• Editor's comment: All things great and small

    But are all small things great? We have taken a lateral thinking approach to the subject of ‘small’ for our theme this issue. The revolution of the tiny CubeSat satellites, the constant battle for performance and miniaturisation in electronics, small countries’ tech success against the odds, the mind-blowing – or even mind-controlling – medical implants... there is much to celebrate in the small world. However, not all small things are so great. For some time we have been aware of the problem of human garbage becoming an environmental issue. Waterways and roadsides are the most visible demonstration that some humans have complete disregard for the world we inhabit, while pictures of sea turtles, sharks and dolphins caught in discarded fishing nets show animals suffering and dying. The main…

  • Inside the new generation of medical implants

    Artificial augmentations and replacement parts enable our friends, family and strangers to regain lost capabilities or obtain new ones. It is estimated that around 5% of people in industrialised countries have had a medical device implanted. Due to advances in microelectronics, biotechnology and materials, some implantable medical devices such as pacemakers have become smaller. This has a number of benefits, including neater incisions during surgery and a longer replacement timetable thanks to high-power batteries. Despite shrinking in size, the impact of implants continues to grow. Implants for diagnosis Implantable diagnostic devices have an enormous number of applications, from reducing the risk of complications in surgery to pinpointing the presence of cancerous tissue. Implantable…

  • From teabags to lungs: Scientists trace microplastics throughout the human body

    As humans continue to ingest microplastics from the environment, many researchers are investigating if this may have a negative effect on our health. Making a cup of tea may sound perfectly benign, but researchers have used it to shine a light on the potential effects of tiny plastic particles on human health. These particles, known as micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs), have been found everywhere in the environment – from the seabed to Antarctica, from fresh water to snow, ice and soil. They are present in the food chain and are directly ingested by humans – potentially at levels that could affect our health. While no causal link has yet been found between MNPs and disease, researchers say they have identified enough ‘red flags’ to be concerned. Now back to that cup of tea. Researchers…

  • Compensating for tiny complications in electronics development

    Smaller. Faster. Cheaper. That’s how electronics technology develops - right? Or has it reached a stage when it is not that simple. A decade ago, the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) seemed to be the ultimate display technology. Unlike the liquid-crystal display (LCD), which has to filter photons from a backlight through a layer of polarised colour filters, the OLED delivers more vivid images. In principle, it should consign the LCD to the same fate that greeted the earlier, bulky cathode-ray tube monitor: bit parts in retro-futurist TV shows such as Severance. The OLED has not fared as well as expected. Its carbon-based materials degrade in the atmosphere if the display’s seal is broken. And picture quality suffers from the same kind of long-term burn-out that afflicted older TVs when…

  • More than 1,000 arrests made by Met Police since 2024 despite privacy concerns

    London’s Metropolitan Police (the Met) has arrested more than 1,000 wanted criminals since the start of 2024 through the deployment of live facial recognition (LFR) technologies. The police force said it had apprehended “paedophiles, rapists and violent robbers” who may have escaped justice without the use of LFR. The cameras capture live footage of people passing by and compare their faces against a bespoke watchlist of wanted offenders; if a match is detected, the system generates an alert. An officer then reviews the match and decides if they wish to speak with the person. The Met is one of the UK’s largest adopters of LFR tech, along with South Wales Police. Lindsey Chiswick, who leads the use of LFR nationally, said it would be “madness” not to deploy it at a time when local funds…

  • Beeswax put to the test as sustainable fuel for rocket engines

    Engineering students at Kingston University have turned to beeswax to power their rocket engine design. For centuries, humans have used beeswax for a variety of purposes, including candles, cosmetics, medicine and lubricants. Students at Kingston University’s rocket lab have now discovered another use for it – as fuel for a rocket engine. They chose beeswax because it has similar properties to paraffin, both being waxy substances made up of long-chain hydrocarbons. However, while paraffin is typically derived from petroleum, beeswax is a natural, renewable resource. Aerospace engineering and space technology student Michaella Gapelbe Santander said: “In the industry fuels such as paraffin or [high-density polyethylene] are used as energy sources, but we decided to take a more interesting…

