• First images captured by Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile leave astronomers with ‘sense of awe’

    The Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile has released the first images taken using its 3,200-megapixel digital camera, the largest ever built for astronomy. A joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, the $810m facility is located on top of Cerro Pachón in the Andes in central Chile. The observatory features an advanced 8.4-metre telescope equipped with the enormous digital camera, enabling it to scan large swaths of sky with high sensitivity and in a short time. To put this in perspective, each image is so detailed that it would take hundreds of ultra-high-definition TV screens to display it in full. The camera features enormous filters that allow through different types of light, from ultraviolet to near-infrared. The telescope will later this…

  • Shoreline plastic bag waste drops up to 47% in areas with restrictions

    Scientists have calculated that policies designed to reduce the proliferation of plastic bags across the US have led to decreases of up to 47% on shorelines. Plastic bags, which have low recycling rates, are among the biggest culprits of pollution in the ocean and often become litter when they blow away in the wind. Once there, they can entangle animals and break down into harmful microplastics. More than 100 countries have now instituted bans or fees on plastic bags in a bid to reduce their environment impact. The study from the University of Delaware and Columbia University found that plastic bag policies led to a 25% to 47% decrease in related pollution as a share of total items collected in shoreline clean-ups relative to areas without policies. This decrease grows in magnitude over…

  • UK manufacturing and steel sectors to benefit from major energy price reforms

    The government will slash green levies to reduce the high cost of energy faced by British business. Electricity in the UK is more expensive than in many of its European counterparts, and while the market has seen some recent price drops, it’s still more costly than it was before the 2022 price spikes. This is largely because the UK is reliant on gas to provide a consistent base load energy supply, and the fuel has been subject to significant market volatility. British manufacturers in particular have been hit hard by the prices, while businesses looking to expand or modernise have faced delays when it comes to connecting to the grid. Last year, UK Steel highlighted how high energy prices had crippled domestic steel producers, which are paying as much as 50% more than competitors in France…

  • VW unveils robotaxi production vehicle while Tesla launches first robotaxi fleet

    The ID. Buzz AD, the first fully autonomous production vehicle from Volkswagen (VW), is to be deployed in Europe and the US from 2026. Self-driving vehicles have rarely been out the headlines in recent weeks. In just the past week alone, Alphabet’s Waymo revealed it is to expand into New York City, Amazon’s Zoox has opened a robotaxi manufacturing plant and Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, with 11 vehicles. VW has now also entered the robotaxi fray, but with a slightly different offering. Its MOIA brand, a tech subsidiary of the VW Group, has unveiled the ID. Buzz AD – an autonomous production-ready version of its all-electric ID. Buzz microbus. The difference is that while MOIA supplies the “comprehensive end-to-end solution” – the electric vehicle, self-driving…

  • Tiny robots unleashed in underground water pipes find and fix leaks autonomously

    Miniature robots that can find and fix leaky water pipes autonomously without the need to dig up roads have been developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield. ‘Pipebots’ are miniature robots equipped with sensors that can travel through pipes and check for defects in underground infrastructure. The project, led by researchers at the University of Sheffield’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, with input from the universities of Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds, started over six years ago. The aim was to revolutionise how water infrastructure is managed to prevent water being lost through cracks and defective pipes. Professor Kirill Horoshenkov, Pipebots programme director and professor of acoustics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Leaky water pipes…

  • TikTok ban delayed by 90 days as ByteDance faces pressure to divest US operations

    TikTok has been given another 90 days by the Trump administration to operate in the US after a law was passed last year that would force parent company ByteDance to sell the video-sharing platform. The ban was originally signed into law in April 2024, but TikTok owner ByteDance appealed to the US Supreme Court. In January, the court upheld the law saying that the app could not operate domestically unless it was sold to a US company because of concerns that ByteDance had links with the Chinese government. While the decision to uphold the ban was not a popular one with users of the platform, concerns about ByteDance’s close ties to the Chinese administration were not unfounded. Chinese national security laws require that all domestic firms hand over intelligence when requested by Beijing…

