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Iceland will tunnel into a volcano to tap into virtually unlimited geothermal power
Iceland's Krafla Magma Testbed project aims to transform renewable energy by tapping into a volcano's magma chamber.
Scientists in Iceland drilled straight into 900°C magma by accident — so energy-dense was the well that resulted, it could produce nearly ten times the power of a conventional geothermal well
An accidental breakthrough in Iceland reveals how to tap into magma itself, potentially unlocking geothermal energy at scales previously thought impossible.
Smart, hybrid, integrated, and engineered geothermal (SHIEG) systems
npj Thermal Science and Engineering - Geothermal sources can supply clean, sustainable, baseload thermal or electrical energy to fulfill societal demands in diverse climates via various...
Scientists may have discovered a brand-new mineral on Mars
Scientists studying Mars may have uncovered a brand-new mineral hidden in the planet’s ancient sulfate deposits. By combining laboratory experiments with orbital data, researchers identified an unusual iron sulfate—ferric hydroxysulfate—forming in layered deposits near the massive Valles Marineris canyon system. The mineral likely formed when sulfate-rich deposits left behind by ancient water were later heated by volcanic or geothermal activity, transforming their chemistry.
House centrists propose four solutions to stop ‘extreme partisan gerrymandering’
The House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of centrist Democrats and Republicans, unveiled its agenda to combat mid-decade redistricting, which has been adopted by red states and blue states alike to gain an advantage in the 2026 midterm elections. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY), the group’s co-chairs, said during a Wednesday press conference the […]
Controlled Thermal Resources and Plum Acquisition Corp. IV Announce Definitive Business Combination Agreement to Advance U.S. Critical Minerals and Energy
As one of America’s largest and most advanced geothermal power and critical minerals projects, the transaction is expected to enable Controlled Thermal Resources to advance its Hell’s Kitchen Project and commence Stage 1 construction.Transaction values Controlled Thermal Resources at a pro forma enterprise value of approximately $4.7 billion. IMPERIAL, Calif., March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (“CTR” or the “Company”), an emerging leader in U.S. critic
Five Berkeley Lab Scientists Receive DOE Early Career Research Awards
Five scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have received Early Career Research Program (ECRP) awards from the Department of Energy. The ECRP program, now in its 16th year, was established to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by supporting exceptional researchers at the outset of their careers, when many scientists do their most formative work. Recipients use the funding to pursue projects that have the potential to solve scientific challenges and advance the country’s STEM capabilities. To be eligible for the program, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution, or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility, who is within 10 years of having earned their doctorate. Awards to an institution of higher education will be approximately $875,000 over five years, and awards to a DOE national laboratory or Office of Science user facility will be approximately $2,750,000 over five years. This year’s Berkeley Lab awardees and their projects are listed below: Timon Heim: Better detectors for more powerful particle colliders Timon Heim is a staff scientist in the Physics Division. His ECRP project will develop a new type of detector that can track the particles generated by collisions in particle colliders with high spatial and temporal resolution. Current detectors in use at high-energy colliders, like the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, can track the trajectory and measure momentum of particles, but they can’t track a particle’s time of arrival with sufficient precision to discern from which of the many particle interactions they originate. Heim’s proposed technology — called a 4D tracking detector, because it captures data about particles’ positions in space and time — aims to solve this challenge, allowing researchers to glean more precise data from collision experiments to uncover new insights into fundamental forces and potentially discover new particles. The enhanced capabilities of 4D detectors will be a necessity for experiments at future colliders, such as the Muon Collider or Future Circular Collider. The project will develop custom microelectronics that process the signal of a pixelated silicon sensor that can register charged particles passing through it in an extreme radiation environment that these colliders produce during operation. The goal is to measure individual particles’ position with 50-micro-meter spatial and 50 pico-second (one trillionth of a second) temporal precision, for an incoming flux of around 1 billion particles per second per square centimeter. Harrison Lisabeth: Studying underground processes to unleash abundant energy Harrison Lisabeth is a research scientist in the Energy Geoscience Division focused on combining real-world experiments and AI to guide development of geothermal energy systems. His project will explore how deep underground rock formations – where