Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

Scientists Create Incredible New Material That Can Program Heat Like a Computer

Imagine a material that can decide where heat goes, remember its settings even after the power is turned off, and switch its behavior whenever needed. It may sound like science fiction, but researchers have now developed a remarkable new material that can do exactly that.

This breakthrough could completely change how we manage heat in electronics, energy systems, infrared sensors, and even future computer memory. Instead of treating heat as something that simply spreads in all directions, scientists have found a way to control and "program" it, opening the door to smarter and more energy-efficient technologies.

Why Controlling Heat Is So Difficult

Heat is everywhere. Every electronic device, machine, and even the human body constantly produces and releases thermal energy.

Normally, materials follow a simple physical rule. If a material is good at absorbing heat from a certain direction or at a certain wavelength, it will also emit heat in exactly the same way. Scientists call this principle reciprocity.

For decades, this rule has limited engineers. Since heat absorption and heat emission are naturally linked together, it has been almost impossible to control them separately.

Imagine wearing a jacket that could absorb warmth from the Sun but release excess heat in a completely different direction to keep you comfortable. Traditional materials cannot do this because whatever they absorb, they also emit in the same way.

Breaking this limitation has been one of the biggest challenges in thermal engineering.

A Smarter Way to Control Heat

An international research team led by Professor Koichi Okamoto and Dr. Shunsuke Murai from Osaka Metropolitan University's Graduate School of Engineering has now developed a completely new approach.

Instead of accepting the traditional rules, the researchers designed a special device made from two advanced materials working together.

The first is a magneto-optical material, which changes how it interacts with light when exposed to a magnetic field.

The second is a phase-change material called GST. This material is already well known because it can switch between different physical states and keep those states even when power is removed. Similar materials are used in some modern memory technologies.

By combining these two materials, the researchers created a device that can actively control how heat is emitted.

Programming Heat Like Digital Information

The most exciting part of this invention is that heat can now be programmed.

The device allows scientists to:

  • Control the direction in which heat is emitted.

  • Turn this behavior on or off whenever needed.

  • Store its configuration even after electricity is switched off.

This means the material behaves much like a computer memory chip.

Instead of storing electrical data, however, it stores instructions for how heat should behave.

Dr. Murai explained that they successfully made heat radiation behave in a much smarter way.

This is a huge step because heat has traditionally been considered something difficult to control with precision.

Why This Is a Major Breakthrough

Previous attempts to control heat had several major problems.

Many earlier systems only worked if light struck the material at extremely steep angles. Under those conditions, both heat absorption and heat emission became much less efficient.

In practical applications, this made the technology difficult to use.

The new material solves this issue.

The researchers discovered that their device responds differently depending on the direction from which light arrives—even when the light is almost directly hitting the surface.

This greatly improves its efficiency and makes it much more practical for real-world devices.

Reliable Switching and Built-In Memory

Earlier thermal control systems also struggled with another problem.

Although they could sometimes switch between different operating modes, they often did so unreliably. Even worse, once power was turned off, they lost all their settings.

The new programmable material overcomes both limitations.

It can switch reliably between different thermal states while permanently remembering its configuration without continuous power.

This "memory" feature is extremely valuable because it reduces energy consumption while making devices more reliable.

It is similar to how non-volatile computer memory stores information without requiring electricity.

What Makes GST So Important?

GST plays a key role in the device's performance.

This phase-change material can exist in different structural forms.

Each form changes how the material interacts with light and thermal radiation.

Once switched into a particular state, GST naturally remains there until intentionally changed again.

This allows the programmable thermal device to remember its settings without consuming additional energy.

The result is a smart thermal system that combines flexibility, stability, and energy efficiency.

Potential Applications

The ability to precisely control heat could benefit many different industries.

Smarter Infrared Sensors

Infrared sensors detect heat instead of visible light.

More precise control over thermal radiation could make these sensors significantly more accurate.

This could improve night vision systems, industrial inspections, environmental monitoring, and medical imaging.

Better Energy Technologies

Many renewable energy systems rely on controlling heat efficiently.

Programmable thermal materials could help reduce wasted energy, improve heat recycling, and increase overall system performance.

This could make future power systems more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Advanced Thermal Management

Modern electronics generate enormous amounts of heat.

As processors become smaller and more powerful, cooling them becomes increasingly difficult.

A material that directs heat exactly where it is needed could help prevent overheating while improving device performance and lifespan.

Photonic Memory Devices

Perhaps one of the most exciting possibilities is using light and heat instead of electricity to store information.

Traditional computer memory relies on electrical charges.

Future photonic memory could use thermal radiation and light signals, potentially enabling faster and more energy-efficient computing systems.

Heat Could Become as Controllable as Electricity

Today's electronic circuits precisely control the movement of electrical current.

Scientists now hope to achieve the same level of control over heat.

Professor Okamoto says the ultimate goal is to build compact devices that actively control thermal radiation just as electronic circuits manage electricity.

If successful, future devices may intelligently direct heat wherever it is needed instead of allowing it to spread randomly.

This could completely transform thermal engineering.

Looking Toward the Future

Although this technology is still in the research stage, its potential is enormous.

Programmable heat could become an essential part of future electronics, smart buildings, communication systems, renewable energy technologies, and next-generation computing.

As engineers continue improving these materials, entirely new types of devices may become possible—devices that not only process information but also intelligently manage heat at the same time.

A New Era for Thermal Technology

For centuries, heat has largely followed fixed physical rules that engineers could do little to change. This new programmable material challenges those limitations by giving scientists an unprecedented level of control over thermal radiation.

By combining magneto-optical materials with the phase-change material GST, researchers have created a system that can direct heat, switch its behavior, and remember its settings without continuous power.

While further development is still needed before commercial products appear, this breakthrough marks an important step toward a future where heat can be controlled just as precisely as electricity. From smarter infrared sensors and highly efficient energy systems to advanced photonic memory, programmable heat could become one of the key technologies shaping the next generation of science and engineering.

Reference:

  1. Ye Ming Qing, Yi Shen, Jun Wu, Shunsuke Murai, Zhaogang Dong, Koichi Okamoto. Reconfigurable Giant Nonreciprocity at Near‐Normal Incidence via Phase‐Change Magneto‐Optical Metagratings. Laser, 2026; DOI: 10.1002/lpor.71438

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more