  • £725bn infrastructure plan backs nuclear, broadband and hydrogen networks

    The government has unveiled plans to invest £725bn over the next decade in improvements to the UK’s infrastructure, including energy, transport, water and digital connectivity. Chief treasury secretary Darren Jones said the plan was needed to counteract “years of erratic decisions” from the previous government that has left the UK’s productivity falling behind countries such as France, Germany and the US. The package aims to ensure that taxpayer funds spent on infrastructure continue to rise “at least in line with inflation” and includes some previously announced policies such as the introduction of more nuclear energy in the form of small modular reactors and funding to support the upcoming Lower Thames Crossing. The primary focus of the announcement was on building up to 35 new hospitals…

  • RTS meter deadline scrapped for ‘cautious and targeted’ phase-out plan

    The widespread switch-off of Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters on 30 June will be replaced by a phased-out approach, the government has confirmed. As of 30 May 2025, statistics from the energy regulator Ofgem revealed that there were still 314,935 RTS meters that needed to be upgraded to a smart meter. This was despite the looming RTS signal switch-off date of 30 June. In the event of a switch-off, these affected households may find their heating or hot water provisions are disrupted. The government has now confirmed that instead of a complete switch-off on 30 June, there will rather be a “cautious and targeted” phase out to the RTS service. Miatta Fahnbulleh, minister for energy consumers, said: “We have stepped in to ensure that thousands of vulnerable consumers with RTS meters…

  • €4.12bn competition fine against Google to be upheld by EU’s highest court

    An EU court adviser has backed a €4.12bn competition fine against Google, dealing a blow to the tech giant’s chances of overturning it. The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has announced its advocate general Juliane Kokott has advised the court to dismiss Google’s appeal to overturn a €4.34bn anticompetitive fine imposed on the Alphabet-owned company in 2018. She said the reduced fine of €4.12bn set by the General Court in 2022 following an initial appeal by Google should be upheld. In 2018, the European Commission imposed a €4.34bn fine following findings by Brussels regulators that Google had “abused its dominant position”. The findings revealed that Google had used its Android mobile phone operating system to block rivals since 2011. The commission accused…

  • Amazon’s Zoox opens first robotaxi factory in US with aim to produce 10,000 a year

    Amazon’s driverless taxi subsidiary Zoox has opened its first production facility for purpose-built robotaxis in the US and hopes to build more than 10,000 a year. Amazon bought the start-up in 2020 for $1.2bn (£890m) with the intention of eventually launching a service akin to Google’s Waymo. Waymo began taking rides for its first commercial service in San Francisco in 2021, while Zoox is gearing up to start public rides in Las Vegas later this year, with San Francisco to follow. The firm’s 220,000 square foot ‘state-of-the-art’ production facility is located in Hayward, California, and Zoox said it would be used for engineering, software integration, robotaxi assembly and storage components. The assembly line has also been designed to be adaptable to accommodate future design and feature…

  • First fully robotic heart transplant in the US performed without opening patient's chest

    Surgeons in Houston, Texas, have used robotic tools to perform heart transplant surgery on a patient without opening his chest. The minimally invasive surgery, performed at Baylor St Luke's Medical Center, reduced surgical trauma, blood loss and infection risk and increased recovery time for the 45-year-old patient. During the procedure, surgeons made small incisions in the upper abdominal wall below the diaphragm, eliminating the need to open the chest and break the breastbone. The robot was then navigated through the preperitoneal space in the abdominal wall to remove the diseased heart. The same route was then used to implant the donor organ. “Opening the chest and spreading the breastbone can affect wound healing and delay rehabilitation and prolong the patient's recovery, especially…

  • Some AI queries emit 50 times more CO₂ than others, study finds

    Generative AI services such as ChatGPT are major carbon (CO2) emitters due to their intensive energy usage, but a new study has found that some AI prompts could cause 50 times more emissions than others depending on what is asked. To answer user queries, these services use tokens. These are words or parts of words that are converted into a string of numbers that can be processed by the large language model (LLM). This conversion, as well as other computing processes, produces CO2 emissions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has admitted that users saying “please” and “thank you” alone costs the firm “tens of millions of dollars” due to the extra energy usage of dealing with longer queries. Researchers at the Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences in Germany measured and compared CO2 emissions…

  • E+T Podcast: Episode 14 | Are we making smart choices for our cities?

