I've also been seeing people use household microwaves and silicon carbide crucibles for glass and metal casting (bronze, aluminium etc.). The crucibles themselves are made in the microwave. Having seen the vast amount of gas used to liquefy a larger crucible of bronze, taking several hours, I think metal casting is another industry overdue for change.

"Focused thermal energy at atomic microwave antenna sites for ecocatalysis" (2025) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ady4043

that's so obvious in hindsight! was this really not discovered before?

oh, it goes back to the 1980's

https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i4/Microwave-Chemistry-Remai...