An April 17, 2025 Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) notice (received via email) announced an upcoming Zoom panel discussion, “Innovating for a Digital Future: Navigating Economic Shifts and Global Challenges,”
Upcoming Virtual Panels – April 25 [2025 and May 7 [More about the May 7, 2025 panel in a future posting]
The global economy is at a crossroads, shaped by profound shifts in economic structures, evolving geopolitical dynamics, and the relentless advancement of digital technologies. How can governments and businesses adapt to the acceleration of digital transformation while ensuring economic stability, security, and a shared digital future?
The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is a neutral, not-for-profit national centre of expertise with the mission of strengthening Canada’s digital advantage in the global economy. For over 30 years, and with a team of 100 experts, we have delivered forward-looking research, practical policy advice, and capacity building solutions for individuals and businesses. Our goal is to ensure that technology is utilized to drive economic growth and innovation and that Canada’s workforce remains competitive on a global scale.
Abstract:
The global economy is at a crossroads, shaped by profound shifts in economic structures, evolving geopolitical dynamics, and the relentless advancement of digital technologies. From artificial intelligence and quantum computing to Digital IDs, blockchain and cybersecurity, these innovations are redefining industries, altering labour markets, and transforming the way nations compete and collaborate. This virtual panel will bring together industry leaders and key policymakers from Canada and Europe to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by this changing landscape and discuss issues including:
How can governments and businesses adapt to the acceleration of digital transformation while ensuring economic stability, security, and a shared digital future?
What policies and frameworks are needed to foster innovation, enhance global trade, and build resilient economies in the face of uncertainty?
Through an insightful discussion, this session will examine strategies to harness digital advancements for sustainable growth, strengthen transnational cooperation, and ensure that the evolving global paradigm works for all. Join us as we shape the future of the digital economy and define pathways for shared prosperity in an interconnected world.
Our journey began in 1992 as the Software Human Resources Council, a vital player in a network of sector councils supported by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Council Program. In 2006, we recognized our potential to shape Canada’s digital destiny on a global scale. We underwent a significant transformation, becoming an independent, national, non-profit centre of expertise and renamed to the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).
Rooted in government-backed origins, we now extend our reach to every province, supporting policymakers, driving practical research, and innovating solutions for the workforce and businesses.
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I cannot find any kind of annual report, which might give an indication of how the ICTC is funded. Is it strictly ‘fee for services’, government or foundation funding, or a combination of some kind? It’s always interesting to know where the money is coming from.
Smell is a very charged topic as I learned almost 20 years ago when working on a master’s programme on creating writing and digital technology via distance education. I had innocently suggested that we include the sense of smell when looking at immersive technology.
One of the members in our group of three ‘blew up’. As someone who had led the Irish teams involved in Microsoft’s multimedia efforts, he asserted his superior understanding of multimedia and narrative. Never one to go away quietly, I persisted, as did the other member of our group, in the discussion.
The whole thing culminated in three projects where our ‘expert’ colleague titled his project ‘STFU’. It was a several minute video diatribe starting with the words ‘shut the …’ You can probably fill in the blanks.
It seems that smell is a very charged topic when applied to creative writing and/or literature. Amelia Louks, research supervisor in English literature at the University of Cambridge, writes about her experience with smell and literature in a December 16, 2024 essay on The Conversation, Note: Links have been removed,
In November [2024], I celebrated finishing my PhD. After three and a half years of writing and research, it was an occasion I wanted to share with my academic network, so I posted a photo of myself holding a physical copy of my PhD thesis on X. The post amassed 120 million views and sparked a lot of anger in response to its title: Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose.
The title received criticism from those who were wilfully misrepresenting the nature of the research. “Smells are racist,” became a misguided refrain. One user commented that it was a study of “why it’s racist and/or classist to not like it when people exhibit body odors consistent with poor hygiene”.
My thesis studies how certain authors of the past century used smell in literature to indicate social hostilities, such as prejudice and exploitation. It also connects this to our real-world understanding of the role the sense plays in society.
For instance, in The Road to Wigan Pier (1936), George Orwell states that “the real secret of class distinctions in the West” can be summed up in four frightful words: “The lower classes smell.” Orwell proceeds to unpick the harm that this kind of messaging causes and how we might combat it.
It is well documented that smell has been used as a justification for expressions of racism, classism and sexism. Since the 1980s, researchers have been assessing the moral implications of perceptions and stereotypes related to smell.
My thesis adds to this work by assessing the contributions of a selection of books and films that take smell seriously. In each of the texts I considered, smell takes on a role beyond mere sense perception.
I include examples from well-known works by George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, J.M. Coetzee and Toni Morrison, as well as notable recent examples, such as Bong Joon-ho’s film, Parasite.
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Sheena Goodyear’s December 5, 2025 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) article based on the interview conducted with Louks for the CBC/s As It Happens radio programme delves further into Louks’ experience with posting about her PhD and how she responded to the barrage,
When Ally Louks posted last week that she was “PhDone” with her English literature thesis, she didn’t expect to find herself at the centre of a culture war.
Louks posted a picture of herself on X, formerly known as Twitter, smiling proudly and holding a bound copy of her University of Cambridge thesis on the “politics of smell” in literature.
One week later, the seemingly innocuous post has been viewed 117.1 million times, made headlines around the world, and put Louks on the receiving end of plenty of praise but also heaps of hate, including a rape threat that’s now under investigation by police.
“I couldn’t possibly have anticipated that this post would even go beyond my little academic community on Twitter of about 200 people,” Louks told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.
At the heart of the backlash is the title of Louks’s thesis, visible in the photo: “Olfactory Ethics: The Politics of Smell in Modern and Contemporary Prose.”
CBC reviewed dozens of comments on the post, many from men saying the topic was too “woke,” or a waste of time and money. Others suggested women don’t belong in academia.
“What a stupid f–king thing to ‘study,'” wrote one person.
“You have made no valuable contributions in your thesis, and perhaps in your entire life,” wrote another.
“You would have spent your years better by getting married and having children,” someone else posted.
Louks says she doesn’t take it personally.
“I do think that it’s clear that misogyny is at play [emphasis mine], especially since I’m a young and high achieving woman,” she said.
“But I also think there’s a kind of broader arc here going on about people questioning the value of literary study and of the humanities and, indeed, of academia [emphases mine].”
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Louks says she decided not to lock her account or take the post down. She also isn’t squabbling with commenters.
“I didn’t want them to think that they’d chased me off or that they’d affected me in any way because they truly haven’t,” she said. “I do feel safe.”
he barrage of hate, she says, was quickly followed by a surge of support.
“This has been a bit of a case study in how we present ourselves online,” she said.
“Being polite and respectful has actually done something kind of magical here in that so many people have rallied around me and supported me just because I didn’t stoop to the level of the online trolls.”
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May you experience the freedom to explore even topics that seem obscure.
The International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art is an annual (these days) symposium which is put on by ISEA International (formerly Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) and is hosted in various parts of the world. Here’s more about the ISEA International from its About (Mission) webpage,
Mission ISEA International is an international non-profit organisation fostering interdisciplinary discussion and knowledge exchange among culturally diverse organisations and individuals working at the intersection of art, science, and technology.
Main Activity The organisation’s main activity is the International Symposium on Electronic/Emerging Art (ISEA), an annual symposium that contributes to knowledge in the fields of art, science, and technology; supports emerging approaches to research and practice on complex and relevant topics; generates knowledge and understanding from interdisciplinary and/or cross-sector perspectives by bringing together diverse communities of art practitioners and scholars. The international symposium provides an academic and artistic forum, including a conference and a wide array of exhibitions, presentations, performances, and public events. Each year, the symposium is held in a different country with the aim of encouraging and including diverse perspectives, and to serve as a cultural bridge between local and international communities of artists and researchers. The ISEA Board of Directors advises and guides the Host Organisations producing each ISEA edition.
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The location for ISEA 2025: some thoughts
The May 23 – 29, 2025 ISEA Symposium is being held in Korea (or South Korea), a location that has been experiencing some political upheaval as have many, many parts of the world. For example, there is a great deal of disquiet here in Canada regarding travel to the US (see April 10, 2025 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s [CBC] news online article by Sophia Harris “Canadian travel to the U.S. has plummeted. One reason why: fear“).
While there have been concerning events in Korea, the situation overall seems to have calmed down.
For anyone who’s familiar with the type of protests held in the US and to a lesser extent in Canada, this description of wandering into a recent protest in South Korea is revelatory, from a March 18, 2025 posting by Canadian gossip columnist, Elaine Lui (Lainey of laineygossip.com), Note: A link has been removed,
… Now that I’m actually in Korea, my feeds are dominated by K-entertainment news. And political news…that does not involve the person dominating the news in the west!
