• UK achieves first long-distance secure data transfer over a quantum network

    Researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridgen have successfully conducted the UK’s first long-distance, ultra-secure data transfer using a quantum communications network. In years to come, quantum computers will be able to perform calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. As such, they pose a threat to cyber security as their brute computational strength means they will be able to break current encryption standards protecting data. This has spurred efforts to develop new quantum-proof approaches to secure communications, including quantum key distribution (QKD). QKD allows cryptographic keys, which are generated from a sequence of polarised photons, to be shared in a way that makes it physically impossible to eavesdrop without being detected. In the past…

  • UK’s 'largest' on-street EV charging project to deliver thousands of chargers in £130m deal

    Chargepoint operator Char.gy has secured a £130m contract - the largest in the UK - to install over 6,000 on-street electric vehicle (EV) chargers across Brighton and Hove. The UK was the largest EV market in Europe in 2024 and the third in the world with over 382,000 EVs sold – up a fifth on the previous year. While industry figures show that nearly 20% of all new UK cars registered throughout 2024 were EVs, EV adoption among private buyers has been lower than anticipated. An issue hampering adoption is access to a more reliable charging infrastructure, including kerbside or on-street chargers. Brighton and Hove City Council has announced it has partnered with chargepoint operator Char.gy, which provides kerbside EV charging solutions, to install more than 6,000 on-street chargers…

  • Sonar-equipped autonomous ocean drones hunt subsea threats

    Saildrone and Thales have trialled a scalable, cost-effective system capable of autonomously scouring the oceans to detect undersea and surface threats. In the firms’ most recent collaboration, US ocean drone company Saildrone integrated the BlueSentry thin-line towed sonar array from defence company Thales Australia into its Surveyor-class uncrewed surface vehicle (USV). They have now completed a trial that has seen persistent undersea and surface surveillance conducted in Saildrone’s fully autonomous, long-endurance vehicle. Saildrone develops USVs capable of performing long-range, long-endurance missions in the open ocean to obtain real-time data. Last year, Saildrone announced that its SD-3000 aluminium Surveyor-class USV was to begin testing with the US Navy to help map the seafloor…

  • UN warns AI boom could disrupt 40% of jobs and widen global inequality

    Globally, AI could impact 40% of jobs, with up to one-third in advanced economies at risk of automation, a UN report has found. The market for AI is projected to soar from $189bn in 2023 to $4.8tn by 2033 – a 25-fold increase in just a decade – the UN Department of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has found. But the impact on workers could be profound if the potential productivity gains are realised, which raises concerns about automation and job displacement. Just this week, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke told employees that they will have to show jobs cannot be carried out by AI before asking for more headcount and resources. In 2022, just 100 companies – mainly in the US and China – accounted for 40% of global AI research and development. Combined, the two countries hold 60% of all AI patents…

  • Harmonising Sound and Style in Open-Plan Offices

    Workplace conversations and calls are generally a distraction in open-plan offices. To improve the acoustical conditions of a workplace, Swiss consultancy Zeugin Bauberatungen models how sound propagates through office building designs and analyses specific design modifications to find the right fit. Acoustical engineers, like composers, can help shape the effect that sound has on human ears. And while the sounds that surround everyday life may not be as moving as a symphony, the acoustics of a room can have a profound impact on the people inside. Many modern offices are open-plan designs, meaning there is minimal physical separation between workspaces. Silencing every open-office conversation is neither possible nor necessary, but attention to workplace acoustical conditions can make other…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Underwater sound waves key to unlocking wave energy potential, study shows

    Underwater sound waves can be used to make surface waves more powerful to unlock their energy potential, say Cardiff University researchers. The power in ocean waves offers immense potential as a source of renewable energy and immense threat through tsunamis. However, harnessing this energy and converting into a useful form has proven challenging. Usama Kadri, lead study author, said: “The waves on the surface of the ocean are often created by a combination of wind raising up water and gravity pulling it back down – hence they’re sometimes referred to as surface-gravity waves. “On the other hand, their underwater counterparts are sound waves produced by phenomena like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, sometimes thousands of metres below the surface.” These acoustic waves travel by…

