Free tickets for the Perimeter Institute on October 21, 2026 event (in person, livestreamed, and in a recording posted later) are now available., here’s more about the event from an October 9, 2026 Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) notice (received via email),
Interstellar Objects and the New Solar System by Professor Chris Lintott
Wednesday, October 21, [2026] at 6:45 PM ET
In July 2025, a telescope in Chile spotted an unexpected visitor: 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar object detected passing through our Solar System. This small comet may have formed billions of years before the Sun, in a distant part of the galaxy.
What can objects like 3I/ATLAS tell us about Earth’s formation? Join us for a public lecture exploring that question, along with new findings from the OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu. Together, these discoveries suggest a more dynamic, even chaotic, history for our Solar System than we might have expected.
As the Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins discovering millions of asteroids, we stand on the cusp of a revolution in what we know about our cosmic neighbourhood.
The lecture will be given by Chris Lintott, Professor of Astrophysics and Citizen Science Lead at the University of Oxford, where he is also a Research Fellow at New College. His research focuses on galaxy formation, machine learning, citizen science and the study of interstellar objects.
If you’re unable to attend in person, a recording will be available on our YouTube channel.
Don’t miss out! Free tickets to attend this event in person will become available on Monday, October 12, [2026] at 9 am ET.
Professor Lintott explores interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, Solar System mysteries, and discoveries revolutionizing our cosmic neighbourhood.
Important
This public lecture will begin at 7:00 PM.Your ticket is valid until 6:45 PM. This ensures all guests have enough time to enter the Theatre and be seated by our ushers.
The talk will be livestreamed via our YouTube channel with a recording of the talk available following the event.
Our ushers seat guests beginning from the front rows of the Theatre toward the back.
Love Science? Help Us Share It.This event—and all of our public science programming—is made possible thanks to donor support. If you’d like to help keep science accessible for all, consider a gift of $5–$25 to support our educational outreach programs: Fuel Discovery
Title
Interstellar Objects and the New Solar System
Description
In July 2025, a telescope in Chile captured the unexpected appearance of an incoming object, known as 3I/ATLAS. This small comet likely formed billons of years before the Sun, in a star system in a very different part of the galaxy to that which we find ourselves in, and is only the third interstellar object yet detected passing through the Solar System. Professor Chris Lintott explores what these enigmatic objects can tell us and how they might have influenced the Earth’s formation. This lecture will also consider the new science of what we’re learning from the small bodies of the Solar System, including the latest results from the OSIRIS-REx mission to threatening near Earth object Bennu. The results taken together suggest a much more dynamic, and even chaotic, history for the Solar System than many would have expected. With the Vera Rubin Observatory, which will discover 3-5 million asteroids in the next year or two, coming on stream, we stand on the cusp of a revolution in what we know about our cosmic neighbourhood.
About the Speaker
Chris Lintott is a Professor of Astrophysics and Citizen Science Lead [emphasis mine] at the University of Oxford, where he is also a Research Fellow at New College. His research focuses on galaxy formation, machine learning, citizen science and the study of interstellar objects. He is a co-founder and leading figure in Zooniverse, the world’s largest platform for online citizen science, which enables millions of volunteers around the world to participate in scientific research. He is also the 39th Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in London, where he delivers public lectures on astronomy and the Universe. Beyond his academic work, Professor Lintott is an author and a broadcaster for the BBC’s long-running The Sky at Night program. He is deeply involved in public engagement and outreach, with a particular interest in bringing the excitement of astronomical discovery to broad audiences.
Tickets
Tickets are free and must be reserved through Eventbrite, as there is no on-site box office.
TICKETS ARE VALID UNTIL6:45 PM THE DAY OF THE EVENT.
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I haven’t seen a professor also called a citizen science lead before. Curiosity led me to his page on the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics website,
Exploring the Universe together
Welcome!
I am a distractible astronomer who specialises in galaxy formation, machine learning including anomaly detection, and occasional planet hunting. These projects usually make use of the Zooniverse citizen science platform, working in collaboration with more than two million volunteers around the world. I’m a proud and excited member of the collaboration building the Vera Rubin Observatory, which will power the next astronomical revolution.
I am also an author, a broadcaster for the BBC’s long-running Sky at Night program, and involved in all sorts of public engagement and outreach projects. Follow me on Twitter, Mastodon or Bluesky for updates and occasional opinions.
I currently serve as the 39th Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College in London.
Gresham College is an extraordinary place, founded in 1597 to bring ‘new learning’ to Londoners and open to everyone ever since the beginning. Astronomy has been one of the seven chairs from the start. There’s a strong Oxford connection, with my colleague Katherine preceeding me
There is a growing library of my previous talks on the Gresham College website, as well as details of this year’s program. I encourage you to seek out my wonderful colleagues too.
A new adventure is my work in trying to understand the properties of interstellar objects passing through the Solar System, using cosmological models of galactic evolution and chemical models of planetesimal formation to understand how the properties of objects like ‘Oumuamua depend on their origins, and what such objects can tell us about processes on many scales.
The fraction of interstellar objects which are predicted to be water rich, plotted as a function of the median stellar age of a galaxy drawn from the EAGLE simulation. The colours represent the mean stellar metallicity of the galaxies.
A collaboration with Michele Bannister and friends, we’re making progress on predicting what future interstellar objects might be like. Excitingly, their properties depend on the details of star and planet formation and on the structure of the Milky Way. You can read more in our papers.
Editing
I’m the Lead Editor responsible for (deep breath) Laboratory Astrophysics, Instrumentation, Software and Data for the journals of the American Astronomical Society, including the Astrophysical Journal and Astronomical Journal.
I am especially interested in ensuring that those carrying out work in software development and instrument building and design get credit for the work in their traditional literature.
I also run the Research Notes of the AAS, which encourages short, moderated reports of works in progress, observational notes and – importantly – negative results.
Oxford duties
I am a Research fellow at New College, where I help lead the Balzan Centre for Cosmological Studies. In the Department, I normally chair the Access and Public Engagement Committee, but am on sabbatical for 2025/26. I am an member of the Board of Visitors of the History of Science Museum, and was previously on the Board of Visitors for the Ashmolean Museum from 2018-2022, and am still very interested in museums and museum practice.
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One last note, if you are attending in person, the event is being held at the:
I was expecting blue and/or green but pink is very popular these days,
Maximizing Pleasure Derived from Listening to Music Image Caption: The proposed system’s small size makes it a powerful tool to combat stress in daily life using optimized playlists tuned to the user’s current emotional state. Credit: Shinya Fujii from Keio University, Japan
Researchers develop an electroencephalography-based system that provides real-time music suggestions based on the user’s current state.
Musical chills are pleasurable shivers or goosebump sensations that people feel when they resonate with the music they’re listening to. They reduce stress and have beneficial side effects, but they are difficult to induce reliably. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a practical system that uses in-ear electroencephalography sensors to measure the brain’s response to music in real time and provide music suggestions that enhance chills.
Most people are familiar with ‘musical chills’—a sudden, involuntary shiver or goosebump sensation that occurs when a song resonates perfectly with one’s emotions. These chills are not just a surface-level feeling, but a profound neurological event. When we experience intense musical pleasure, parts of the brain’s reward system activate in a manner similar to how they would respond to life-affirming stimuli, such as beloved foods or positive social connections. However, despite the universal nature of the experience, musical chills are difficult to trigger reliably. This limits our ability to harness their psychological and physiological benefits, even with today’s on-demand access to vast libraries of music.