On Saturday [March 15, 2025] we came out of the subway and accidently [sic] joined a protest. The Constitutional Court of Korea is currently deliberating the case of President Yoon Suk Yeol. On Saturday protestors against the president took over city streets calling for his removal. There was also a rally held by his supporters and between the two events, the roads were jammed, the trains were packed, and the police were out in full force. But at no time in the three hours that we spent in that area did we feel a threat to our personal safety. It was a surreal thing to witness as a foreigner after all these years of American-dominated news coverage. According to The Korea Herald, the Court is is expected to deliver its ruling some time this week.
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The ruling from the Constitutional Court of Korea took a little longer than expected but it has now been made, from an April 3, 2025 CBC news online article by Murray Brewster,
South Korea’s Constitutional Court has formally upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol following an aborted attempt to declare martial law late last year [2024].
It is a move that will trigger a new round of elections and deepen the political divide in one the region’s more vibrant democracies. South Korea must hold an election within two months.
After deliberating since January, the court issued its unanimous ruling Friday in a nationally broadcast event that saw many ordinary Koreans pause to hear the judgment on Yoon’s political fate.
The justices said Yoon violated the basic rights of the people by declaring martial law.
“You’re witnessing the miracle of democracy in Korea with the ruling of the constitutional court,” Siheung Mayor Lim Byung-taek told a gathering of journalists visiting the west coast city as part of the World Journalists Conference.
Yoon, a staunch conservative, was impeached in December [2024] by the country’s National Assembly, which is controlled by the liberal opposition.
He ordered the deployment of hundreds of troops and police officers to the assembly after declaring martial law on Dec. 3 [2024]
Yoon said the decision was intended to maintain order, but subsequently some military and civilian officials testified the president had ordered them to drag out lawmakers to frustrate a floor vote on his decree and detain his political opponents.
In his defence, Yoon claimed that he didn’t intend to keep the country under martial law for very long, and he only wanted to highlight what he called the “wickedness” of the Democratic Party, which obstructed his agenda.
…
On Friday, police mobilized an overwhelming presence to prevent clashes and possible acts of vandalism, arson and assault.
There were both pro- and anti-impeachment demonstrations on the streets of Seoul following the ruling, but no violence was reported.
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ISEA theme, ‘동동 (憧憧, Dong-Dong): Creators’ Universe’, May 23 – 29, 2025 in Seoul
I was hoping to find a video with examples of some of what visitors to ISEA 2025 might experience but the organizers had decided on a more minimalist approach. Happily, I found this, from the About/Theme webpage,
The ISEA2025 theme, ‘동동 (憧憧, Dong-Dong): Creators’ Universe’, aspires to transcend the harsh realities of conflict and antagonism, initiating a global wave of unity sparked by a newfound allure. Through the words of the legendary priestess Diotima, Socrates described love as the act of keeping something good within oneself forever, the giving birth to beauty. This “giving birth” or “creation” elevates humanity from a mundane existence to an eternal state. For this God-Man, boundaries become meaningless, replaced by the limitless possibilities of consciousness manifesting in various forms within the quantum realm.
The overarching theme of ISEA2025, ‘Dong-Dong’ is drawn from the phrase “Dong-Dong-Wang-Rae, Bung-Jong-E-Sa (憧憧往來 朋從爾思)” in the ancient Eastern philosophical text, I Ching (Book of Changes, 易經). This theme resonates with this universal life force of love. The imagery of individuals moving toward one another with longing underscores our increasingly fragmented existence, while the ongoing conflicts and devastations around the globe remind us of the ancient wisdom that says it is good to be together. The juxtaposition of global crises with our dazzling technological advancements compels us to reflect on the values that underpin our society today.
ISEA2025 endeavors to explore a new worldview that transcends the recurring theme of posthumanism in contemporary art, as well as the divisions between East and West, art and science, materiality and spirituality, and technology and humanity. Embodying the future envisioned by transnational artist Nam June Paik, our generation is privileged to bridge the disconnected and to embrace the spontaneity and serendipity that emerge from the pursuit of relationship and solidarity. Seoul, a city that epitomises the fusion of tradition and modernity, serves as the ideal platform for such creative exchanges. Its geopolitical significance as the capital of a divided nation further amplifies the meaning of ‘Dong-Dong.’
Art has historically illuminated human experience through its creation of timeless beauty. With the consciousness and the universe of its exalted creators blossoming through technology, we can transcend material and social barriers to aspire higher. May the childlike ‘Dong-Dong’ within our minds generate beautiful waves in our tumultuous reality, awakening the creator spirit in all of us.
The creators’ universe belongs to all who ‘Dong-Dong.’
We propose four Creators’ Imperatives for all participants of ISEA2025. Each creator is encouraged to embrace the symposium’s main theme, Dong-Dong, by adhering to these guidelines.
Entice (홀려라) | Captivate the Heart
Create experiences and narratives that deeply resonate on an emotional level, fostering genuine interest and engagement.
Entangle (엮어라) | Foster Mutual Resemblance
Encourage collaboration and cross-disciplinary interactions, allowing different perspectives to merge and evolve into innovative concepts and solutions.
Expand (펼쳐라) | Broaden Horizons
Open platforms for diverse participation, encouraging contributions from various entities, including humans and the universe, to foster a rich tapestry of creative output.
Establish (세워라) | Affirm Inter-connectedness
Develop systems and structures that highlight and support the connectivity of different components, ensuring a cohesive and sustainable growth path. Recognise Dong-Dong as a potential gateway to achieving holistic inter-connectedness.
To guide academic and artistic submissions for ISEA2025, the following sub-themes have been developed to explore ideas pertaining to Dong-Dong and the Creators’ Imperatives of ISEA2025, and to connect with the ongoing conversations, research, and intellectual inquiry within the ISEA community.
We invite varied approaches and methodologies that resonate with the notion of Dong-Dong and the Creators’ Imperatives of ISEA2025, and urge participants to explore the intersections of art, technology, and culture while embracing the interconnected actions of enticing, entangling, expanding, and establishing.
Digital Heritage
We recall themes of mutual attraction and inclusivity, anticipating creative reinterpretations of tradition. Imagination transcending boundaries will connect traditional culture with modern technology, suggesting new directions for a sustainable future. We aim for a space open to endless combinations and innovations, blending mythical imagination with contemporary advancements.
※ Special Track 1 : 5th Summit on New Media Art Archiving
As part of Digital Heritage, the 5th Summit on New Media Art Archiving will take place, inviting scholars, practitioners, and archivists to engage in discussions that advance the preservation and dissemination of media art. This event will explore innovative reinterpretations of tradition and promote sustainable practices in both physical and digital archiving.
Related Research Areas
History and Philosophy, Intangible Cultural Heritage, Speculative Design, Tangible Legacy, Technological Singularity, DB Collect, Digital Archive, Methodology of Collecting and Archiving Media Art, New Media Art Preservation, Online and Physical Archiving, History of Digital Culture
Techno-Human
As technology advances beyond human cognition, it is crucial to reflect on the beliefs and values driving this progress. We welcome works exploring new life phenomena, evolving human identity through technology, the future of techno-humanity, and the changing Earth environment, fostering imagination, contemplation, and critique.
※ Special Track 2 : Barriers and Alienation in Art X Tech Education
Special session for Techno-Human, we will hold the Barriers and Alienation in Art X Tech Education. Amidst the hype cycle of countless technologies, we are curious about the realities faced by educators, artists, scientists, and practitioners involved in art education mediated by technology. We encourage participants to share their experiences from educational settings that utilize a range of technologies, from high-tech to low-tech, and explore ways to move forward together.
Nam June Paik asserted that “the role of an artist is to contemplate the future.” By blending social imagination with artistic inspiration, creators can envision new future cities, particularly Seoul at ISEA2025. Inspired by the vision of a future city at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair we have adopted the theme ‘Neo Futurama’ for our exploration, seeking to reveal the possible developments of Seoul’s future. Our focus centres on Seoul in the year 2050, a time anticipated to be characterised by artificial intelligence and hyper-convergence. This year is also marked by the technological ‘Singularity,’ as postulated by Ray Kurzweil. We invite creators, especially future generations, to actively envision and propose the cities they aspire to see in the future.
Related Research Areas
Blockchain, Urban Media, Eastern Philosophies, Alternative Cities, Artificial Intelligence, Social Issues, Ecological Future, Collective Action, New Matter & Material, Future Transportation, Future Lifestyle, Singularity
Space Creative & The Stars
Space and celestial bodies have symbolised humanity’s yearning and dreams (동동, 憧憧, Dong-Dong) throughout history and across cultures; The jade rabbit Oktokki that lives on the moon in Korean mythology and Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) are just two of the beloved imagined figures embodying our cosmic sense of wonder. Space, the domain of celestial bodies and the stars, means both the physical expanse that encloses all tangible things and the ‘theatre of mind’ on which ideas and concepts are born and fostered. Space is therefore the enabler of the existence and the transformations of all creations– realisations of human desire and imagination– natural or manmade. Through the Space Creative & The Stars initiative, ISEA2025 aims to explore the varied senses of ‘space’ in creation–outer, literary, symbolic, urban, social, mental, physical, to name a few possibilities. We invite the global thinkers to build together the universe of Dong-Dong, a new home to ‘planetary thinking’ for the fate of humanity.
