logo
How Commonwealth Fusion Systems is Igniting a Clean Energy Revolution

How Commonwealth Fusion Systems is Igniting a Clean Energy Revolution

In the panel discussion 'Fusion is the New F Word,' Kristen Berke, VP of Sales, Entertainment & Branded Content at LA Times Studios moderated a conversation with Joe Paluska, Chief Marketing Officer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Jennine Willett, Creative Director at Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The panel talked about how Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), an MIT spin-out, is leading the charge in commercial fusion energy.
The company is harnessing the power of the sun and stars through fusion, a clean, unlimited and safe energy source with no byproducts. Unlike fission which splits atoms, fusion combines two hydrogen molecules. While fusion has been around for over a century, recent advancements in material science and AI have made it possible.
CFS is building a machine called SPARC and plans to turn it on by 2027. SPARC uses powerful, high-temperature superconducting magnets, a technology first discovered by IBM in the 80s. These magnets are key to containing and controlling the superheated plasma—a state of matter above 100 million degrees Celsius—inside the machine to release massive energy.
The company's culture is driven by a sense of mission, with a team of over 1,000 people including top scientists, engineers and skilled tradespeople from NASA and SpaceX. They are working 24/7 to achieve what was once considered the 'holy grail' of energy.
CFS believes fusion energy is vital to addressing the global climate crisis, especially as current climate projections indicate humanity will surpass the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold sooner than anticipated. Their goal is to scale up production of magnets and power plants fast, just like during World War II when we faced an existential threat.
Beyond the tech, CFS is committed to making fusion energy understandable and public. Through the #PowerMoves campaign they say fusion is 'humanity's power move'—a big step for the planet. They want to mainstream climate tech and tell more creative and impactful stories to reach a wider audience, including young people, to inspire the next generation of engineers and physicists. CFS envisions a future where compact fusion power plants can be deployed everywhere, and energy can be democratized and resource conflicts resolved.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Best Stocks: An under-the-radar play on the AI buildout that was founded more than 90 years ago
Best Stocks: An under-the-radar play on the AI buildout that was founded more than 90 years ago

CNBC

time4 hours ago

  • CNBC

Best Stocks: An under-the-radar play on the AI buildout that was founded more than 90 years ago

