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Interview: SkedGo CEO says ‘mobility as a service’ is evolving to put people first

Mobility as a service (MaaS) apps are ‘changing the way the world moves’, says SkedGo CEO John Nuutinen. But if we are to achieve greater accessibility and travel equity, systems must evolve to become more tailored to individual and local needs. “We’re now in the second phase of MaaS,” says John Nuutinen. “The first was interesting because it bounced around ideas like how to make a profit. But one of the things we started to discover is that the value of MaaS can’t be assessed on profit alone.” The CEO of SkedGo, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, maintains that there’s now an increased recognition of the value of subsidised MaaS capabilities in terms of societal and environmental benefit. “And that’s a good thing,” he adds. “In the future we’ll see the commercialisation of these systems…

E+T Magazine in Road transport systems
Laser-powered tool could help Mars rovers find signs of ancient life

Scientists have developed a laser-based device that could be installed on a future Mars rover as a tool for finding signs of former life on the Red Planet. The University of Bern team has developed a miniature, laser-powered mass spectrometer that can analyse the chemical composition of a rock sample in detail as fine as a micrometre (one-thousandth of a millimetre). The tool has already been used to sample gypsum from a quarry in Algeria in an attempt to replicate the kind of materials and conditions that might be experienced on Mars. The team analysed the rock using the tool to understand its ability to distinguish between potential microbial fossils and natural rock formations. These include morphology – which is irregular, sinuous and potentially hollow – as well as the presence of…

E+T Magazine in Space
1.8GW LionLink interconnector project announces preferred UK landfall location

LionLink, a subsea interconnector project between the UK and the Netherlands, has selected Walberswick, Suffolk, as its preferred landfall location. In November 2024, energy regulator Ofgem approved five major new undersea energy links, one of which is LionLink. The LionLink interconnector will deliver a new 1.8GW electricity link between the UK and the Netherlands. It is being developed by Dutch transmission system operator TenneT and its UK project partner National Grid Ventures, the investment arm of the National Grid. The project is referred to as a multi-purpose or hybrid interconnector because for the first time it will connect the Dutch and UK energy grids via a 2GW offshore wind farm in Dutch waters. An offshore converter platform at the wind farm will feed energy into the electricity…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Hackers steal $1.5bn in the ‘biggest cryptocurrency heist ever recorded’

On 21 February 2025, hackers stole approximately $1.5bn in digital assets from Bybit’s Ethereum wallet. The Dubai-based cryptocurrency platform Bybit has called it the “biggest cryptocurrency heist ever recorded”. Bybit was founded in 2018 and has more than 60 million users worldwide. It offers access to various cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum. Ethereum is the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market value after Bitcoin. An Ethereum wallet is a software or hardware interface that allows users to store and manage their Ethereum-based tokens securely. However, a hacker managed to gain control of an Ethereum wallet and transfer the contents to an unknown address. According to Bybit, the hack occurred when the company was making a routine transfer of Ethereum from an offline “cold…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
UK’s net zero economy grows 10% in a year, adding £83bn and nearly a million jobs

The UK’s net zero economy has grown 10% in the past year alone, providing an £83.1bn uplift to the economy, analysis has revealed. The study, which was carried out by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) on behalf of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), suggested that the sector was “vital” for the government’s efforts to boost the UK’s economic growth. Net zero businesses now support the equivalent of 951,000 full-time jobs, which are typically better paid than the UK average, with employees earning an average of £43,076 per year. This compares to median gross annual earnings for full-time employees across the UK of £37,430 in April 2024. The ECIU estimated that they generate £105,500 in economic value, which is 38% above the UK average. It also found that the economic…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
TfL trials electric construction vehicles to cut carbon emissions

Transport for London (TfL) is trialling a new way to cut its carbon emissions by utilising zero-emission construction vehicles. For future works, TfL will begin employing an electric excavator and wheel loader to replace equipment traditionally powered by fossil fuels. It has already trialled the vehicles at three locations in Redcliffe Gardens in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The electric vehicles use a method of recharging provided by Charge Fairy, a British electric charging start-up. It provides real-time updates on the machines’ charging levels when on-site – this feeds into a team that can then send a charging van to the site. This method of bringing the charger to the vehicle allows the construction machines to be recharged in an hour. TfL said that developments in how…

