On January 16, 2026, the Irving Institute's faculty seminar showcased research addressing critical issues at the intersection of energy and society. Professor Nate Dominy posed the intriguing question, "Can Firelight Ignite Collective Action?" as he explored the profound impact of communal storytelling around fires. Meanwhile, Professors Miguel Gonzalez and Will Scheideler shared insights from their interdisciplinary collaboration focused on enhancing electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production. Their joint venture promises to tackle pressing challenges in the clean energy transition. Read on to discover their fascinating insights and innovations.
Catching Fire: Can firelight ignite collective action?
Professor Nate Dominy, an anthropologist and evolutionary biologist, opened the session with a talk titled "Catching Fire: Can Firelight Ignite Collective Action?" His research builds on a new hypothesis in human evolution: that evening gatherings around warm fires not only extended social interactions but also facilitated more complex storytelling, which in turn enhanced cognitive complexity and group coordination.
During the day, conversations are mostly simple gossip; however, at night, the nature of discussions shifts dramatically. Research indicates that 85% of the spoken content around a fire consists of stories, fables, myths, legends, and discussions of kinship and inter-tribal dynamics. Narratives grow increasingly complex—whether fictional or factual—and are structured, featuring characters, motives, settings, events, and resolutions, contributing to a hierarchical storytelling form.
Storytelling around a fire is believed to have fueled cognitive complexity, language development, and brain expansion. Studies show that groups engaged in storytelling outperform those that do not, benefitting from increased social cohesion and cooperation, and establishing a distinct group identity.
Through an empirical lens, Dominy is investigating whether firelight can promote behavioral synchrony in groups, a phenomenon known as "collective entrainment." He examines whether the sensory properties of fire, particularly its rhythmic flicker, can encourage people to move and act together—potentially laying the groundwork for coordinated behavior. This research is applied in real crowd settings, including Dartmouth's Homecoming Bonfires.
Dominy's broader scholarship on sensory ecology explores how sensory experiences influence behavior and decision-making, such as foraging strategies. His firelight research extends this understanding from "seeing food better" to "seeing—and coordinating with—each other differently" within a nocturnal environment.
The hypothesis "Can firelight ignite collective action?" challenges traditional views; Dominy seeks to determine whether the light itself—through flicker-driven entrainment—may play a causal role in fostering cooperation. He suggests that the energy transition requires large-scale coordination, constrained not just by technical challenges but also by the need for collective action, including norms, trust, and coordination. His work offers a biologically grounded perspective on how various energy environments, from campfires to indoor lighting to public rituals, can either enhance the social "operating system" necessary for sustainable collective decision-making.
The challenges of designing electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production
Professors Gonzalez (Chemistry) and Scheideler (Engineering) have established an innovative collaboration to leverage their respective expertise in addressing the challenges of designing electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production.
Green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy sources such as solar power, plays a crucial role in the clean energy transition. It effectively stores solar energy, but its production heavily relies on expensive electrocatalysts (ECs), which accelerate electrochemical reactions (e.g., splitting water into hydrogen) by lowering the energy required for these reactions to occur at an electrode surface.
To make ECs more affordable, researchers must optimize the use of rare metals like platinum, which, despite being highly effective, are costly. Alternatively, they can engineer abundant minerals to replicate similar properties. Current platinum-based catalyst designs often employ nanoparticles, where only the surface atoms participate in the reaction, leaving internal atoms inactive and wasting valuable material. Therefore, a critical challenge is ensuring that each platinum atom can effectively engage in catalysis.
Another challenge is the need to overcome physical limitations in the reaction process. A significant limitation during hydrogen production is the formation of gas bubbles at the electrode surface, which can adhere and block active catalytic sites, thereby limiting mass transport and reducing overall production efficiency.
The Gonzalez and Scheideler labs are working together to tackle these issues. Gonzalez's team is designing metal-organic cages that bind a single platinum atom at each edge of the structure, maximizing the accessibility of every atom for efficient use. They are also investigating alternative metals that are more abundant and less costly.
Scheideler's team focuses on micro-lattice electrodes tailored for optimal bubble transport. Utilizing additive manufacturing techniques, they can control the geometry and pore size of the electrodes to effectively mitigate bubble blockage.
With support from graduate students funded by the Irving Institute, their collaborative work integrates nanoscale catalyst design with microscale electrode architecture, enhancing both reaction efficiency and transport—essential requirements for scalable, sustainable hydrogen production.