※ Special Track 3 : Nam June Paik – Live Science Fiction Movie
As part of Space Creative & The Stars, “Nam June Paik – Live Science Fiction Movie” will also take place, inviting scholars, researchers, and artists to engage in discussions that extend Nam June Paik’s philosophy and art. This event proposed by Nam June Paik Art Center will explore innovative ‘Live Science Fiction Movies’ inspired by Paik’s visionary ideas, continuing to challenge our perceptions of space and expand our imagination on this planet.
Related Research Areas
Space Science, Astronomy, Cosmic Web, Architecture and Spatialization, Spatial Music and Graphics, Science Fiction, Augmented/Virtual Reality and Metaverse, Social Constructs, Cognitive Science, Complex Systems, Planetary Thinking and Futurology
It looks pretty exciting to me. Should you be interested in going and haven’t already registered, they’ve extended Early Bird Registration to April 25, 2025 (KST). For those of us in Canada, I believe that Korea is across the International Dateline, which means you have until April 24, 2025. You can register early here; the registration fees are listed in Korean currency only.
‘Supranano’ means the work is being conducted at measurements below 10 nanometres. A January 24, 2025 news item announces research from the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK),
Building on their work on the first-ever supranano magnesium alloy, a research team led by City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has demonstrated how supranano engineering can lead to higher strength and higher ductility in bulk structural materials.
The ultimate problem that the CityUHK-led team has set out to solve is related to the strength and ductility for materials made from metals, for example, steel or titanium, said ProfessorLu Jian, Dean of CityUHK’s College of Engineering.
“If we want to create stronger and more ductile materials, we need to guard against producing alloys that inevitably show decreased strain-hardening capacity over time,” Professor Lu said.
The unique approach adopted by Professor Lu’s team is successfully controlling the arrangement and design of the grain interiors and boundaries of a fine-grained alloy at the supranano level, i.e. below 10 nanometers.
“We have previously worked on magnesium alloys but for this project, we used a multicomponent blend of metals for synthesis,” Professor Lu explained, adding the three collaborative research groups under his team include his former PhD students and postdocs conducting research on supra-nano-dual-phase structures. They are now professors and research leaders at Xi’an Jiaotong University.
They discovered that the supranano ordering helped to promote a continuously increased flow stress until the fracture of the alloy at a remarkable 10% strain with an equally impressive 2.6-gigapascal (GPa) tensile stress.
“The yield strength of nanostructured fine-grained alloys is usually less than 1.5 to 2 GPa,” he said.
Essentially, Professor Lu continues, the CityUHK-led team found that supranano orderings have a stronger pinning effect for dislocations and stacking faults (SFs). It makes the motion of dislocations and SFs slow, which increases the possibility of their interaction and entanglement with other moveable dislocations, and which promotes multiplication and accumulation of these defects upon loading.
“The supranano orderings with precipitates are uniformly distributed in the grain interior, and thus, the distribution of the generated defects is also uniform, which alleviates strain localisation, leading to mutually complementary strengthening and ductilisation and facilitating a high strain-hardening rate and large elongation,” Professor Lu said.
Fine-tuning these supranano engineering techniques will further enhance the strength and ductility of different materials, leading to a spectrum of applications in aerospace, automobile, 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronics) industries, and in construction using super-strong alloys.
I’m a little late to the party but there’s still time to make a submission (for Toronto-based artists in particular as there’s very little time left, also there’s no money to pay the artists or for shipping costs) for the 2025 edition of the SciArt Gallery event included as part of the cross-Canada Science Rendezvous festival.
Here’s more from an April 10, 2025 note I received (via email),
… We are the SciArt Gallery team and we are reaching out on behalf of Science Rendezvous. Science Rendezvous is a registered charitable organization dedicated to bringing exciting research, STEM experiences, and programming to the public. As the SciArt Gallery team, we work together with artists and organizations to create an exhibition inspired by science and the theme provided each year. Artists are welcome to sell their works, but we kindly ask that no baked goods be sold. Here is a link to our website for previous SciArt Gallery exhibitions: https://www.sciencerendezvousuoft.ca/2023-festival/sciart-gallery/ (might want to see if it can be updated to include the 2024 event).
… If you have any STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] inspired artwork to showcase, please sign-up through this link: https://forms.gle/zYCyeYUFEz34wcoJA. We welcome artists with interactive artwork, especially pieces designed to engage family audiences. The event is being held on May 10th, 2025 at the University of Toronto, St. George campus from 11 am to 5 pm. Deadline for the application is April 25th, 2025.
I found more information from the Open Call for artists – U of T [University of Toronto] Science Rendezvous SciArt Gallery 2025 page (accessed via this link: https://forms.gle/zYCyeYUFEz34wcoJA,
Open Call for artists – U of T Science Rendezvous SciArt Gallery 2025
Thank you for your interest in participating in this year’s sci-art gallery! Science-Rendezvous (SR) is a one-day festival that happens simultaneously at sites across Canada, showcasing local scientific research and programs. It is family-friendly and highly interactive, to promote interest in science and research. Best of all, it is FREE! Downtown Toronto is Canada’s largest festival, with over 40,000 attendees last year. If you’d like to learn more about SR and its different activities, please visit http://www.sciencerendezvous.ca/ and http://www.sciencerendezvousuoft.ca/ .
This year, our event will be on May 10, 2025 from 11 am – 5 pm, Front Campus (King’s College Circle).
Part of this wonderful celebration is the display of local science art, or sci-art at our SciArt Gallery. This can be in any medium, with any kind of subject relating to nature and/or science. The theme of this year’s Science Rendezvous is Wonder! While we, unfortunately, cannot pay our artists, we invite and encourage participating artists to sell their work.
At the conclusion of the event, a prize will be presented to the artist that receives the most public votes!
If you think you’d like to participate, please fill out the form below. We have volunteers that can help with set-up and clean-up, and we provide a free pizza lunch! We will follow up with more information as it becomes available.
The deadline for applying is 11:59 PMon Apr. 25th, 2025. If you apply after this date, there is no guarantee we will be able to accommodate you. If you’d like to contact us before applying for any reason, please email us at uoftsr.sciartgallery@gmail.com
In addition to the competition to develop commercial quantum computing, there’s the competition to develop commercial nuclear fusion energy. I have four stories about nuclear fusion, one from Spain, one from Chine, one from the US, and one from Vancouver. There are also a couple of segues into history and the recently (April 2, 2025) announced US tariffs (chaos has since ensued as these have become ‘on again/off again’ tariffs) but the bulk of this posting is focused on the latest (January – early April 2025) in fusion energy.
Fission nuclear energy, where atoms are split, is better known; fusion nuclear energy is released when a star is formed. For anyone unfamiliar with the word tokamak as applied to nuclear fusion (which is mentioned in all the stories), you can find out more in the Tokamak Wikipedia entry.
In a pioneering approach to achieve fusion energy, the SMART device has successfully generated its first tokamak plasma. This step brings the international fusion community closer to achieving sustainable, clean, and virtually limitless energy through controlled fusion reactions.
The SMART tokamak, a state-of-the-art experimental fusion device designed, constructed and operated by the Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Laboratory of the University of Seville, is a worldwide unique spherical tokamak due to its flexible shaping capabilities. SMART has been designed to demonstrate the unique physics and engineering properties of Negative Triangularity shaped plasmas towards compact fusion power plants based on Spherical Tokamaks.
Prof. Manuel García Muñoz, Principal Investigator of the SMART tokamak, stated: “This is an important achievement for the entire team as we are now entering the operational phase of SMART. The SMART approach is a potential game changer with attractive fusion performance and power handling for future compact fusion reactors. We have exciting times ahead! Prof. Eleonora Viezzer, co-PI of the SMART project, adds: “We were all very excited to see the first magnetically confined plasma and are looking forward to exploiting the capabilities of the SMART device together with the international scientific community. SMART has awoken great interest worldwide.
When negative becomes positive and compact
The triangularity describes the shape of the plasma. Most tokamaks operate with positive triangularity, meaning that the plasma shape looks like a D. When the D is mirrored (as shown in the figure on the right), the plasma has negative triangularity.
Negative triangularity plasma shapes feature enhanced performance as it suppresses instabilities that expel particles and energy from the plasma, preventing severe damage to the tokamak wall. Besides offering high fusion performance, negative triangularity also feature attractive power handling solutions, given that it covers a larger divertor area for distributing the heat exhaust. This also facilitates the engineering design for future compact fusion power plants.