geothermal wells are dug – are stressed by chemical reactions of the minerals and mechanical strain from movements in the Earth. A better understanding of subsurface stresses is essential to engineer safe and reliable geothermal wells that access the heat of deep rocks to produce electricity. It is estimated that the U.S. could generate ten times the amount of energy needed to power the grid using geothermal sources. Lisabeth plans to simulate how minerals grow, dissolve, and influence the behavior of surrounding rock in geothermal reservoirs by tracking chemical changes in rock samples under pressure in the lab. The project will also develop machine learning models to predict geologic strain based on field measurements and refine existing models that describe how common rock types deform under stress. Combining these approaches, Lisabeth hopes to develop a framework to predict stress to improve stability and longevity of geothermal wells. Daniel Carney: Pushing the quantum boundaries of particle measurement Daniel Carney is a staff scientist in the Physics Division who uses quantum information science to study particle physics and gravity. At very small scales, “quantum noise” — random fluctuations from the act of measurement — can drown out faint signals from rare processes. Carney’s ECRP project, “Fundamental Physics at the Quantum Limits of Measurement,” aims to build a new mechanical quantum sensor that can measure extremely small particle interactions below the limits of that quantum noise. The approach uses lasers to hold a tiny bead containing radioactive atoms; when one decays, the system measures the bead’s motion and the energy of any particles emitted. The experiment’s initial goal is to search for heavy sterile neutrinos, hypothetical particles predicted by some extensions of the Standard Model. The system could also help measure the mass of the neutrino, study the way particles interact through the electromagnetic and weak forces, and hunt for low-mass dark matter — all unsolved mysteries in particle physics. Callum Wilkinson: Using machine learning to demystify neutrinos Callum Wilkinson is a staff scientist in the Physics Division and part of the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) hosted by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. DUNE will create an intense beam of neutrinos that interact in detectors in Illinois and, after an 800-mile journey through the earth, in massive detectors in South Dakota. By precisely measuring neutrinos and how they change, researchers will get a better understanding of their fundamental properties and whether they are responsible for why there is so much more matter than antimatter in our universe. Wilkinson’s ECRP project will apply two machine learning techniques to improve the analysis of DUNE’s data and enhance the experiment’s precision. One approach will look for hidden patterns in how neutrinos interact and produce low-energy particles, while the other will help correct for distortions in what the detectors record. The methods will be tested on one of DUNE’s prototype detectors and could be used in other neutrino experiments, improving their measurements and helping scientists build better models. Aditi Krishnapriyan: Machine learning methods that scale as datasets grow Aditi Krishnapriyan is a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division (AMCR) and assistant professor at UC Berkeley. Her project, awarded through UC Berkeley, will develop machine learning methods that scale with dataset size for modeling complex, multi-scale phenomena. The resulting tools can be applied in a wide range of research, including the study of new electrolytes for batteries or the examination of molecular interactions. ### Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
Scientists in Iceland drilled straight into 900°C magma by accident — so energy-dense was the well that resulted, it could produce nearly ten times the power of a conventional geothermal well
An accidental breakthrough in Iceland reveals how to tap into magma itself, potentially unlocking geothermal energy at scales previously thought impossible.
Earth science and policy student spends summer exploring Arctic geothermal options
Declan Goldhawk knew he wanted to spend the summer expanding on what he’s learning in college while branching out into unfamiliar territory. A 10-week internship in Alaska — a place he’s never been — researching geothermal energy at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power checked both boxes.
A colossal magma system has been hiding beneath Tuscany
A massive magma reservoir has been detected deep beneath Tuscany, despite showing no obvious signs at the surface. Scientists mapped the roughly 6,000-cubic-kilometer body using natural ground vibrations recorded by dozens of seismic sensors. It poses no immediate danger, but the discovery reveals how enormous volcanic systems can remain hidden and could transform the search for geothermal energy and critical minerals.
Ahuachapán and Its Restive Neighbors
From a geothermal hotspot to the one-time “Lighthouse of the Pacific,” the heat is on beneath the volcanic landscape of western El Salvador.
New tectonic plate boundary could be forming in Zambia, scientists say
Isotope analysis of gas from geothermal springs in Zambia could show that a new continental rift is forming, scientists say. Unexpectedly high helium isotope ratios indicate that a weakness in Earth's ...