(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — During the last earnings season, the hyperscalers all affirmed their guidance for capital expenditures this year. The AI data center and infrastructure buildout is not slowing down. Earnings results and AI-related commentary from Oracle and AMD over the past week make it clear that this theme remains on fire. Lots of the companies on the Best Stocks in the Market list are direct or indirect beneficiaries of all this spend. Today we're going to introduce you to a name you may not have heard much about yet. In 1932, inventor Arthur Schmitt founded a company to produce electrical connector components for radios in Chicago. Before long, military demand for these components and others skyrocketed thanks to the run-up into World War II. Nearly a century later, Schmitt's company, now called Amphenol (APH) , is still supplying these components to customers around the world. If it has cables, printed circuit boards, sensors, antennas or modules, it needs connectors to make all these things work together. Amphenol's products enable secure, high-performance connections, especially in harsh or high-speed environments where durability is not optional and only the top quality components will do. Amphenol is in three businesses: Harsh Environment Solutions sells ruggedized connectors, cable assemblies, and sensors for aerospace, defense, industrial, and automotive applications. Interconnect & Sensor Systems is made up of commercial electronics, automotive sensors, and fiber‑optic/copper connectors. But it's their third and largest business that we're focused on today. Despite the diversified nature of the company, the upside surprises are coming from their involvement in the global data center build-out. This vertical — Communications Solutions — is 45% of Amphenol's business and growing rapidly, fueled by incredibly strong demand coming from broadband, mobile networks and data center interconnects. After the last earnings report, which Sean will detail below, Wall Street woke up to the fact that there's no AI without connections between the chips and the hardware, the servers and the electrical equipment, the architecture and the energy. Amphenol's products are involved at every stage of this. Best Stock Spotlight: Amphenol Corp (APH) On the list since: 12/16/2024 One-year price chart with moving averages, RSI: Sean — Amphenol has as pretty of a chart as you'll find. Below is a total return price chart over the past 5 years using a logarithmic scale (On a log scale, equal vertical distances represent equal percentage changes, so a move from $10 to $20 - a 100% gain - looks the same as a move from $100 to $200, it helps visualize longer term charts): The stock has seen some downtrends over the past 5 years, but its long-term trend is incredibly consistent - up and to the right. Looking at the stock on a weekly basis, buyers have tended to come in around the 50-week moving average. And if you're lucky enough to have a shot at the 200-week, investors are hammering the buy button. Every move toward the 200-week was followed up with heavy buying volume over the past 5 years: There are not many stocks that have shown this type of strength over long stretches of time. Going back to June of 2020 (5 years), this stock has spent 82% of its time above its 200-day moving average. Comparable to Nvidia Nvidia (NVDA), which is possibly the best stock to have ever existed, spent about 80% of its time the past 5 years above its 200-day moving average. Not to proclaim that this is the next NVDA, but this highlights how strong of a stock this is, and more importantly, how difficult it can be to wait for a dip. The stock is just as strong on a fundamental basis. From its Q1 earnings, Amphenol hit a record $4.8B in sales, up 48% year-over-year. EPS came in at $0.63, up 58% year-over-year. The company achieved record adjusted operating margin of 23.5% in Q1 2025, representing a 250 basis point improvement from 21.0% in Q1 2024 (1 basis point equals 0.01%0. Earnings growth and margin expansion were primarily driven by strong operating leverage on stronger sales volumes. The most significant growth driver was the IT datacom market, which represented 33% of sales and grew 134% organically year-over-year, with particular strength in artificial intelligence-related applications. (Earnings data via Quartr) AI is a massive driver for this company. The CEO had this to say on what's going on with AI: "It is a revolution that creates for our industry a disproportionate opportunity because of the unique nature of the architecture and the intensity of the interconnect solutions that are associated with that architecture. And so when you stack that all together, it's a great revolution. It's a more interconnected intensive revolution, and we've taken more than our fair share of that. The result has been that our IT datacom business has grown very robustly." This stock has a great story, strong technicals, and exciting fundamentals. What more could you ask for? Risk Management: Josh — It's tempting to look at the chart of Amphenol and say "Well, I guess I missed it." And, of course, you're certainly not looking at a ground floor buy-in here. But it's been my experience that more stock market opportunities have been lost by people thinking they already missed their chance than for any other reason. If you've been investing for a while, it's likely you already have some of your own war stories of this variety — Tesla, Bitcoin, Netflix, Nvidia, Broadcom, Palantir, etc. It's really hard to buy a stock that's just doubled. It's even harder to imagine a doubling happening again. Having a solid risk management plan in place prior to entry can help investors over this mental hurdle. APH is currently in the process of consolidating its huge post-earnings rally. RSI has cooled off to just below 70 and that's a good first step. I'd be watching for a price dip into the high $80s, which would be a retest of the most recent breakout area before entering the position. The risk of waiting for that lower entry is you may not get the chance. It happens. Traders will want to keep an eye on the rising 50-day, currently $81.50, as a place to lighten up or exit. Investors will want to give this situation the benefit of the doubt and a little bit of a longer leash. There's a gap below $71, I like that level as a stop as it would tell me the sellers have taken control and something may have changed with the story. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL'S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. INVESTING INVOLVES RISK. EXAMPLES OF ANALYSIS CONTAINED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE ONLY EXAMPLES. THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OFFICIAL POLICY OR POSITION OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC. JOSH BROWN IS THE CEO OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND MAY MAINTAIN A SECURITY POSITION IN THE SECURITIES DISCUSSED. ASSUMPTIONS MADE WITHIN THE ANALYSIS ARE NOT REFLECTIVE OF THE POSITION OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC" TO THE END OF OR OUR DISCLOSURE. Click here for the full disclaimer.

Harvard has collected 3 million biological samples over decades. Now researchers may not have the money to preserve them.
Harvard has collected 3 million biological samples over decades. Now researchers may not have the money to preserve them.

Boston Globe

time4 hours ago

  • Boston Globe

Harvard has collected 3 million biological samples over decades. Now researchers may not have the money to preserve them.

