• Google backs satellite constellation that detects wildfires before they get out of control

    Google has invested in satellites that can detect wildfires from space soon after they begin. The first satellite in the FireSat programme is expected to launch early next year, although once complete, the constellation will consist of over 50. Google, which is providing $13m to the initiative led by the Earth Fire Alliance, said it will be able to “detect and track wildfires the size of a classroom within 20 minutes”. Wildfires are becoming increasingly common due to hotter and drier climates around the world. Firefighters typically have to rely on satellite imagery that is either low resolution or only updated a few times a day, making it difficult to detect fires until they’ve grown significantly larger, which makes them harder to combat. The satellites use a set of custom infrared…

  • Researchers genetically engineer ‘golden lettuce’ with high levels of beta-carotene

    Spanish scientists have used a biotech technique to significantly multiply the beta-carotene content of a lettuce, giving the leaves a nourishing boost as well as a golden hue. Lettuce does not pack an overly nutritious punch. Mostly containing cellulose and water, it has very few phytonutrients compared to other vegetables. A research group at the Research Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP), a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has developed a method to significantly increase the phytonutrients in leafy green vegetables such as lettuce. This includes the phytonutrient beta-carotene, a red-orange pigment found naturally in some plants that contain antioxidant properties that converts to…

  • Rise of data centres and AI to further exacerbate global copper demand, warns miner BHP

    BHP, the world’s largest mining company, expects global copper demand to rise to 52.5 million tonnes a year by 2050, a 72% increase from 2021. According to GlobalData, more than 709 copper mines are in operation globally, with the largest being the Escondida mine in Chile, which produced an estimated 882,100 tonnes of copper in 2023. While this may sound like a lot, the red metal is expected to be in short supply over the coming decades given demand growth from green energy sectors such as offshore wind and solar farms and electric vehicle batteries, not to mention the copper required for upgrades to the electricity grid. BHP, which operates and owns just under 60% of the Escondida mine, has said that the world would need to double the amount of copper produced over the next 30 years…

  • UK should tax jet fuel to raise up to £5.9bn a year, campaigners say

    The UK could raise an extra £5.9bn a year in revenue if jet fuel was taxed, campaigners have said. Road fuel duty is currently levied at just under 53p a litre, and accounts for approximately 5% of government revenues. However, unlike drivers, hauliers, rail operators and farmers, airlines do not pay tax on the fuel they burn. In 2023, airlines burnt roughly 11.1 million tonnes of jet fuel – almost the same amount of petrol as was burnt in the UK last year. The Transport & Environment (T&E) think tank estimated that the government could raise anything from £400m to £5.9bn annually depending on the routes covered and tax rate applied. It suggested applying a 9p fuel duty rate to kerosene starting in 2025 and raising this on an annual basis until it matched road fuel duty by 2030. It also…

  • Confidence among UK manufacturers up despite economic downturn in the sector

    Make UK’s latest Manufacturing outlook report reveals that despite a downturn in the sector’s output and growth, business confidence is the highest it has been in 11 years. The manufacturers’ organisation, along with accountancy and business advisory firm BDO, has published its report for the third quarter of 2024. This is the first report since the change of government in July 2024. The findings reveal that there is yet to be a clear sign of any improvement in the sector’s economic performance. The findings show output figures have turned negative for the first time in four years (+9% in Q2 to -2% in Q3), but are forecast to jump by a third in the next quarter. Domestic orders have weakened (decreasing from +14% in Q2 to +7% in Q3), but export orders (+11%) are currently exceeding…

  • Labour may scrap pledge to ban new petrol vehicle sales by 2030, report claims

    Labour could renege on its manifesto pledge to restore the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel vehicles, The Sunday Telegraph has claimed. In October 2023, Rishi Sunak reduced ambitions on a number of green policies, including postponing the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles to 2035. While consumer adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has been steadily rising over the past decade, a recent flatlining in sales has led to calls from the domestic automotive sector to halve VAT on new EVs amid concerns that the 2030 date won’t be met under current market conditions. The Sunday Telegraph reports that the government is now considering allowing hybrid vehicles to be sold up until 2035 in a relaxation of its initial pledge to scrap the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by…

  • Comment: Why identity verification is key to keeping large-scale sporting events safe

