate with their final hydrogen molecules.

Since this process is exothermic, this creates many exciting opportunities for a production batch to be ruined unless you can somewhat control the temperature and pressure inside the reactor vessel. In the video a heater is used to kickstart the reaction, before it is turned off. As a catalyst an iron-based material is created that is packed inside the steel tube which forms the reactor vessel.

Through this the syngas is led, with the initial experiments producing a few mL of what appears to be pentane and hexane, with the rest apparently being gaseous methane, ethane and similar. This points to a fairly low alpha value, which is not ideal if your goal is to synthesize a specific hydrocarbon. With how complex this process is, there’s a good argument to be made that using F-T synthesis at a high alpha to churn out crude for standard distillation might be the easier method.

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Rooting An Amazon Echo Dot

October 31, 2026 by Maya Posch 13 Comments

The Amazon Echo Dot is one of Amazon’s so-called ‘smart speaker’ offerings that tie into their larger Alexa-fueled ecosystem, designed to be a pretty minimalistic device that gives you access to this voice assistant and also the Amazon AWS cloud access to your home. If that latter part isn’t really your jam, you can always try to unshackle the device from the Amazonian cloud by rooting the device, as [Andy] recently did with a 2018 Echo Dot 3.

In addition to the video there is also a blog post in which the steps required to root the device are covered. This is then used to turn the device into a Home Assistant voice satellite, using a Claude-vibecoded project created by [Julian Imhof]. As [Andy] notes, this code seems to work, but it’s completely unaudited so YMMV. Device support is also limited to only certain Echo Dot and Echo Show devices as listed on the project page.

The first step is to gain USB access to the board inside the device, which for USB-less devices like the Dot in question requires opening the device to solder a USB connector onto the test pads that are available on the PCB. For other Echo devices you can just use the existing USB port, which makes this first step slightly easier.

These devices run Fire OS, so basically Android, which means a fairly standard process of unlocking the bootloader and installing the hassmic application that replaces Alexa. During testing [Andy] noticed that voice processing was rather slow, requiring switching from Whisper to Speech-to-Phrase to make simple things like turning a light on not take a minute.

Overall it seems like a pretty decent way to repurpose these devices as ESPHome devices, with a few gotchas when it comes to the resources required for local voice processing.

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