• Latex party balloon biodegrades in nine months rather than decades

    A biodegradable latex party balloon has been designed to break down completely after use, without leaving behind harmful chemical residues or microplastics. Developed following three years of research by a team at Imperial College London, Bioloon has many of the properties associated with conventional latex balloons - stretchiness, ease of blowing up and ability to stay inflated - but it can be used multiple times and degrades far more quickly. While made from natural rubber, balloons are treated with a process called sulphur vulcanisation, which relies on harmful chemicals. Once a party or event is over, these balloons are usually thrown away. However, they don’t degrade easily and if they find their way into the environment, they can be hazardous to natural habitats and wildlife. …

  • Industry insight: The statistical blind spot in infrastructure risk analysis

    The infrastructure industry’s standard risk tool systematically understates schedule risk, and the cost-of-capital consequences run to hundreds of millions. But the fixes already exist in the profession next door, mechanical engineer Johan Landman says. HS2 was first costed at around £33 billion in 2012, with the first trains promised for 2026. By the time its northern leg was scrapped in 2023, the projected cost of a far smaller railway had climbed toward £100 billion by some estimates, and not a single passenger had boarded. It is an extreme case, but not a freak one. On megaprojects, overruns of this kind are closer to the rule than the exception. The evidence is overwhelming. Across a database of more than 16,000 projects in 136 countries, assembled over decades by Bent Flyvbjerg’s…

  • JCB’s hydrogen-powered vehicle breaks world land speed record

    UK engineering firm JCB has set a new world land speed record of 653.909km/h (406.320mph) with the hydrogen-powered JCB Hydromax at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. In May, JCB announced it was aiming to race a hydrogen-powered vehicle, 20 years after setting the diesel land speed record. In 2006, the JCB Dieselmax, driven by RAF Wing Commander Andy Green OBE, broke the diesel engine land speed record with a speed of 560km/h (350mph), a record that still stands. The firm decided to return to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 2026 but this time with the JCB Hydromax and, Green, the only person to break the sound barrier on land, came out of retirement to be behind the wheel. While the testing programme during June in Cambridgeshire saw the vehicle top speeds of 335km/h (208mph), the team hoped…

  • Jellyfish swarm triggers emergency shutdown at French nuclear plant

    Three reactors at a French nuclear plant have been shut down after a massive swarm of ‌jellyfish clogged seawater intake filters used to cool the facility. The Gravelines nuclear power plant, near the northern city of Dunkirk, is the largest in Western Europe, with six 900-megawatt reactors. EDF, the state-owned utility that owns the site, has been forced to implement security measures to manage a “massive influx” of jellyfish that had entered the plant’s water intake pipes and pumping stations. The plant is cooled by pumping water via a canal directly from the North Sea. Thousands of gallons of water are drawn in per minute, and it is here where the jellyfish entered. The huge mass present in the pumping station’s filtration system was effectively blocking any water from entering the…

  • Solar eclipse could cut 1GW from UK power grid tonight

    Tonight’s eclipse is estimated to see around 1GW in electricity cut from the National Grid as the effectiveness of solar panels dips dramatically. The amount of lost energy, which is equivalent to a mid-sized coal-fired power plant, will likely be supplanted by ramping up gas generators or importing energy from Europe at a time of peak demand for households. To put it in perspective, country-wide demand for energy on an average Wednesday is around 31GW, so the loss in solar represents around 3.2% of the total UK grid demand. During the event, energy firm Octopus is calling on customers to cut back on their electricity usage in an attempt to fill some of the gap. Speaking to E+T Magazine, Kieron Stopforth, the firm’s head of flexibility, said that previous customer-led initiatives have been…

  • AI could drive more fossil fuel emissions than it avoids

    AI-driven productivity gains could enable more CO2 emissions from fossil fuels than they avoid through renewable energy improvements, a study has found. According to the study published by Nature Portfolio, AI could provide a massive productivity boost to oil and gas extraction, completely canceling out the technology's benefits to renewable energy. For instance, AI can help operators find oil faster, drill more efficiently and lower operating costs. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that in the US, AI could help reduce new well-drilling costs by roughly 30% and expand total recoverable oil reserves by 8% to 20%, equivalent to 10 billion to 30 billion barrels. These efficiency gains may make fossil fuel production more profitable but will ultimately lead to higher carbon emissions. While…