The issue lies partly in how ‘personalized’ media streaming algorithms are designed. These systems are essentially blind to a user’s current internal state and rely instead on historical data, genre preferences, or acoustic features like tempo to suggest content. Therefore, they cannot detect whether a listener is actually connecting with a specific track at the moment to improve suggestions. But what if our earphones could read the brain’s response to music as it happens?
In a study recently published in Volume 29, Issue 1 of iScience, a research team led by Dr. Shinya Fujii (Associate Professor, Corresponding author) and Dr. Sotaro Kondoh (JSPS Research Fellow, first author) of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, Japan, has developed a novel solution to bring real-time brain monitoring into everyday music listening. Their paper, published on January 16, 2026, introduces the ‘Chill Brain-Music Interface (C-BMI),’ a system that employs compact in-ear electroencephalography (EEG) sensors to decode pleasure from the listener’s brain and use that data to build an optimized playlist in real time.
The methodology involved a multi-phase approach comprising recording, modeling, and evaluation. Initially, each participant listened to self-selected songs (high pleasure) and songs selected by another participant (low pleasure) while their brain activity was monitored via the in-ear sensors. From this data, the researchers built two personalized models for each participant. The first model predicted pleasure based on the acoustic features of the music, while the second decoded the listener’s pleasurable state from the EEG signals. Finally, these models were combined in closed-loop systems that generated playlists designed to either augment or diminish pleasure, with real-time neural decoding incorporated in some playlists but not others.
The results conclusively demonstrated that the EEG-updated playlist for augmenting pleasure was more effective than the other generated playlists. In other words, participants reported the highest number of chills and superior pleasure ratings when the system was allowed to adapt to their brain activity. The researchers found that C-BMI successfully captured neural markers of pleasure with high accuracy and, when using them to suggest music, outperformed the ‘acoustics-only’ methods that mimic current commercial streaming services.
A critical advantage of the proposed system is its size, especially when compared to brain-computer interfaces with more conventional EEG recording setups used in laboratories. “Using an in-ear EEG device with earphones offers a practical, comfortable, and accessible alternative, opening new possibilities not only for neuroscience research investigating music and the brain—which is fundamental to understanding human nature—but also for future daily applications in entertainment and human–computer interaction,” says Dr. Fujii.
Notably, the research team explored how this technology could impact broader psychological well-being. Participants using the EEG-informed playlists reported higher scores in categories such as stress reduction and a sense of life purpose, showcasing the benefits of aligning music selection with a person’s fluctuating internal state. “If this non-invasive system could be integrated with in-ear earphones equipped with EEG sensors and wellness and music streaming apps, it could offer emotional support during commutes, before sleep, or in daily life,” remarks Dr. Kondoh.
As mental distress becomes increasingly prevalent, especially among young people, C-BMI may prove effective as a low-barrier intervention, ideal for those who might hesitate to seek traditional psychiatric care. The researchers will continue to refine the C-BMI and similar interfaces, hoping to develop systems that enhance the positive effects of the simple and universal act of listening to music.
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About Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI), Japan
The Keio University Global Research Institute (KGRI) was established in November 2016 as a research organization to bridge faculties and graduate schools across the university. KGRI aims to promote interdisciplinary and international collaborative research that goes beyond the boundaries of singular academic disciplines and national borders. It also aims to share research outcomes both in Japan and worldwide, further promoting engagement in joint research. To enhance these activities, in 2022 Keio University set its goal of becoming a “research university that forges the common sense of the future.”
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About the Research Center for Music Science
The Research Center for Music Science (RCMuS) is a research center dedicated to the scientific study of music. Guided by the principle “For the Future of Music, For the Music of the Future,” RCMuS aims to scientifically elucidate the origins and evolution of music; its universality and diversity; the principles underlying the perception, cognition, generation, and creation of music; the effects of music on the brain, mind, and body of living organisms; and the impact of music on individuals, groups, and society. The center seeks to advance research and education in music science and to disseminate the knowledge gained to the broader public.
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About the Neurosciences and Music Laboratory at Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus
The NeuroMusicLab at Keio SFC is dedicated to research in neurosciences and music (NeuroMusic), seeking to understand the fundamental role of music in human life. The research is founded on the premise that music provides a unique probe for identifying higher-order brain functions, including skilled motor control, learning, perception, cognition, memory, emotion, and creativity. The laboratory aims to elucidate the neural origins of human musicality, thereby enhancing the potential of music to contribute to a harmonious future. While interest in the neurosciences of music has surged globally in recent decades, Japan has historically lacked laboratories in this field. Recognizing the growing need to explore the neural basis of human musicality, Dr. Shinya Fujii founded the NeuroMusicLab at Keio SFC to fill this gap.
A surface capable of responding to chemical signals generated by microorganisms and automatically producing biocidal substances – this is not a futuristic vision, but a description of how the B-STING silica nanocomposite works. The new material, developed at the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, acts as a nanofactory of reactive oxygen species, activating itself only when necessary.
Can a hospital treat patients? The question seems trivial until we clarify that we are referring to the building itself and its standard fittings, not the institution, doctors or medical equipment. So, could a hospital window kill bacteria? Could door handles, handrails and light switches disinfect themselves? The answer is yes, if they are covered with a thin layer of a carefully designed silica nanocomposite, in whose mesopores molecular factories of reactive oxygen species are placed. Just such a material, called B-STING (Biocidal Silica-Templated Immobilised Nano-Groups), has been designed, manufactured and characterised by scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow.
“When we use nanoparticles of, say, gold or silver for biocidal purposes, they have to interact directly with microorganisms. Our material is the result of a decade of work on a radically different approach to the issue. It is not in itself a biologically active substance. However, what it is, is a nanofactory that produces reactive oxygen species that are lethal to microorganisms and effectively penetrate the cell membranes of bacteria and fungi,” says Dr. Magdalena Laskowska (IFJ PAN), the first author of an article published in the renowned scientific journal Applied Surface Science.
The structural foundation of the new material is silica with cylindrical mesopores eight nanometres in diameter, spatially arranged in a layer with hexagonal regularity, resembling a honeycomb in appearance. The surface area of a flat sample covered with a 100-nanometre-thick layer increases almost 80-fold. On the expanded surface, inside the pores, functional groups containing single metal atoms, which in the case of the samples in question were copper, are attached at appropriate distances from each other using propyl bridges. In a material constructed in this way, the functional groups are protected by the walls of the mesopores, which guarantees high durability. At the same time, each copper atom has the ability to act effectively as a single-atom catalyst.
“Gold and silver nanoparticles, currently popular in various applications, are agglomerates consisting of many thousands of atoms. Most of them are shielded by their neighbours and are therefore unable to perform their intended role. Meanwhile, the precise architecture of our material ensures that each metal atom has access to its surroundings and can catalyse the production of reactive oxygen species from water and oxygen contained in the air penetrating the mesopores. As a result, B-STING does not need any external trigger, such as light or ultrasound, so it can work even in the dark,” notes Dr. Lukasz Laskowski, professor at the IFJ PAN.
It should be emphasised that, unlike many types of nanoparticles which wear out or require activation, the copper centres in the new material catalyse the production cycles of reactive oxygen species without the need for permanent chemical restructuring. In other words, the material does not need to be regenerated and works as long as it has access to oxygen and water.
