Critical mineral byproducts are elements that occur naturally alongside metals like copper, gold, zinc, or nickel. These secondary minerals are not the main target of mining operations, so they are often separated out and discarded during processing. According to the researchers, recovering even small amounts of these overlooked materials could have a major impact on U.S. supply chains.

The researchers found that if 90 percent of these byproducts were recovered, they “could meet nearly all U.S. critical mineral needs; one percent recovery would substantially reduce import reliance for most elements evaluated.” This means that even modest improvements in recovery technology could significantly reduce dependence on overseas sources.

What Are Critical Minerals and Why They Matter

Critical minerals are materials that are essential to the economy and national security but face supply risks due to limited domestic production or geopolitical instability. In the United States, this category includes minerals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, tellurium, germanium, and many others.

These elements play key roles in modern technology. They are used in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, magnets for wind turbines, semiconductors for electronics, and solar panels for renewable energy. Some are also vital for defense systems, medical devices, and communications equipment.

Demand for these materials is growing rapidly as clean energy technologies expand. At the same time, many critical minerals are currently imported from regions affected by political tension or trade uncertainty. Developing entirely new mines can take decades, making alternative domestic sources especially attractive.

How Researchers Measured Untapped Mineral Potential

To estimate how much of these minerals could be recovered inside the United States, Holley and her colleagues combined two large datasets. One database tracked the main commodities produced at federally permitted U.S. metal mines. The other included detailed geochemical measurements showing the concentrations of 70 critical minerals found in ore samples across the country.

By pairing production data with mineral chemistry data, the team was able to estimate how much of each critical mineral is already being mined and processed, but not recovered. Instead, these materials end up in mine waste, also known as tailings, which must be stored and monitored to prevent environmental harm.

In many cases, the study found that recovering less than 10 percent of these byproducts would generate a higher total dollar value than the primary metals currently being sold by U.S. mines. This suggests that what is treated as waste today could become a major economic resource.

Economic, Strategic, and Environmental Benefits

The potential benefits of recovering critical mineral byproducts extend beyond economics. Reducing import dependence would strengthen supply security for industries tied to energy, technology, and defense. It could also help protect the U.S. from supply disruptions caused by international conflicts or trade restrictions.

There are environmental advantages as well. Recovering valuable minerals instead of discarding them would reduce the volume and long term impact of mine waste. It could also create new opportunities to reuse processed materials in construction and other applications.

Despite the promise, challenges remain. Recovering small amounts of minerals from complex ore mixtures requires advanced technology, additional processing steps, and supportive policies. As Holley has explained, the difficulty lies in making recovery practical and cost effective at scale.

Still, the findings point to a largely untapped opportunity. Active U.S. mines are already handling the materials needed for batteries, clean energy systems, and high tech manufacturing. With targeted investment, research, and policy incentives, these hidden byproducts could become a powerful domestic resource rather than a discarded one.

The blast, known as SN in GRB 250314A, occurred when the universe was only about 730 million years old. This places it firmly within the era of reionisation, a period when the first stars and galaxies were beginning to emerge. The observation offers a rare and direct view of how massive stars ended their lives during this formative stage of cosmic history.

A Gamma Ray Burst Leads the Way

The discovery was first reported in the academic paper ‘JWST reveals a supernova following a gamma-ray burst at z ≃ 7.3,’ (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 704, December 2025). The event initially drew attention after a powerful flash of high energy radiation, called a long duration Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), was detected on March 14, 2025 by the space based multi band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM). Astronomers then used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO/VLT) to confirm that the source was located at an extreme distance.

JWST Separates the Explosion From Its Host Galaxy

The decisive observations came about 110 days after the burst, when JWST targeted the region using its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCAM). These images allowed researchers to isolate the fading light of the supernova from the much dimmer glow of its host galaxy, a critical step in confirming the nature of the explosion.

Co author and UCD School of Physics astrophysicist Dr. Antonio Martin Carrillo explained the importance of the finding: “The key observation, or smoking gun, that connects the death of massive stars with gamma-ray bursts is the discovery of a supernova emerging at the same sky location. Almost every supernova ever studied has been relatively nearby to us, with just a handful of exceptions to date. When we confirmed the age of this one, we saw a unique opportunity to probe how the Universe was there and what type of stars existed and died back then.

“Using models based on the population of supernovae associated with GRBs in our local universe, we made some predictions of what the emission should be and used it to proposed a new observation with the James Webb Space Telescope. To our surprise, our model worked remarkably well and the observed supernova seems to match really well the death of stars that we see regularly. We were also able to get a glimpse of the galaxy that hosted this dying star.”