  • Nasa backs orbital hangar to boost space cargo returns

    Nasa has appointed aerospace startup Gravitics to build an orbital hangar designed to make it easier for spacecraft to deliver materials to and from space. The Multiple-Downmass Hangar will be capable of holding multiple return vehicles on a single orbital platform, ready to bring samples and other materials produced in-orbit back to Earth without waiting for a dedicated return flight. Upmass is used to describe the launching of payloads to space, and has become a relatively ubiquitous capability for private firms, especially in recent years with the advent of reusable rockets from SpaceX. But capacity for downmass, which is when payloads are returned back to Earth, is much more difficult and limited. Commercial space applications, such as semiconductor crystal growth, bioprinting and…

  • London Underground expands use of live facial recognition technology

    British Transport Police (BTP) are expanding their use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology from today by deploying it in some of London’s busiest tube stations. The first deployment by the BTP will take place at Victoria Underground station before it is rotated between various stations as the trial, which has now been extended to November, continues. Police forces across the country have been ramping up their use of the technology, despite privacy advocates such as Big Brother Watch expressing concerns that its use is “Orwellian”. The cameras work by scanning faces and comparing them to a watchlist of people who are wanted by the police or courts, or who are subject to conditions designed to protect the public. If there’s a match, then the system generates an alert. An officer…

  • Chinese spy risk exposed on Royal Navy sea drones, report claims

    Chinese-made cameras mounted on British military sea drones were found to be secretly transmitting data to China although the Ministry of Defence (MoD) denies a data breach, according to a report by The Telegraph. A fleet of K3 Scout surveillance drones have been used by the Royal Marines since March 2026 and are due to be deployed for special forces missions in the Gulf. During a routine cyber vulnerability assessment of the drones, the MoD discovered that their cameras were sending what is known as a squark to a Chinese IP address. Also reffered to as a heartbeat communication, a squark signal confirms that a device is powered on and connected, however it can also carry location information. According to The Telegraph report, the MoD was forced to remove all internet connectivity from…

  • Chinese EVs set for record 14.2% share of European market

    Chinese electric cars are on track to reach a record 14.2% market share in Europe in 2026 before hitting a “wall”, according to a new report from Schmidt Automotive Research (SAR). EU tariffs sit at 35.3% for Chinese EVs, on top of the standard 10% import duty. Despite these penalties, Chinese brands including BYD, Chery, SAIC and Xpeng, have targeted Europe for exports, selling 171,800 vehicles across Western Europe in the first five months of 2026, the report states. Italy and the UK have been key entry points for Chinese EVs due to favourable or absent tariffs. The UK does not impose extra anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese EVs unlike the US and the EU. SAR’s analysis shows that the UK leads European imports of Chinese EVs, accounting for roughly a quarter (26%) of sales across the 18…

  • Rising coal prices threaten future of the UK’s heritage steam railways

    The heritage railway sector is struggling with the burden of cripplingly high coal prices that could put the future of traditional, steam train journeys in doubt. The UK’s heritage railway sector is the largest and most developed in the world. According to the Heritage Railway Association (HRA), there are over 170 operational railways, 800 steam locomotives, 1,000 diesel locomotives, 560 miles of track, and 460 stations. But East Lancashire Railway (ELR), which operates a 20km stretch of track that runs between Heywood in Greater Manchester, and Rawtenstall in Lancashire, has warned that recent shocks to the price of coal have seen its operating costs spiral upwards in a dramatic fashion. In 2021, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it was paying approximately £155 per tonne for coal…

  • 30% of UK manufacturers faced hack that disrupted operations in the last year

    Nearly one in three manufacturers (30%) have faced a serious cyber incident in the last year that has impacted their operations, a report from lobby group MakeUK has found. New data shows that while manufacturers are strengthening their cyber security protocols, many firms are still too vulnerable to remote attacks. Furthermore, even if internal defences are robust, a cyber incident at one supplier can quickly affect many others, causing delays, reduced capacity and shortages of components or materials. When compared to other sectors, manufacturing has a distinct cyber risk profile because digital systems are directly connected to physical production. This is particularly true in recent years, with post-Brexit immigration changes and a persistent industrial skill gap forcing manufacturers…

