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- Costly Fusion, Measuring Breakthroughs, Sunlight on Demand, and UAPs
Costly Fusion, Measuring Breakthroughs, Sunlight on Demand, and UAPs
This week’s science bits from SWTG
Marcus Gee-Lim
April 08, 2026
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Fusion power may be far more expensive than expected
Image: Inside of the (now decommissioned) Joined European Torus (JET). Credit: JET
Researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland analysed how quickly fusion power plants could realistically become cheaper as the technology matures, and conclude that the typically used projections are overly optimistic. Using historical data from other energy technologies, the authors estimate that fusion plants are likely to see cost reductions of only about 2-8% per doubling of installed capacity, far below the 8-20% often assumed.
They say that because fusion reactors are large, complex, and built in small numbers, there is little opportunity for the kind of rapid learning and mass production that made solar panels and wind turbines cheap. That’s probably true, but then again it depends on how many of these things we build. Paper here.
This week’s episode of Science News is about UFOs, which are now known as UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena). These phenomena are increasingly popping up in headlines as technology advances, but for some reason scientists are still reluctant to research them. Let’s take a look at some recent UAP sightings and why we need to invest more into UAP research.
A new way to spot scientific breakthroughs
Figure: (adapted) Kim et al, Science Advances 12, 14 (2026)
Researchers from Binghamton University in the United States have proposed a new method to identify scientific breakthroughs. They do this with a machine-learning approach on about 55 million papers and patents. Then they use citation networks to analyse how a paper has influenced publications in its future. They label a paper as “disruptive” if future development depends strongly on the paper. Figuratively: a disruptive work pushes science in a new direction. The underlying idea of measuring “disruptiveness” from a paper’s future impact is not new. What is new is that their method uses the full citation network and is thus a more reliable measure. Paper here. Press release here.
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Startup plans to sell redirected sunlight from space
Reflect Orbital, a startup based in California, wants to offer sunlight on demand. They plan on deploying satellites with mirrors that redirect sunlight to whomever is willing to pay for it – the regions could even be on the night-side of the planet. The satellites would be placed in low Earth orbit and reflect light onto areas a few kilometres across. The company expects that the resulting brightness would be comparable to or somewhat above moonlight. This is not much, but it would allow solar arrays to operate after sunset.
The company plans a first demonstration mission in 2026 and envisions scaling to thousands of satellites. They project customer costs at about $5,000 per hour for illumination.
