A team of physicists at RIKEN has made a significant breakthrough by observing an unusual nonlinear thermoelectric effect in chiral tellurium, a semiconductor. This effect, which had been predicted theoretically but not previously observed, could have important implications for energy harvesting and advanced heat management technologies. In their study published in Nature Physics, the researchers demonstrated that applying a temperature difference and an electric field at right angles across the tellurium generates a voltage in a third perpendicular direction. This phenomenon resembles an exotic variation of the Hall effect, where current deviates under a magnetic field. The team, led by Tetsuya Nomoto and Fumitaka Kagawa, was surprised by the magnitude of the effect, which was measured in microvolts and consistent with theoretical predictions. Their expertise in high-precision measurements enabled this observation, and they plan to conduct further studies to explore the effect's temperature dependence and underlying mechanisms. This research could facilitate investigations into quantum properties and material chirality.