1945年7月16日，位于新墨西哥沙漠的 Trinity 核试验——世界上第一次原子弹试爆——产生了一种此前未知的材料，这种材料直到最近才由佛罗伦斯大学地质学家 Luca Bindi 领导的国际团队确认。该材料是一种包合物（clathrate），即一种类似笼状的结构，能够困住原子和分子；这项发现是在 trinitite 中做出的，trinitite 是由爆炸形成的矽酸盐玻璃，已知含有罕见的金属相。包合物之所以重要，是因为它们可能具有用于热电能量转换、半导体、气体储存以及与氢相关能源技术的有用性质。

研究人员利用 X 射线绕射及相关技术，在一个嵌入红色 trinitite 中、富含铜的微小金属液滴里，发现了一种以钙、铜和矽为基础的 I 型包合物。据报告，它是在核爆炸的极端高温和高压下自发形成的，而这些条件能产生在一般实验室方法中无法制造的材料。同一次爆炸还产生了另一种罕见相——富矽准晶体，此前已由 Bindi 团队记录。

这一发现表明，核爆炸、雷击和陨石撞击可以充当天然实验室，揭示不熟悉的物质形态，并帮助科学家理解原子在极端条件下如何组织。透过将新的包合物与先前的准晶体发现联系起来，这项研究拓展了对新材料的搜寻，并可能为未来技术提供参考。主要的注意事项是，这些相极其罕见，且只是在对某一特定爆炸产物样本进行仔细分析后才被发现；但结果显示，即使是破坏性事件，也可能留下具有科学与技术价值的发现。

The July 16, 1945 Trinity nuclear test in the New Mexico desert, the world's first atomic bomb test, created a previously unknown material that was only identified recently by an international team led by geologist Luca Bindi at the University of Florence. The material is a clathrate, a cage-like structure that can trap atoms and molecules, and the discovery was made in trinitite, the silicate glass formed by the blast and known to contain rare metallic phases. Clathrates matter because they can have useful properties for thermoelectric energy conversion, semiconductors, gas storage, and hydrogen-related energy technologies.

Using x-ray diffraction and related techniques, the researchers found a type I clathrate based on calcium, copper, and silicon inside a tiny copper-rich metal droplet embedded in red trinitite. They report that it formed spontaneously under the extreme temperatures and pressures of the nuclear explosion, conditions that can produce materials impossible to make through normal laboratory methods. The same detonation also produced another rare phase, a silicon-rich quasicrystal, previously documented by Bindi's team.

The finding suggests that nuclear explosions, lightning strikes, and meteoritic impacts can act as natural laboratories that reveal unfamiliar forms of matter and help scientists understand how atoms organize under extreme conditions. By linking the new clathrate to the earlier quasicrystal discovery, the study broadens the search for novel materials and could inform future technologies. The main caveat is that these phases are exceedingly rare and were found only through careful analysis of a specific blast-product sample, but the result shows that even destructive events can leave behind scientifically and technologically valuable discoveries.