E+T Magazine in Electric Vehicles
Musk suggests deorbiting ISS early after clash with Danish astronaut

Elon Musk has recommended that the International Space Station (ISS) be deorbited earlier than currently planned after getting into a spat with a Danish astronaut. Nasa is currently planning to decommission the ISS in 2031, instead supporting the creation of private Earth-orbiting space stations with the agency as one of many customers. But writing on X (formerly Twitter), Musk said: “It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the Space Station. It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility.” “Let’s go to Mars,” he added. When pushed on his comment by another user on the platform, Musk said he recommended the ISS be deorbited “2 years from now”, which would be at least three years earlier than currently planned, but said it was ultimately “up to the President…

E+T Magazine in Space
Accelerating the development of next-gen perovskite solar cells

A new manufacturing technique paves the way for low-cost and scaleable solar generation, according to new research by the University of Sheffield. While solar power is deemed an environmentally friendly technology, the materials used to manufacture solar panels may have a significant environmental impact. Often these are scarce and expensive elements, such as copper and indium, that need to be mined and refined. UK-based solar tech firm Power Roll is developing lightweight and flexible solar cells made from perovskite materials. The use of perovskite materials in solar energy is the subject of increasing research and investment, as these materials are flexible, lightweight, cheap to produce, scalable and as efficient as today’s leading solar photovoltaic materials, which are mainly silicon…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Vodafone trialling drones that can remotely repair network outages

Vodafone has trialled a suite of next-generation drones that can restore connectivity to malfunctioning mobile masts in a bid to cut network down time. Backhaul fibre cables linking masts are typically buried in the ground, making them susceptible to damage by mechanical diggers and vandalism. Across Europe, Vodafone on average deals with between 75 and 100 such cable breaks every year. This suite of drones would be able to create a wireless link between masts when an underground cable is severed. In a test earlier this month in Spain, Vodafone worked with Google-affiliated firm Taara to demonstrate how two industrial-grade drones equipped with Taara’s light beam terminals could be used to deliver a temporary connection. In the test, one drone was securely tethered to a mast, and the…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
Trump’s fast-tracking of fossil fuel projects puts US wetlands and waterways at risk

US President Donald Trump’s decision to fast-track a number of fossil fuel projects could cause significant damage to the US’s wetlands and waterways, green campaigners have warned. During his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order – “Declaring a National Energy Emergency” – that required the US Army Corps of Engineers to “facilitate the nation’s energy supply”, including permitting under the Clean Water Act the filling of wetlands and dredging or building in waterways. In a press briefing, the White House said the decision was needed to meet the rising domestic energy demand, strengthen economic security and prop up the American energy industry. But according to the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), more than 600 applications earmarked to be fast-tracked risk destroying…

E+T Magazine in Management of Technology
Microsoft launches new chip that offers a ‘breakthrough in quantum computing’

Microsoft claims its new Majorana 1 chip shows that quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems are just years away, not decades. Quantum computing is heralded as the next frontier of computing technology. While it is still in its infancy, scientists believe that with its ability to solve problems that are unsolvable on classic computers, the technology could help power innovation in a range of fields, from drug discovery and smarter encryption software to manufacturing and AI. The race to develop quantum computing chips is on. IBM launched the IBM Heron quantum chip over a year ago, and in December 2024 Google launched its 105-qubit Willow quantum chip that it claims demonstrates “state-of-the-art performance across a number of metrics”. The biggest challenge…

E+T Magazine in Computing
Industry insight: Accelerating silicon photonics innovation

Professor Graham Reed, a globally recognised leader in silicon photonics at the University of Southampton and one of the driving forces behind the UK’s Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre, discusses how this field has evolved over the past few decades and what is in store for its future. Silicon photonics (SiPh) is an exciting field. It is the application of photonic systems with silicon as the optical medium. Over the years, SiPh has developed into a mainstream technology driven by advances in optical communications. It can be used in a wide variety of applications ranging from telecoms and sensing to lidar, AI and quantum. The Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre (C-PIC) based at the the University of Southampton has been established as the UK’s technology hub for SiPh. As an open…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
France sets fusion energy milestone by maintaining a plasma reaction for 1,337 seconds