Thanks to cooperation with the Medical University of Lublin, it was possible to conduct more extensive research into the biocidal effect of samples coated with the new nanocomposite. It turned out that coatings made from it kill a number of pathogenic bacteria, fungi and even viruses. At the same time, tests carried out on human fibroblasts proved that it is safe for them, which came as a huge surprise to the researchers. In practice, this means that biocidal substances are produced by the new material only when necessary. The material does not detect bacteria directly, but reacts to changes in the environment caused by them – such as a drop in pH, the presence of sulphur compounds (thiols) or local fluctuations in oxygen availability – and adjusts the composition of the reactive oxygen species it produces accordingly. Importantly, the production of disinfectants is not constant, and when there are no microorganisms nearby, its profile changes. Details of the outlined mechanism cannot be disclosed at this time due to the patent process.
“If further research does not reveal any negative effects of introducing our material into the body, it could even become a component of medicines in the future – as a substance that is at least potentially more effective than antibiotics in combating a wide range of microorganisms,” says Prof. Laskowski.
Years of research are necessary before therapies involving the use of drugs containing B-STING silica nanocomposite become available. In the meantime, biocidal coatings made from this material can already be widely used. They are safe, durable (mechanically similar to glass), resistant to dirt (dirt particles are larger than the pores and do not block the flow of air to the catalytic centres), and maintain a constant readiness for on-demand production, activating automatically in response to changes in the chemical environment. These coatings can be applied to various materials – especially polymers, metals and glass – as well as to objects with complex shapes. In the long term, the lack of a trigger and long-term operation also allow for intrabody applications, in the form of coatings on implants or dental fillings.
Researchers from the IFJ PAN also emphasise the economic aspects of producing these coatings. Even very thin layers are effective (after applying the material to glass, there is no significant change in transparency), the small amounts of precious metals used in production, the price of copper being significantly lower than the price of silver or gold, and the moderate cost of the compounds necessary for production suggest that the production of coatings from the new silica nanocomposite will be economically viable.
The Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics (IFJ PAN) is currently one of the largest research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A wide range of research carried out at IFJ PAN covers basic and applied studies, from particle physics and astrophysics, through hadron physics, high-, medium-, and low-energy nuclear physics, condensed matter physics (including materials engineering), to various applications of nuclear physics in interdisciplinary research, covering medical physics, dosimetry, radiation and environmental biology, environmental protection, and other related disciplines. The average yearly publication output of IFJ PAN includes over 600 scientific papers in high-impact international journals. Each year the Institute hosts about 20 international and national scientific conferences. One of the most important establishments of the Institute is the Bronowice Cyclotron Centre (CCB), which is an infrastructure unique in Central Europe, serving as a clinical and research centre in the field of medical and nuclear physics. In addition, IFJ PAN runs four accredited research and measurement laboratories. IFJ PAN is a member of the Marian Smoluchowski Kraków Research Consortium: “Matter-Energy-Future”, which in 2012-2017 enjoyed the status of the Leading National Research Centre (KNOW) in physics. In 2017, the European Commission granted the Institute the HR Excellence in Research award. As a result of the categorization of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Institute has been classified into the A+ category (the highest scientific category in Poland) in the field of physical sciences.
There’s a Canadian connection to Edison’s 1879 light bulb, which I’ll get to later, but first, there’s graphene and the naked light bulb, from a January 23, 2026 news item on Nanowerk,
What do Thomas Edison and 2010 Nobel Prize in physics winners Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim have in common? According to a recent publication (ACS Nano, “Evidence for Graphene Formation in Thomas Edison’s 1879 Carbon Filament Experiments”) from the lab of Rice University’s James Tour, it could be graphene — an answer that might have confused Edison, who died almost 20 years before physicist P.R. Wallace proposed such a substance could exist and nearly 80 years before Novoselov and Geim were awarded a Nobel Prize for isolating and characterizing it.
Graphene is a transparent, remarkably strong substance, as thin as a single atom and useful in a number of modern applications like semiconductors. One type of graphene, called turbostratic graphene, can be produced by applying a voltage across a resistant carbon-based material and rapidly heating it to 2,000-3,000 degrees Celsius.
In modern terms, that method is called flash Joule heating. But for Edison in 1879, the method available to him was simply turning on one of his newly patented, stable light bulbs. Unlike modern incandescent light bulbs that rely on tungsten filaments, early versions often used resistant carbon-based filaments like Japanese bamboo. Flipping a switch applied a voltage that rapidly heated the filaments, producing light. Or, perhaps, graphene. It depends on the century.
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By Terren – Edison Light Bulb, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3401005
“I was developing ways to mass produce graphene with readily available and affordable materials,” explains Lucas Eddy, first author on the paper and a former Rice graduate student in Tour’s lab. “I was looking at everything from arc welders, which were more efficient than anything I’d ever built, to lightning struck trees, which were complete dead ends.” But then, as his lab mate put it, he had a light bulb moment. “I was trying to figure out the smallest, easiest piece of equipment you could use for flash Joule heating, and I remembered that early light bulbs often used carbon-based filaments.”
Why Edison’s light bulbs? Unlike many other early light bulbs, Edison’s patented design reached the critical 2,000-degree Celsius temperature. As a bonus, Edison’s 1879 patent gave Eddy a precise blueprint to work from when replicating the experiment.
Eddy’s first few attempts to procure an Edison-style light bulb proved unsuccessful with “carbon” filaments turning out to be tungsten in disguise. “You can’t fool a chemist,” laughs Eddy. “But I finally found a small art store in New York City selling artisan Edison-style light bulbs.” The artisan light bulbs were exactly like Edison’s, down to the Japanese bamboo filaments. Even the diameters of the filaments were close with Eddy’s filaments measuring only 5 micrometers larger than Edison’s.
Just like Edison, Eddy attached the light bulb to a 110-volt DC electricity source. He flipped the switch on for only 20 seconds. Longer periods of heating, he explains, can result in graphite forming rather than graphene.
The modern lenses of an optical microscope, a tool centuries older than Edison, showed the carbon filament had gone from a dark gray to a “lustrous silver.” A transformation had likely occurred, but to what?
To characterize the change, Eddy reached for a technique developed in the 1930s: Raman spectroscopy. This technique uses lasers to identify the substances through their atomic signatures, like reading a barcode. Advances over the last century allow it to do so with rather extreme precision. The spectroscopy confirmed what Eddy had hoped — parts of the filament had turned into turbostratic graphene. Edison, in his quest to develop a practical light bulb that could be used in everyday life, may just have produced a substance that is quickly becoming key to the technology-dependent 21st century.
Of course, there is no way to know what really happened with Edison’s long-ago experiment. Even if the original light bulb Edison used was available to analyze, any graphene produced likely would have turned to graphite during its first 13-hour test.
“To reproduce what Thomas Edison did, with the tools and knowledge we have now, is very exciting,” said Tour, the T.T. and W.F. Chao Professor of Chemistry and corresponding author on the paper. “Finding that he could have produced graphene inspires curiosity about what other information lies buried in historical experiments. What questions would our scientific forefathers ask if they could join us in the lab today? What questions can we answer when we revisit their work through a modern lens?”
The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-22-1-0526, J.M.T.), the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (W912HZ-21-2-0050 and W912HZ-24-2-0027, J.M.T.), and the Welch Foundation (C-2065-20210327, Y.H.) The content in this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of funding organizations and institutions.
