• Underground rescue teams and robots create dynamic maps without external signals

    A new system enables emergency services to create dynamic maps underground without light, satellite navigation or external communication. Rescue efforts underground pose significant risk to human life. In these emergency situations, the danger of navigating infrastructure underground – such as train stations, tunnels or mines – is compounded if there is no electricity or access to wireless connectivity. A project team, led by researchers at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria, has developed a human-robot ‘teaming’ system for such missions. It combines sensor data from human and robot rescue teams with a self-built ultra-wideband (UWB) network to create a dynamic map of the environment. Firstly, a robot equipped with a laser scanner, camera and wheel sensors is sent…

  • Roman shipwreck repaired with unexpected materials, molecular analysis reveals

    Scientists undertaking a molecular analysis of a Roman shipwreck have uncovered the complex mix of materials that was used to waterproof boats over 2,000 years ago. Discovered in 2016 off the coast of Croatia, the Ilovik-Paržine 1 shipwreck was thought to be a trade ship that was transporting wine and timber around the Mediterranean. While the boat’s cargo has been studied before, a new analysis published in Frontiers in Materials is the first to explore the vessel’s unique combination of coatings that were applied to its hull. A team from the Croatian Conservation Institute, Aix-Marseille University and others analysed the pollen and molecular structure to better understand its production and application on the hull. “In archaeology little attention is paid to organic waterproofing materials…

  • World-first offshore platform turns ocean temperature differences into electricity

    UK-based clean energy firm Global OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) has completed the installation of its purpose-built floating ocean thermal energy system in the Canary Islands. The OTEC technology is designed to generate continuous electricity by harnessing the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep ocean water. Global OTEC was founded in 2017 to provide small tropical islands with a continuous supply of clean, affordable energy. Predominantly reliant on outdated diesel generators, these island nations lack suitable alternatives for electricity generation. Instead of importing fossil fuels, the aim was to extract heat from the warm seawater surrounding the island. The technology uses a closed cycle to harness the temperature difference between warm surface…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Meta to cut 10% of workforce as AI spending surges

    Meta has announced plans to cut 10% of its workforce, or roughly 8,000 employees, as it ramps up spending on AI. According to an internal memo published by Bloomberg, the firm said it was “necessary to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making”. Usually, memos of this magnitude are written by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but in this case it was attributed to chief people officer Janelle Gale. “This is not an easy trade-off and it will mean letting go of people who have made meaningful contributions to Meta during their time here,” she added. Employees will not know who will get the cut until 20 May, when Meta will contact those who have been affected. After years trying to hitch its future fortunes on the metaverse – a primarily virtual reality…

  • Geoengineering could help shield the Amazon rainforest from climate change

    Solar geoengineering has the potential to boost plant growth and carbon storage in the Amazon, according to a study. Global temperatures are consistently breaking records, with the last 11 years being the warmest on record. This has led to increased interest in solar radiation management (SRM), often called geoengineering, aimed at reducing or counteracting global warming by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. One SRM method that has received a great deal of scientific attention is stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI). This involves injecting reflective particles into the upper atmosphere to artificially cool the Earth by increasing the reflection of incoming solar radiation. However, concerns have been raised that SAI could suppress vegetation productivity by reducing sunlight…

  • Artemis II proves low-cost laser links can transform data transmissions in space

    The recent Artemis II mission around the Moon has proven the reliability of relatively cheap, laser-based communication technology for space missions, a space research and technology company has said. Observable Space, which specialises in space optics and laser communications, worked with Quantum Opus to create a system that can drastically improve data rates in space compared to traditional radio transmissions. The technology enabled high-definition video to broadcast live from the Orion space capsule and back-and-forth video calls with President Donald Trump among others. Nasa’s Apollo missions, which took place in the 1960s and early 1970s, deployed the Unified S-Band system, which operated in the 2GHz microwave range to broadcast voice, telemetry and television signals into a single…