  • Tariff-stricken car makers face relaxed EV targets ahead of 2030 petrol car ban

    The ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 is being maintained, but the government has relaxed the rules that manufacturers are required to meet. The ban was introduced in 2020 as a way to decarbonise Britain’s road transport and encourage the industry to shift production over to electric vehicles (EVs). But while sales of EVs have consistently been growing in the UK and across the world, they have not reached the levels hoped for. In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump introduced a 25% levy on imported cars, serving as another blow to British car makers. The Department for Transport (DfT) has now increased the flexibility of the mandate for manufacturers up to 2030, so that more cars can be sold in later years when demand is higher. It will also allow hybrid cars,…

  • UK hypersonic missile engine completes ‘milestone’ propulsion tests

    The UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has completed a large-scale propulsion test that could power hypersonic cruise missiles by 2030. Hypersonic missiles can travel at several thousand miles per hour – more than five times the speed of sound. High-speed air-breathing engines have been extensively tested as part of the UK’s Hypersonic Weapons Programme, which aims at delivering a hypersonic weapon technology demonstrator by 2030. Defence secretary John Healey MP said: “We are living in a more dangerous world and it has never been more important for us to innovate and stay ahead of our adversaries, equipping our forces with the technologies of the future.” The engine tests were carried out by a joint UK-US team led by the MoD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) together with…

  • Hitachi Rail’s north-east factory lands £300m order to build intercity battery trains

    UK transport company Arriva Group has ordered nine battery hybrid trains from Hitachi Rail to replace its entire Grand Central fleet. The order – worth £300m – will see Hitachi Rail build 45 rail ‘tri-mode’ cars at its factory in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham. Tri-mode means the trains can be powered using electricity, battery or diesel, and can run on either electrified or non-electrified tracks. Being hybrid, they are expected to reduce both emissions and noise. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander visited the Hitachi Rail factory to announce the order, which she said was significant as it will help secure the future of rail manufacturing in the north-east. She said: “Not only will this new battery technology deliver greener journeys for passengers, but it will also boost skills for…

  • Evri to trial AI-powered robot delivery dog in bid to speed up service

    Delivery service Evri has confirmed it will trial an autonomous robot delivery dog later this year that will work with human staff to cut delivery times. The four-legged robot dog will be able to hop in and out of the courier’s van as it makes its way to and from homes delivering parcels, taking out some of the leg work for the courier. The device was developed by Swiss firm RIVR, and the focus of the trial is to gain insight into how the robot dogs can work with couriers to improve efficiency support with some of the more strenuous parts of the job. They can be deployed 24 hours a day, allowing for night-time deliveries or on-demand services with designated time slots for consumers. The robots are equipped with AI-powered navigation and obstacle detection that allow them to determine…

  • Luton Airport expansion gets green light despite environmental concerns

    The government has granted consent for Luton Airport to drastically increase its passenger capacity after it overruled the Planning Inspectorate, which had originally blocked the proposal on environmental grounds. The airport will now be able to raise its current permitted cap of 19 million passengers per year to 32 million by adding additional terminal capacity, taxiways and other transport infrastructure. The Planning Inspectorate said that although noise, traffic and greenhouse gas emissions would increase due to the expansion, these negatives were “outweighed” by the potential to boost local jobs and London’s capacity to accept more air passengers. Luton Rising, the Luton Borough Council company that owns the airport and associated assets, said the expansion would deliver up to 11…

  • AI scraper bots putting costly strain on Wikimedia infrastructure

    Wikimedia Foundation has revealed that automated AI bots scraping information from the internet are resulting in steep technical and financial costs. Since January 2024, Wikimedia Foundation has seen the bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content on its sites grow by 50%. This traffic is not coming from human readers, but rather from automated programs or scraper bots that are vacuuming up terabytes of data to train large language models and other use cases. Over the past year, the demand for content – especially for the 144 million images, videos and other files on Wikimedia Commons – has grown significantly. Wikimedia’s underlying infrastructure is built to sustain sudden traffic spikes. For example, when Jimmy Carter died in December 2024, his page on English Wikipedia saw…