Fusion2Grid aimed at developing the foundation for the most compact fusion power plant
SMART is the first step in the Fusion2Grid strategy led by the PSFT team and, in collaboration with the international fusion community, is aimed at the most compact and most efficient magnetically confined fusion power plant based on Negative Triangularity shaped Spherical Tokamaks.
SMART will be the first compact spherical tokamak operating at fusion temperatures with negative triangularity shaped plasmas.
The objective of SMART is to provide the physics and engineering basis for the most compact design of a fusion power plant based on high-field Spherical Tokamaks combined with Negative Triangularity. The solenoid-driven plasma represents a major achievement in the timeline of getting SMART online and advancing towards the most compact fusion device.
The Plasma Science and Fusion Technology Lab of the University of Seville hosts the SMall Aspect Ratio Tokamak (SMART) and leads several worldwide efforts on energetic particles and plasma transport and stability towards the development of magnetically confined fusion energy.
Caption: The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak achieved a remarkable scientific milestone by maintaining steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for an impressive 1,066 seconds. Credit: Image by HFIPS ( Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
China has made a business announcement and there is no academic paper mentioned in their January 21, 2025 press release on EurekAlert (also available on phys.org as a January 21, 2025 news item), Note: A link has been removed,
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), commonly known as China’s “artificial sun,” has achieved a remarkable scientific milestone by maintaining steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for an impressive 1,066 seconds. This accomplishment, reached on Monday, sets a new world record and marks a significant breakthrough in the pursuit of fusion power generation.
The duration of 1,066 seconds is a critical advancement in fusion research. This milestone, achieved by the Institute of Plasma Physics (ASIPP) at Hefei Institutes of Physical Scienece [sic] (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, far surpasses the previous world record of 403 seconds, also set by EAST in 2023.
The ultimate goal of developing an artificial sun is to replicate the nuclear fusion processes that occurr [sci] in the sun, providing humanity with a limitless and clean energy source, and enabling exploration beyond our solar system.
Scientists worldwide have dedicated over 70 years to this ambitious goal. However, generating electricity from a nuclear fusion device involves overcoming key challenges, including reaching temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius, maintaining stable long-term operation, and ensuring precise control of the fusion process.
“A fusion device must achieve stable operation at high efficiency for thousands of seconds to enable the self-sustaining circulation of plasma, which is essential for the continuous power generation of future fusion plants,” said SONG Yuntao, ASIPP director and also vice president of HFIPS. He said that the recent record is monumental, marking a critical step toward realizing a functional fusion reactor.
According to GONG Xianzu, head of the EAST Physics and Experimental Operations division, several systems of the EAST device have been upgraded since the last round of experiments. For example, the heating system, which previously operated at the equivalent power of nearly 70,000 household microwave ovens, has now doubled its power output while maintaining stability and continuity.
Since its inception in 2006, EAST has served as an open testing platform for both Chinese and international scientists to conduct fusion-related experiments and research.
China officially joined the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) program in 2006 as its seventh member. Under the agreement, China is responsible for approximately 9 percent of the project’s construction and operation, with ASIPP serving as the primary institution for the Chinese mission.
ITER, currently under construction in southern France, is set to become the world’s largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor upon completion.
In recent years, EAST has consistently achieved groundbreaking advancements in high-confinement mode, a fundamental operational mode for experimental fusion reactors like ITER and the future China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR). These accomplishments provide invaluable insights and references for the global development of fusion reactors.
“We hope to expand international collaboration via EAST and bring fusion energy into practical use for humanity,” said SONG.
In Hefei, Anhui Province, China, where EAST is loacated [sic], a new generation of experimental fusion research facilities is currently under construction. These facilities aim to further accelerate the development and application of fusion energy.
I always feel a little less confident about the information when there are mistakes. Three typos in the same press release? Maybe someone forgot to give it a final once over?
Successfully harnessing the power of fusion energy could lead to cleaner and safer energy for all – and contribute substantially to combatting [UK spelling] the climate crisis. Towards this goal, Type One Energy has published a comprehensive, self-consistent, and robust physics basis for a practical fusion pilot power plant.
This groundbreaking research is presented in a series of six peer-reviewed scientific papers in a special issue of the prestigious Journal of Plasma Physics (JPP), published by Cambridge University Press.
The articles serve as the foundation for the company’s first fusion power plant project, which Type One Energy is developing with the Tennessee Valley Authority utility in the United States.
Alex Schekochihin, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford and Editor of the JPP, spoke with enthusiasm about this development:
“JPP is very proud to provide a platform for rigorous peer review and publication of the papers presenting the physics basis of the Infinity Two stellarator — an innovative and ground-breaking addition to the expanding family of proposed fusion power plant designs.
“Fusion science and technology are experiencing a period of very rapid development, driven by both public and private enthusiasm for fusion power. In this environment of creative and entrepreneurial ferment, it is crucial that new ideas and designs are both publicly shared and thoroughly scrutinised by the scientific community — Type One Energy and JPP are setting the gold standard for how this is done (as we did with Commonwealth Fusion Systems 5 years ago for their SPARC physics basis).”
The new physics design basis for the pilot power plant is a robust effort to consider realistically the complex relationship between challenging, competing requirements that all need to function together for fusion energy to be possible.
This new physics solution also builds on the operating characteristics of high-performing stellarator fusion technology – a stellarator being a machine that uses complex, helical magnetic fields to confine the plasma, thereby enabling scientists to control it and create suitable conditions for fusion. This technology is already being used with success on the world’s largest research stellarator, the Wendelstein 7-X, located in Germany, but the challenge embraced by Type One Energy’s new design is how to scale it up to a pilot plant.
Building the future of energy
Functional fusion technology could offer limitless clean energy. As global energy demands increase and energy security is front of mind, too, this new physics design basis comes at an excellent time.
Christofer Mowry, CEO of Type One Energy, is cognisant of the landmark nature of his company’s achievement and proud of its strong, real-world foundations.
“The physics basis for our new fusion power plant is grounded in Type One Energy’s expert knowledge about reliable, economic, electrical generation for the power grid. We have an organisation that understands this isn’t only about designing a science project.”
This research was developed collaboratively between Type One Energy and a broad coalition of scientists from national laboratories and universities around the world. Collaborating organisations included the US Department of Energy, for using their supercomputers, such as the exascale Frontier machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to perform its physics simulations.
While commercial fusion energy has yet to move from theory into practice, this new research marks an important and promising milestone. Clean and abundant energy may yet become reality.
This is not directly related to fusion energy, so, you might want to skip this section.
Caption: Type One Energy employees at the Bull Run [emphasis mine] Fossil Plant, soon to be home to the prototype Infinity One. Credit: Type One Energy
I wonder if anyone argued for a change of name given how charged the US history associated with ‘Bull Run’ is, from the the First Battle of Bull Run Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
The First Battle of Bull Run, called the Battle of First Manassas[1] by Confederate forces, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of what is now the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union Army was slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops. The battle was a Confederate victory and was followed by a disorganized post-battle retreat of the Union forces.
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A Confederate victory the first time and the second time (Second Battle of Bull Run Wikipedia entry)? For anyone unfamiliar with the history, the US Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865 between Union and Confederate forces. The Confederate states had seceded from the union (US) and were fighting to retain their slavery-based economy and they lost the war.
Had anyone consulted me I would have advised changing the name from Bull Run to some thing less charged (pun noted) to host your prototype fusion energy pilot plant.
Back to the usual programme.
Type One Energy
Type One Energy issued a March 27, 2025 news release about the special issue of the Journal of Plasma Physics (JPP), Note 1: Some of this redundant; Note 2: Links have been removed,
Type One Energy announced today publication of the world’s first comprehensive, self-consistent, and robust physics basis, with conservative design margins, for a practical fusion pilot power plant. This physics basis is presented in a series of seven peer-reviewed scientific papers in a special issue of the prestigious Journal of Plasma Physics (JPP). They serve as the foundation for the company’s first Infinity Two stellarator fusion power plant project, which Type One Energy is developing for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) utility in the U.S.
The Infinity Two fusion pilot power plant physics design basis realistically considers, for the first time, the complex relationship between competing requirements for plasma performance, power plant startup, construction logistics, reliability, and economics utilizing actual power plant operating experience. This Infinity Two baseline physics solution makes use of the inherently favorable operating characteristics of highly optimized stellarator fusion technology using modular superconducting magnets, as was so successfully proven on the W7-X science machine in Germany.
“Why are we the first private fusion company with an agreement to develop a potential fusion power plant project for an energy utility? Because we have a design anchored in reality,” said Christofer Mowry, CEO of Type One Energy. “The physics basis for Infinity Two is grounded in the knowledge of what is required for application to, and performance in, the demanding environment of reliable electrical generation for the power grid. We have an organization that understands this isn’t about designing a science project.”