    With cyber attacks increasingly targeting large-scale sporting events, Rob Otto, EMEA field CTO at Ping Identity – a global software company specialising in identity management solutions – explores why identity verification is critical to the physical and digital security of such events. This Summer’s Olympic Games in Paris saw hackers target the official Olympics’ mobile application with phishing attempts and a coordinated attack made on the French high-speed rail hours ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony. Despite the biggest sporting events of the year – the Olympic and Paralympic Games – having finished, we must continue to remain vigilant at similar large-scale sporting events. How to mitigate cyber attacks Identity verification is a critical component in ensuring the physical…

  • BMW collaborates with the University of Zagreb to optimise battery cell production

    BMW Group’s Battery Cell Competence Centre (BCCC) in Munich, Germany, and the University of Zagreb’s Regional Centre of Excellence for Robotic Technology (CRTA) in Croatia are collaborating to advance the production of battery cells with the help of AI. With the increased drive towards electric vehicles (EVs), automotive companies like BMW are focused on developing high-voltage batteries. With the battery cell being a central component of these high-voltage batteries, achieving optimal battery production is a crucial aim. For this reason, BMW has chosen to collaborate with researchers with specific knowledge in this area. The industry-academia collaboration between BMW and the University of Zagreb began at the end of 2023 with the launch of the INSIGHT project (Intelligent Data Models…

  • Access to digital tech is ‘a basic human right’ for 19 million UK adults living in digital poverty

    While our society becomes increasingly reliant on digital technologies for essential services, education and employment, more than 19 million adults and one in five children are living in digital poverty, according to the Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA). Today (12 September) marks the second annual End Digital Poverty Day, an initiative launched by the DPA, an independent charity of which the IET is a founder partner. This campaign raises awareness of the millions of adults and children across the UK lacking access to digital technologies such as laptops, which is contributing to a widening digital divide in underserved communities. Elizabeth Anderson, chief executive of the DPA, said: “With so much of our lives continuing to revolve around digital, it is imperative that digital access…

  • UK elevates data centres to critical infrastructure status for stronger cyber defences

    The government has begun classing data centres as critical infrastructure – which gives them greater protection – because of their importance to the UK’s cyber security and economy. The critical national infrastructure (CNI) designation is given to systems considered necessary for a country to function and upon which daily life depends. The list was last updated in 2015 when the space and defence sectors were classed as CNI. Other key assets include energy and water supply, transportation, health and telecommunications. Technology secretary Peter Kyle said that giving data centres the same protections should make them less likely to be compromised during outages, cyber attacks, and adverse weather events. This also puts them on an equal footing with other key utilities. The impact of…

  • Nasa engineers fix a clogged thruster issue onboard the 47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft

    Voyager 1 uses its thrusters to stay pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands and send back science data, but after 47 years in space some of the fuel tubes had become clogged. The Voyager 1 probe was first launched by Nasa in 1977 on a path that eventually led both it and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, outside the solar system altogether. Each are on their own journey into the cosmos, with Voyager 1 travelling more than 24 billion kilometres from Earth, and Voyager 2 more than 19 billion kilometres. Both have flown past Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 also flew past Uranus and Neptune. Being Nasa’s longest-running spacecraft, they have both faced problems due to longevity. In October 2023, Voyager 1’s onboard computer was sending back garbled status reports and so Nasa…

  • 2,500 job losses at Port Talbot steelworks confirmed amid government negotiations

    Port Talbot steelworks is facing 2,500 job cuts, the government has confirmed. Tata Steel announced it was closing the plant in January as it struggled to compete with cheaper steel from China and Europe. This was just months after the government struck a deal with Tata to invest £500m in the plant to help it transition over to electric arc furnaces (EAFs) so it could produce low-carbon steel. The Department for Business and Trade estimates that efforts to switch over to EAF technology will reduce the UK’s overall CO2 emissions by around 1.5%. Talks have been ongoing between the government, Tata and trade unions to improve the redundancy package for workers. There will now be a minimum voluntary redundancy pay-out of £15,000 for full-time employees plus a £5,000 ‘retention’ payment, as…

  • Hinkley Point B reaches defuelling milestone with removal of nuclear fuel from its first reactor