Daldrop Opens for Business in Southern Oswego County
$10 Million Facility in the L. Michael Treadwell Oswego County Industrial Park marks the largest expansion outside of Germany in the company’s 73-year history By Stefan Yablonski [caption id=attachment_11076 align=alignright width=450] Daldrop SBB CEO Jens Daldrop addresses attendees at the 2025 groundbreaking for the project. Daldrop also chairs the advisory board of Germany-based Daldrop Group.[/caption] A new era of cleanroom technology is underway in Central New York. The Daldrop Group’s advanced manufacturing facility and U.S. headquarters is physically built within the L. Michael Treadwell Oswego County Industrial Park. This industrial park is located in the town of Schroeppel. It marks the largest expansion outside of Germany in the company’s 73-year history. Daldrop SBB is based in Neckartailfingen, Germany. It is a global supplier of cleanroom technology, primarily to the pharmaceutical industry. It designs and builds advanced cleanroom environments for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology industries. It nvested $10 million in the new project. “We broke ground in 2025; we were under construction all winter. We just opened this spring, early spring,” said Benjamin Morrow, operations manager and control. The company consolidated sites in Salina and DeWitt into the industrial park in Schroeppel, Morrow added. “The next move here is to maximize every square inch of this facility and then we are already looking at the expansion. So, it is more capital investment on equipment — definitely higher-end automation in additional equipment so we can produce more components and then to support the ever-growing base in North America,” Morrow continued. “We are the headquarters for service, maintenance and spare parts. So as Daldrop has more and more installations, they need more and more service, maintenance and spare parts. So that will come out of this facility as well — it already is.” “As a global leader in GMP (global manufacturing support) pharmaceutical cleanrooms for decades, I am very proud to bring manufacturing jobs to Upstate New York,” said Mike Sullivan, president of Daldrop US operations. Key to choosing Southern Oswego County [caption id=attachment_11077 align=alignright width=450] Daldrop SBB at the L. Michael Treadwell Oswego County Industrial Park when the company announced the start of construction.[/caption] Sullivan said that the selection of the Schroeppel industrial park was mainly due to the help of Operation Oswego County and two people in the organization. “Prior to being purchased by Daldrop International from the Stuttgart region of Germany, Vince Bongio was a founding partner in SBB Inc. as well as our head of engineering. We based out of Syracuse due to Vince’s skills in HVAC and the manufacturing capabilities found in Syracuse,” said Sullivan. Bongio moved to Syracuse from California in the 1970s to work in Carrier’s Industrial Division of Large-Scale Petrochemical Refrigeration. Next, he advanced to General Electric’s TV Tube Plant where he got into cleanrooms ,leading to his role of head of engineering for Clestra Cleanrooms where he met Sullivan, their New England distributor. “Vince Bongio is a phenomenal engineer. Formerly of Carrier, he grew up in California and went to Cal Poly,” Sullivan explained. “Carrier hired him right out of college and he moved to Syracuse. He is the reason we are in Syracuse today. He is retiring this year. We are very proud and his legacy is having brought Daldrop to Syracuse.” In 2000, Sullivan, Bazinet, Bongio Inc (SBB) was formed with engineering and manufacturing, based in Syracuse, and sales and construction based in Massachusetts as it is today. “SBB Inc. started in Syracuse. I had a design–build contracting firm out of Massachusetts that was primarily doing all the new technologies coming out of MIT,” Sullivan said. “I started a manufacturing side. A big thing for cleanrooms is the HVAC. Most cleanroom suppliers are architecturally focused people. The strength in Syracuse is HVAC. So, SBB developed with me running sales and construction out of Massachusetts and manufacturing out of Syracuse.” “Daldrop wanted to have a relationship in the States and of those who approached us, they were the only ones who really understood HVAC. So, we were the right fit for them. We did a joint venture focused out of Massachusetts from 2012 to 2018 leveraging their technologies,” Sullivan explained. “The commitment was if we brought their product to the States, we would do that if they built it here. “The pieces that had to be in place to make the investment, they wanted to acquire us, we were great with that. If you looked at business recommendations the general guidance was to build in a low labor area — something like North Carolina — but Syracuse had a strong background in HVAC and we chose Syracuse and Oswego County to be our headquarters in the States. So, it is built off of history, technology and the existing supply chain — bringing jobs back to the area.” During the initial discussions with Daldrop about coming to the U.S., SBB agreed to sell under the conditions Daldrop would manufacture in the U.S. There are many areas that offer incentives and economic packages, but the strength of HVAC expertise and skilled manufacturing was a big part of the discussions for site selection. Coming home [caption id=attachment_11078 align=alignright width=451] Construction moves forward in March at the L. Michael Treadwell Oswego County Industrial Park.[/caption] The second key person to building in Oswego County is Ben Morrow, Sullivan added. “Ben has been working with Daldrop SBB for more than 12 years and has advanced to COO of manufacturing and engineering. Ben grew up in Phoenix, so building a factory for the Germany company in Phoenix is a strong success for both his community and the appreciation of Ben’s skills as a team leader,” Sullivan said. “I went to high school in Phoenix. So, this is like full circle for me. It’s a small world,” Morrow said. “I hadn’t been back to Phoenix since graduation. This is one of the properties that John Trimble of C&S, he is the former president of C&S, he just retired, suggested. He and I were very good personal friends. John was from Mexico and I was from Phoenix. We knew each other from high school. And the architect of this building, Ed Smart of smartDESIGN Architecture in Batavia — I went to high school with him. So, this was a project that’s full circle a coming home kind of thing. The three of us knew each other — kind of like it was meant to be. Very serendipitous.” Schroeppel was one option for Daldrop to consider; the original intent was just to get a warehouse to store some product, he added. The facility is Daldrop’s largest outside of their native country. Total payroll at the facility will be approximately $2.4 million once fully staffed. “Here is 32,000 square feet and we plan to expand and put in an additional 10,000 square feet,” Morrow said. “We have 17.5 acres. We can put at least three more facilities here, just on this property. The master plan submitted for the current building is the first of possible three buildings on the campus.” “If we can find the right people and advance the production according to the plan, we should be able to grow for the next decade. One of the first jobs we filled was our new HR manager, with a primary focus posting and filling new positions,” Sullivan said. Stop the exodus, start hiring [caption id=attachment_11080 align=alignright width=452] Principals at the local Daldrop SBB headquarters, from left: Ben Morrow, Mike Sullivan and Jens Daldrop.