The samples are kept at temperatures as low as minus-170 degrees Celsius (or minus-274 degrees Fahrenheit), in a network of liquid nitrogen freezers at the Chan School as well as at Brigham and Women's Hospital, according to 'If we really don't have any funding, we would lose the samples,' said Dr. Walter Willett, a Harvard professor and a principal investigator for the studies, in an interview. 'We're doing everything possible to not let that happen.' Advertisement The two programs affected are among the most comprehensive and long-running public health studies in the country. The Nurses' Health Study is A similar project, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, tracks lifestyle and nutrition factors for men. Advertisement The two projects have yielded a number of landmark findings, including the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer and the effects of trans fats on heart disease. The dataset generated from the massive project has informed countless additional studies by other researchers. Related : As part of the projects, researchers collected biological samples from roughly 350,000 individuals, monitoring various components, including nutrients, contaminants, and hormone levels. That research has been crucial to the growing understanding of factors that contribute to breast cancer, heart disease, and dementia, Willett said. 'Looking at what's going on inside the body a few decades before the disease occurs, that's what we can do [with the samples],' he said. 'That's really critical, because we know for many cancers, it's not what's in the blood or in the urine at the time of diagnosis, it's what was going on decades before that's probably most important. And we can go back to the samples and look at that today.' The collection of samples is among the most comprehensive in the world, Willett said. Its scientific potential — which will only increase as new research technologies are developed — is something that 'no amount of money can buy,' he added. Related : Both projects were funded in large part by two grants issued by the National Institute of Health's National Cancer Institute. Those grants were terminated on May 6, according to an affidavit filed by Willett June 2. Now, researchers are scrambling to keep the freezers running. Advertisement 'We have probably a couple of months worth of resources for paying our nitrogen bills,' Willett said. 'But the nitrogen company is very efficient in cutting off supply if we don't pay.' Though it's not clear exactly when the funding will run out, Willett said the research team may soon have to decide which samples are kept and which will be allowed to spoil. But because the sweeping nature of the study relies on having multiple samples from hundreds of thousands of people over a multi-year period, it's difficult to say which will be more useful for research purposes. 'We don't yet know who's going to get breast cancer,' Willett said. 'Which makes it impossible to predict exactly which samples will be the most valuable.' Nicole Romero examines samples on the campus of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health on June 11, 2025. Kent Dayton/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Camilo Fonseca can be reached at

World could soon hit 1.5 degree threshold
World could soon hit 1.5 degree threshold

The Hill

timea day ago

  • The Hill

World could soon hit 1.5 degree threshold

The Big Story The world may be on track to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming in about three years, a group of scientists warned in a new paper. © Matt York, Associated press file Researchers have called for keeping the planet's warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. An update on the state of global warming published this week says that if 2024 levels of planet-warming emissions continue, there's a 50 percent chance the world will warm to 1.5 degrees in a little more than three years. Researchers note this estimate is 'not expected to correspond exactly to the time that 1.5 °C global warming level is reached' due to a few uncertainties. However, the finding paints a stark picture to how close the world is to passing that threshold. The 1.5 degree figure is partly symbolic — the difference between 1.49 degrees and 1.51 degrees, for example, is not expected to necessarily be the difference between survival and doom. However, there are certain 'tipping points' after which climate damage becomes irreversible — like the melting of the Greenland ice sheet or the collapse of ocean current systems. The paper says that currently, the world is estimated to have warmed 1.36 degrees Celsius (2.45 degrees Fahrenheit) and is currently warming at a rate of about 0.27 degrees Celsius (0.49 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade. Read more at Welcome to The Hill's Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains. Programming note: I'm off tomorrow so there will be no newsletter. I'll be back on Monday. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect the energy and environment sectors now and in the future: {section_0.content[0].title} {section_0.content[0].description} {section_0.content[1].title} {section_0.content[1].description} {section_0.content[2].title} {section_0.content[2].description} What We're Reading News we've flagged from other outlets touching on energy issues, the environment and other topics: EPA science revamp calls for 'much smaller' office (E&E News) What Others are Reading Two key stories on The Hill right now: {section_2.content[0].title} {section_2.content[0].description} Read more {section_2.content[1].title} {section_2.content[1].description} Read more You're all caught up. See you Monday! Check out The Hill's Energy & Environment page for the latest coverage. Like this newsletter? Take a moment to view our other topical products here 📩 Privacy Policy | Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe 400 N Capitol Street NW Suite 650, Washington, DC 20001 Copyright © 1998 – 2025 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. If you believe this has been sent to you in error, please safely unsubscribe. Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store