    The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has overseen the completion of defuelling Reactor 4 at Hinkley Point B power station. EDF, which operates the site, has also announced that alternative saltmarsh locations are now being sought for Hinkley Point C following a public consultation earlier this year. Hinkley Point B power station, situated near Bridgwater, Somerset, generated electricity from 1976 until 2022. The process of defuelling the power station is currently under way. A key milestone in this process has now been reached with Reactor 4’s defuelling. This ONR will also oversee similar work about to begin on defuelling Reactor 3. “Defuelling is the process of safely removing the spent nuclear fuel from the reactors, which removes the vast majority of the radioactive hazard,”…

  • Amazon Web Services to spend £8bn to build UK data centres

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) has said it will spend £8bn in building data centres across the UK, creating an expected 14,000 jobs in the process. Chancellor Rachel Reeves welcomed the investment from the online retail giant’s cloud computing arm and said she personally met with the firm last week to secure the five-year investment. AWS said the 14,000 jobs would be needed for the firm’s data centre supply chain such as construction, facility maintenance, engineering and telecommunications, as well as other jobs within the broader local economy. According to Amazon, the investments will contribute an estimated £14bn to the UK’s total GDP from 2024 to 2028. With news this morning that the economy unexpectedly flatlined in July with regards to GDP growth, Reeves said that overcoming “14 years…

  • Robot starts two-week mission to extract melted debris from Fukushima nuclear plant

    A crucial operation to remove a small amount of radioactive debris from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant is underway by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). In 2011, a massive earthquake and resulting tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear power plant beyond repair. The Fukushima meltdown was considered the worst nuclear disaster since that at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in April 1986 and prompted the declaration of a 30km evacuation zone around the Japanese plant. Seven years after the disaster, a Greenpeace report found that radiation levels in the area continued to be up to 100 times higher than normal. Tepco is currently engaged in a decades-long effort to decommission the plant. This includes dealing with large amounts of highly radioactive melted fuel inside three reactors…

  • Schneider Electric to invest £42m in Yorkshire manufacturing facility

    Schneider Electric plans to build a £42m facility in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, that will build equipment aimed at supporting the UK’s transition to cleaner energy systems. The firm said the new facility will be nearly three times the size of its existing Scarborough site and create an additional 200 jobs. It aims to make the plant net zero by early next year with a focus on sustainable manufacturing. Approximately 30% of the facility’s energy needs will be met by a state-of-the-art solar energy system, with solar panels covering half of the roof. Any additional energy drawn from the national grid will be “renewable certified”. The facility will employ Schneider’s EcoStruxure platform for intelligent energy management, including light sensors and automated heating and cooling systems…

  • First hyperloop test capsule hurtles its way through 420-metre tube at European test centre

    Hardt Hyperloop has successfully tested its hyperloop vehicle at the European Hyperloop Center (EHC) in Veendam, Netherlands. Hyperloop is a form of high-speed mass transit in which capsules travel on magnetic rails. During a showcase event on Monday, a hyperloop test vehicle levitated and zipped through a tube at the testing facility. The ECH’s 420-metre tube is made up of 34 separate sections measuring 2.5 metres in diameter. A vacuum pump sucks out the air to reduce the internal pressure. That reduces drag and allows capsules to travel at high speeds. During the test, Hardt’s vehicle demonstrated its hyperloop traction technologies, which include the magnetic levitation, guidance and propulsion systems. It also demonstrated its speed: the vehicle moved smoothly through the first…

  • iPhone 16 reveal: Apple banks on AI to revive sluggish sales

    Apple has announced the iPhone 16 with a strong focus on AI integration in a bid to get customers to upgrade amid sluggish sales. Earlier this year, the firm said it was making its own AI platform, known as ‘Apple Intelligence’, that integrates ChatGPT into its mobile and desktop operating systems, as well as its Siri personal assistant. The platform will give its devices new abilities, such as being able to understand and create language and images, take action across apps and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. Apple has faced slowing sales on recent models – sales of the iPhone 15 were around 10% down year-on-year in Q1 2024. Consumers are holding onto their phones for longer as annual upgrades are increasingly iterative, offering only minor upgrades…

  • BMW and Toyota to develop hydrogen fuel cell tech for next-gen zero emissions vehicles