  • Europe’s intense wildfires trigger unexploded WWII bombs

    Wildfires across France and Germany have uncovered and detonated unexploded bombs dating back to World War II and the cold war. Unrelenting heatwaves and severe droughts across Europe this summer have triggered an unprecedented wildfire season. According to data from the European Commission, as of 6 August 2026, over 500,852 hectares or 5,009km2 has been scorched by fire. This exceeds both the area recorded by the same date in 2025 (the worst year on record) and the long-term average of the last 20 years (2006–2025). Two wildfires in particular have seen firefighters working alongside bomb disposal teams as the affected areas are riddled with buried unexploded bombs. In late June and July 2026, wildfires tore through forests in northern and eastern Germany. While these forests are now…

  • Malicious SIM cards could be used to hack smartphones and IoT devices

    Hackers could use malicious SIM cards to carry out cyber-attacks on mobile devices like smartphones, researchers have said. Subscriber Identity Modules, or SIM cards, are the secure element used to connect devices to a mobile network, but they can pose severe security risks when compromised and allow bad actors to gather information about a device, interfere with its connectivity, and serve as entry point for further cyberattacks. University of Birmingham researchers exploited a feature known as Proactive SIM to allow them to send a limited number of special commands directly to a device’s modem. One of them allows the SIM to request the execution of so-called AT commands – the same type of commands used to control and configure modems since the 1980’s. The researchers investigated 26…

  • Xiaomi launches Range Rover-esque SUVs with 1085-mile range

    Chinese tech brand Xiaomi has entered the hybrid market with two Range Rover-esque SUVs that feature an electric range of up to 315 miles. Both of the SUVs - SkyNomad N70 and N90 - pair a 1.5-litre petrol engine with 76 kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery packs. Once the electric battery is depleted, the engine can power the vehicle for an additional 770 miles, offering a total combined range of roughly 1085 miles. Fuel consumption with the battery depleted is quoted at 6.26 litres per 100km for the N90, meaning the vehicle will consume 6.26 litres of petrol to drive a distance of 62 miles. Xiaomi claims that a 20% to 80% battery charge will take about 20 minutes. The 112kW engine acts purely as a generator and never directly drives the wheels. Instead, motive power comes from a…

  • 100% of England's surface water polluted with toxic ‘forever chemicals’

    Data from the Environment Agency (EA) shows that not a single surface waterway in the country meets safety standards for chemical pollution. The EA data also revealed that only 14.3% of England’s rivers, lakes and estuaries achieved good ecological status. The data is from a 2025 dataset under the Water Framework Directive Regulations (WFDR), retained EU legislation that sets a range of standards covering wildlife, water quality and physical habitat. The dataset covers a six year period and when previously published in 2019 the figure was 16.3%. However, the EA stressed that this year’s data could not be directly compared with 2019 because the EU has introduce more stringent methods for monitoring water quality. Surface water bodies are classified as high, good, moderate, poor or bad…

  • American Airlines undertakes commercial flight with fuel made from captured CO2

    American Airlines (AA) has undertaken a flight using electro sustainable aviation fuel (eSAF), which is created from captured carbon dioxide and produced with renewable energy. The firm has a partnership with Infinium which has been making eSAF at its factory since 2023. It is made using waste carbon dioxide and renewable electricity in a process that can reduce emissions by 90% compared to conventional petroleum-based jet fuel. The eSAF batch was blended with conventional jet fuel and can be used in today’s commercial aircraft engines and fuelling infrastructure without further modification. While SAF is touted as a way to lower emissions in the aviation sector in the short term, it cannot be used on its own and needs to be mixed with regular jet fuel to act as a drop-in replacement…

  • Heat pump turns low-temperature waste heat into cooling

    A noiseless and vibration-free heat pump system that uses industrial waste heat as low as 40°C to generate cooling has been developed by Korean researchers. While conventional air conditioning systems use vast amounts of electricity, a research team at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) have developed a heat pump system that is powered using waste heat that would usually dissipate into the atmosphere. If located near a factory or a data centre, the warm exhaust streams - around 40°C - generated by these facilities could power the chemical adsorption heat pump system to provide cooling to nearby public buildings such as hospitals and schools or, indeed, to provide cooling to the data centre itself. According to the team, whereas conventional adsorption cooling systems…