  • Shifting UK diesel car exhaust pipes to the right cuts their pavement pollution by a third

    Air pollutants on UK pavements generated by diesel cars could be slashed by a third if car exhausts were positioned on the right, according to new research. University of York researchers recently conducted a study into air pollution exposure among pavement users in urban environments. They analysed which factors – such as the amount of exhaust from vehicles, what’s contained in that exhaust, and how it moves through the air – influence near-road traffic-related air pollution (TRAP). Using advanced ‘plume regression techniques’, they modelled concentrations of pollutants, especially nitrogen oxides (NOx), under different conditions. The researchers made an interesting discovery relating to the exhaust pipe position: diesel cars with left-sided exhaust pipes released 40% higher pollution…

  • £75.6m tender opens for UK’s first mission to remove space debris

    The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has started a £75.6m tender process to launch the first UK mission to tackle space debris. The aim of the proposed active debris removal (ADR) mission is to use British ingenuity to design a spacecraft capable of capturing and de-orbiting two defunct UK-licensed satellites from low-Earth orbit (LEO). Once these satellites have been safely guided into the Earth’s atmosphere, they will burn up. This is a step towards removing space debris, which includes old satellites, spent rocket stages and fragments from collisions in orbit. The UKSA estimates that 140 million pieces of space debris smaller than 1cm, and over 54,000 tracked objects larger than 10cm, are in LEO. This orbiting junk can collide with vital space infrastructure, including satellite networks that…

  • EU accused of inserting ‘loopholes’ into its 2040 climate change plan

    Changes to EU rules around carbon offsets amount to a watering down of commitments, climate campaigners have said. The EU has set a 2040 goal for member states to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90% based on 1990 levels. The 90% target represents the lower end of the 90-95% range that the EU’s climate advisers said was possible by 2040. It also allows carbon offsets, or credits, from outside the bloc to be used to meet up to 3% of the target. Carbon credits are derived from projects designed to remove GHGs from the atmosphere through efforts such as reforestation, renewable energy or methane capture. But the efficacy of many offset projects has been brought into question in the past. In its policy document, the EU states that any credits utilised would need to be of “high quality…

  • AI scraper bots blocked by default from millions of websites in Cloudflare crackdown

    Internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare will now default to blocking AI scraper bots from accessing original content on client websites without permission or compensation. AI has changed the internet. Before, when a user typed a query into a search engine, they were presented with a series of links. Clicking on one would direct them to a website, and this exchange generated traffic and ad revenue for content creators. Nowadays, AI chatbots such as ChatGPT are being used instead of traditional search. These chatbots are trained on data scraped by AI bots that vacuum up information from the internet. AI scraper bots or crawlers often take this data without permission, with content creators seeing almost no traffic and therefore almost no value. Cloudfare, which powers more than 20% of…

  • Heathrow blackout traced to long-standing, unaddressed substation fault

    A fire at a Heathrow airport substation, owned by the National Grid, was caused by a problem first detected seven years ago but never fixed, according to a final report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). On 20 March, a fire at the North Hyde 275kV substation, which feeds most of Heathrow, resulted in the airport’s closure. Aviation chaos ensued, with more than 1,300 flights cancelled and hundreds of thousands of passengers affected. More than 70,000 other businesses, homes and services were also affected, including Hillingdon Hospital. Energy watchdog Ofgem commissioned NESO to conduct an investigation, assessing the reasons the fire started in the first place as well as a broader assessment about the UK’s energy resilience and actions that could be taken to prevent similar…

  • Ofgem approves £24bn grid upgrade that could raise bills by £104

    Ofgem has approved an initial £24bn investment in Britain’s energy networks that could see consumer bills rise to cover the cost. The regulator said the funds will be used to make the grid more robust amid an influx of new renewable energy facilities and greater energy demand from data centres and the electrification of industrial processes. Over £15bn will be invested in Britain’s gas transmission networks to ensure ongoing safe and secure supplies to households, while an £8.9bn investment is being committed to Britain’s high-voltage electricity network. A further £1.3bn will go towards expanding the grid. The queue for connecting new projects to the grid is massively oversubscribed and being held up by stalled or speculative projects – some of which are not even at the construction…

