• 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • ‘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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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 | 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
    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…

  • 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…

  • Ofgem overhauls grid connection system to speed up clean energy projects

    “Radical” reform of the process allowing new energy facilities to connect to the grid has been announced by regulator Ofgem. The new connections system, which could be in place in spring 2025, would end the first-come, first-served system where clean energy generation or storage projects sometimes have to wait years before being allowed to connect. The new proposals will see connections fast-tracked if they can be operational quickly and contribute to the government’s plan to decarbonise the UK’s energy system by 2030. This new system – which prioritises projects that are “ready” and “needed” – would see accelerated offers made by the end of the year, with the first connected and operational from 2026.  The UK is building huge amounts of new renewable energy facilities, led by a series…

  • £2.5bn plan for UK steel unveiled ahead of stringent US tariffs

    A £2.5bn plan to bolster the UK’s steel industry has been announced by the government ahead of the introduction of stringent tariffs on both steel and aluminium from US President Donald Trump. The Plan for Steel aims to tackle various long-term issues facing the industry, such as high electricity costs, difficult trading practices and scrap metal recycling, as the domestic sector continues to face job losses and closures in the UK’s industrial heartlands. The government is also simplifying public procurement of steel and will ensure that UK firms are in “the best possible position” to compete for and win public contracts. For example, just this week Heathrow airport announced a multi-million-pound investment that will require some 400,000 tonnes of steel. The UK’s steel industry has been…

  • London's new super sewer is complete and set to cut Thames pollution

    London’s new super sewer, the Thames Tideway Tunnel, has finally been completed after 10 years of works. The sewer was first announced in 2012 as an addition to London’s ageing Victorian sewer network. While the original network was considered an engineering marvel at the time, London’s population exploded from around 7,000 people per sq km in the late 19th century to around 18,000 by the turn of the millennium. The older sewer also has to contend with increasing levels of extreme rainfall brought about by climate change. With the original network not having the capacity to deal with these changes, excess sewage was being discharged straight into the Thames on an increasingly regular basis, breaching pollution guidelines. The last of 21 connections to the original sewer has now been completed…

  • Football Association to trial semi-automated offside tech in FA Cup fifth round

    The Football Association has released a statement regarding the use of AI tech in the seven matches taking place at Premier League stadiums during the FA Cup fifth round next month. These include video assistant referees (VAR) and semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). VAR are match officials, with independent access to match footage, who may assist the referee only in the event of a ‘clear and obvious error’ or ‘serious missed incident’ in relation to goal/no goal, penalty/no penalty, direct red card or mistaken identity. According to the FA statement VAR tech will include in-stadium VAR announcements, where match officials will announce their final decision in relation to reviewed incidents to provide improved clarity and understanding for spectators and viewers. During the fifth…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • 130m hydrogen-ready catamaran to decarbonise high-speed ferry service

    A 130-metre ‘hydrogen-ready’ catamaran is under development, with the capacity to transport up to 1,500 passengers with their cargo alongside 400 vehicles. Australian firm Austal has been given a contract worth between A$265m and A$275m (£134m and £138m) to develop the vessel by Gotlandsbolaget, which operates Swedish ferry services. The high-speed catamaran, dubbed Horizon X, will be the largest vessel ever constructed by Austal and feature a combined cycle propulsion system that includes both gas and steam turbines. This is a first for high-speed craft such as this, Austal says. The craft is part of the long road to ultimately decarbonise commercial ferries to meet net zero goals for the maritime sector. Horizon X will be built at Austal’s Philippines shipyard in the first half of…

  • Study finds genetically engineered fruit flies and zebrafish could help tackle mercury pollution

    Researchers at Australia’s Macquarie University have genetically modified fruit flies and zebrafish to break down toxic methylmercury into a diluted gas. Methylmercury is one of the world’s most dangerous pollutants. It is a highly toxic organic form of mercury that is released into the environment via industrial activities such as gold mining and the burning of coal. It poses health threats to humans and other forms of wildlife due to its high bioavailability. This means that once it has been ingested by a small aquatic organism, for instance, it can easily cross the digestive tract and make its way into the tissue, where it accumulates. When this creature is eaten by another organism, the mercury becomes increasingly concentrated as it moves up the food chain. Eventually it could pass…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

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