  • SpaceX rocket stage crashes into the Moon, leaving new crater

    The upper stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has unintentionally crashed into the Moon and is expected to leave a new crater on its surface. Observations made by researchers at the Very Large Telescope in Chile confirmed that the impact occurred, and a plume was detected via its chemical fingerprint. Falcon 9 rockets use a two-stage design – the first stage, known as the booster is capable of returning back to Earth and landing vertically for reuse. But the second stage normally accelerates the payload to its target orbit after which it is discarded, eventually returning to Earth and often burning up during re-entry. This particular Falcon 9 upper stage, however, was discarded in a location where it was unable to re-enter the atmosphere. It is believed to be part of a rocket launch from…

  • Drone delivers defibrillator directly to remote cardiac arrest emergency in Sweden

    A defibrillator-carrying drone has been used as part of life-saving cardiac arrest response in Sweden, potentially saving a man’s life. The automated external defibrillator (AED) was delivered to the location from a recently opened drone base in Borås, located in the country’s Västra Götaland Region (VGR). Its dispatch forms part of VGR’s emergency drone programme, under which drones are automatically dispatched alongside ambulances to suspected cardiac arrests. On 19 July, the drone flew autonomously from the Borås base to the scene in less than three minutes, where the AED was lowered via a winch from an altitude of approximately 30 metres. While one bystander was delivering CPR to the patient, a man in his 60s, someone else removed the AED from the winch and followed real-time instructions…

  • Rooftop rainwater harvesting could keep cities cool during heatwaves

    Recycling rainwater from city rooftops to cool buildings could help to lessen the intensity of extreme heat events, a study has found. University of Manchester researchers have showed that collecting rainwater from rooftops and using it to spray buildings during hot weather cuts air conditioning use and reduces the impact of heatwaves. While urban watering technologies are used to help cool cities, they are only effective if there is water available, which is often severely restricted during a heatwave. The alternative is air conditioning systems but the disadvantage of these is that their operation increases energy demand, while the waste heat released further contributes to urban heating. In their study, the researchers developed a system that collects rainwater from rooftops and then…

  • Gatwick to proceed with £2.2bn second runway after legal challenge fails

    Gatwick Airport will proceed with plans to build a second runway, after a legal challenge brought by local campaigners was dismissed in court. The Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign had been fighting the Department for Transport’s decision to approve the plans, arguing that the government had not properly assessed the climate impact of the scheme. But the Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier High Court judgement that found the government’s approval process was lawful and that the legal grounds for appeal had no realistic prospect of success. Gatwick was given permission to build a £2.2bn second runway in September last year. It will allow the airport to increase its flight capacity by around 100,000 a year. While the airport already has an emergency Northern Runway that runs parallel…

  • Jodrell Bank faces £2.8m funding cut as 200 public figures call for action

    More than 200 public figures - including musicians, writers and scientists - have signed an open letter to the UK government to save the historic Jodrell Bank observatory from ‘foolish and short-sighted’ funding cuts. Owned and managed by the University of Manchester, the Jodrell Bank Observatory is a world-renowned deep space research facility located in Cheshire. Opened in 1957, the site features the iconic 76-metre-wide Lovell Telescope, which was the world's largest steerable dish radio telescope at the time of its completion. Vital space research is carried out at the facility, which has been recognised as a Unesco world heritage site. Last week (27 July), the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) officially announced the decision…

  • Engineers convert dissolved seawater CO2 into permanent mineral storage

    A technology that converts carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater into a solid mineral has demonstrated continuous carbon removal, according to a new study. The research team, led by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), developed a system known as electrochemical dissolved ocean carbon removal (e-DOC). The technology works by converting carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved in seawater into calcium carbonate, a solid mineral commonly found in rocks such as limestone and chalk. In this form, the carbon can be permanently stored and prevented from returning to the atmosphere, effectively helping the ocean to continuously absorb new CO2. The ocean is the planet’s largest carbon reservoir, absorbing about 30%…

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