    The Smart City movement began when the enabling digital technology allowed a level of communication that made lives better for those living in the urban environment. But some of the impetus was lost as the technology was taken for granted. However, recent developments appear to be allowing more tangible progress now - our cities could be getting smarter again!

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Honda R&D successfully launches and lands reusable rocket prototype from Japan facility

    Honda’s experimental reusable rocket has reached an altitude of nearly 300 metres before successfully touching down on its landing site. Although not known for its space aspirations, the auto giant Honda has for the past few years been developing a reusable rocket prototype under its research and development arm Honda R&D. Since 2024 its 6.3 metre-long reusable rocket has been undergoing engine combustion and hovering tests at Honda’s facility in Taiki, Hokkaido, Japan. On Tuesday the rocket successfully completed its first launch and landing test. Having reached an altitude of 271 metres, it returned and successfully touched down 37cm off its target landing point. The entire flight took less than 57 seconds. It enabled Honda R&D to test the technologies essential for a reusable rocket…

  • HS2 completion delayed beyond 2033 amid ‘litany of failure’

    The HS2 railway project will face further delays beyond its expected 2033 completion date because of a “litany of failure”, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has told the Commons. HS2 has been beset by a string of failures and budget overruns over the last decade, including the cancellation of routes ending in Leeds and Manchester by the previous Conservative government. An HS2 board paper released in June 2024 anticipated that the project was now expected to cost between £54bn and £66bn in 2019 prices – a marked increase from estimates the previous November of £49bn to £57bn. “It’s an appalling mess, but it’s one we will sort out,” Alexander said in parliament. With regards to the report on the project by the new CEO of HS2 Ltd, she said: “Based on his advice, I see no route by which…

  • 'Poor planning’ by grid operator REE blamed for April blackout in Spain and Portugal

    The unprecedented blackout across the Iberian peninsula was primarily caused by REE’s failure to manage a surge in voltage, the Spanish government has said. On 28 April, a major incident saw millions of households and businesses across Spain, Portugal and southern France suffer the largest power cut in Europe’s recent history. The source of the outage was traced to a sudden loss of 2.2GW of electricity at Granada substation in southern Spain. Following an investigation by the government, an official report has now been published detailing that the blackout was due to voltage control. It points to a series of technical and operational failures that increased the severity of the event. Following the abrupt loss of power generation in Granada, a complicated chain reaction of grid disconnections…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Abandoned coal mines could host 300GW of solar power, says report

    Repurposing abandoned coal mines as solar energy facilities could add a hefty 15% to the world’s capacity or 300GW in total, a report from the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has found. Some 312 surface coal mines that have been idled and degraded since 2020 were identified that collectively take sprawl over 2,089km² – an area nearly the size of Luxembourg. The report also predicts a further 3,731km² of mine land that may be abandoned by operators before the end of 2030, owing to the depletion of reserves and the reported life of the mine. Coal mines are typically converted into solar farms by repurposing the land for solar panel installation, often combining it with land restoration efforts and agricultural practices. This approach offers a way to reuse land that has been heavily degraded…

  • Plan to pedestrianise 1.1km stretch of Oxford Street gains backing from public and businesses

    London mayor Sadiq Khan has announced he will move ahead with “bold plans” to pedestrianise Oxford Street. Under the proposed changes, traffic will be banned for a 0.7-mile (1.1km) stretch of Oxford Street between Orchard Street and Oxford Circus up to Great Portland Street. The hope is that it will attract more people once again to this shopping mecca, which has seen a decline in footfall in recent years with the growth of online shopping and out-of-town retail parks. With department stores such as Selfridges opening in the early 1900s, Oxford Street soon became a premier shopping destination. Today it is still classified as an area of critical national economic importance, contributing around £25bn to London’s economy annually. Through pedestrianising the street, the aim is to not…

