A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has achieved a breakthrough in electromagnetics, producing the most powerful magnet in the world. Working with MIT spinoff Commonwealth Fusion Systems, the high temperature superconducting magnet can generate a sustained magnetic field of more than 20 T, which the team believes is enough to allow Commonwealth’s compact tokamak to achieve net energy from fusion. If successful it will be a historic first for fusion energy.

Industry advocacy group the Manufacturer’s Alliance has released a survey of US manufacturers about their challenges during Covid-19 and beyond. With strained supply chains and rising costs, flexibility is the watchword, and workers agree. Novel labor arrangements and new ways to organize production processes will be needed for manufacturers to staff their operations optimally in a labor short US market.

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