  • World’s first superhot geothermal power plant under construction in Oregon

    A US-based 50MW geothermal plant is aiming to tap heat deep beneath the Earth’s surface using a novel millimetre wave drilling technology. Clean energy start-up Quaise Energy has begun work on the first phase of its geothermal power plant Project Obsidian. Located in central Oregon near the Newberry Volcano, the plant is expected to be operational by 2030. Geothermal power plants tap into naturally hot reservoirs deep underground and use this heat to generate electricity. Hot water or steam is brought to the surface through wells, where it drives a turbine connected to a generator to produce electricity. Quaise Energy aims to go much deeper underground than conventional plants, tapping into geothermal resources exceeding 300°C at depths of approximately 5km, using high-frequency millimetre…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • IEA warns AI data centre electricity use will triple by 2030

    An International Energy Association (IEA) report expects demand from AI data centres to triple by 2030. AI data centres are energy guzzlers, requiring a significant amount of electricity for computation. Just in the UK, it is predicted that the 140 proposed data centre schemes could collectively require 50GW of power – 5GW more than the country’s current peak electricity demand. The new IEA report – Key questions on energy and AI – shows how AI is rapidly transforming global electricity use. Its analysis reveals that electricity demand from data centres rose by 17% in 2025, far outpacing the 3% growth in overall global electricity demand. AI-focused data centres are growing even faster as people make use of energy-intensive applications such as AI agents. By 2030, the IEA projects that…

  • Electrification needed to shield industry from future energy crises, warns Oxford study

    Industries that continue to rely on fossil fuels without major efforts to electrify will risk recurring price shocks in the future, a University of Oxford analysis has found. The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz is leading to ramping concerns that energy prices will rise drastically in the coming months. The Oxford report finds that as much as 75% of global industry is exposed to recurring price shocks, but electrification may offer a pathway to more stable and resilient energy costs. In recent history, the 2022 Russian gas crisis forced widespread factory closures and production shifts across Europe, and many energy-intensive industries are still trying to recover. The impacts also forced factory shutdowns in Pakistan and Bangladesh and drove up costs for manufacturers in Japan…

  • Government scraps planning rules for cross-pavement EV charging

    The government has announced plans to cut red tape and make it easier to install on-street electric vehicle (EV) chargers and cross-pavement charging solutions. The new measures were announced as part of a wider package of energy and cost-of-living measures introduced by the government as it aims to “double down, not back down, on our mission for clean energy” in the face of the Iran conflict. Currently, many EV owners who park on the street outside their homes run a charging cable across the pavement. They do this because using at-home chargers means they can take advantage of cheaper overnight domestic tariffs, rather than relying solely on more expensive public charging. However, running a cable over a busy pavement poses a safety hazard for pedestrians. A safer option is to install…

  • Engineer to take helm of Apple as Tim Cook steps down

    Tim Cook is to resign as Apple CEO, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus succeeding him on 1 September. Cook, who succeeded Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011, will stay on at the company in the role of executive chair. The announcement was made on Apple’s website, where Cook said that his tenure as CEO had been the “greatest privilege of my life”. “I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative and deeply caring people,” he said. Cook has been at Apple for 28 years, having joined in 1998 to oversee the company’s worldwide operations, including its global supply chain and manufacturing. He became chief operating officer in 2005, before succeeding Steve Jobs as CEO six years later…

  • Finland opens one of the world’s longest car-free bridges

    A 1.19km-long bridge that will exclusively serve pedestrians, cyclists and trams has been opened in Helsinki. On Saturday 18 April, over 50,000 people attended the official opening weekend of the city’s new Kruunuvuorensilta Bridge, the longest and tallest bridge in Finland. It is also notable on a global scale as it is exceptionally long for a bridge that will exclude all car traffic. Connecting Kruunuvuorenranta in Helsinki’s eastern island suburbs with the city centre, the bridge forms part of a wider urban development initiative called the Crown Bridges Light Rail project, which includes three bridges and a new tramline connecting the city centre to Laajasalo island. The bridge was designed by London-based architectural practice Knight Architects and structural engineers WSP Finland…