Led by Chris Hegna, widely recognized as a leading theorist in modern stellarators, Type One Energy performed high-fidelity computational plasma physics analyses to substantially reduce the risk of meeting Infinity Two power plant functional and performance requirements. This unique and transformational achievement is the result of a global development program led by the Type One Energy plasma physics and stellarator engineering organization, with significant contributions from a broad coalition of scientists from national laboratories and universities around the world. The company made use of a spectrum of high-performance computing facilities, including access to the highest-performance U.S. Department of Energy supercomputers such as the exascale Frontier machine at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), to perform its stellarator physics simulations.
“We committed to this ambitious fusion commercialization milestone two years ago and today we delivered,” said John Canik, Chief Science and Engineering Officer for Type One Energy. “The team was able to efficiently develop deep plasma physics insights to inform the design of our Infinity Two stellarator, by taking advantage of our access to high performance computing resources. This enabled the Type One Energy team to demonstrate a realistic, integrated stellarator design that moves far beyond conventional thinking and concepts derived from more limited modeling capabilities.”
The consistent and robust physics solution for Infinity Two results in a deuterium-tritium (D-T) fueled, burning plasma stellarator with 800 MW of fusion power and delivers a nominal 350 MWe to the power grid. It is characterized by fusion plasma with resilient and stable behavior across a broad range of operating conditions, very low heat loss due to turbulent transport, as well as tolerable direct energy losses to the stellarator first wall. The Infinity Two stellarator has sufficient room for both adequately sized island divertors to exhaust helium ash and a blanket which provides appropriate shielding and tritium breeding. Type One Energy has high confidence that this essential physics solution provides a good baseline stellarator configuration for the Infinity Two fusion pilot power plant.
“The articles in this issue [of JPP] represent an important step towards a fusion reactor based on the stellarator concept. Thanks to decades of experiments and theoretical research, much of the latter published in JPP, it has become possible to lay out the physics basis for a stellarator power plant in considerable detail,” said Per Helander, head of Stellarator Theory Division at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. “JPP is very happy to publish this series of papers from Type One Energy, where this has been accomplished in a way that sets new standards for the fidelity and confidence level in this context.”
Important to successful fusion power plant commercialization, this stellarator configuration has enabled Type One Energy to architect a maintenance solution which supports good power plant Capacity Factors (CF) and associated Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). It also supports favorable regulatory requirements for component manufacturing and power plant construction methods essential to achieving a reasonable Over-Night Cost (ONC) for Infinity Two.
About Type One Energy
Type One Energy Group is mission-driven to provide sustainable, affordable fusion power to the world. Established in 2019 and venture-backed in 2023, the company is led by a team of globally recognized fusion scientists with a strong track record of building state-of-the-art stellarator fusion machines, together with veteran business leaders experienced in scaling companies and commercializing energy technologies. Type One Energy applies proven advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics and high-field superconducting magnets to develop its optimized stellarator fusion energy system. Its FusionDirect development program pursues the lowest-risk, shortest-schedule path to a fusion power plant over the coming decade, using a partner-intensive and capital-efficient strategy. Type One Energy is committed to community engagement in the development and deployment of its clean energy technology. For more information, visit www.typeoneenergy.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
While the company is currently headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, it was originally a spinoff company from the University of Wisconsin-Madison according to a March 30, 2023 posting on the university’s College of Engineering website,
Type One Energy, a Middleton, Wisconsin-based fusion energy company with roots in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Engineering, recently announced its first round of seed funding, raising $29 million from investors. The company has also onboarded a new, highly experienced CEO [Christofer Mowry].
Type One, founded in 2019 by a team of globally recognized fusion scientists and business leaders, is hoping to commercialize stellarator technology over the next decade. Stellarators are a type of fusion reactor that uses powerful magnets to confine ultra-hot streams of plasma in order to create the conditions for fusion reactions. Energy from fusion promises to be clean, safe, renewable power. The company is using advanced manufacturing methods, modern computational physics and high-field superconducting magnets to develop its stellarator through an initiative called FusionDirect.
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According to the Type One Energy’s About page, there are four offices with the headquarters in Tennessee,
Madison 316 W Washington Ave. Suite 300 Madison, WI 53703
Boston 299 Washington St. Suites C & E Woburn, MA 01801
Vancouver 1140 West Pender St. Vancouver, BC V6E 4G1
The mention of an office in Vancouver, Canada piqued my curiosity but before getting to that, I’m going to include some informative excerpts about nuclear energy (both fission and fusion) from this August 31, 2023 article written by Tina Tosukhowong on behalf of TDK Ventures, which was posted on Medium,
Fusion power is the key to the energy transformation that humanity needs to drive decarbonization, clean, and baseload energy production that is inherently fail-safe, with no risk of long-lived radioactive waste, while also delivering on ever-growing energy-consumption demands at the global scale. Fusion is hard and requires exceptional conditions for sustained reaction (which is part of what makes it so safe), which has long served as a deterrent for technical maturation and industrial viability. …
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The current reality of our world is monumental fossil-fuel dependence. This, coupled with unprecedented levels of energy demand has resulted in the over 136,700 TWh (that’s 10¹²) of energy consumed via fossil fuels annually [1]. Chief repercussion among the many consequences of this dependence is the now very looming threat of climate catastrophe, which will soon be irreversible if global temperature rise is not abated and held to within 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels. To do so, the nearly 40 gigatons of CO2 emissions generated each year must be steadily reduced and eventually mitigated entirely [2]. A fundamental shift in how power is generated globally is the only way forward. Humanity needs an energy transformation — the right energy transformation.
Alternative energy-generation techniques, such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric approaches have all made excellent strides, and indeed in just the United States electricity generated by renewable methods doubled from 10 to 20% of total between 2010 and 2020 [3–4]. These numbers are incredibly encouraging and give significant credence in the journey to net-zero emission energy generation. However, while these standard renewable approaches should be championed, wind and solar are intermittent and require a large amount of land to deploy, while geothermal and hydroelectric are not available in every geography.
By far the most viable candidates for continuous clean energy generation to replace coal-fired power plants are nuclear-driven technologies, i.e. nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. Nuclear fission has been a proven effective method ever since it was first demonstrated almost 80 years ago underneath the University of Chicago football Stadium by Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi [5]. Heavier atomic elements, in most cases Uranium-235, are exposed to and bombarded by neutrons. This causes the Uranium to split resulting in two slightly less-heavy elements (like Barium and Krypton). This in turn causes energy to be released and more neutrons to be ejected and bombard other nearby Uranium-235, at which point the process cascades into a chain reaction. The released energy (heat) is utilized in the same way coal is burned in a traditional power plant, being subsequently used to generate electricity usually via the creation of steam to drive a turbine [6]. While already having reached viable commercial maturity, fission carries inherent and nontrivial safety concerns. An unhampered chain reaction can quickly lead to meltdown with disastrous consequences, and, even when properly managed, the end reaction does generate radioactive waste whose half-life can last hundreds of thousands of years.
Figure 1. Breakdown of a nuclear fission reaction [6]. Incident neutron bombards a fissile heavy element, splitting it and release energy and more nuclei setting off a chain reaction.
Especially given modernization efforts and meteoric gains in safety (thanks to advents in material science like ceramic coatings), fission will continue to be a critical piece to better, greener energy transformation. However, in extending our vision to an even brighter future with no such concerns — carbon emissions or safety — nuclear fusion is humanity’s silver bullet. Instead of breaking down atoms leading to a chain reaction, fusion is the combining of atoms (usually isotopes of Hydrogen) into heavier elements which also results in energy release / heat generation [7]. Like fission, fusion can be designed to be a continuous energy source that can serve as a permanent backbone to the power grid. It is extremely energy dense, with 1 kg of fusion fuel producing the same amount of energy as 1,000,000 kg of coal, and it is inherently fail-safe with no long-term radioactive waste.
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As a concept, if fusion is a silver bullet to answer humanity’s energy transformation needs, then why haven’t we done so already? The appeal seems so obvious, what’s the hold up? Simply put, nuclear fusion is hard for the very same reason the process is inherently safe. Atoms in the process must have enough energy to overcome electrostatic repulsive forces between the two positive charges of their nuclei to fuse. The key figure of merit to evaluate fusion is the so-called “Lawson Triple Product.” Essentially, this means in order to generate energy by fusion more than the rate of energy oss to the environment, the nuclei must be very close together (as represented by n — the plasma density), kept at a high enough temperature (as represented by T — temperature), and for long enough time to sustain fusion (as represented by τ — the confinement time). The triple product required to achieve fusion “ignition” (the state where the rate of energy production is higher than the rate of loss) depends on the fuel type and occurs within a plasma state. A deuterium and tritium (D-T) system has the lowest Lawson Triple product requirement, where fusion can achieve a viable threshold for ignition when the density of the fuel atoms, n, multiplied by the fuel temperature, T, multiplied by the confinement time, τ, is greater than 5×10²¹ (nTτ > 5×10²¹ keV-s/m³) [8–9]. For context, the temperature alone in this scenario must be higher than 100-million degrees Celsius.
