You might not be aware of GaN, but you’ve certainly interacted with it. It forms the core of blue-light LEDs, which themselves, when paired with a yellow phosphor, can be tuned to produce white light. This property enabled LED indoor lighting, along with LED flat panel screens and much anticipated micro-LED displays.

But recently researchers have been looking at gallium nitride for other reasons. It can be used to build remarkably efficient power electronics, the circuits in a device or charger that convert your wall power into usable voltage. Some scientists are optimistic GaN might eventually outperform silicon power circuitry by a factor of a thousand, leading to ultra-efficient devices with chargers no bigger than a wall plug, and maybe even revolutionizing the power grid.

We spoke to two researchers working with GaN about their work, and how gallium-nitride might revolutionize electronics, telecoms, even space travel. As with any new technology that catches people’s attention, there’s a lot of promise, but also a lot of hype, and they were quick to tell us that these advances will take time. Some changes are coming fast: Since we filmed this video, a UC Santa Barbara lab led by Shuji Nakamura, the inventor of the blue-light LED, announced they’d found a way to make GaN based white-LEDs without a phosphor, a discovery that might revolutionize lighting all over again. Watch the video to learn more about what GaN is, what we can expect in the next few years and where the future might take us.

In Hades, players take on the role of a son of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, as he attempts to escape his father’s domain. Standing between the player and their goal is a mountain of hurt. Supergiant describes Hades as a “rogue-like.” That is, expect to die a lot as you learn the ins and outs of the combat mechanics and level design. Along the way, you’ll meet mythological heroes such as Achilles, as well as most of the Olympian gods.

Back when Epic launched the Epic Games Store last year, Hades was the company’s first major exclusive. Since then, Epic has used its Fortnite war chest to land other high-profile exclusives, much to the chagrin of some PC gamers. Since launching in early access, Supergiant has released six major content updates for Hades, adding new levels, weapons, story beats and, best of all, additional music by composer Darren Korb. Supergiant says players who purchase Hades before October 15th, 2019 will get a complimentary digital copy of the game’s soundtrack. If you would rather wait for Supergiant to finish development on Hades before paying to play it, the studio says it expects to launch the game sometime in the second half of 2020.