  • Amazon’s space-based broadband service to launch its first satellites next week

    Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the space-based broadband service that will compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink, is planning to launch its first batch of satellites next week. The project, which has been in development since 2019, has been approved to deploy a constellation of 3,236 satellites into low-Earth orbit by the US Federal Communications Commission, although it has only launched two prototype satellites to date. Next week, a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket will take off from a Florida launchpad to deploy 27 satellites at an altitude of 450km above Earth. The satellite payload will be the heaviest that the Atlas V rocket has ever flown. Amazon said that once the full constellation is in orbit, Project Kuiper will deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to virtually any location…

  • Millimetre-sized injectable pacemaker could revolutionise heart surgery

    Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a tiny pacemaker that is injected into the body, controlled using light shone through the skin, and dissolves when no longer needed. Temporary pacemakers are often required after heart surgery while the patient waits for a permanent pacemaker or to help restore the heart’s rhythm. Implanting these devices requires invasive procedures, with wires protruding from the body. Potential complications include infection, dislodgement, torn or damaged tissues, bleeding and blood clots. Researchers at Northwestern in Illinois, US, had previously developed a quarter-sized (24mm) dissolvable electronic device for temporary pacing that eliminated the need for bulky batteries and wires. While it proved promising in pre-clinical animal studies…

  • Plastic packaging waste transformed into high-quality 3D printed products

    Researchers in Germany have created a method to transform plastic packaging waste into high-quality 3D printed products. Single-use or throwaway plastic packaging is a major environmental hazard. This not only in terms of how it is produced – most are based on crude oil – but also what happens once they are disposed of, as most are not recycled. In Germany alone, 5.6 million metric tons of plastic packaging winds up in household waste each year. Currently, less than a third of it can be recycled. Working in partnership with Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences (HSB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM) aims to recycle post-consumer plastic waste into filaments that can be used to make high-quality 3D-printed products.…

  • Industry insight: Hydrogen is key to Europe's clean energy future

    The following article is provided by Javier Cavada, President and CEO at Mitsubishi Power EMEA. As the climate crisis intensifies, the need to accelerate global decarbonisation strengthens. In Europe, huge strides have been made to prioritise the transition to renewable energy, to reduce reliance on gas and to chart a future that has energy security and sustainability at its centre. It’s no secret that major barriers exist, not least financing, implementation, cost and geopolitics. The power sector contributes over 75% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it a target for reducing emissions to achieve the EU’s 90% carbon emissions reduction goal by 2040. Supporting more renewables, as the cleanest and most abundant form of power on to our grid systems, is the most effective route…

  • Chinese air taxi firm gains approval for commercial flight operations

    China’s civil aviation authority has given the green light for urban air mobility firm EHang to begin low-altitude commercial operations of its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Many companies around the world working on eVTOL solutions are struggling to get past the testing stages into operation because of stringent regulations and safety rules. China could end up dominating the market as the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is considered “quite supportive” of the industry. Earlier last year, China-based AutoFlight obtained type certification from the CAAC for its eVTOL aircraft. Now the CAAC has allowed EHang to begin low-altitude commercial operations of its EH216-S eVTOL. This milestone signals the start of paid human-carrying flight. Customers…

  • First component installed in commercial fusion plant ahead of 2027 energy generation

    The first commercial fusion plant installed its first component last month ahead of plans to start generating energy by 2027. The SPARC tokamak, which is under construction in Massachusetts, US, aims to be the first to demonstrate net energy generation from fusion. It is hoped that despite its relatively small size, the plant could achieve up to 140MW of fusion power in 10-second bursts. The donut-shaped fusion prototype will use powerful electromagnets to produce the right conditions for fusion energy, including an interior temperature surpassing 100 million degrees Celsius. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), the firm overseeing the project, installed SPARC’s first element in March – a disc-shaped stainless-steel construction called the cryostat base. The base was rolled onto tracks…