France has achieved a milestone in the development of fusion energy having maintained a high-confinement plasma operation for 1,337 seconds – surpassing the recent Chinese record of 1,066 seconds. The milestone was reached on 12 February 2025 at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). A plasma reaction was successfully sustained for over 22 minutes inside the WEST Tokamak reactor located at the CEA Cadarache facility in southern France. This marks a 25% improvement on the record set just a few weeks prior at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak located at China’s Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. Fusion is a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, which is seen as vital for energy security and the climate crisis. It uses the same…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
Low-cost method could tackle climate change by permanently storing CO2 in rocks

A cheap method of permanently removing atmospheric carbon dioxide by sequestering it in specially made minerals has been developed by Stanford University chemists. Climate experts believe that preventing additional global warming will require both slashing the use of fossil fuels and permanently removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. But technologies for carbon removal remain costly, energy-intensive or both – and unproven at large scale. The new process uses heat to transform common minerals into materials that spontaneously pull carbon from the atmosphere and permanently sequester it. These reactive materials can be produced in conventional kilns, like those used to make cement. “The Earth has an inexhaustible supply of minerals that are capable of removing CO2 from the…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Flying Whales cargo airship closer to taking to the skies following latest supplier contract

Finnish-based Exel Composites has signed a contract with French-Canadian airship manufacturer Flying Whales to supply its airship with 75km of pull-wound carbon fibre tubes. Launched in Paris in 2012, Flying Whales is an aeronautic start-up that aims to develop an airship capable of transporting heavy loads. Its first large-capacity airship – LCA60T – will be able to carry 60 tonnes of cargo at a time. It’s specifically aimed at cargo that is challenging to transport by road or rail, such as wood logs, shipping containers and wind-turbine blades. The 200-metre-long and 50-metre-high vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) airship will use helium technology to lift its weight and cargo. It will be powered by a hybrid-electric propulsion system integrated with a generator supplied by Honeywell…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
‘City killer’ asteroid now has 3.1% chance of hitting the Earth in 2032

The YR4 asteroid, which has been dubbed the “city killer”, now has a 3.1% chance of hitting the Earth in 2032, making it the most threatening space body recorded in modern times. The asteroid was first discovered by the El Sauce Observatory in Chile at the end of December and is estimated to be 40 to 90 metres in diameter. While asteroids of that size do not pose a threat to humanity overall, it would be large enough to flatten a city and cause major damage and disruption in a localised area. Its discovery triggered the first step in planetary defence responses, prompting several major telescopes to gather data about the object and leading United Nations-endorsed space agencies to begin planning asteroid threat mitigation. It made a close approach of the Earth at the end of December two…

E+T Magazine in Space
Meta plans world’s longest subsea data cable to connect five continents

Meta is planning to build the world’s longest subsea data cable, which will link the US with India, South Africa, Brazil and other regions along the way. Dubbed Project Waterworth, the project will link five major continents together and span over 50,000km in total, making it the world’s longest subsea cable project. Subsea cable projects such as this are the backbone of global digital infrastructure, accounting for more than 95% of intercontinental traffic across the world’s oceans. Meta already has involvement in other subsea cables, including the Echo, Bifrost, Havhingsten, Amite and Anjana cables. Meanwhile, the 2Africa cable, which circumnavigates the coastline of Africa to interconnect Europe and the Middle East, is now partly operational. Other tech giants such as Google have…

E+T Magazine in Computing
Under construction for four years, Everton FC’s new stadium plays host to first match

Everton Football Club has welcomed the first supporters into its new 52,888-seat stadium in Bramley-Moore dock, Liverpool. The new £555m venue was constructed by engineers Laing O’Rourke. Both on schedule and within budget, nearly 12,000 construction staff were required during the build. The Toffees are scheduled to kick off the 2025/26 Premier League season at the new arena, relocating from Goodison Park, but first the stadium is playing host to a few test events. The first of these was an under-18s friendly against Wigan Athletic on Monday (17 February). In front of 10,000 fans – all packing out the South Stand – the Young Blues were edged out in a 2-1 defeat. The loss didn’t put a dampener on what was a “fantastic occasion”, according to Everton under-18s head coach Keith Southern…