If you go to bulbs.com, you’ll find a page dedicated to the history of the light bulb where you will find this,
A Brief History of the Light Bulb
The electric light, one of the everyday conveniences that most affects our lives, was not “invented” in the traditional sense in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison, although he could be said to have created the first commercially practical incandescent light. He was neither the first nor the only person trying to invent an incandescent light bulb. In fact, some historians claim there were over 20 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Edison’s version. [emphasis mine] However, Edison is often credited with the invention because his version was able to outstrip the earlier versions because of a combination of three factors: an effective incandescent material, a higher vacuum than others were able to achieve and a high resistance that made power distribution from a centralized source economically viable [emphases mine].
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On July 24, 1874 a Canadian patent was filed by a Toronto medical electrician named Henry Woodward and a colleague Mathew Evans. They built their lamps [emphasis mine] with different sizes and shapes of carbon rods [emphasis mine] held between electrodes in glass cylinders filled with nitrogen. Woodward and Evans attempted to commercialize their lamp, but were unsuccessful. They eventually sold their patent to Edison in 1879 [emphasis mine].
Thomas Edison and the “first” light bulb
In 1878, Thomas Edison began serious research into developing a practical incandescent lamp and on October 14, 1878, Edison filed his first patent application for “Improvement In Electric Lights”. However, he continued to test several types of material for metal filaments to improve upon his original design and by Nov 4, 1879, he filed another U.S. patent for an electric lamp using “a carbon filament [emphasis mine] or strip coiled and connected … to platina contact wires.”
Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament including using “cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways,” it was not until several months after the patent was granted that Edison and his team discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last over 1200 hours.
This discovery marked the beginning of commerically manufactured light bulbs and in 1880, Thomas Edison’s company, Edison Electric Light Company begain [sic] marketing its new product.
Yet another Canadian technology firm gets a big wad of US cash or so it seems. General Fusion is located in Richmond, British Columbia (for now anyway) and is involved in developing fusion energy, considered to be a ‘green’ energy. For anyone unfamiliar with fusion, it is a type of nuclear energy. The more widely known form, fission, is when an atom is split and releases energy. Fusion is when a star is formed and energy is released.
Enthusiasts call fusion a green energy and relative to nuclear energy and fossil fuels, it is. However, it is not a perfectly green energy as noted on the Fusion Environmental Impact webpage on fusionenergynews.com,
Fusion energy is often presented as the ultimate clean energy source: no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, no long-lived radioactive waste, and virtually unlimited fuel. These claims are substantially true, but the full environmental picture is more nuanced. This article examines fusion’s environmental profile across the dimensions that matter most: carbon emissions, radioactive waste, land use, water consumption, and materials.[1]
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A fusion power plant produces zero direct carbon dioxide emissions during operation. The fusion reaction itself yields only helium — an inert, non-toxic gas — and neutrons, which are captured within the plant. There is no combustion, no flue gas, and no smokestack.
Life-cycle emissions, which include construction, manufacturing of components, fuel processing, and decommissioning, have been estimated at 5–15 grams of CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour (gCO2e/kWh). This places fusion in the same range as wind (7–15 gCO2e/kWh) and nuclear fission (5–12 gCO2e/kWh), and far below natural gas (400–500 gCO2e/kWh) or coal (800–1,000 gCO2e/kWh).[2]
Fusion waste is fundamentally different from fission waste in both character and longevity. A fission reactor produces spent fuel containing transuranic elements (plutonium, americium, curium) with half-lives of thousands to millions of years, requiring geological disposal. Fusion produces no spent fuel and no transuranic elements.
However, fusion is not waste-free. The intense neutron flux from D-T reactions activates structural materials in the reactor vessel, blanket, and shield, making them radioactive. The key difference is the timescale: with appropriate choice of low-activation structural materials (such as reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic steels like EUROFER, or silicon carbide composites), the vast majority of activated material decays to levels permitting hands-on recycling within 50–100 years. No geological disposal is required.[1]
Tritium, the radioactive hydrogen isotope used as fuel, is also a waste management consideration. …
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The environmental bottom line: Fusion offers a genuinely compelling environmental profile — zero operational emissions, no long-lived waste, no meltdown risk, and minimal land use. The honest caveats — neutron activation, water use, and supply chain impacts — are manageable with known engineering approaches and are orders of magnitude less severe than the environmental costs of fossil fuel energy.
Before getting to the General Fusion ‘combination’ news, here’s a June 9, 2026 article “Richmond company takes top spot in ‘Time’ tech ranking” by Hanna Hett for the Daily Hive about the latest event affecting General Fusion, Note: Links have been removed,
A Metro Vancouver company has just been ranked as one of the world’s best renewable energy companies.
Time magazine recently published a ranking of the world’s top “GreenTech” companies, stating that it’s highlighting the companies “driving the transition to a greener world.”
It partnered with Statista to rank the top companies that ” either develop or provide green technologies, products, or services that help mitigate or reverse the environmental impacts of human activity.”
While over 57 per cent of the companies on Time‘s list were U.S.-based, General Fusion, a company with its headquarters in Richmond, ranked first out of 250 companies.
“General Fusion is a nuclear energy startup specializing in a technique called magnetized target fusion that plans to go public on the U.S. stock exchange through a $1 billion SPAC [special purpose acquisition company] deal in mid-2026,” wrote Time.
It was founded in 2002 and has since been developing a way to produce energy by fusing atoms together, which is the same process that powers the sun.
Magnetized target fusion (MTF) aims to achieve fusion in “a practical way,” wrote General Fusion in a release. It avoids superconducting magnets and high-powered lasers and instead uses existing materials. It uses a machine that squeezes extremely hot gas (plasma) with liquid metal to try to trigger fusion reactions.
“Being named Time‘s top GreenTech company of 2026 is a testament to the incredible work of our team and a recognition of our innovative approach to transforming the world’s energy supply through fusion energy,” said Greg Twinney, General Fusion’s chief executive officer, in a release.
“For more than 20 years, we have been building and proving our technology … We’re on the path to industry-defining technical milestones to deliver practical fusion power in the next decade.”
Twinney added that they are receiving this recognition “at a pivotal moment” in the company’s journey.
Earlier this year, General Fusion announced that it planned to go public through a deal with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp III [emphasis mine], which would make it the first publicly traded company focused entirely on fusion power.
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The US came knocking
The deal with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp III was announced in a January 22, 2026 article “Vancouver-based General Fusion to go public in first-of-its-kind fusion energy deal” by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive,
British Columbia-based General Fusion announced today that it plans to go public through a deal with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III [emphasis mine].
If completed, the move would make General Fusion the first publicly traded company focused entirely on fusion power, with the goal of making fusion energy a practical and conventional source of electricity.
According to a news release, the deal — expected to close in mid-2026 — would place the company on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol GFUZ and value it at about US$1 billion (C$1.4 billion). This transaction includes funding from both Spring Valley’s existing cash reserves and new private investors.
Founded in 2002 and based in Metro Vancouver, with its headquarters office and main research facilities located at Vancouver International Airport, General Fusion has been developing a way to produce energy by fusing atoms together — the same process that powers the sun.
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General Fusion’s approach avoids some of the extremely complex and expensive equipment used by other fusion projects that need superconducting magnets or high-powered lasers. Instead, the company uses magnetized target fusion technology, with a machine that squeezes super-hot gas, known as plasma, with liquid metal in an effort to trigger fusion reactions.