Figure 2. (Left) Conceptual illustration of a fusion reaction with Deuterium (²H) and Tritium (³H) forming an Alpha particle (⁴He) and free neutron along with energy released as heat (Right). To initiate fusion, repelling electrostatic charge must be overcome via conditions meeting the minimum Lawson Triple Product threshold
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Tosukhowong’s August 31, 2023 article provides a good overview keeping in mind that it is slanted to justify TDK’s investment in Type One Energy.
Why a Vancouver, Canada office?
As for Type One Energy’s Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada) connection, I was reminded of General Fusion, a local fusion energy company while speculating about the connection. First speculative question: could Type One Energy’s presence in Canada allow it to access Canadian government funds for its research? Second speculative question: do they want to have access to people who might hesitate to move to the US or might want to move out of the US but would move to Canada?
The US is currently in an unstable state as suggested in this April 3, 2025 opinion piece by Les Leyne for vancouverisawsome.com
Les Leyne: Trump’s incoherence makes responding to tariff wall tricky
Trump’s announcement was so incoherent that much of the rest of the world had to scramble to grasp even the basic details
B.C. officials were guarded Wednesday [April 2, 2025] about the impact on Canada of the tariff wall U.S. President Donald Trump erected around the U.S., but it appears it could have been worse.
Trump’s announcement was so incoherent that much of the rest of the world had to scramble to grasp even the basic details. So cabinet ministers begged for more time to check the impacts.
“It’s still very uncertain,” said Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon, who chairs the “war room” committee responsible for countering tariff threats. “It’s hard to make sense from President Trump’s speech.” [emphasis mine]
Kahlon said the challenge is that tariff policies change hour by hour, “and anything can happen.”
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On April 2, 2025 US President Donald Trump announced tariffs (then paused some of the tariffs on April 9, 2025) and some of the targets seemed a bit odd, from an April 2, 2025 article by Alex Galbraith for salon.com, Note: Links have been removed,
“Trade war with penguins”: Trump places 10% tariff on uninhabited Antarctic islands
Planned tariffs shared by the White House included a 10% duty on imports from the barren Heard and McDonald Islands
For once in his life, Donald Trump underpromised and over-delivered.
The president announced a 10% duty on all imports on Wednesday [April 2, 2025], along with a raft of reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. An extensive graphic released by the White House showed how far Trump was willing to take his tit-for-tat trade war, including a shocking levy of 10% on all imports from the Heard and McDonald Islands.
If you haven’t heard of this powerhouse of global trade and territory of Australia, you aren’t alone. Few have outside of Antarctic researchers and seals. These extremely remote islands about 1,000 miles north of Antarctica consist mostly of barren tundra. They’re also entirely uninhabited.
The news that we were starting a trade war with penguins spread quickly after Trump’s announcement. …
U.S. stock futures crumbled following the news of Trump’s widespread tariffs. Dow futures fell by nearly 1,000 points while NASDAQ and S&P futures fell by 3 to 4%. American companies’ stock values rapidly tumbled after the announcement, with large retail importers seeing significant losses. …
No word from the penguins about the ‘pause’. I’m assuming Donald Trump’s next book will be titled, “The art of negotiating trade deals with penguins.” Can’t wait to read it.
(Perhaps someone should tell him there are no penguins in the Arctic so he can’t bypass Canadians or Greenlanders to make a deal.)
Now for the local story.
General Fusion
There’ve been two recent developments at General Fusion. Most recently, an April 2, 2025 General Fusion news release announces a new hire, Note: Links have been removed,
Bob Smith is joining General Fusion as a strategic advisor. Smith brings more than 35 years of experience developing, scaling, and launching world-changing technologies, including spearheading new products and innovation in the aerospace industry at United Space Alliance, Sandia Labs, and Honeywell before serving as CEO of Blue Origin. He joins General Fusion as the company’s Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) fusion demonstration begins operations and progresses toward transformative technical milestones on the path to commercialization.
“I’ve been watching the fusion energy industry closely for my entire career. Fusion is the last energy source humanity will ever need, and I believe its impact as a zero-carbon energy source will transform the global energy supply at the time needed to fight the worst consequences of climate change,” said Smith. “I am thrilled to work with General Fusion. Their novel approach has inherent and distinctive benefits for the generation of commercially competitive fusion power. It’s exciting to join at a time when the team is about to demonstrate the fundamental physics behind their system and move to scaling up to a pilot plant.”
The LM26 program marks a significant step towards commercialization, as the company’s unique Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) approach makes the path to powering the grid with fusion energy more straightforward than other technologies—because it practically addresses barriers to fusion commercialization, such as neutron material degradation, sustainable fuel production, and efficient energy extraction. As a strategic advisor, Smith will leverage his experience advancing game-changing technologies to help guide General Fusion’s technology development and strategic growth.
“Bob’s insights and experience will be invaluable as we execute the LM26 program and look beyond it to propel our practical technology to powering the grid by the mid-2030s,” said Greg Twinney, CEO, General Fusion. “We are grateful for his commitment of his in-demand time and expertise to our mission and look forward to working together to make fusion power a reality!”
About Bob Smith:
Bob is an experienced business leader in the aerospace and defense industry with extensive technical and operational expertise across the sector. He worked at and managed federal labs, led developments at a large government contractor, grew businesses at a Fortune 100 multinational, and scaled up a launch and space systems startup. Bob also has extensive international experience and has worked with suppliers and OEMs in all the major aerospace regions, including establishing new sites and factories in Europe, India, China, and Puerto Rico.
Bob’s prior leadership roles include Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Origin, President of Mechanical Systems & Components at Honeywell Aerospace, Chief Technology Officer at Honeywell Aerospace, Chairman of NTESS (Sandia Labs), and Executive Director of Space Shuttle Upgrades at United Space Alliance.
Bob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M, a Master of Science degree in engineering/applied mathematics from Brown University, a doctorate from the University of Texas in aerospace engineering, and a business degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Bob is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an Academician in the International Academy of Astronautics.
Quick Facts:
Fusion energy is the ultimate clean energy solution—it is the energy source that powers the sun and stars. Fusion is the process by which two light nuclei merge to form a heavier one, producing a massive amount of energy.
General Fusion’s Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology is designed to scale for cost-efficient power plants. It uses mechanical compression to create fusion conditions in short pulses, eliminating the need for expensive lasers or superconducting magnets. An MTF power plant is designed to produce its own fuel and inherently includes a method to extract the energy and put it to work.
Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) is a world-first Magnetized Target Fusion demonstration. Launched, designed, and assembled in just 16 months, the machine is now forming magnetized plasmas regularly at 50 per cent commercial scale. It is advancing towards a series of results that will demonstrate MTF in a commercially relevant way: 10 million degrees Celsius (1 keV), 100 million degrees Celsius (10 keV), and scientific breakeven equivalent (100% Lawson).
About General Fusion General Fusion is pursuing a fast and practical approach to commercial fusion energy and is headquartered in Richmond, Canada. The company was established in 2002 and is funded by a global syndicate of leading energy venture capital firms, industry leaders, and technology pioneers. Learn more at www.generalfusion.com.
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Bob Smith and Blue Origin: things did not go well
Sometimes you end up in a job and things do not work out well and that seems to have been the case at Blue Origin according to a September 25, 2023 article by Eric Berger for Ars Tecnica,
After six years of running Blue Origin, Bob Smith announced in a company-wide email on Monday that he will be “stepping aside” as chief executive of the space company founded by Jeff Bezos.
“It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin’s greatest achievements are still ahead of us,” Smith wrote in an email. “We’ve rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business.”
Shortly after Smith’s email, a Blue Origin spokesperson said the company’s new chief executive will be Dave Limp, who stepped down as Amazon’s vice president of devices and services last month.
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To put things politely, Smith has had a rocky tenure as Blue Origin’s chief executive. After being personally vetted and hired by Bezos, Smith took over from Rob Meyerson in 2017. The Honeywell engineer was given a mandate to transform Blue Origin into a large and profitable space business.
He did succeed in growing Blue Origin. The company had about 1,500 employees when Smith arrived, and the company now employs nearly 11,000 people. But he has been significantly late on a number of key programs, including the BE-4 rocket engine and the New Glenn rocket.
As a space reporter, I have spoken with dozens of current and former Blue Origin employees, and virtually none of them have had anything positive to say about Smith’s tenure as chief executive. I asked one current employee about the hiring of Limp on Monday afternoon, and their response was, “Anything is better than Bob.”