[/caption] “I have been coming to Syracuse for 30 years. One of the things I had a hard time watching was the exodus of factories. One of the toughest things is to watch it with my partners’ kids who had to move away for jobs. It is important for us to give opportunity where people’s kids don’t have to leave the area to get work,” Sullivan said. “My responsibility is to find people who have skill sets that want to work and then I have to build opportunity for that work to happen. “After years of watching companies and Vince’s three sons all move out of the areas to get jobs, it is important to us to provide opportunities for the Syracuse region and help grow our company. We have been hiring for our new factory and will continue for the next few years.” “We are hiring and will continue to hire. Currently we have about 19 on staff right now,” Morrow said. “We expect to grow that by about 10 to 15 in the next 12 to 18 months or so. We are at 19 currently — one in the wings. It’s been great being able to hire locally. All these folks that we’ve been hiring, they all live within a few miles from here.” “We hired someone this past week (end of August). She grew up in the area, raised a family and is working down in Florida. She just took a job with us so she can move back and be with her family. We will be moving her back and she should be starting in October. We are very happy to see this happen,” Sullivan said. “I feel strongly about having a spot for the kids to not have to move out of the area. It is better to have people moving into the area.” Currently, Daldrop SBB has openings for finance manager, COO of construction and delivery, as well as mechanical, electrical designers and Revit modelers, construction managers, commissioning agents and many other skills that are needed. Along with Daldrop’s reputation in life science cleanrooms, there is a strong history in semiconductor, electronics, glass, photonics, aerospace and other markets. This may be helpful with any new technologies building in the market such as the Micron expansion and the support network, Sullivan said. “We acquired this property and closed on it two months before any announcement from Micron. It is serendipitous that they’re right down the street from us,” Morrow added. “Everybody started thinking ‘you guys are supporting Micron.’ We were here first. That is not a goal of ours. We may or may not … they are talking to us; it is an opportunity.” The long run [caption id=attachment_11079 align=alignright width=450] Benjamin Morrow, operations manager and control at Daldlrop, speaks during a recent ribbon-cutting event in Schroeppel.[/caption] “Long term, we will expand the Phoenix facility,” Sullivan said. “We built our facility with a campus approach. Sustainability is big. We designed our rooms to be more sustainable. Our building has no gas lines for heat. We put geothermal wells in the ground. We put heat pumps in for heating and cooling out of those wells and we put a large layer of solar panels up on the roof. We worked with National Grid for metering. Our building is a high efficiency model. We upgraded all the instillation and the glass filtering. So, it is a very green building. We will have a very minimal carbon footprint. It also adheres to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) construction standards.” “We are a bunch of HVAC engineers. We did a large scale geothermal and spent the money up front because we knew it made sense in the business sense in the environmental sense and sustainability,” Morrow said. “We have insulated metal panels on walls and roof; we are an envelope from the exterior.” Daldrop, as a global player, has a strong culture of sustainability that is found in all its products including the new facility. The building has been designed with (sixteen) 400-foot deep geothermal wells, high efficiency construction methods, approximately 70 kilowatt solar photovoltaic panels, electric vehicle chargers and 26% recycled content. “Daldrop thinks of long-term investing,” Sullivan said. “On the roof, photovoltaic panels supplement our power. Over half the energy that I use is coming from the sun. We have chargers up front for employee electric vehicles. This place is built to last. This slab that we are walking on, normal buildings are four inches, some go to six inches, we are nine inches all the way through — except where the heavy equipment is — that is 10 to 12 inches thick, solid concrete. It allows us to reconfigure for whatever type of equipment we want to bring in,” Morrow said. “We are authorized by Underwriters Laboratory to self-certify so we don’t need to have an inspector come out and recertify. We get audited often, but we certify our own electronics. The control system in this building is rather high-end. Our thermostat in every room is zoned, independent. We analyze the data; incorporate it with our solar panels.” “There is a lot of competition for people to work. It’s not just about how much salary they are going to make — it’s about the work environment, the ability for stability. We want to make sure our employees have the best environment to work in,” Morrow added. Similarities “One of the reasons I believe why Daldrop chose this area, Phoenix in particular, is because it is a village, a river-based village. Neckartailfingen in Germany where Daldrop is based is also a river-based village, manufacturing community. So, there is a lot of similarities — that smalltown feel,” Morrow said. “We have a lot of connections through multiple employees that lead back to Carrier, also. Everything came together, the timing everything.” “We are thankful for all the economic development support. Everyone has been helping make this happen. So, keep it up, it is working, that is all I got