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“The fusion era is now, and we’ve ushered it in through decades of innovation and teamwork. That’s what’s made us one of only a handful of private fusion companies with real-world, meaningful fusion results on the path to commercial viability and why we’re set to become the world’s first publicly traded pure-play fusion company. This announcement and Private Investment in Public Entity (PIPE) financing are the next step in our journey to bringing fusion energy to the grid.”
Moving forward, General Fusion will continue to operate from Metro Vancouver and will remain led by Twinney and its existing management team following the transaction. [emphasis mine]
Before announcing the deal, General Fusion had already raised more than US$400 million (C$550 million) from investors — including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — as well as industry partners, and government funding programs in jurisdictions such as Canada and the United Kingdom, where the company intends to eventually achieve a demonstration plant at 70 per cent of the scale needed for commercialization.
Construction on the U.K. project was expected to begin as early as 2023 for a completion in 2026/2027. But in 2023, the company put those plans on hold, and instead proceeded with an additional, smaller trial to bridge the gap before reconsidering the larger-scale experiment at a substantial cost.
The performance of the existing LM26 [Lawson Machine 26] machine — the smaller trial — at the company’s facility at Vancouver’s airport could determine whether the substantially more ambitious U.K. project proceeds.
The company holds more than 200 patents related to its technology.
Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III is an investment firm that specializes in energy and clean-technology companies.
“Demand for energy is skyrocketing, and the power sources available to us today aren’t up to the task. We strongly believe fusion is going to play a key role in our future,” said Chris Sorrells, chairman and CEO of Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III.
“When we looked at the players in the space, General Fusion was an easy choice for us, because we believe this company has both the technology in LM26 and the team that’s needed to reach commercialization and bring the world’s energy grids into the future.”
…
I’ll get back to the bolded paragraph in a minute.
GENERAL FUSION TO BECOME FIRST PUBLICLY TRADED PURE-PLAY FUSION COMPANY THROUGH BUSINESS COMBINATION [emphasis mine] WITH SPRING VALLEY ACQUISITION CORP. III
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (January 22, 2026): General Fusion Inc. (“General Fusion” or the “Company”) is a groundbreaking fusion leader with a 20-year track record of advancing fusion technology, including the development, construction, and operation of the first large-scale Magnetized Target Fusion (“MTF”) demonstration machine. Today, the Company announces that it has entered into a definitive business combination agreement [emphasis mine] (the “Business Combination Agreement”, and the transactions contemplated by that agreement, the “Proposed Business Combination”) with Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. III (NASDAQ: SVAC) (“SVAC”). Upon closing, the Proposed Business Combination is expected to result in General Fusion listing on the Nasdaq and trading under the ticker symbol “GFUZ”
In September 2025, Spring Valley III (NASDAQ: SVAC) raised $230 million in its initial public offering to pursue a business combination [emphasis mine] in the energy and decarbonization sectors. On January 22, 2026, Spring Valley III entered into a definitive agreement to merge [emphasis mine] with General Fusion, a leading fusion energy company headquartered in Richmond, Canada, at an implied equity valuation of approximately $1 billion. Founded in 2002, General Fusion holds more than 200 patents and is backed by prominent institutional investors. The transaction will create the world’s first publicly traded company dedicated exclusively to fusion energy technology.
Upon closing, General Fusion is expected to become the first pure-play fusion company listed on a U.S. exchange, trading under the ticker symbol “GFUZ.” In connection with the transaction, leading fundamental institutional investors have committed approximately $105 million in PIPE financing at closing. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026 and positions General Fusion as a first mover in the global race to commercialize fusion energy.
Spring Valley is an asset management firm based in Dallas, TX [emphasis mine] with a family of investment vehicles formed for the purpose of acquiring or merging with a business in the Power Infrastructure or Decarbonization sectors. Over the past five years, the Spring Valley platform has raised $920 million across four initial public offerings and over $450 million in capital raised or committed in connection with completed or pending business combinations [emphasis mine]. In addition, the platform’s initial business combination has facilitated over $4.0 billion of aggregate shareholder liquidity through public-market trading and secondary transactions following the completion of the transaction.
Spring Valley seeks to merge or acquire companies [emphasis mine] with an equity value approximately $1 billion or more that capitalize on the expertise and ability of Spring Valley’s management team, Board of Directors, and Sponsor. Our objective is to acquire a privately held business that can benefit from our financial acumen, operational expertise, and industry network to grow into a leading publicly traded bellwether. We plan to leverage our team’s unique experience and partnership approach to investing to create a growth plan for a target company that delivers superior shareholder value.
In May 2022, Spring Valley I merged with NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) at a $2.2 billion equity valuation, marking a pivotal milestone in the energy sector, establishing the world’s first publicly traded company focused exclusively on Small Modular Reactor (SMR) technology. This transaction included $235 million PIPE from strategic and financial investors, including DS Private Equity, Nucor, Samsung C&T, SailingStone Capital, Segra Capital Management, and Spring Valley’s sponsor, Pearl Energy and $110 million in secondary sales by the majority shareholder.
In February 2026, Spring Valley II merged with Eagle Nuclear Energy Corp. at a $300 million equity valuation, a next-generation nuclear energy company with rights to the largest mineable, measured, and indicated uranium deposit in the United States, and proprietary SMR technology. This transaction included a $30 million PIPE with Alyeska Investment Group.
In January 2026, Spring Valley III entered into a definitive agreement to merge with General Fusion at approximately $1 billion equity valuation, a leading fusion energy company based in Richmond, Canada, with over 200 patents and backed by leading institutional investors, establishing the world’s first publicly traded company focused exclusively on fusion technology. This transaction included a $105 million PIPE with leading institutional investors.
In February 2026, Spring Valley IV (NASDAQ: SVIV) raised $230 million in its initial public offering to pursue a business combination in the Power Infrastructure and Decarbonization sectors. Spring Valley IV seeks to merge or acquire a privately held business with an equity value approximately $1 billion or more that capitalizes on the expertise and ability of Spring Valley’s management team, Board of Directors, and Sponsor.
Thoughts
So, somehow a company based in Texas has merged with a Canadian company based in Richmond, BC. Interestingly, General Fusion doesn’t use the word ‘merger’ or any variation when describing the deal.
As for the bolded paragraph? US companies always say that everything will remain the same. The company will still be in [fill in the blank] and the leadership will remain in place. What they never tell you is how long the status quo will remain the status quo. In my experience, the ‘Canadian’ company, after a period of time, is either relocated outright to the US or headquarters moved to the US with research still be done here..
General Fusion’s choice is understandable. They need money and, past a certain point, Canada hasn’t done a good job of supporting its technology businesses. Meanwhile, the Americans are hungry (as are many oil-producing regions, e.g., Alberta, Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc.) for new forms of energy. Given that at some point, the oil will run out, Texas needs to look elsewhere and with a boom in energy consumption on the horizon, fusion energy with its promise of huge output and more sustainable development along with General Fusion’s growing reputation is very attractive.
One last thing, General Fusion has been covered here a number of times over the years, just use the search term ‘General Fusion’ in the blog search engine.
Science Literacy Week is a week-long invitation to notice, wonder, and explore the science woven through everyday life. This year, that’s 153 events and counting.