  • £56bn boost to UK economy from expanding onshore wind supply chain

    Expanding the UK’s onshore wind supply chain could add £56bn to the economy, according to a new report by RenewableUK. Projections indicate that the UK’s current operating fleet of onshore wind turbines could potentially triple by 2050 from 16GW now to over 50GW. With a strong pipeline of onshore wind projects due to come online, the report from the UK trade body finds that if the domestic supply chain expands in line with these projections, onshore wind could contribute an additional £56bn to the UK economy, taking its total value to £154bn. It’s not just new wind farms – much of the additional onshore wind generating capacity will come from ‘repowering’ the UK’s older onshore wind farms. This will mean replacing older turbines with newer and more powerful models. Expanding the supply…

  • Fusion power may struggle to compete with renewables on cost

    The cost of fusion technology is likely to fall more slowly than previously predicted, raising doubts about its ability to compete with renewable energy. Researchers at Swiss university ETH Zurich set out to explore whether assumptions about the cost-effectiveness of fusion power were realistic. “Our paper is the first to provide an evidence-backed range of experience rates (ERs) for fusion power plants and has notably shown a large discrepancy between previous ER assumptions and a sensible ER range for the technology," said Lingxi Tang, doctoral researcher in the energy and technology policy group at ETH Zurich and first author of the study. Fusion has been heralded as a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, which is seen as vital for energy security and the climate crisis…

  • Blue Origin achieves rocket reuse milestone but fumbles satellite deployment

    For the first time, Blue Origin has successfully landed its New Glenn booster rocket, which had been flown on a prior mission, but the satellite payload that came with it was shunted into an incorrect orbit. The launch marked a technical milestone for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ space firm, with Blue Origin now only the second company, after SpaceX, to land a booster that had been used in another launch. But New Glenn’s upper stage placed a satellite from AST SpaceMobile into a lower-than-planned orbit. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The mixed results show that Blue Origin is still trailing behind its biggest rival SpaceX, even if the mission did…

  • EU cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 40% but transport remains a weak spot

    The EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions have now fallen by 40% since 1990, according to official data. The latest statistics, which show a 3% fall between 2023 and 2024, underline a continued trend of declining emissions largely driven by a larger share of renewable energy, the use of less carbon intensive fossil fuels, improved energy efficiency and structural economic changes. According to a briefing from the European Environment Agency, almost all member states have contributed to the emission reductions. The most significant players were primarily from the Eastern side of the continent – former Soviet Union countries that have transitioned from carbon-heavy industrial economies after 1990. Estonia has seen a roughly 72% reduction since 1990, followed by Lithuania (62%) and Latvia (61…

  • Venice could be moved inland as rising seas outpace flood defences

    Relocating Venice to a new site has been mooted as one possible option to protect it from rising sea levels as the increasing number of flooding events threaten to overwhelm the city’s infrastructure. Scientists have been assessing potential adaptation strategies for Venice as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth assessment report. Other possibilities include the installation of movable barriers, ring dikes and closing the Venetian Lagoon entirely. Venice is a particularly stark example of the challenges that many low-lying coastal areas face globally – with other areas such as the Maldives, the Netherlands and coastal cities also facing challenges in the future. Venice’s current flood defences include a trio of movable barriers at the lagoon’s edge, but the city…

  • JET uses robot workforce to undertake world-first decommissioning of a fusion plant

    This article has been provided by Salvador Pacheco-Gutiérrez, head of technology at RAICo, with additional input from Nick Jones, head of decommissioning at JET Decommissioning and Repurposing (JDR). Fusion decommissioning does not have the same problems as fission. Fusion machines will create far less radioactive waste, most of which is lower-level and shorter-lived. Nonetheless, dismantling a fusion machine at its end-of-life – as is now happening at JET in Culham – is a complex task with many hazards, with many materials that need to be removed, taken apart, packaged, and stored with the utmost caution. The nuclear industry knows a thing or two about these challenges. In particular, it has spent much time exploring how robots and AI can help deal with hazardous materials, whilst keeping…

  • Geely's new EV battery sets 10% to 80% charging record in just over five minutes