Although it is very far from an exact barometer, Smith has received consistently low ratings on Glassdoor for his performance as chief executive of Blue Origin. And two years ago, a group of current and former Blue Origin employees wrote a blistering letter about the company under Smith. “In our experience, Blue Origin’s culture sits on a foundation that ignores the plight of our planet, turns a blind eye to sexism, is not sufficiently attuned to safety concerns, and silences those who seek to correct wrongs,” the essay authors wrote.
With any corporate culture, there will be growing pains, of course. But Smith brought a traditional aerospace mindset into a company that had hitherto been guided by a new space vision, leading to a high turnover rate. And Blue Origin remains significantly underwater, financially. It is likely that Bezos is still providing about $2 billion a year to support the company’s cash needs.
Crucially, as Blue Origin meandered under Smith’s tenure, SpaceX soared, launching hundreds of rockets and thousands of satellites. Smith, clearly, was not the leader Blue Origin needed to make the company more competitive with SpaceX in launch and other spaceflight activities. It became something of a parlor game in the space industry to guess when Bezos would finally get around to firing Smith.
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On the technical front, a March 27, 2025 General Fusion news release announces “Peer-reviewed publication confirms General Fusion achieved plasma energy confinement time required for its LM26 large-scale fusion machine,” Note: Links have been removed,
New results published in Nuclear Fusionconfirm General Fusion successfully created magnetized plasmas that achieved energy confinement times exceeding 10 milliseconds. The published energy confinement time results were achieved on General Fusion’s PI3 plasma injector — the world’s largest and most powerful plasma injector of its kind. Commissioned in 2017, PI3 formed approximately 20,000 plasmas in a machine of 50 per cent commercial scale. The plasma injector is now integrated into General Fusion’s Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) — a world-first Magnetized Target Fusion demonstration tracking toward game-changing technical milestones that will advance the company’s ultimate mission: generating zero-carbon fusion energy for the grid in the next decade.
The 10-millisecond energy confinement time is the duration required to compress plasmas in LM26 to achieve key temperature thresholds of 1 keV, 10 keV, and, ultimately, scientific breakeven equivalent (100% Lawson). These results were imperative to de-risking LM26. The demonstration machine is now forming plasmas regularly, and the company is optimizing its plasma performance in preparation for compressing plasmas to create fusion and heating from compression.
Key Findings:
The plasma injector now integrated into General Fusion’s LM26 achieved energy confinement times exceeding 10 milliseconds, the pre-compression confinement time required for LM26’s targeted technical milestones. These results were achieved without requiring active magnetic stabilization or auxiliary heating. This means the results were achieved without superconducting magnets, demonstrating the company’s cost-effective approach.
The plasma’s energy confinement time improved when the plasma injector vessel was coated with natural lithium. A key differentiator in General Fusion’s commercial approach is its use of a liquid lithium wall to compress plasmas during compression. In addition to the confinement time advantages shown in this paper, the liquid lithium wall will also protect a commercial MTF machine from neutron damage, enable the machine to breed its own fuel, and provide an efficient method for extracting energy from the machine.
The maximum energy confinement time achieved by PI3 was approximately 12 milliseconds. The machine’s maximum plasma density was approximately 6×1019 m-3, and maximum plasma temperatures exceeded 400 eV. These strong pre-compression results support LM26’s transformative targets.
Quotes:
“LM26 is designed to achieve a series of results that will demonstrate MTF in a commercially relevant way. Following LM26’s results, our unique approach makes the path to powering the grid with fusion energy more straightforward than other technologies because we have front-loaded the work to address the barriers to commercialization.”
Dr. Michel Laberge Founder and Chief Science Officer
“For over 16 years, I have worked hand in hand with Michel to advance General Fusion’s practical technology. This company is entrepreneurial at its core. We pride ourselves on building real machines that get results that matter, and I’m thrilled to have the achievements recognized in Nuclear Fusion.”
Mike Donaldson Senior Vice President, Technology Development
For anyone curious about General Fusion, I have a brief overview and history of the company and their particular approach to fusion energy in my February 6, 2024 posting (scroll down to ‘The Canadians’).
This December 16, 2024 Nanowerk Spotlight article by Michael Berger highlights work where living cells are combined with nonliving materials (also called biohybrid materials or engineered living materials), Note: A link has been removed,
Chemical detection outside laboratory settings poses persistent technical challenges. Environmental monitoring, industrial quality control, and medical diagnostics require identifying specific molecules in complex mixtures. Current portable detectio n methods, such as test strips or electronic sensors, often lack sensitivity or struggle to detect multiple chemicals simultaneously. Traditional laboratory analysis provides precise results but requires expensive equipment, trained personnel, and days or weeks to process samples.
Living cells naturally detect and respond to chemicals with remarkable sensitivity. Their molecular detection systems, refined by evolution, can identify specific compounds at extremely low concentrations and process multiple signals simultaneously. Biologists have learned to harness these capabilities by engineering bacteria and yeast cells to produce visible signals when they encounter target molecules. These cellular sensors can detect compounds at concentrations far lower than conventional methods. However, using engineered cells outside the laboratory remains impractical because they require careful maintenance and protection from environmental stresses.
Materials scientists have recently developed new methods to protect living cells while preserving their functionality. Parallel advances in microfluidic technology enable precise control of tiny liquid volumes in miniature channels on portable chips. These developments create an opportunity to transform cellular sensors from laboratory curiosities into practical field devices.
The researchers first modified yeast and bacteria cells by adding genes that produce fluorescent proteins in response to specific chemicals. They precisely engineered these genetic circuits by controlling the number of receptor proteins on each cell’s surface. More receptors increase sensitivity but can also lead to false positives, while fewer receptors provide more selective detection. By optimizing this balance, they achieved detection of some compounds at concentrations as low as two nanomoles per liter – equivalent to finding a grain of salt dissolved in an Olympic swimming pool.
To protect these engineered cells, the team developed a two-layer encapsulation system. They embedded the cells in soft beads made from alginate, a natural polymer derived from seaweed. These beads provide a supportive environment while allowing chemicals to pass through. A tougher outer shell, combining alginate with polyacrylamide, adds physical protection. The resulting capsules, each about two millimeters wide, withstand significant compression without breaking and keep the cells alive and functional for over a month.
The researchers integrated these sensor capsules into a microfluidic chip with separate chambers for different sensors. ..
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This technology transforms living cells into practical sensors for field use. By combining synthetic biology, materials science, and microfluidic engineering, the researchers have created a system that preserves the sensitivity of cellular sensors while making them robust enough for real-world applications. …
Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU; US) have challenged the findings in recent research that was highlighted here in a December 16, 2024 posting “van Gogh’s sky is alive with real-world physics.”
An April 1, 2025 news item (not an April Fool’s joke) on phys.org announces a conclusion that contradicts the original findings,
The Dutch master Vincent van Gogh may have painted one of Western history’s most enduring works, but “The Starry Night” is not a masterpiece of flow physics—despite recent attention to its captivating swirls, according to researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Washington [state not district].
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain [downloaded from https://phys.org/news/2025-04-vincent-van-gogh-starry-night.html].
The post-Impressionist artist painted the work (often referred to simply as “Starry Night”) in June 1889, and its depiction of a pre-sunrise sky and village was inspired in part by the view from van Gogh’s asylum room in southern France. The painting is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Last year, a paper published in the September issue of Physics of Fluids – “Hidden Turbulence in van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’” – received considerable notice by positing that the eddies, or swirls, painted by van Gogh adhere to Kolmogorov’s theory of turbulent flow, which explains how air and water swirls move in a somewhat chaotic pattern. “[van Gogh] was able to reproduce not only the size of whirls/eddies, but also their relative distance and intensity in his painting,” the paper read.
However, those conclusions are unfounded, according to Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, Ph.D., the Inez Caudill Eminent Professor in VCU’s Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, and James J. Riley, Ph.D., the inaugural Paccar Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. Their report – “Is There Hidden Turbulence in Vincent van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’?” – appears in the latest issue of Journal of Turbulence.
A December 11, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily describes research into preserving street art such as that found on the Berlin Wall,
Street art takes many forms, and the vibrant murals on the Berlin Wall both before and after its fall are expressions of people’s opinions. But there was often secrecy around the processes for creating the paintings, which makes them hard to preserve. Now, researchers reporting in the Journal of the American Chemical Society have uncovered information about this historic site from paint chips by combining a handheld detector and artificial intelligence (AI) data analysis.
“The research highlights the powerful impact of the synergy between chemistry and deep learning in quantifying matter, exemplified in this case by pigments that make street art so captivating,” says Francesco Armetta, a co-author of the study.