    BMW and Toyota will work together to develop hydrogen fuel cells and improve infrastructure for hydrogen-powered vehicles. With both companies seeking to advance the hydrogen economy, BMW and Toyota have announced they will work together to “accelerate technological innovation in fuel cell systems” for passenger vehicles. These systems will be installed in both companies’ fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in the coming years. While this collaboration focuses on the fuel cell powertrain technology, the exterior of the FCEV models will remain distinctive to the individual BMW and Toyota brands. BMW has already announced it plans to launch its first mass-produced FCEV – the iX5 Hydrogen – in 2028. First unveiled as a concept in 2019 and then officially unveiled as a production vehicle…

  • New study reveals what happens to the 52 million tonnes of plastic pollution every year

    Uncollected waste and open burning are leading causes of the plastic pollution crisis. That's the conclusion of research at the University of Leeds based on a new global plastics pollution inventory. Each year, more than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced. Many of these products are single-use and hard to recycle, and can stay in the environment for decades or centuries, often being fragmented into microplastics. Once these single-use plastics have been used, what happens to them? To find out, researchers at the University of Leeds used AI to model waste management in more than 50,000 municipalities around the world. The results reveal that 52 million tonnes of plastic products entered the environment in 2020. Two-thirds of this plastic pollution comes from uncollected rubbish…

  • Boeing’s Starliner returns empty after ISS mission failures, casting doubt on future viability

    Boeing’s Starliner capsule has returned from the International Space Station (ISS) after three months – but without returning the two astronauts it was meant to bring back to Earth. The long-delayed Starliner achieved its first crewed launch in June after years of delays. It successfully docked with the ISS, with Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams to undertake an eight-day mission before heading back to Earth. But the plans went awry when, during the docking procedure, Starliner suffered various thruster failures and helium leaks. This forced the astronauts to remain stranded aboard the ISS while Nasa considered whether to use Starliner or opt for an alternative return journey using a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Nasa ultimately opted for the latter, and over the weekend it brought Starliner…

  • From the archives - Faraday's electromagnetic induction and the Panama canal

    Tanya Weaver looks back at the creation of the first electric transformer, the birth of the internet and a vital link between oceans. 193 years ago Bright spark On 29 August 1831, Michael Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principles of which are used in many applications today, from inductive chargers and transformers to electric motors and generators. Born in 1791 in Southwark, Faraday received very little schooling but made up for it with hands-on tinkering and experimentation. Most of this took place in the basement laboratory of the Royal Institution where he was a laboratory assistant. Having already conducted a series of experiments that built on the discovery of electromagnetism by Danish chemist Hans Christian Ørsted, Faraday carried out one further test that…

  • Final section of Britain’s longest rail bridge lowered into place as part of HS2

    The final section of Britain’s longest rail bridge has been lowered into place near London as part of the HS2 project. The 3.4km-long deck of Colne Valley Viaduct, on which work started in May 2022, just beats the 3.3km Tay Bridge linking Fife and Dundee, which had held the crown of Britain’s longest rail bridge since 1887. HS2 built 1,000 pre-cast segments at a purpose-built factory on-site. The gently-curved structure stretches across the Colne Valley near the M25 motorway and the village of Denham. It will carry high-speed trains running to and from the capital at speeds of up to 320km/h. Once the main civil engineering phase of construction ends, the factory and surrounding buildings will be removed, and the whole area between the viaduct and HS2’s 10-mile tunnel beneath the Chiltern…

  • Norway’s long-range underwater drone reaches next fully-autonomous milestone

    Norway-based Kongsberg Discovery has announced its long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) HUGIN Endurance has completed a multi-week fully-autonomous mission reaching depths of 3,400m. Kongsberg Discovery, which supplies high-technology systems and solutions for the ocean space environment, first launched its HUGIN Endurance AUV in 2021. The largest in its AUV range, the 8 tonne, 40ft HUGIN Endurance has been designed to enable autonomous operations directly from shore. With its onboard batteries, the drone can remain in the sea for 15 days, traveling up to 2,200km. It comes equipped with a wide range of sensors to collect data such as conductivity, temperature, sound speed, methane and CO2 and O2 concentration. Sea trials for the first production unit of the HUGIN Endurance…

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