…
My focus is British Columbia (especially Vancouver). There are three events in BC, Note 1: I have reformatted some of the information; Note 2: The Biosonification Exchange Project is being offered over a series of days stretching from October into early December 2026 and, according to another source, one date in February 2027,
Biosonification Exchange Project, presented by Ginalina
Biosonification* Exchange Project is a new series at Science World presented by multi-disciplinary singer-songwriter, Ginalina, that invites us to explore ways of connecting with the natural world through plant sounds, science, stories and art. Two themes will inspire us throughout the fall: Nature’s Signals and how we are Interwoven.
Mix, fizz, stretch, and discover! In this hands-on Science Literacy Week program, school-age kids will create colourful bubbling “magic potions” and make their own stretchy slime that’s super gooey. Ages 5-12 years old. Caregiver supervision required. Costumes optional. Prepare for icky spooky fun!
1720 Beaufort Ave Comox, BC V9M 1R7 Canada + Google Map
Phone (250) 339-2971
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Science Literacy Week at the Okanagan Science Centre: Free Admission
October 6 – October 11 [2026]
oin us at the Okanagan Science Centre for Science Literacy Week, October 6–11, with FREE admission all week! Explore the wonders of science through daily planetarium shows exploring our universe and beyond, exciting gyro chair rides, and various hands-on activities for youth and families of all ages. Visit okscience.ca for a complete list of events and workshops. Unleash your curiosity, discover something new, and explore the science all around you!
Projet « Biosonification Exchange », présenté par Ginalina
novembre 23 [2026] @ 11h20 – 11h40
Gratuit avec le billet d’entrée
« Biosonification Exchange Project » est une nouvelle série proposée par Science World et animée par Ginalina, auteure-compositrice-interprète aux talents multidisciplinaires, qui nous invite à explorer différentes façons d’entrer en contact avec le monde naturel à travers les sons des plantes, la science, les récits et l’art. Deux thèmes nous inspireront tout au long de l’automne : « Les signaux de la nature » et « Comment nous sommes intimement liés ».
1455 Quebec St Vancouver, British Columbia V6A 3Z7 Canada + Google Map
Science World does offer a bit more about the Biosonification series of events and a bit more about Ginalina, Note: There is some repetition,
Biosonification* Exchange Project is a new series at Science World presented by multi-disciplinary singer-songwriter, Ginalina, that invites us to explore ways of connecting with the natural world through plant sounds, science, stories and art. Two themes will inspire us throughout the fall: Nature’s Signals and how we are Interwoven.
* Biosonification, also known as Plant Music, is a process that takes electrical data from living matter such as ferns, flowers, fruit or mushrooms, and translates them into music.
Recommended for Ages 0 – 7. Come ready to make music and explore STEAM! Free with admission.
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Dates & Times
Monday, October 5, 12, 19, 26 [2026]
Monday, November 16, 23, 30 [2026]
Monday, December 7 [2026]
Friday, February 12 [2027]
Times for daily show: 11:20am
About Ginalina
Ginalina is a 5x Juno nominated and 2x Canadian Folk Music Award artist with a deep wonder for the natural world. She is the author of a trilogy celebrating rivers, forests, and mountains. Biosonification Exchange Project is an investigation of sounds, ideas, field recordings, and music with the intention to provoke ideas and inspire connection to the land.
A former Professional Industrial Engineer, she now nurtures a fulfilling career rooted in music, nature, cultural heritage preservation, and community celebration. She lives, works, and plays from the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples: Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam Nations.
Harvesting food at the University of British Columbia (UBC) cafeteria
An October 5, 2026 University of British Columbia (UBC) media release (received via email and available here for now) announces a new indoor food growing ‘pod’ at the UBC Orchard Commons dining hall, Note: This media release is puzzling as it has some of the elements of a media-only event but seems to be functioning as both a media advisory and a standard news/media release,
UBC students are getting a taste of the future of local food production. On Oct. 6, [2026] UBC Food Services will harvest leafy greens from a compact indoor growing pod at the UBC Orchard Commons dining hall and serve them through campus dining.
The transparent chamber looks futuristic, but its purpose is practical and educational. The pod uses stacked hydroponic trays and precisely tuned LED lights to grow plants all year round. A standard electrical connection powers the portable, modular Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) pod, making it easy to install in any building.
The pod is more than a source of salad greens. It’s a full-scale research prototype, a living laboratory for exploring how food production can be integrated into buildings and city infrastructure, and support year-round growing in remote communities.
Dr. Anubhav Pratap-Singh inspecting the plants in the pod. Photo credit: Duncan McHugh/UBC.
“It’s not simply a greenhouse, it’s a smart, digitally connected food production system that also allows us to study the nutritional and sensory quality of the produce and consumer response, and could become part of future buildings and urban infrastructure,” said Dr. Anubhav Pratap-Singh, research project lead and associate professor in the faculty of land and food systems.
The project brings together food-systems research, campus dining operations, architecture and agricultural technology in a place where ideas can be tested at full scale and in public view.
Perkins&Will, a global architecture firm and a UBC architecture partner, designed the pod, in collaboration with FORM3, to understand how environmentally controlled agriculture could be integrated into existing and future buildings. QuantoTech Ltd., a Vancouver agri-tech company and UBC Food Services vendor, developed the hydroponic growing system and optimized LED lighting to support year-round production and reduce the need to transport greens into the dining hall.
“We tend to think of cities as places that consume resources. This project asks us to imagine them differently, as productive ecosystems where buildings can help grow food and strengthen community resilience,” said Dr. Mohamed Imam, senior research lead and senior associate at Perkins&Will. “The pod turns that big idea into something everyone can see, touch and taste. Just as importantly, it gives us real-world evidence about yield, energy, carbon, cost and space, the trade-offs designers and operators need to understand if building-integrated agriculture is to scale responsibly.”
Photo credit: Tom Kwok Photography, Perkins&Will.Photo credit: Mariam Al Roujuleh/UBC, courtesy Perkins&Will.
The demonstration brings Perkins&Will’s Resource Circularityresearch off the page and into daily campus life. The project explores how buildings can do more than provide shelter by contributing to food production in urban settings.
UBC researchers will compare produce grown in the pod with similar products available in grocery stores. The research will examine nutritional quality, growing conditions and perceptions of food produced within residential buildings or community infrastructure, such as universities, community centres or hospitals.
“The larger question we’re trying to answer around food security is: Why should cities only consume food? Why can’t cities and rural communities actually grow their own food?” said Pratap-Singh.
The project also explores whether cities can play a greater role in food production while reducing reliance on lengthy supply chains, improving food security and climate resilience. Researchers hope to better understand how local growing systems can support more resilient food networks in an increasingly urbanized world by bringing food production closer to where people live.
“Vertical farming is going to become essential as climate change continues to impact traditional agriculture and the global population increases,”said QuantoTech founder and CEO Alycia van der Gracht. “We hope this prototype produces evidence about distributed growing systems supporting a more resilient, localized food system, especially for regions with decreased access to land and water, or for climates with a very short growing season from deserts to the Arctic. So this demonstration will test the flexibility to be used inside a building, under-utilized community spaces or alongside traditional farming operations.”
Left to right: Dr. Mohamed Iman, Alycia van der Gracht and David Speight. Photo credit: Mariam Al Roujuleh/UBC, courtesy Perkins&Will.
For UBC Food Services, the project offers an opportunity to explore how hyperlocal food production could complement existing dining operations.
