Scientists Discover Strange New Crystal Formed by Nuclear Blast

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The Abstract<br>Scientists Discover Strange New Crystal Formed by Nuclear Blast

Becky Ferreira

May 16, 2026<br>at 9:00 AM

A type of crystal lattice called a clathrate structure has been found for the first time in the fallout of a nuclear detonation.

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that were long in the tooth, trapped in the lattice, unearthed in Thailand, and entombed in post-apocalyptic waters.<br>First, scientists discover that even Neanderthals had to go to the dentist. Then: a nuke-born crystal, a 60,000-pound herbivore, and life after the death of most species on the planet.<br>As always, for more of my work, check out my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens or subscribe to my personal newsletter the BeX Files.<br>A trip to the Neanderthal dentist<br>Zubova, Alisa V. et al. “Earliest evidence for invasive mitigation of dental caries by Neanderthals.” PLOS One.<br>Neanderthals performed dental interventions at least 59,000 years ago, pushing the timeline of dentistry back by tens of thousands of years, according to a study about a molar from Chagyrskaya Cave in southwestern Siberia.<br>Early humans used rudimentary dental tools, like toothpicks, for well over a million years. But scientists have now identified evidence that Neanderthals used drills to treat cavities at the Siberian site, performing an Ice Age version of a root canal. Previously, the oldest tooth that showed signs of a dental checkupt belonged to “Villabruna,” a prehistoric human male who lived in Italy 14,000 years ago.<br>The remnants of the Neanderthal tooth adds to a growing body of research that has overturned the stereotype of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to Homo sapiens and hints at “cognitive convergence” between the two species, according to the study.<br>The Chagyrskaya Cave molar. Image: Zubova et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0The Chagyrskaya Cave tooth shows “evidence of two distinct types of manipulations requiring different tools, in addition to the drilling/rotating technique, necessitating complex finger movements,” said researchers led by Alisa Zubova from the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera).<br>The study suggests that Neanderthals at this site “possessed the cognitive capacity to intuit the source of pain, comprehend the feasibility of its elimination, and deliberately select the most efficacious dental intervention,” the team added. “The technical proficiency required for this procedure…reflects a capacity for causal reasoning, anticipatory planning, and volitional endurance, contradicting earlier assumptions regarding Neanderthal behavioral limitations.”<br>It's not clear if this Neanderthal patient got a complimentary toothpick at the end of the visit, but at the very least, they received some temporary relief from a bad toothache.<br>In other news…<br>Now I have become Death, maker of crystals<br>Bindi, Luca et al. “Extreme nonequilibrium synthesis of a Ca–Cu–Si clathrate during the Trinity nuclear test.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<br>Scientists have discovered a weird new type of crystal in the ashes of the Trinity test, the first detonation of a nuclear bomb, which took place in the early morning of July 16, 1945, in New Mexico.<br>Trinity’s “gadget” unleashed a powerful fireball that vaporized its test tower and transformed the desert sand into a glassy residue called trinitite. For decades, researchers have found novel and bizarre compounds in the fallout. A new study now reports the first known instance of a clathrate structure—a crystal lattice that can trap “guest” molecules inside its cagelike scaffolding—in red trinitite.<br>The sample of red trinitite that contained the clathrate. Image: Bindi, Luca et al.“The discovery of this phase represents the first crystallographically confirmed identification of a clathrate structure among the solid-state products of a nuclear explosion,” said researchers led by Luca Bindi of the University of Florence.<br>“This work underscores how rare, high-energy events—such as nuclear detonations, lightning strikes, and hypervelocity impacts—serve as natural laboratories for producing unexpected crystalline matter,” the team added.<br>In addition to being one of the most pivotal split-seconds in history, the Trinity test spun sand into exotic materials that are still generating discoveries more than 80 years later.<br>A huge new Thai-nosaur<br>Sethapanichsakul, Thitiwoot and Khansubha, Sasa-On et al. “The first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Thailand enriches the diversity of somphospondylan titanosauriforms in southeast Asia.” Scientific Reports.<br>Meet the largest dinosaur ever found in...