  • Red Arrows go green for King’s birthday flypast with sustainable fuels

    The King’s birthday flypast featured a dramatic aerial display from the Red Arrows, which for the first time were powered using renewable fuels. At 1pm on Saturday (14 June), as part of King Charles’ birthday celebrations, over 30 Royal Air Force (RAF) planes flew over Buckingham Palace in a ceremonial flypast. As every year, the grand finale featured a dramatic aerial display by the pilots of the RAF aerobatic team flying the Red Arrows. But unlike previous years, the nine Red Arrows’ BAE Systems Hawk fast-jets were powered by a high-ratio blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel used to produce the trademark red, white and blue vapour trails. According to the RAF, using these renewable fuels is a “world-first” and the result of many trials…

  • 3D-printed concrete building undergoes real-life earthquake test to assess structural integrity

    A large shaking table that mimics earthquake events has allowed researchers at the University of Bristol to evaluate the structural integrity of 3D-printed concrete structures. Concrete 3D-printing is gaining momentum worldwide. From constructing railway stations to 30-metre-tall buildings, it is seen as a rapid, resilient, affordable and sustainable building technique. Structures are built layer-by-layer using a large-scale 3D-printer that extrudes a concrete mixture through a nozzle. While traditional concrete design has well-established seismic behaviour, 3D-printed concrete introduces new variables such as layered deposition, unique material properties and non-traditional geometries. The Bristol team wanted to assess how these factors influence the structural integrity of this construction…

  • Danish military deploys unmanned sailing vessels to bolster Baltic Sea surveillance

    Four unmanned sailing vessels have been deployed for a three-month mission with the Danish Ministry of Defence, which is trialling new technology to boost its surveillance capabilities. Developed by US firm Saildrone, the Voyager vessels are equipped with various autonomous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems that allow it to patrol the Baltic Sea unmanned for long stretches of time. That sea is a vital maritime region with growing geopolitical complexity as it is home to key undersea infrastructure, including pipelines and data cables, and is bordered by multiple Nato member states and Russia. In January, Swedish prosecutors ordered the detention of a Russian vessel in the area following damage to an underwater fibre optic cable. “The Baltic, North Sea and European…

  • British Steel lands £500m contract to supply Network Rail amid ownership limbo

    British Steel has signed a £500m contract to manufacture new rails for the UK’s train network. The five-year agreement with Network Rail is a boon to the struggling steelmaker, whose Chinese owners effectively abandoned it earlier this year. British Steel will retain its position as principal supplier to Network Rail and will provide just over 80% of its steel needs. From July, the remaining portion will be sold to Britain by two Austrian and German companies, Voestalpine and Saarstahl. All the rails will be manufactured at the Scunthorpe steelworks where most of the track laid in the UK is made. The company will deliver between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of rail a year – enough to stretch between London and Edinburgh. British Steel’s commercial director for rail, Craig Harvey, said:…

  • Air India crash: Early speculation points to possible dual-engine failure

    Early speculations on the fatal crash in India last week of the Air India-operated Boeing 787 Dreamliner point to possible dual-engine failure. On Thursday (12 June), the aeroplane crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, India, en route to London Gatwick. Of the 242 passengers and crew onboard only one person survived, and an additional 38 fatalities occurred on the ground. This makes it the deadliest aviation disaster in India in nearly two decades. On Friday, India’s civil aviation minister confirmed that the aircraft’s black boxes had been found at the crash site. Flight data, including all the cockpit conversations, will be crucial in determining the cause of the crash. While the facts around the crash will only be known once a full analysis of this…

  • Donald Trump files trademarks for potential phone brand and mobile network

    US President Donald Trump could be about to launch a mobile network in the US – alongside branded phones and accessories – after a number of trademark filings were spotted with the US Patent and Trademark Office last week. Trump is no stranger to attaching his name to merchandising, both before and after his presidential runs. He is estimated to have made over $10m in the last year selling Bibles, watches, trainers and guitars with his name branded on them. But the most profitable venture in recent times has been the launch of the Trump cryptocurrency, which proved controversial after its price briefly surged and then crashed dramatically, leaving many holders of the coin out of pocket. Now patent attorney Josh Gerben has found that DTTM Operations LLC, the entity that manages Donald Trump…

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