    Chinese automaker Geely has unveiled a new electric vehicle (EV) battery capable of charging faster than any other current EV charging system on the market. The 900V Energee Golden Brick Battery will feature in the new Geely-owned Lynk & Co 10+ electric sedan. The vehicle’s high-voltage architecture and battery pack will enable it to charge at peak charging power of 1.1MW. According to figures released by Geely, the vehicle will be able to charge from 10% to 70% in four minutes and 22 seconds, from 10% to 80% in five minutes and 32 seconds and from 10% to 97% in eight minutes and 42 seconds. Automakers across China are racing to develop the fastest EV battery-charging technologies. Less than a month ago, BYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs, unveiled battery and charging technology…

  • 430-metre-deep underground nuclear waste facility set to open in Finland

    A permanent underground repository for spent nuclear fuel is to begin operations in Finland, safely storing waste for up to 100,000 years. The facility, called Onkalo (Finnish for ‘cave’ or ‘hiding place’), is located in Eurajoki, in the west of the country. Engineered underground tunnels have been built into 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock more than 430 metres below the surface. Onkalo is expected to operate until the 2120s and is designed to contain spent nuclear fuel for up to 100,000 years. Following two decades of construction, Finnish nuclear waste management firm Posiva said the facility was set to receive final approval within months. Tuomas Pere, a geologist at Posiva, said: “The isolation from nature and civilisation on the surface is important because of the radiation caused…

  • E+T Podcast: Episode 22 | The evolution of mapping and its role in tomorrow’s technology

    What does it mean to map the future? In this episode, E+T regulars Tim Fryer and Jack Loughran are joined by Tom Gray from Ordnance Survey to explore how mapping has evolved into a critical layer of modern technology. Now largely digital, Ordnance Survey’s data is constantly updated - capturing everything from major infrastructure projects to small, everyday changes - and powering systems far beyond traditional navigation. The conversation looks at how tools like AI and machine vision are enhancing mapping, and how geospatial data is being used to plan EV charging networks, support autonomous vehicles, and optimise infrastructure like data centres. They also dig into the National Underground Asset Register and the challenges of mapping what lies beneath our feet, before touching on the…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • World’s first milk chocolate bar made with lab-grown cocoa butter

    Israeli-based tech start-up Celleste Bio has unveiled a milk chocolate bar made using real cocoa butter grown in a bioreactor. Celleste Bio has developed a technology capable of producing chocolate-grade cocoa butter that is bio-identical to conventionally sourced cocoa butter. Food company Mondelēz International, owner of Cadbury and Toblerone, has now used this lab-grown cocoa butter to make a dozen chocolate bars. While these bars may look like the real deal, would this chocolate taste as good as the genuine article? Indeed, no difference was detected in terms of texture, melt profile and sensory experience. Having achieved this milestone, Celleste Bio now expects to scale production of its cocoa butter to market-ready quantities within the next two years. Cocoa is traditionally…

  • Drax power plant claims £1bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest carbon emitter

    The Drax power plant in Yorkshire claimed £999m in subsidies from the government in 2025 despite the controversial nature of its claims to be a low-carbon energy generator. The figures, calculated by the Ember think tank, showed that Drax received £728m through the Renewables Obligation (RO), which covers three of the four generating units, and Contracts for Difference (CfD) payments for the remaining units, worth £271m. The 2.6GW facility now uses biomass as its primary fuel following a lengthy conversion process from its roots as a coal-fired power plant. The wood pellets burned by the power plant have an equivalent carbon intensity to coal – which is considered to be the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel – but are burned at higher volumes due to their low energy density, meaning that…

  • Decommissioned oil fields offer new life as hydrogen storage sites

    Depleted oil fields could be used to contain liquid hydrogen as much of the infrastructure already in place can be repurposed, researchers at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have said. Hydrogen is a clean-burning gas that could help to tackle climate change by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels as it can be produced from water using renewable energy. But storing and transporting the gas is typically very expensive and involves a number of technical challenges such as high-pressure gas tanks or cryogenic systems that operate at very cold temperatures. The oil industry is currently in a peak period of decommissioning, with assets installed between the late 1970s and early 1990s reaching the end of their 30-40-year design lives. The decommissioning market is…

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