to say, Sullivan said. “If you look at historical industrial manufacturing, this region has skills that have been un-utilized. The northern industrial region has a lot of skills that if we can tap before they go away, we can leverage them. That is what we are trying to do. You’d be surprised at the supply chain left behind from Carrier — that supply chain is still there.” “Operation Oswego County has been fantastic,” Morrow added. “I can’t say enough good things about that group.” What Is Cleanroom Technology Cleanroom technology is a system of specialized engineering, filtration and operational controls used to maintain an extremely low concentration of airborne particles, microbes and chemical vapors. How It Works • Air Filtration: Uses HEPA or ULPA filters to remove 99.97% of tiny particles down to 0.3 microns. • Airflow Control: Directs air in a steady, unidirectional (laminar) or filtered turbulent pattern to push dust away from work areas. • Environmental Regulation: Maintains precise control over temperature, humidity and positive air pressure to block outside air leaks. • Specialized Attire: Requires personnel to wear full-body garments (“bunny suits”), gloves and masks to stop human shedding
Scientists Stunned: Colossal Eggs Discovered 3,500 Meters Beneath an Active Volcano
Beneath an active seafloor volcano off Vancouver Island, researchers have documented a congregation of giant eggs at roughly 3,500 meters, a discovery that reframes how life can flourish under extreme conditions. The eggs belong to the Pacific white skate, an elusive deep‑sea species adapted to cold, crushing pressure and perpetual darkness. What seemed an unlikely nursery is actually a geothermally warmed refuge, where subtle heat helps embryos survive a marathon incubation. The finding links volcanic energy to a quiet engine of biodiversity, turning a hostile landscape into an incubator. A living volcano, a hidden nursery The seamount long assumed dormant now exhales mineral‑rich, shimmering plumes, proof of hydrothermal life at depth. Expedition cameras swept across black basalt and pale bacterial mats, revealing vents that pulse with warmth. That warmth, though modest by human standards, alters the physics of development for cold‑adapted embryos. In a realm where metabolism creeps, even a few degrees can mean faster growth and higher survival. The volcano is not only active; it is ecologically formative, drafting a blueprint for a thriving oasis. Giant eggs and a skate built for the abyss The Pacific white skate, Bathyraja spinosissima, is built for the abyss: broad wings, armored spines, and a life history that trades speed for endurance. Females lay outsized, rectangular “mermaid’s purses,” often 46–50 centimeters long, packed with rich yolk to fuel years of growth. In the frigid deep, embryos can require around four years to hatch, a timeline that magnifies every energetic advantage. The scale is striking—large eggs, large adults, and a textbook case of deep‑sea gigantism. The volcano’s gentle heat may literally shave months or years from the wait. Why heat matters at the bottom of the sea Hydrothermal circulation delivers low‑level warmth without the turbulence that would scatter fragile egg‑cases. Slightly elevated temperatures accelerate enzyme kinetics, nudging development along while keeping embryos within a safe range. Mineral‑laden fluids likely shape local microbiomes, which, in turn, can influence biofilms on egg surfaces. The environment acts like a slow, steady incubator, countering the deep sea’s tyrannies of cold and scarcity. For a species with long maturation and few offspring, every incremental boost compounds across generations. An ecosystem sculpted by fire and water Seafloor volcanoes create steep environmental gradients, stitching together hot vents, cool eddies, and mineral gardens into mosaic habitats. Microbes harvest chemical energy, seeding food webs that support crustaceans, fishes, and skates. Cameras documented egg‑cases nestled among rocky ledges, near communities nourished by vent‑driven chemistry. These islands of productivity behave like deep‑sea oases, sustaining life far beyond the vent orifice’s flickering light. The nursery’s success underscores how geological forces engineer biological opportunity. “Finding a cradle of life tucked beneath a breathing volcano reminds us that the planet’s harshest places can be profoundly generous.” What the discovery could change The nursery reframes conservation priorities in regions where volcanism quietly underwrites reproduction. Protecting hydrothermal corridors could safeguard entire lifecycles, not just charismatic adults spotted during occasional surveys. It also sharpens questions about how climate‑driven shifts in ocean circulation might influence vent activity, temperature fields, and embryo survival. With methodical mapping, time‑series cameras, and environmental DNA, scientists can track whether nurseries remain stable or drift with geologic rhythms. Key implications include: Enhanced understanding of deep‑sea reproduction at hydrothermal sites. New conservation targets centered on geothermal nurseries. Comparative studies with other volcanic regions, from the Galápagos to rift zones. Biotechnological insights from organisms adapted to long, cold development. Better models of how seafloor heat shapes regional biodiversity. Methods behind the revelation Remotely operated vehicles threaded through chimney fields, gathering video, temperatures, and mineral signatures. High‑definition imagery captured the distinctive, horned egg cases, their edges dusted with fine volcanic silt. Geochemical profiles mapped how heat and chemicals disperse, outlining the “thermal lanes” where eggs most cluster. Combined, these datasets reveal a nursery organized by geothermal topography, with egg‑cases concentrated in pockets of gentle, sustained warmth. A fragile boon in a changing ocean Deep‑sea environments feel remote, yet they intersect with global pressures: mining proposals, cable routes, and shifting oxygen levels. The nursery’s resilience hinges on stable heat flow, intact substrates, and minimal disturbance from noise or sediment. Safeguarding such places is not just about protecting novelty; it preserves a slow, ancient strategy that lets large, long‑lived animals endure in the coldest reaches of the Pacific. Where geology and biology meet, the planet’s deep time still writes living stories. This volcano‑warmed nursery adds a vital chapter to that story, revealing how subtle thermal gifts can tip the scales toward life in the abyss. With each dive, researchers trace the contours of an unseen world, where fire feeds water, and water—against all odds—feeds the future.