“What we learn through this project could help inform future decisions. We may possibly install more of these pods in existing locations and new buildings,” said David Speight, staff project lead and executive chef and culinary director at UBC Food Services.
“We’re excited about the potential for future growth in on-campus food production,” said Speight. “If we can do more year-round growing on campus to support our needs during the winter and reduce our dependency on imported produce, that could be a real win for us.”
The pods will also provide students with an opportunity to learn about local food and climate-friendly food systems, including screens displaying real-time growth and resource circularity data. Produce from the pods will support chef demonstrations, food literacy activities, and student research and engagement around healthy, plant-forward eating.
“Any time we can engage students around local and plant-based food, that’s a huge opportunity for us to talk about climate-friendly food systems, plant-based eating, local supply chains and supporting B.C.-owned businesses,” said Speight.
The installation can also help students have a deeper appreciation for the work put into producing food,said Speight. “Students will see produce go from a tiny seedling to a fully grown plant, then harvested directly for their dining experience.”
The BIA pod is expected to move to additional locations on and off campus next year. The team will continue to study crop quality, public perceptions and how small food-growing systems may empower communities and serve schools, hospitals or remote areas.
This project is supported by funding fromUBC’s Campus as a Living Lab competitive grant,MITACS, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’sAgricultural Clean Technology (ACT) Program and the BC Centre for Agritech Innovation (BCCAI).
Multimedia assets: Dropbox [Note: Link removed]
Event: UBC to celebrate first harvest from innovative indoor growing pod
Date/Time: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 9-11 a.m.
Location/Map: Orchard Commons Student Residence, 6363 Agronomy Rd., Vancouver; Room #1116 by Open Kitchen dining hall. (MAP)
UBC West Parkade, 2140 Lower Mall, Vancouver. (MAP)
Assignment editors: Media are encouraged to register by emailing luixia.lee@ubc.ca. Please arrive by 8:40 a.m. to allow enough time to set up.
Event details:
UBC Food Services will harvest the first crop of lettuce and herbs from the new Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) Pod at Orchard Commons residence. The pod, illuminated by vibrant LED lighting and equipped with custom-made, compact vertical hydroponic growing systems, is part of a research project exploring how buildings can become hubs for hyperlocal, low-carbon food production.
There will be a live harvest of the produce, demonstrations of the pod’s technology and growing environment and sampling of freshly harvested produce.
Interviews:
Golshan Matinfar, Mitacs student researcher and food science PhD candidate at UBC faculty of land and food systems
David Speight, staff project lead and executive chef and culinary director, UBC Food Services
Hayley Simpson, Mitacs student researcher and graduate student at the UBC faculty of arts and Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability
Dr. Mohamed Imam, Ph.D., senior research lead and senior associate at Perkins&Will
Alycia van der Gracht, founder and CEO, QuantoTech Ltd.
The image [downloaded from https://bc-ai.ca/future-proof-festival on September 28, 2026] is quite fascinating but you don’t buy tickets based on an image and this festival is not cheap. $950 CAD is the cost for a three-day pass although there are discounts for members, “Active BC + AI members receive 25% off all public ticket types” and students have a special price of $250 CAD.
Futureproof Festival 2026: Oct 28–30 at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
Futureproof Festival brings the most honest AI conversation happening this year to H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, October 28–30, 2026.
Futureproof Festival 2026 has a sharper promise: the most honest AI conversation happening this year.
The festival runs Wednesday October 28 through Friday October 30, 2026 at H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver.
Presented by the BC + AI Ecosystem Association, Futureproof Festival is an international AI culture and ideas festival for anyone trying to understand what AI is doing to work, creativity, institutions, communities, and everyday life.
Opening night plus two program days create space for critique, curiosity, practical questions, and real conversation.
No detailed speaker, session, or timing information is available yet. Start with the Festival overview for the dates, location, six public signals, and community behind the invitation.
Futureproof Festival is not trying to be the biggest AI event in the region. It is trying to be the gathering people remember because they met difficult ideas from different angles, argued with the same questions, and carried the conversation home.
You do not need to work in AI to belong here. Builders, artists, educators, researchers, founders, policy people, students, and the AI-curious public are all part of the conversation.
This is still Futureproof Festival. It is just distilled.
Here’s a sampling of the programme, from the Futureproof Festival website programme page,
The program
What actually happens.
It opens Wednesday night at the Space Centre. Amber Case gives the first talk of the festival, Brewster Kahle follows her, and then the opening-night creative AI live set hands the room to the party. Two program days come after that. Most talks run twenty minutes with a shared Q&A after every two, and all of it comes with the pass. A few of the rooms you will be in:
Wednesday · October 28 [2026]
Amber Case, Brewster Kahle, a live set, and a party
I haven’t been able to determine if any meals are included with the ticket but perhaps food is still being organized. After all, the festival doesn’t take place until the end of the month.
There is another BIODIFUL citizen science project (the last one, also concerning forests, was mentioned in my May 1, 2026 posting) and its open until November 30, 2026. This latest project was announced in a September 16, 2026 email from Nicolas Mouquet, Researcher at the Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station (SETE; Station d’Ecologie Théorique et Expérimentale, part of the National Center for Scientific Research [CNRS]),
Hello, You’re receiving this message because you previously took part in a BIODIFUL survey, or because you’re a colleague of mine.
We’ve just launched a new survey on the soundscapes of tropical forests in Costa Rica, in collaboration with colleagues from ETH Zurich, and we’d love your help.
The idea is simple: you’ll listen to short sound clips recorded in different forests and simply click on the ones you prefer. It takes just a few minutes:
It would also mean a lot if you could forward this message to colleagues, friends, or family, we’re trying to reach as wide an audience as possible.
And if you have any tips on how to best reach people (mailing lists, networks, etc.), we’d be very happy to hear them too!
Thank you very much for your time and support.
Best wishes,
Nicolas Mouquet
I have more from each of the survey webpages (English/Français /Español),
Voices of the Tropical Forest
Welcome, and thank you for taking part in our survey! This survey aims to evaluate people’s preference for tropical forests natural acoustic environments (soundscapes). We will present you with a series of short (5 seconds) recordings from forests across Costa Rica. For each pair, simply choose the one you prefer the most. The questionnaire will take about 5 minutes to complete. At the end, you will be asked to answer a few additional questions.
– The recordings were made in tropical forests in Costa Rica (hundreds of locations!). They consist of background sounds (sometimes quite loud) and foreground sounds, including birds, insects, other animals, and occasionally human activities.- Please fill out this survey on a device with good audio quality and/or ideally wearing headphones.- The recordings may be of variable loudness, we recommend starting on a lower volume and turning up the level as appropriate.- Only adults can be included in this study (18+ years old)- The survey is open till November 30, 2026 and is also available in French and Spanish.
By clicking “Answer the survey,” you consent to the use of the collected data for the purposes of our scientific project; this survey is anonymous, and you may withdraw at any time. This survey was reviewed and approved by the relevant ethics bodies at ETH Zurich: Data Protection Officer ETH Zurich see the approval letter here.
Bienvenue, et merci de participer à notre enquête ! Cette enquête à pour but d’évaluer vos préférences pour les paysages sonores (environnements acoustiques) des forêts du Costa Rica. Nous vous présenterons une série de courts enregistrements (5 secondes): pour chaque paire, il vous suffira de choisir celui que vous préférez. L’enquête prend environ 5 minutes à compléter. À la fin, quelques questions supplémentaires vous seront posées.