  • Beta version of gov.uk app now available for public download

    The gov.uk app can now be downloaded in public beta format, with further development to follow later in the year. The gov.uk website is visited 88 million times every month by people looking for information and completing tasks. With the new gov.uk app, some of these tasks relating to public services can now be completed via a smartphone. Technology secretary Peter Kyle said: “By putting public services in your pocket, we will do away with clunky paper forms and hours spent on hold so you can immediately get the information you need and continue on with the rest of your day.” In January 2025, the government announced that it was to launch the gov.uk app by the summer. While this deadline has been reached with the release of a beta format, the app is incomplete with “new tools and…

  • Major Bluetooth headphone brands hit by unpatched security flaw

    Three vulnerabilities have been identified in Bluetooth headphones made by the likes of Sony, Jabra and Marshall that could allow attackers to eavesdrop on conversations or retrieve call history and stored contacts. The headphones all use chipsets manufactured by Airoha – a firm that has become a large supplier in the Bluetooth audio space, especially for True Wireless Stereo earbuds. Security researchers ERNW found that “powerful custom protocols” could be executed on the devices through attacks that give read and write access to either the RAM or the flash storage. Crucially, they can be executed by attackers who are not paired with the devices – they merely need to be within Bluetooth range. ENRW said it did not want to “disclose too many details” including the specifics of the vulnerabilities…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Royal train to be retired by 2027 in cost-cutting drive

    The British royal train will be decommissioned by 2027, Buckingham Palace has announced, as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures. The royal train was first commissioned under Queen Victoria. The Sovereign Grant is paid annually to the monarch from the Treasury to fund the monarch’s official duties, including transport costs. James Chalmers, keeper of the privy purse, said scrapping the train would help to keep transport costs in check after a rise of about £500,000 in the last year. “The royal train, of course, has been part of national life for many decades, loved and cared for by all those involved,” he said. “But in moving forward, we must not be bound by the past. Just as so many parts of the royal household’s work have been modernised and adapted to reflect the world of today…

  • First drone traffic system to prevent midair collisions approved by FAA

    The first uncrewed aircraft traffic management system designed specifically to prevent mid-air collisions between drones has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval and is now operational. With drones and air taxis likely to become a prominent feature of our future skies, drone traffic management will be a growing issue. To avoid drone-on-drone collisions, US research university Virginia Tech has formed the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), supported by Nasa and the FAA. MAAP has created a drone traffic management system that enables governments and industry to share data about their flight operations. The aim is that this information will help deconflict drone flights quickly and safely. John Coggin, MAAP’s associate director, said: “This is a…

  • Bioprinting method marks ‘critical step’ towards ending insulin injections

    3D-printed human islets could lead to a more effective and less invasive treatment for type 1 diabetes. The ‘breakthrough’ research was presented by a group of international scientists at the biennial European Society for Organ Transplantation Congress currently taking place in London. The researchers developed a method for 3D printing human islets – insulin-producing cells held in the pancreas – using a customised bioink made from alginate and decellularised human pancreatic tissue. The durable, high-density islet structures remained alive and functional for up to three weeks, during which time they maintained strong insulin responses to glucose, according to the researchers. Bioprinting is a growing field focused on creating functional tissues and organs for transplantation and research…

  • British car makers gearing up for bumper shipments to the US as trade deal begins

    With the US-UK trade deal taking effect today, British car makers are getting ready to send a series of major shipments across the Atlantic to meet pent-up demand. US President Donald Trump imposed a range of tariffs on foreign-made goods in April in an attempt to rebalance what he perceived as trade deficits. The US initially raised tariffs on UK-made cars to 25% for all passenger vehicles and light trucks; this was on top of a flat 10% tariff on most other UK goods. But following negotiations with the UK government, the tariffs will now be dropped to a less stringent 10% on the first 100,000 cars exported to the US. The US was the UK’s largest export market for cars in 2024 – making up 27.4% of total exports. With around 102,000 vehicles exported last year, the vast majority should be…