An Unexpectedly Familiar Explosion

Measurements show that this distant supernova closely matches the brightness and spectral features of SN 1998bw, a well known supernova linked to a gamma ray burst that exploded much closer to Earth. This resemblance suggests that the star behind GRB 250314A was not dramatically different from massive stars that produce similar explosions in the nearby universe.

Despite forming in an environment with very different conditions, including much lower metallicity, the star appears to have died in a familiar way. The data also rule out a far brighter type of explosion, such as a Superluminous Supernova (SLSN).

Rethinking the First Generations of Stars

These results challenge the long held idea that the earliest stars would produce explosions that were distinctly brighter or bluer than those seen today. Instead, the findings point to a surprising consistency in how massive stars end their lives across cosmic time.

While the discovery provides an important reference point for understanding stellar evolution in the early universe, it also raises new questions about why these explosions appear so uniform.

The team plans to conduct another round of JWST observations within the next one to two years. By then, the supernova should have faded by more than two magnitudes, making it easier to fully study the faint host galaxy and confirm exactly how much light came from the supernova itself.

The findings could eventually help doctors reduce mistakes in diagnosing and treating mental health disorders. Today, many psychiatric conditions are identified through clinical judgment alone and treated using a trial-and-error approach to medication.

The research was published in the journal APL Bioengineering.

Why Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Are Hard to Diagnose

“Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are very hard to diagnose because no particular part of the brain goes off. No specific enzymes are going off like in Parkinson’s, another neurological disease where doctors can diagnose and treat based on dopamine levels even though it still doesn’t have a proper cure,” said Annie Kathuria, a Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineer who led the study. “Our hope is that in the future we can not only confirm a patient is schizophrenic or bipolar from brain organoids, but that we can also start testing drugs on the organoids to find out what drug concentrations might help them get to a healthy state.”

How Scientists Built and Studied Brain Organoids

To conduct the study, Kathuria’s team created brain organoids, which are simplified versions of real human organs. They started by turning blood and skin cells from patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and from healthy individuals into stem cells capable of developing into brain-like tissue.

The team then used machine learning tools to analyze the electrical activity of cells inside these mini brains. In the human brain, neurons communicate by sending brief electrical signals to one another, and the researchers focused on identifying patterns in that activity linked to healthy and unhealthy brain function.

Electrical Biomarkers Identify Mental Illness

The scientists found that specific features of the organoids’ electrical behavior acted as biomarkers for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Using these signals alone, they were able to correctly identify which organoids came from affected patients 83% of the time. When the tissue received gentle electrical stimulation designed to bring out more neural activity, accuracy increased to 92%.

The patterns they uncovered were complex and highly specific. Neurons from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients showed unusual firing spikes and timing changes across multiple electrical measurements, creating a distinct signature for each condition.

“At least molecularly, we can check what goes wrong when we are making these brains in a dish and distinguish between organoids from a healthy person, a schizophrenia patient, or a bipolar patient based on these electrophysiology signatures,” Kathuria said. “We track the electrical signals produced by neurons during development, comparing them to organoids from patients without these mental health disorders.”

Using Microchips to Map Brain Activity

To better understand how neurons formed networks, the researchers placed the organoids on microchips equipped with multi-electrode arrays arranged like a grid. This setup allowed them to collect data in a way similar to a tiny electroencephalogram, or EEG, the test doctors use to measure brain activity in patients.

When fully developed, the organoids reached about three millimeters in diameter. They contained multiple types of neural cells normally found in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, a region involved in higher-level thinking. The mini brains also produced myelin, a substance that insulates nerve cells and helps electrical signals travel more efficiently.

Toward Personalized Psychiatric Treatments

The study included samples from just 12 patients, but Kathuria believes the results point toward meaningful clinical applications. The organoids could eventually serve as a testing platform for psychiatric medications before those drugs are prescribed to patients.

The team is now collaborating with neurosurgeons, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists at the John Hopkins School of Medicine. They are collecting additional blood samples from psychiatric patients to study how different drug concentrations affect organoid activity. Even with a limited number of samples, the researchers believe they may be able to suggest medication doses that help restore healthier neural patterns.

“That’s how most doctors give patients these drugs, with a trial-and-error method that may take six or seven months to finds the right drug,” Kathuria said. “Clozapine is the most common drug prescribed for schizophrenia, but about 40% of patients are resistant to it. With our organoids, maybe we won’t have to do that trial-and-error period. Maybe we can give them the right drug sooner than that.”