Les enregistrements ont été réalisés dans des forêts tropicales du Costa Rica (des centaines de sites !). Ils sont composés de fonds sonores (parfois assez forts) et de sons de premier plan, notamment des oiseaux, des insectes, d’autres animaux et, occasionnellement, des activités humaines.- Merci de répondre à cette enquête sur un appareil offrant une bonne qualité audio et/ou, idéalement, en portant un casque.- Le volume des enregistrements peut varier ; nous vous recommandons de commencer à un volume faible et de l’augmenter ensuite.- Seules les personnes majeures (18 ans et plus) peuvent participer à cette étude.- L’enquête est ouverte jusqu’au 30 novembre 2026 et est également disponible en anglais et en espagnol.
En cliquant sur « Répondre à l’enquête », vous consentez à l’utilisation des données collectées dans le cadre de notre projet scientifique ; cette enquête est anonyme et vous pouvez vous retirer à tout moment. Cette enquête a été approuvée par les instances éthiques compétentes de l’ETH Zurich : consultez la lettre d’approbation ici.
¡Bienvenido y gracias por participar en nuestra encuesta! Esta encuesta tiene como objetivo evaluar las preferencias de las personas respecto a los entornos acústicos naturales (paisajes sonoros) de los bosques tropicales. Te presentaremos una serie de grabaciones breves (de 5 segundos) de bosques en toda Costa Rica. Para cada par, simplemente elige la que más te gusta. Llenar esta encuesta tomará unos 5 minutos. Al final, te vamos a pedir que respondes a algunas preguntas adicionales.Tus respuestas solo se incluirán en el estudio si completas la encuesta en su totalidad; ¡asegúrate de responder a todas las preguntas!
– Las grabaciones se realizaron en bosques tropicales de Costa Rica (¡en más de cientos de sitios!). Consisten en sonidos de fondo (a veces bastante fuertes) y sonidos de primer plano, entre los que se incluyen aves, insectos, otros animales y, ocasionalmente, actividades humanas.- Por favor, completa esta encuesta en un dispositivo con buena calidad de audio y/o, idealmente, con audífonos.
– El volumen de las grabaciones puede variar; te recomendamos comenzar con un volumen bajo y subirlo según sea necesario.-Solo pueden participar adultos (más de 18 años)- La encuesta estará disponible hasta al 30 de noviembre de 2026 y también está disponible en francés y inglés.
Al hacer clic en «Responder la encuesta», das tu consentimiento para que los datos recopilados se utilicen para los fines de nuestro proyecto científico; esta encuesta es anónima y puedes retirarte en cualquier momento. Esta encuesta fue revisada y aprobada por los organismos de ética pertinentes de la ETH de Zúrich y por el Delegado de Protección de Datos de la ETH de Zúrich. Puede consultar la carta de aprobación aquí.
BIODIFUL’s About webpage lists previous projects and the research papers (either published or in process) that are an outcome of the work. Scroll down for the research papers.
A September 24, 2026 Simon Fraser University (SFU) Café Scientifique email (visible here) announces its Fall 2026 online event lineup,
September 2026
Hello friends!
Welcome to the SFU Café Scientifique Fall 2026 series! We recognize our season is starting later than usual, and we are glad to be on track for our first event in October. Join us for guided explorations of the vast expanse of the Yukon and the nano-scale workings of microscopic machines.
Reserve your spot by registering now for each talk. Zoom links will be sent to registered attendees shortly before each event. You can stop by our website and catch up on past lectures – where you like, when you like.
Yukon Ho! Permafrost, Glacial Lake Yukon, Landscape Evolution and the Yukon Gold Rush
October 27, 2026 5:00 – 6:30 pm Zoom
Yukon ho! Mineral deposits in Canada’s north sparked the Yukon Gold Rush in 1898 and they continue to be important today. Take a journey with SFU Earth Sciences professor Brent Ward to explore how glaciers have shaped the Yukon’s stunning landscape and ecology.
Evolution is an Engineer: Life’s Molecular Machines
November 24, 2026 5:00 – 6:30 pm Zoom
How do living organisms convert energy into motion and work? Evolution has been quietly solving this engineering problem for billions of years with molecular machines. Inside every cell these machines perform tasks with remarkable efficiency, speed, and accuracy. Explore the fascinating world of molecular machines with SFU Physics professor David Sivak.
Here are a few highlights from the Canadian Science Policy Centre’s (CSPC) September 24, 2026 announcement (received via email),
European Union: Inaugural International Partner
CSPC is thrilled to announce the European Union as the inaugural Featured International Partner of the Canadian Science Policy Conference!
This exciting milestone comes at a pivotal moment for the Canada-EU partnership, as both partners deepen their strategic cooperation across science, research, and innovation, emerging technologies, economic security, climate, and security and defence.
As our inaugural Featured International Partner, the EU will bring an exciting new international dimension to the CSPC Conference, connecting Canadian and European policymakers, researchers, innovators, and leaders at a time when international collaboration is increasingly important to addressing shared challenges and advancing innovation.
We look forward to welcoming the European Union and celebrating this historic first with the CSPC community!
Stay tuned for more announcements about the EU delegation, speakers, and Featured Country programming: www.CSPC2026.ca [Note: The theme for the 2026 CSPC is “Sovereignty by Design: Mobilizing Action to Reshape Canada’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Capacity,” the curious can check out my June 30, 2026 posting]
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Science Meets Parliament 2027: Applications Now
Open for BC, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories
[Note: Science Meets Parliament is modeled on a UK programme where scientists/researchers meet Members of Parliament to discuss their work]
Following successful programs in 2026, Science Meets Parliament (SMP) returns to British Columbia and Ontario in the spring of 2027. CSPC is also pleased to launch the inaugural SMP Northwest Territories program in partnership with the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Tentatively scheduled for March 2027 at the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife, the program will bring together approximately 20 researchers with Members of the Legislative Assembly, Indigenous leaders, and government officials. Preference will be given to researchers working on northern priorities identified in the NWT Knowledge Agenda.
For more information and eligibility criteria, please visit Science Meets Parliament on the CSPC website.
The deadline for applications for all three programs is December 20, 2026.
… [Note: You can find out more about the upcoming September 28, 2026 virtual panel on “AI, Quantum, Cybersecurity and Space: Leveraging Dual-use Tech for Defence & Sovereignty” in my September 16, 2026 posting]
Oct 13 [2026]: The Arctic & NorthernSovereignty: Infrastructure as a Catalyst
Join us for a panel on for a timely webinar exploring how Canada’s Arctic defence investments can strengthen continental security while supporting long-term economic self-reliance in Northern and Indigenous communities.Panelists will examine practical solutions—including remote telecommunications, resilient green-energy microgrids, and multi-purpose transportation corridors—and discuss how Canada can overcome jurisdictional and permitting challenges to build a secure, connected, and self-sustaining North.
Join us for a panel on October 15 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. ET. This panel will bring together leaders from academia, policy, research funding, and administration to examine how research excellence and impact are defined, measured, and rewarded. Panelists will explore how current assessment systems influence funding, careers, equity, researcher well-being, collaboration, and public value—and discuss practical alternatives that recognize diverse forms of research contribution while maintaining rigour, accountability, and public trust.