  • Work begins on the UK’s future nuclear-powered attack submarines

    UK defence firm Babcock has announced it has started building key components for the SSN-AUKUS next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine programme. Babcock disclosed the update in its recently published report Preliminary results for the year ending 31 March 2025. The report revealed Babcock’s contribution to next-generation submarine programmes with the announcement of new contracts secured during the past financial year. “Our Mission Systems business was awarded two significant contracts in FY25. These included a contract for Long Lead Items for the Astute replacement, Submersible Ship Nuclear AUKUS (SSNA), enabling us to place orders for the first elements of the Weapon Handling and Launch System,” the report stated. The submarines will be built under the AUKUS pact – a trilateral…

  • Satellite constellation to scan Earth every 20 minutes to catch wildfires early

    Muon Space has released the first images from its upcoming satellite constellation that will be able to scan the Earth’s surface every 20 minutes to find incidences of wildfires. The Google-backed project sent its first prototype ‘FireSat’ into orbit on 14 March aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-13 mission. The satellite is equipped with a six-channel multispectral infrared (IR) instrument designed to be able to detect and monitor thermal activity happening on the Earth’s surface. The first images sent back were able to identify distinct vegetation, moisture and heat sources including urban heat islands, active airport runways and water temperature variations. Muon Space said the images demonstrate the technology’s ability to distinguish between different thermal signatures across large areas…

  • HS2 completes 8.4-mile tunnel under London despite wider delays to project

    HS2 has completed excavation on the 8.4-mile-long Northolt Tunnel under London in what will be a major artery for the upcoming rail route. Construction on HS2’s second-longest tunnel started in October 2022 and will eventually take trains between West Ruislip on the outer edge of the capital and the new Old Oak Common super-hub station in west London. A tunnel-boring machine (TBM) named Anne finally completed its work yesterday after 14 months of digging and installed the last concrete ring underground before emerging into a vent shaft at Green Park Way in Greenford. Anne will be lifted out of the shaft later this year. Four machines of similar stature were used to build the tunnel that lies about 35 metres below ground at its deepest point. Two were used to build the five-mile western…

  • Dyson’s ‘ferris-wheel’ vertical growing system boosts strawberry yields by 250%

    A trial of a hybrid vertical growing system in Dyson Farming’s 26-acre strawberry glasshouse on its Lincolnshire farm has massively boosted yields. James Dyson’s farming business Dyson Farming owns around 36,000 acres of farmland across Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, West Berkshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire. This makes it the single largest farming business in the UK by land area. Dyson Farming’s initiative to “invest in the future of sustainable British agriculture” was launched in 2013 with the purchase of Nocton Estate near Lincoln. The aim of purchasing this farmland was to apply technology to grow food “sustainably, at scale and in harmony with the environment”. Among the variety of crops grown by the business are 1,225,000 strawberry plants at its 26-acre glasshouse in Lincolnshire…

  • £24bn Moroccan solar power project rejected by UK government

    A proposed infrastructure link connecting the Moroccan energy grid with the UK has been dropped by the government due to it not being in the “UK national interest at this time”. The UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has rejected the £24bn power project to bring solar and wind power from the Moroccan desert to the UK via 3,800km-long high-voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables. If built it would be the world’s longest undersea power cable. Led by developer Xlinks with financial backing from a number of partners including Octopus Energy Group, the project included a proposal to create 10.5GW of renewable generation, 20GWh of battery storage and a 3.6GW HVDC interconnector. With Morocco’s consistent weather, Xlinks said the solar panels could produce…

  • Private jet emissions now exceed all Heathrow flights, soaring 25% in a decade

    Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private jets have soared by 25% over the past decade and now account for nearly 4% of all civil aviation emissions, a study has found. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), private jets produced roughly 19.5 million tonnes of GHG emissions in 2023, which is more than that produced from all flights, including commercial airliners, departing London Heathrow airport in 2023. Private jets are estimated to be five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights because they carry fewer passengers, creating a higher carbon footprint for each individual on board. The report attempts to improve our understanding of aviation’s environmental impact by providing the first detailed global mapping of private jet…

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