Scientists Develop New Technology to Continuously Monitor Geothermal Energy Operations
Custom sensor monitors seismicity for months straight more than a mile below ground.
The core anti-Pangram constituency is phony writers
Welcome to The Closing Argument, our verdict on the news, plus everything The Argument published and appeared in this week. The Verdict, by Kelsey Piper A lot of people hate AI for drowning the internet in slop and displacing human creatives. You might think that these people would be thrilled by a program that can identify and flag AI-generated work. But many people who hate AI also hate Pangram, an impressively accurate AI detector that produces very few false positives, according to high-quality independent research. This loathing found its most recent expression in a bizarre Wired article that amplifies a wide range of false arguments from Pangram skeptics: that AI detectors are racist (they’re not) or ableist (they’re not)1 or don’t work (this one does)2. Rather than starting from the premise that it would be really valuable to have a working AI detector and scrutinizing Pangram to make sure it lives up to that promise, the article starts from the premise that Pangram obviously has bad vibes and sets out to discover why. (One answer: The CEO microwaved lunch during an interview!) Why aren’t writers who resent Pangram more eager to distinguish themselves from posters who are having ChatGPT ghostwrite all their work? There are a few different things at play, but I think one key dynamic is this: These are often the same people. A core constituency for arguments like Wired’s is “writers” who are using AI to write their posts but resent this fact being made public. They stand to lose from AI detectors because AI detectors call them out. Share When Substack announced a partnership with Pangram, a sizable fraction of the platform’s authors rose up in outrage. Some people had experience with other AI detectors that didn’t work, and some felt that AI writing ought to be encouraged — both of which are fair enough. But the fury was fueled by authors passionately insisting that Pangram kept wrongly accusing them on almost every post they published. Pangram can be wrong, especially on short passages. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where Pangram looked at a whole blog post rather than a single paragraph, the program correctly detected work as AI. Even if we can’t be 100% sure in any individual case, we can notice the trend in the aggregate. Wired quotes Sam Illingworth, a professor of critical AI literacy at Edinburgh Napier University, who said, “I don’t think [AI detectors] work. … I think that detectors are prejudiced against certain people.” This spring, he said that he used AI for research and editing; this summer he acknowledged that in addition to research and editing, he also uses it “now and then for a turn of phrase I keep.” Pangram informs us that most of his posts are 100% AI-written (some are mixed AI-and-human) and that 100% AI-written posts started appearing last year. The favorable interpretation is that, as someone whose recent work Pangram consistently mistakes for AI, Illingworth sees Pangram’s flaws firsthand. The unfavorable interpretation is that the tool’s credibility trades off against his own, because its account of who writes his posts is not consistent with his. Illingworth is not alone in insisting the detector does not work. “It’s a Monday night in late July, and I’m pasting my own Substack draft into an AI detector for the first time. Not because I’m worried. Because I’m curious. I wrote every word of it myself, the way I write everything, out loud in my head first, in a rhythm that still carries the accent of a language I learned to think in before I learned to write in this one,” begins one Substack post by an author indignant that Pangram flags her writing as AI. “That’s the part I had to sit with before I could write this.” If you, like me, have worked with AIs a lot, you won’t even need Pangram there. The author of that piece is AI. It is obviously AI! I checked 10 other posts on the blog, and they were also obviously AI! “I have spent 22 years as an award-winning author and essayist. And now this bullshit tool that learned from MY writing is going to accuse me of plagiarism,” popular Substack writer Carlyn Beccia wrote in an anti-Pangram post. “For the last and final time, AI DETECTORS DO NOT WORK.” Here’s what her writing sounded like in 2020: “Most success stories revolve around one person who believed enough in you to say — give it a try. We call these people muses, but they are so much more than that. They are the strong man giants whose shoulders we stand on so we can see the horizon. Throughout the editing process, I am sure my editor felt less like a giant of greatness and more like Atlas with the world on her shoulders.” Pangram says it was 100% human-written. (So were other articles of hers in 2020.) And here’s what it sounds like now: “And then there is the reshuffling, which sounds like paperwork until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork. The Trump regime recently moved special education oversight from the Education Department to HHS. That is not a minor bureaucratic transfer. It changes the frame.”3 Pangram says this is mostly AI. I am not convinced that Pangram is wrong. In my own experience, Pangram is very effective on long texts — if it marks a long essay as AI, the essay was either written by AI or deliberately written to sound like AI. On tweet-length or paragraph-length texts, it’s not perfectly reliable. It seems to work just as well for non-native English speakers as for native speakers. While I have seen dozens