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For anyone unfamiliar with the Berlin Wall (Wikipedia entry), it divided east from west in the city of Berlin when East Germany was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR),
This image of the Berlin Wall was taken in 1986 by Thierry Noir at Bethaniendamm in Berlin-Kreuzberg.CC BY-SA 3.0
To restore or conserve art, it’s important to collect information on the materials and application techniques. But the painters of the Berlin Wall didn’t document this. In previous studies of other historic artifacts, scientists brought fragments or even whole objects into the lab and, without destroying the samples, identified pigments on them using a technique known as Raman spectroscopy. Although handheld Raman devices are available for on-site investigations, they lack the precision of full-sized laboratory equipment. So, Armetta, Rosina Celeste Ponterio and colleagues wanted to develop an AI algorithm that could analyze the output of portable Raman devices to more accurately identify pigments and dyes. In an initial test of the new approach, they analyzed 15 paint chips from the Berlin Wall.
The researchers first magnified the chips and observed that they all had two or three layers of paint with visible brush strokes. The third layer in contact with the masonry appeared white, which they suggest is from a base coat used to prepare the wall for painting. Next, the researchers used a handheld Raman spectrometer to analyze the chips and compared them to spectra collected from a commercial pigment spectra library. They identified the primary pigments in the samples as: azopigments (yellow- and red-colored chips), phthalocyanins (blue and green chips), lead chromate (green chips) and titanium white (white chips). These results were confirmed with other non-destructive techniques, including X-ray fluorescence and optical fiber reflectance spectroscopy.
Then, the researchers mixed pigments from a commercial acrylic paint brand (used in Germany since the 1800s) with different ratios of titanium white, trying to match colors and the range of tints typical for painters. A knowledge of these ratios could help art conservators prepare the right materials for restoration, say the researchers. Using the mixtures’ handheld Raman spectral data, they trained a machine learning algorithm to determine the percentage of pigment. The approach indicated that the Berlin Wall paint chips contained titanium white and up to 75% of pigment, depending on the piece analyzed and according with the color tone. The researchers say these results indicate that their AI model could provide high-quality information for art conservation, forensics and materials science in settings where it’s hard to bring lab equipment to a site.
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Caption: Close examination of these chips, labeled according to their blue, yellow or red color, that once belonged to art on the Berlin Wall reveals brushstrokes, multiple layers and the pigments used. Credit: Adapted from the Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c12611
The current deadline for panel proposals is April 17, 2025 (deadline extended to May 2, 2025 [as of April 10, 2025 CSPC notice]) and now for some details: the 2025 Canadian Science Policy Conference (2025 CSPC) is being held from November 19 – 21, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario at the Westin Hotel.
The CSPC Program Committee will evaluate and rank panel proposals based on the following criteria:
Panel Selection Criteria & Ranking
Proposals will be ranked based on five key criteria:
Panel Proposals (full description of criteria is below)
Quality of the proposed session (30%)
Action and solution-oriented focus (20%)
Innovative and Interactive Panel Format (20%)
Diversity of Panelists (15%)
Quality of Speakers & Moderator (15%)
Full Description of Criteria
Quality of the Proposed Session (30%)
Demonstrates a deep understanding of the issue
Provides a clear, compelling description of the panel topic and its novelty, importance, and impact
Aligns with CSPC 2025 overarching theme, tracks and topics
Action & Solution-Oriented Focus (20%)
Prioritizes solutions, forward-looking discussions, and actionable outcomes rather than reiterating the status quo
Incorporates follow-ups, calls to action, or policy change discussions
Innovative and Interactive Panel Format (20%) (Check Panel Format Options)
Encourages creative and engaging formats beyond traditional panel discussions
Balances expert insights and audience engagement, ensuring an inclusive, thought-provoking experience (i.e., leaving enough time for Q&A)
Use of polls for audience engagement is encouraged.
Diversity of Panelists (15%)
Gender and Equity Representation: Ensures gender diversity and includes underrepresented and equity-deserving groups.
Sectoral Diversity: Must feature panelists from at least two different sectors (government, academia, business, non-profit, media).
Geographical Representation: Requires representation from at least two different provinces/territories in Canada or international.
Diversity of Perspectives: Must include panelists with varied viewpoints and expertise.
Preference for a mixed combination of established experts and emerging voices, including younger speakers
No more than two individuals (including both panelists and the moderator) from the same organization
Single-sector panels are permitted only in exceptional cases (e.g., panels of government science advisors or industry-specific panels)
Quality of Speakers & Moderator (15%)
Panelists should have strong expertise, experience, and relevance to the panel topic
Panelists with the ability to garner public attention
The moderator’s role is crucial:
Must be experienced and engaging, facilitating discussion and audience interaction
Should have subject matter expertise and familiarity with panelists
Ability to manage time effectively and ensure a dynamic conversation
Tip: Encourage first-time CSPC speakers – A small bonus could be given for panels that introduce new voices to CSPC discussions.
NEW: Ted-Talks or Project Updates (10 min talks, of which 2 min for Q&A)
This year, CSPC features a new style of short and impactful sessions. These 8 min sessions must be either a Ted-Talk style, one speaker, with no slide presentation, or updates and follow-up on a previously presented project at CSPC.
Importance: Addresses a timely and relevant issue in science, technology, innovation, and knowledge (STIK) policy (35%)
Novelty: Introduces new ideas, emerging trends, or breakthrough discussions not previously explored at CSPC (35%)
Insightfulness: Provides original analysis, valuable perspectives, or a fresh approach to a topic (30%)
Note: If CSPC receives multiple submissions covering similar themes, submissions may be grouped into a Symposium format to allow for a more structured and in-depth discussion.
Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (EDIA)
CSPC is committed to EDIA principles and strongly encourages the inclusion of:
Indigenous perspectives and leadership in science, technology, innovation, and knowledge (STIK) policy
Women and underrepresented groups in STIK
Important Notes:
CSPC may request panelist adjustments if diversity or quality criteria are not met.
No fee is required to submit a panel proposal.
Panelists will have a discounted registration rate.
CSPC does not cover speakers’ travel and accommodation costs.
Panelists’ confirmation is not required at the time of submission but must be finalized within three weeks of acceptance.
Panel Formats
To foster stronger interactivity, CSPC 2025 encourages varied and engaging panel formats.
Why Prioritize Interactive Formats?
CSPC aims to create a dynamic and engaging conference experience. Interactive formats encourage:
Deeper discussions beyond traditional presentations
Greater audience participation and diverse viewpoints
More impactful and memorable sessions
Preferred Panel Formats (Higher Ranking)
The following formats (not in order of preference) will receive higher format scoring (criteria No. 3) as they encourage novel and interactive formats:
Interactive Format (80 min session, e.g., Fishbowl)
Engages both panelists and audience members in a highly interactive manner
The proposal must specify the format and engagement plan
Innovative Format (80 min, e.g., Lightning Round, Pecha Kucha, World Café)
Engages audience members in a non-traditional panel form
The proposal must specify format and creative components
Debate (80 min)
Features structured opposing arguments on a critical issue among two individuals or two groups (max four)
The proposal must define key opposing viewpoints
Workshop (Learning Session) (80 min)
Designed to extensively engage the audience in group learning, education, and/or planning activities
Fireside Chat or Interviews (60 min)
A moderated discussion in a conversational, storytelling format
Focuses on thought leadership and insights, followed by audience Q&A
Tip: Consider adding a blended format option – Some sessions could integrate multiple elements (e.g., a debate followed by an audience discussion).
Standard Panel Formats (Still Eligible, Lower Ranking for Format Criteria)
The following formats are permitted but will not receive the highest ranking for interactivity (Criteria No. 3):
Standard Panel Discussion (80 min)
Traditional format with expert panelists discussing a topic
Presentations cannot exceed 50 minutes; at least 30 minutes must be allocated for Q&A or audience activities
Green Paper Discussion (80 min)
Based on a consultation document that seeks input on an existing or developing policy
Encourages policy-oriented discussion and feedback
Case Study (60 min)
Presents a detailed analysis of a particular issue or real-world example
Explores lessons learned and best practices
Ted-Talks or Project Updates
TED-Talk Style (10 min total: 8 min talk + 2 min Q&A)
Solo speaker presenting a compelling idea, breakthrough insight, or thought-provoking concept with NO slides
Must be engaging and impactful, similar to a TED Talk
Project Update (10 min total: 8 min talk + 2 min Q&A)
Designed for those who previously presented a project at CSPC to provide updates and follow-ups
Focuses on concise, high-impact updates with practical takeaways
* Note: The session durations provided are for reference. CSPC may suggest adjustments based on scheduling considerations and available session slots.
Lest you forget,
Call for panel Proposals is now open
The deadline for proposal submissions is April 17, 2025 (deadline extended to May 2, 2025 [as of April 10, 2025 CSPC notice]) at midnight local time.
