Staff at a high school in Arizona have been doxxed and flooded with online attacks, and have received multiple death threats, after a spokesperson for Turning Point USA inaccurately accused a group of teachers of wearing Halloween costumes that purportedly mocked the assassination of TPUSA cofounder Charlie Kirk.

On Friday, members of Cienega High School’s math department wore matching, bloodied white T-shirts with the words “Problem Solved” written in black lettering across the front. A picture of the group was posted on the Vail School District Facebook page. The district’s superintendent, John Carruth, said in a statement that no student or parent complained about the costumes during the school day.

Then, on Saturday, Andrew Kolvet, who was the executive producer on Charlie Kirk’s show, posted the picture on X. “Concerned parents just sent us this image of what’s believed to be teachers in [Vail School District] mocking Charlie’s murder,” Kolvet wrote. “They deserve to be famous, and fired.”

The white T-shirts, Kolvet implied, bore a resemblance to the “Freedom” T-shirts Kirk was wearing when he was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University on September 10.

Kolvet’s post went viral and had been viewed almost 10 million times before it was deleted on Tuesday after WIRED contacted him.

Immediately following Kolvet’s post going live, Cienega High School was bombarded with social media posts, comments, direct messages, emails and at least one voicemail containing racial slurs, calls for the teachers to be fired, the personal information of school staff, and explicit threats of violence. The school shared these messages with WIRED.

The school district immediately responded to the accusations, clarifying on Facebook that the costumes were not a reference to Kirk’s assassination and that the math department had in fact worn the same costumes a year previously.

“We want to clarify that these shirts were part of a math-themed Halloween costume meant to represent solving tough math problems,” John Carruth, the superintendent of Vail School District wrote. “The shirts were never intended to target any person, event, or political issue.” The Vail School District provided WIRED with a copy of an email from October 31, 2024 featuring a picture of the same costumes.

While Kolvet acknowledged Carruth’s statement and admitted in a post on X later on Saturday that the costumes had been worn the year previously, he did not remove his original post.

“It’s a very weird costume for teachers in general, but after what happened to Charlie, I’m absolutely floored they wore it again,” Kolvet wrote. “I do not believe for a second that all of them are innocent.”

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A team of four universities and three national laboratories, led by The University of Texas at Austin, developed a new approach for solid-state batteries, improving their performance while reducing the manufacturing costs. Solid-state batteries are an emerging energy storage technology that could unlock enhanced performance for drones, electronics and electric vehicles.

“The biggest game in town for next-generation batteries is making them all solid-state, allowing for improved safety and higher energy,” said David Mitlin, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and the lead investigator on the new research published in Nature Materials. “However, much more work is needed before all solid-state batteries may be widely commercialized.”

Today, most lithium-ion batteries use an organic liquid electrolyte, a maple-syrup-like substance that allows lithium ions to reversibly shuttle back and forth inside the battery. Despite being technologically mature, liquid electrolytes are the hydrocarbon “fuel” in the oft-reported battery fires.

Solid, ceramic-based electrolytes reduce fire risks, eliminating the hydrocarbon fuel that sustains battery thermal runaway reactions. However, ceramic electrolytes face their own hurdles, including high costs, challenging quality control during manufacturing and premature failure due to metal filament (termed dendrite)–induced short-circuiting.

Oxide ceramics based on the garnet structure are key materials for all solid-state batteries. Garnet’s unique structure allows lithium ions to move quickly and efficiently, making it ideal for energy storage. But even garnet has struggled to overcome the dendrite problem, which is directly linked to the formation of small cracks inside the electrolyte.

Like a jeweler refining a gemstone, the researchers have polished the garnet to reveal its full potential. Dispersing micro-scale zirconia particles throughout the garnet grains suppresses both the cracking and the dendrites.

This method is based on carbide additives, which exothermically decompose during fabrication, inputting additional heat into the synthesis reaction. This creates an additional benefit of reducing the manufacturing cost by lowering the external temperature needed for processing.

“Zirconia really pulls double duty here,” said Yixian Wang, postdoctoral researcher in Mitlin’s lab, who is the co-lead author. “It helps densify the material while also preventing those pesky lithium dendrites from forming. It’s a win–win for battery performance and safety.”

In tests, the zirconia-modified garnet achieved nearly double the critical current density—the maximum current it can handle before short-circuiting—compared to unmodified garnet. This means batteries using this material can operate at higher power levels without compromising safety.

While battery science is the driving force of this research, the results may be applied to a wide variety of manufacturing sectors for high-quality ceramics, where defect control is essential.