of claims of pre-2022 text returning a positive result on Pangram, I have tried repeatedly to corroborate those and have never once succeeded. To be clear, I’m absolutely not saying that complaining about Pangram suggests a writer is a cheat. There are plenty of other concerns. Most are mistakenly premised, such as the false claim that Pangram trains on work you put into it, but others are reasonable: It’s unreliable on sufficiently short text segments; it creates an internet witch-hunt mentality when there are defensible uses of AI; people who are open about their AI use are sometimes blamed, when the only people really doing something wrong are the ones who hide it; and it isn’t perfect, so a single positive result shouldn’t be taken as decisive proof of misconduct. I’m happy to concede that Pangram is imperfect and possible to over-rely on. If an author’s posts are mostly non-AI and one scans as partially AI, this could be a mistake. It’s also possible to defeat Pangram with intentional effort. If you think we need something more robust and more reliable, fine! But if you don’t like AI and don’t like Pangram, your attitude really ought to be that it’s a shame that our existing tools for AI detection are imperfect, and it’s important to invent better ones. If your stance is instead that AI is evil and so is looking for AI, then ultimately you’re contributing to the sloppification of the internet. You’re making it harder for people who write their own text to distinguish themselves, and providing cover for authors who are definitely not writing their own text. Subscribe Top stories this week, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs Commentators often worry that the decline of reading could mean the decline of liberal democracy — but deliberative governance actually predated widespread literacy. This week, Maibritt Henkel pointed out that many liberal cultures thrive on a culture of raucous, interactive debate, which can happen in-person as easily, if not more so, than in text. Read on, dear reader, to learn more. It may actually cheer you up: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) [ Reading won’t save liberalism ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) Maibritt Henkel · Sep 1 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) It used to be bad to downplay climate change (if we mean denying its reality). Today, it’s actually good to downplay climate change (if we mean keeping the issue out of political fights so we can make real progress). This counterintuitive view is called “climate hushing,” and contributor Alex Trembath argued that it’s the key to enacting good policy going forward. Get up to speed on the latest in climate politics: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) [ We won’t stop climate change by talking about it ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Alex Trembath · Sep 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing up for the forces of liberalism against Donald Trump’s assault on our closest ally. So, why is one prominent left-wing commenter attacking Carney? Columnist Matthew Yglesias explains: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) [ When "economic liberty" means central planning ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) Matthew Yglesias · Aug 31 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) 🌟Abundance Wins of the Week🌟 Shout out to my home state of California, whose legislature passed two housing bills this week. One requires a housing density minimum in transit-oriented areas of the state’s most transit-rich cities (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, and Long Beach). Another bill closes two common loopholes used by third parties to delay housing projects, including an opportunity to challenge maps of a given lot created by the developer after a project has been approved. Shout out to our big-state rival, Texas, where pro-housing SB 785 took effect this week. The new state law requires municipalities to have at least one district permitted for manufactured housing without a special permit. This will promote zoning changes in 44% of municipalities. The company Fervo Energy signed a deal with Google for what is set to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility, proving a technology can work at a scale that could be crucial to a decarbonized, energy-abundant economy. Share Worth watching… This week, forecasting legend Nate Silver joined Jerusalem, Matt, and Jeremiah on a crowded episode of the pod. It was a party. And speaking of parties, our round table debated the factional lines within the Democratic Party: Is it possible to be center-left and also anti-establishment? Watch or listen to find out: The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is one of the areas that swung hardest toward Trump in 2024, but musician Bobby Pulido is running to flip it back. Right now, The Argument/Split Ticket’s model has him running 1.1 points behind his Republican opponent in a district Trump won by 18 points. Tune in to find out how he differs from national Democrats and what he thinks he can to do win this seat. