☢️ 37 million degree fusion, Laser-treated cork, Cannabis film developer

A small-scale and compact device built by US-based fusion startup Zap Energy has achieved plasma electron temperatures of 1-3 keV, roughly equivalent to 20 to 66 million degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 37 million degrees Celsius).

In nearly a century of humanity working with fusion reactions, only a few technologies have reached plasma fusion temperatures above 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius) — the temperature of our Sun’s core. For more on how the device works, check out today’s Must-Read.

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MUST READ

☢️ US startup’s fusion energy device reaches 37-million-degree temperature

Zap Energy uses a plasma confinement scheme called the Fusion Z-pinch Experiment (FuZe) to ensure that electrons do not cool rapidly. In this approach, large electric currents are channeled through thin plasma filaments, generating the plasma’s electromagnetic fields that heat it while compressing it.

The problem with this approach, however, was that the resultant plasmas were short-lived. Zap Energy has addressed this by applying a dynamic flow through the plasma, a process called sheared-flow stabilization. 

The team has achieved plasma electron temperatures of 1-3 keV, roughly equivalent to 20 to 66 million degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 37 million degrees Celsius). Interestingly, Zap Energy’s next project, Fuze-Q, has an energy capacity ten times bigger than FuZe and can reach much higher temperatures.

🪵 Scientists create laser-treated cork that absorbs oil spills

Though the number of oil spills may have decreased since the 1990s, about 3,000 metric tons were reported to have spilled in 2023. Currently, chemical dispersion is the primary method to remove oil from water, but these chemicals are toxic. Thus, it is imperative to find a better solution to clean it up as fast as possible.

That was the plan for a group of researchers who found an ingenuous solution by accident: cork. They tested the cork with a fast-pulsing laser— all low-cost—at a variety of frequencies to arrive at the perfect balance of properties that make it an optimal oil-removing material on water.

In their experiments, this laser-treated cork soaked up oil out of water in two minutes. Even more amazingly, it is particularly water-repellant, so the oil could be recycled and reused, they found.

🌿 Photographer develops film using weed, in a world’s first

This “4/20” (April 20), an international day celebrating the smoking of cannabis, was made memorable by Dmitri Tcherbadji, a photographer in Vancouver, Canada.

Dmitri, who writes for the Analog Cafe website, conducted a unique photography experiment using cannabis. He has created the world’s first film developer made from cannabis flowers, which he calls “Sativa Cannanol.”

This development is interesting considering that, traditionally, black-and-white film development relies on commercially produced chemicals. Besides, photographers typically use alternative, homemade developers such as Caffenol, made with instant coffee.

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