  • CERN unveils plans for $17bn, 91km-long successor to the Large Hadron Collider

    CERN, Europe’s largest physics laboratory, has said there are no technical obstacles in its proposal to replace the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the supersized Future Circular Collider (FCC) to enable more advanced science experiments. The FCC, which was first proposed in 2014, would cost an estimated $17bn (£13bn) with a circumference of 90.7km, an average depth of 200 metres and eight surface sites for up to four experiments. In comparison, the LHC is just 27km long, which limits the number and type of experiments that can be carried out. The high cost of investment would be distributed over a period of about 12 years, starting in the early 2030s, and the majority of the funding would come from CERN’s current annual budget. An FCC feasibility study outlines two stages: an electron…

  • Global warming of more than 3°C could wipe 40% off the world’s economy by 2100

    A 4°C rise in global temperatures would cut global GDP by around 40% by the end of the century, according to a study by Australian researchers. According to the World Economic Forum, the global cost of climate change damage is estimated to reach between $1.7 and $3.1tn a year by 2050. However, previous studies on the impact of climate change on global GDP has revealed it only has a mild to moderate affect. These economic models assume that a country’s economy is affected only by weather in that country, and not how flooding, for instance, in other country will affect its food supply. Researchers at the University of New South Wales’ Institute for Climate Risk and Response (ICRR) decided to address this issue by creating a new model. Having included the global repercussions of extreme…

  • UK cyber-security bill to tackle growing threats and safeguard critical infrastructure

    The UK government has set out proposals for the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which is due to be brought before parliament later this year. Under the bill, firms providing essential IT services to public services and the wider economy will be required by law to meet robust cyber-security standards. These firms will also be required to provide a greater range of risk assessments to help identify potential threats. If successful, cyber attacks can have devastating effects on government organisations and public services, and the citizens who rely on them. According to the government, cyber threats cost the UK economy almost £22bn a year between 2015 and 2019. This was seen in June 2024 when a cyber attack on a supplier of pathology services to the NHS in south-east London led to…

  • Network Rail trials drones to detect faults and trespassers faster

    Network Rail has started using drones that can fly ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) to improve the speed of detecting faults or trespassers on the track and minimise disruption for passengers. Trespassers are one of the most significant causes of disruption on the railway – with over 1.5 million minutes in delays since April 2024. The potential to survey the railway safely from above also means that maintenance workers can be dispatched much faster to fix faults. Alongside firms Drone Major and Dronecloud, Network Rail has set up a drone operations centre in Birmingham as a new trial for infrastructure monitoring. The service has already provided its worth after intervening in an incident at Birmingham New Street last year, which Network Rail said saved passengers hours of disruption…

  • Window of opportunity closing fast for North Sea energy transition, warns taskforce

    A report by the North Sea Transition Taskforce has called on the government to urgently establish a long-term, integrated plan to deliver a just energy transition in the North Sea. The North Sea is a mature oil and gas basin. To reach the UK’s net zero goals, there will be a transition in the North Sea from oil and gas exploration towards commercially viable renewable energy technologies. The North Sea Transition Taskforce, an independent body supported by the British Chambers of Commerce, was launched in November 2024 to map out this transition for the North Sea. Bringing together representatives from supply chain organisations, industry bodies, government agencies, academia, environmental groups and trade unions, the taskforce has published its report called Securing the future of the…

  • UK-built landing system to deliver European Mars rover in 2030

    The first European rover designed to explore the surface of Mars will be delivered with a landing system built in the UK. Airbus UK won the £150m project to complete the system and will design the mechanical, thermal and propulsion systems necessary for the landing platform to ensure a safe touchdown for the rover in 2030. The platform is being produced for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, which was restarted last year after being suspended in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. A lander developed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos named Kazachok (‘little Cossack’) was originally going to deliver the Rosalind Franklin rover, but all Russian involvement in the project ended once the war began. As well as the landing platform, the rover itself was built by Airbus Defence and…

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