E+T Magazine in Construction Industry
AI system could help aircraft recover from midair stalls and altitude drops

Aircraft could be equipped with an onboard AI system to help with midair stalls and sharp altitude drops, researchers have said. A team from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden has conducted tests on an AI system designed to enhance the effectiveness of experimental technologies for manipulating airflow on wing surfaces. An AI technique known as deep reinforcement learning (DRL) allows the programme to use previous experiences to guide the way it controls the airflow technologies in real time. The AI control system zeroes in on one particularly dangerous aerodynamic phenomenon known as flow detachment, or turbulent separation bubbles. To stay aloft, aircraft need slow-moving air underneath the wing, and fast-moving air above it. The air moving over the wing surface needs to follow…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Work underway on first phase ‘Hidden Marina’ of The Line megacity

Neom has revealed construction has begun on the Hidden Marina development, the first phase of The Line’s 170km-long “linear city”. First announced by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia in October 2017, Neom will cover three countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan) across 26,500km2 of empty desert along the Red Sea. It is intended to be an independent, liberal, high-tech megacity with its own tax and labour laws and judiciary. The Line will consist of two single parallel structures stretching over 105 miles and connecting the country’s west and east coasts. Its central section consists of two 500-metre-tall skyscrapers. The whole complex will only be 200 metres wide. According to a report from news agency Saudi Gazette, work has now begun on the first phase of The Line called the Hidden…

E+T Magazine in Built Environment Technologies
The Su-57 Felon: Russia’s critically endangered fighter plane

Putting aside the malevolent purpose, the defence industry can come up with astonishing feats of engineering. Russia’s fifth-gen fighter plane the ‘Felon’ is such a marvel, but will it become extinct before it flies the roost? Since the days of the Cold War, Russia’s defence industry has been part war machine, part confidence trick. “There is a general pattern that the hype of Russian weapons systems hasn’t been challenged, and so has generally been believed,” says Sir Keir Giles, Russia expert at Chatham House and author of forthcoming book Who Will Defend Europe? “And that’s happened with more or less any Russian weapon system you care to name, because they’ve been operating in this unopposed environment – unless and until they bump up against a determined and well-equipped adversary…

E+T Magazine in History of Engineering
E+T | Eccentric Engineer - Method in His Madness

Without Francis Bacon, it’s unlikely that engineering as we know it would exist today. Following a chequered political career, Bacon challenged the status quo and developed his scientific method. Now, proper experimentation backed up theory - science superseded philosophy. This video takes a wry look at Bacon's career, his legacy and his demise!

E+T Magazine
Arm to launch its own chip with Meta as an initial customer

UK-based chip designer Arm is reportedly planning to launch its own chip this year after landing Meta as a customer, the Financial Times (FT) has reported. Arm is a stalwart in the semiconductor design industry. Founded in Cambridge in 1990, the British firm’s central processing units (CPUs) feature in virtually all the world’s smartphones due to their superior battery life. Arm licenses its intellectual property to other companies, such as Apple and Nvidia, which use its designs to create their own chips. However, according to FT, the company – which since 2016 has been under the ownership of Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group – plans to launch its own chip this year after securing Meta as one of its first customers. Rene Haas, Arm’s chief executive, will unveil the…

E+T Magazine in Artificial Intelligence
Chinese tech repurposes retired wind turbine blades into asphalt for roads

A Chinese research team has developed technology to repurpose decommissioned wind turbine blades into a material for use in asphalt mixtures and cement concrete. Wind turbines are designed with a lifespan of 20 to 25 years. This means that after a couple of decades of providing energy, wind turbines on wind farms built in the early 2000s will soon reach retirement age. According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, a raft of wind farms built in China during this period means that by the end of 2025 the country will have seen a wave of decommissioned wind turbines. It is not just China. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US estimates that between 3,000 and 9,000 turbine blades will be retired each year for the next five years in the US, increasing to between 10,000 and 20…

E+T Magazine in Recycling

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