New Research Suggests That A Neutrino Laser Is Impossible

September 21, 2026 by Maya Posch 32 Comments

As cool as it would have been to wield lasers that produce a beam of neutrinos, recently two papers were published by MIT researchers that seem to dampen the likelihood of such lasers being at all possible. In a review paper by [Ana Maria Rey] et al. these two papers are investigated in more detail.

Although the concept behind a neutrino laser is rather simple, using the same superradiance effect involving a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) that allows for stimulation by photons to result in a synchronized direction of emitted photons, the idea of using a BEC of radioisotopes that naturally emit neutrinos in this fashion has now been effectively shot down.

The problem lies in taking the leap from photons with a BEC and applying this to a BEC of radioisotopes. Whereas photons are relatively low-energy at a mere 1 eV, a neutrino with 1+ MeV has a much greater kinetic effect on the particle that emitted it. Unlike a photon emitted by an atom, this leaves precious little time for the other particles in the BEC to be affected.

This first scenario is covered in the (paywalled) paper by [Yu-Kun Lu] et al. with their calculations showing that superradiance cannot occur with neutrinos in a BEC and thus a laser is impossible. In the (also paywalled) second paper by [Hanzhen Lin] et al. the question is asked whether the assumption that a BEC of a radioisotope will at all enhance radioactive decay, to which the answer is a curt ‘no’.

Although it’s impossible to prove a negative with the scientific method, these two studies have slammed close a couple of doors on the concept of a neutrino laser.

Searching For Dark Matter With A Levitating Magnet

September 21, 2026 by Maya Posch 31 Comments

Much of science is performed through inference, with the readings on instruments, a flash of light in heavy water, or the results of parsing through terabytes of sensor data after a particle accelerator collision either backing up a proposed scenario or weakening its foundations.

In the case of so-called dark matter, this is even more relevant, as we are talking about a proposed form of matter whose most pertinent feature is that it doesn’t interact with anything else except through gravity. This is where the wiggling of a levitating magnet may be the key to detecting it.

In this experimental setup by Rice University and Dutch researchers at the Leiden Institute, a tiny permanent magnet the size of a grain of sand is levitated above a superconductor, surrounded by highly sensitive detectors that should be able to spot even minuscule movements. So far, they have collected a month’s worth of data, with no conclusive results yet.

Even if they don’t detect any ‘knocks’ on this tiny levitating magnet, it will still help refine existing models of what dark matter’s properties might be. For the next phase of this research, they’ll add more of these sensors, which will also make it easier to distinguish background noise from any unusual readings.

We’ve previously talked about [Vera Ruben]’s contributions to the hunt for dark matter and the mysteries that prompted the idea that it might exist.

Making A Copper-Oxide Photodetector From Scratch

September 20, 2026 by Maya Posch 5 Comments

Photodetectors come in a wide variety of constructions and materials, with the Cu₂O-based photodetector that [Mad Scientist Creations] demonstrates in a recent video being a good example of a photodetector that can be created at home using nothing but some copper and a heat source.

Of the two copper elements in a salt water cell, one element is heated to the point where a copper oxide layer forms, specifically Cu₂O, which acts as a semiconductor and provides the photosensitive layer. Even a fairly crude sensor created with a regular gas stove produces enough of a current that it can be used in a simple light detection circuit.

Although copper-oxide photodetectors may seem quaint, they are getting a lot of interest as they feature a very narrow bandgap at 1.2 eV. In a 2019 study by [Hyeon-Joo Song] et al. as published in Scientific Reports such a sensor is enhanced with an optimized grain structure that improves its performance, with much higher sensitivity and faster response times.

As demonstrated by [Andrzej Kwiatkowski] et al. in a 2024 paper in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells these copper-oxide sensors can also be used for gas detectors, though they used advanced gas deposition to produce the thin films instead of sticking a bit of copper tape into a natural gas flame.

Even if DIY copper-oxide sensors aren’t quite as exciting as what one can do with access to a well-equipped (semiconductor) lab, it’s still a pretty accessible material that lends itself for easy experimentation.