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders was among the first politicians to call for a ban on superintelligence. My guest this week, Andrea Miotti, has been lobbying to ban superintelligence for several years, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. I asked him how he gets legislators to take speculative risks seriously, and we dug into what plans might look like to actually pass a ban. Listen to learn more: What’s News with The Argument The Argument recommends, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs If we ever lose track of Justin Zuckerman, I’ll have the team split up and check all the movie theaters in the city. I’m shocked (and a little jealous) at how often he gets out to see good cinema. This week, he brings us It Ends, a “horror-ish movie,” which he described as a “Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” I was intrigued before he added that it was “funny, dark and existential” — at which point I was fully locked in. I guess I also had existential themes on the mind this week. One morning, a single line from a poem I read long ago just came to me: “Is death a stretch of time in which a life is just a flash?” The poem is called “From 20,000 Feet” by Heather McHugh. I suggest the version in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, which, by tradition, my best friend and I always bring backpacking, extra weight be damned. We’ll stay thematically dark for just one more rec from senior editor John Robert Thomason, whose upcoming trip to Baltimore reminded him to suggest Michael Clune’s memoir White Out (about being addicted to heroin in Baltimore in the 1990s). Ben Lerner’s blurb called it _“_Disturbing, brilliant, hilarious—it’s as if Proust had written Jesus’ Son.” John told me this “seems accurate, with the caveat that I’ve never read Proust.” I, personally, have also shelved Proust until retirement. At this point, I was a little concerned for the team since all of us tossed out such psychologically grim material — maybe we’re all down about the end of summer — but thankfully, at least a few of us were into more upbeat selections. Milan Singh recommended Made In’s 5-quart stainless clad saucier, suggesting he had some fun in the kitchen. Jeremiah Johnson asked if he could recommend yet more Carly Rae Jepsen. Once denied, he offered up Game Changer instead_,_ calling it “the most wildly creative game show, maybe in the entire history of the genre.” Eli Richman mentioned _Lucky, “_a B-tier show with an A-tier cast and an S-tier theme song.” I suppose he was recommending the song, Horns of a Bull. Still, despite these cheerier recs, I couldn’t help but be concerned that we were subconsciously worried about racing toward summer’s end — the end of swim trunks and splashing around. Then a message landed reminding me of the three-day weekend to come. A whole extra day for sunshine. One more swim in the lake. I was grateful this called to mind yet another line from a poem, one by Mary Oliver, the patron saint of every gorgeous summer day (and about whom a documentary is now out). Speaking to God in the poem “Thirst,” she wrote: grant me, in your mercy,a little more time. Love for the earthand love for you are having such a longconversation in my heart. We have merch! We have quarter-zips, keychains, hats, and stickers. Each one is a great conversation starter in its own way. Buy them here. Subscribe More to read: [ The Opening Argument ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite)[ Seeing like an elite ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) Kobe Yank-Jacobs · Sep 4 What do Americans hear when they watch Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President JD Vance rail against the elite? Are they thinking of right-wing tech billionaires? Imperious college professors? Liberal magazine writers? [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) [ The Weekly Scroll ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline)[ God is back on the timeline ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) Jeremiah Johnson · Sep 5 This week, we’re talking about Substack’s new religious debates, the continuing MAGA influencer scandal, how to retire from YouTube, and aura battles. [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) 1 This was a legitimate thing to worry about, but doesn’t seem to be a problem given the actual technology: Marijke Van Vlasselaer, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, and Bram Spruyt’s 2026 paper looks at whether Pangram is less accurate when evaluating the work of non-native speakers of English. It isn’t. That’s because Pangram isn’t really looking at how “unusual” a piece of writing is but whether it has the characteristic patterns of LLMs. The Wired article makes an odd gesture at a different Pangram-is-racist argument. There were several controversies this summer during which upcoming books were canceled after being discovered to be AI-written: “The three novels mentioned earlier — Shy Girl, Daggermouth, and Call Me, easily publishing’s biggest AI-detection scandals — were all written by writers of color.” But come on! As Zvi Mowshowitz put it: “They were not primarily written by people of color. They were primarily written by AIs.” That’s the whole problem! And as my colleague Jeremiah Johnson recently observed with respect to Cambridge’s Arday scandal, a community being unwilling to call out fraud if it’s perpetuated by people of color is not an anti-racist tendency; it is ultimately quite racist. 2 Many non-Pangram detectors don’t work, but many possible airplane designs also don’t work, and no one considers this a general argument against aviation; the thing that matters is whether any detection works. 3 The phrase “empires have always loved” mysteriously became all the rage in the last few years. See here, here, here, here and here. Before 2025, the only use of that phrase I have been able to find is a single Tweet. The logic of the sentence, too, is incoherent in an AI-characteristic way. “...sounds like paperwork, until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork”? Does remembering that make it sound less like paperwork? It’s a craft-ful sentence, but what is it actually saying??