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A Small-ish Accelerator, a Stretchable Battery, Cool Lasers, and the Spin of the Universe
This week’s science bits from SWTG
Sabine Hossenfelder
April 16, 2025
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Small-ish Particle Accelerator Produces High-Quality Beam for the First Time
Image: DESY/Heiner Müller Elsner
Researchers at DESY in Germany have made significant progress with wakefield acceleration, using a laser to drive a plasma wave that accelerates electrons to 1.1 GeV over just a few centimeters. For comparison, the Large Hadron Collider has a pre-accelerator for protons that reaches about 2 GeV, which is about 150 meters in diameter.
The problem with wakefield acceleration has long been the large energy spread in the accelerated particles, which makes the beams unsuitable for many practical applications. To solve this, the team added a sequence of magnetic filters after the accelerator, which reduced the energy spread from 6.7% to 0.37%. The energy spread of conventional accelerators is more in the range of 0.01-0.1%, so there is still some way to go, but there is no doubt that this is a remarkable improvement.
This week’s episode of Science News is about the universe spinning (maybe). A new study has found that the universe might be spinning. What does that even mean? Let’s have a look. This week’s video also comes with a quiz, which you can take here.
Speaking of quizzes, you can now create and share your own quizzes on QuizWithIt for free! Each quiz has a unique URL, can be embedded into websites or newsletter, and be shared on social media. Happy quizzing!
Stretchable Battery Made from Wood Waste Could Power Future Wearables
Image: Thor Balkhed
Researchers from Sweden have built a soft, stretchable battery that runs even when pulled to twice its length. It uses a gel-like fluid made from modified lignin – a waste product from the paper industry – combined with conductive polymers to store and deliver energy. The battery works at around 0.7 to 0.9 volts and uses just 0.092 cubic centimetres of material, about the size of a raindrop. The researchers found that the device retains 85% of its capacity after 500 charge cycles and stays sealed and functional under 300 rounds of mechanical stretching. This stretchable battery could be useful for intelligent clothing, skin patches, or soft medical implants without relying on rigid or toxic components. Paper here, press release here.
A Surprise Contender for Cooling Computers: Lasers
Image: A molecular beam epitaxy reactor at Sandia labs, used to precisely grow semiconductors in vacuum. Credits: Sandia Labs
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and Maxwell Labs, both in the USA, have begun testing laser cooling on test microchips, marking the first time this technique is being evaluated for real-world electronics. Instead of absorbing heat like traditional cooling systems, the laser excites the material so that it emits higher-energy light in response, taking heat with it. What’s new is that the team is no longer just proposing the idea – they are now testing how much cooling actually happens in chip-like materials. If successful, the approach could enable the next generation of microchips and dramatically cut energy use in data centers. Press release here.
Check out the latest episode of my monthly podcast with Lawrence M. Krauss on Origins called “What's New in Science.” It’s an exciting segment on science in the news, what's hype, what's true, and what's interesting. The third episode is out now!
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