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Using Azo Photoisomerization To Alter Semiconductor Film Properties

September 19, 2026 by Maya Posch 2 Comments

Generally semiconductor devices like transistors have fixed properties, but using an azobenzene (Azo) compound it’s possible to optically alter these properties by exposing them to UV light. This is demonstrated in a recent paper by [Jaehoon Ji] et al., as published in Science Advances, with accompanying coverage by Princeton University.

Building on previous research on e.g. flakes of MoS₂ with photochromic Azo molecules, a functional semiconductor device was created. This uses a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayer combined with the Azo compound, with the latter altering the electrical and optical properties of the structure.

In both n- and p-type FET semiconductors it was demonstrated using visible and UV light that this can alter the carrier densities in the material, effectively altering the FET’s behavior.

While this is of course just a proof of concept, it does show that by using (Azo) molecules that can respond to certain electromagnetic radiation frequencies, electric fields, temperature, etc. semiconductor devices can be created whose behavior dynamically changes with these factors. This could potentially provide new ways to make programmable circuits and sensors.

Heat Domes: Meet The Quiet And Oppressive Take On The Thunderdome

September 16, 2026 by Maya Posch 38 Comments

One of the nice things about the weather is that even if it’s bad right now, it’ll definitely be changing soon and maybe even for the better. There is one exception to this rule, however, and that comes in the form of heat domes, which are weather systems whereby a region of air becomes isolated from the surrounding systems. This creates effectively a greenhouse, with hot air remaining trapped and moisture unable to get in.

Although until recently not very common, this weather phenomenon poses a major challenge to any flora and fauna that finds itself trapped in a heat dome. With nights being about as hot and stifling as the days with their blue skies unbroken by any cloud cover and no rain for potentially weeks on end, it poses severe hydration, cardiovascular, and other challenges to any affected lifeforms.

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Fly Brain Connectome Used To Trade Stocks And Play Games

September 14, 2026 by Maya Posch 24 Comments

Recently researchers finished mapping the central nervous system (CNS) connectome of not just the female Drosophila melanogaster (i.e. fruit fly) brain, but also that of the male D. melanogaster for a comparative analysis. Here the sexually dimorphic changes turned out to induce specific mating behavior that ensures that there will only be smooching between genetically fit D. melanogaster males and females, while the rest of the connectome remained effectively the same.

Of course, with this connectome in hand it led some people to ask themselves what else one can do with this connectome graph of about 160,000 neurons other than make a fruit fly into a fruit fly. So far we have seen [Nftechie] turn this connectome into a crypto stock trader with the Stonkfly project that uses the connectome’s reward circuits to potentially make profitable trades, though [Nftechie] says that they haven’t verified yet how good a fruit fly is at trading stocks, only that it does said stonks.

Over at [PC Gamer] they summarized a number of things that people have also done, including trying to make the connectome control a game of DOOM and Beat Saber. Each game frame stimulates sensory neurons, with the generated outputs then mapped to game controls, with dopamine-producing reward circuits wired in for reinforcement learning.

Although the D. melanogaster brain is only the merest fraction of the size of the human brain, it does provide us with a glimpse of what actual artificial intelligence research may lead to, as we unravel how even a 160,000 neuron connectome is enough to make these terrors of rotting plant matter do their wonderful things.

Re-creating NASA’s Heat Shield Problem

September 13, 2026 by Maya Posch 17 Comments

After the Orion capsule of the Artemis I lunar mission returned to Earth, it was found that massive chunks of its heatshield had been ripped off, posing a serious risk to any future missions. In a recent video in which [polymatt] takes a break from repairing old laptop shells and the like, he tries to recreate the Orion’s heatshield using a variety of methods and materials.

For this test a number of samples were created, each using the same kind of segmented structure as the larger Orion heatshield. The filler was created from the published materials for the heat shield by NASA, requiring just serious mixing.

The resulting samples were then cured with thermocouples inserted, before they got blasted with the heat from a propane torch, trying to simulate the various re-entry patterns.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results matched the findings by NASA for why the Orion’s heat shield had failed, being the build-up of gases due to the sustained pyrolysis processes that eventually fractured the material. Despite some experimental flaws that injected residual heat from the copper structure, this still seems to be a pretty good setup to test ablative heat shields in DIY lab conditions.

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