• Ofgem approves £24bn grid upgrade that could raise bills by £104

    Ofgem has approved an initial £24bn investment in Britain’s energy networks that could see consumer bills rise to cover the cost. The regulator said the funds will be used to make the grid more robust amid an influx of new renewable energy facilities and greater energy demand from data centres and the electrification of industrial processes. Over £15bn will be invested in Britain’s gas transmission networks to ensure ongoing safe and secure supplies to households, while an £8.9bn investment is being committed to Britain’s high-voltage electricity network. A further £1.3bn will go towards expanding the grid. The queue for connecting new projects to the grid is massively oversubscribed and being held up by stalled or speculative projects – some of which are not even at the construction…

  • Beta version of gov.uk app now available for public download

    The gov.uk app can now be downloaded in public beta format, with further development to follow later in the year. The gov.uk website is visited 88 million times every month by people looking for information and completing tasks. With the new gov.uk app, some of these tasks relating to public services can now be completed via a smartphone. Technology secretary Peter Kyle said: “By putting public services in your pocket, we will do away with clunky paper forms and hours spent on hold so you can immediately get the information you need and continue on with the rest of your day.” In January 2025, the government announced that it was to launch the gov.uk app by the summer. While this deadline has been reached with the release of a beta format, the app is incomplete with “new tools and…

  • Major Bluetooth headphone brands hit by unpatched security flaw

    Three vulnerabilities have been identified in Bluetooth headphones made by the likes of Sony, Jabra and Marshall that could allow attackers to eavesdrop on conversations or retrieve call history and stored contacts. The headphones all use chipsets manufactured by Airoha – a firm that has become a large supplier in the Bluetooth audio space, especially for True Wireless Stereo earbuds. Security researchers ERNW found that “powerful custom protocols” could be executed on the devices through attacks that give read and write access to either the RAM or the flash storage. Crucially, they can be executed by attackers who are not paired with the devices – they merely need to be within Bluetooth range. ENRW said it did not want to “disclose too many details” including the specifics of the vulnerabilities…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Royal train to be retired by 2027 in cost-cutting drive

    The British royal train will be decommissioned by 2027, Buckingham Palace has announced, as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures. The royal train was first commissioned under Queen Victoria. The Sovereign Grant is paid annually to the monarch from the Treasury to fund the monarch’s official duties, including transport costs. James Chalmers, keeper of the privy purse, said scrapping the train would help to keep transport costs in check after a rise of about £500,000 in the last year. “The royal train, of course, has been part of national life for many decades, loved and cared for by all those involved,” he said. “But in moving forward, we must not be bound by the past. Just as so many parts of the royal household’s work have been modernised and adapted to reflect the world of today…

  • First drone traffic system to prevent midair collisions approved by FAA

    The first uncrewed aircraft traffic management system designed specifically to prevent mid-air collisions between drones has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval and is now operational. With drones and air taxis likely to become a prominent feature of our future skies, drone traffic management will be a growing issue. To avoid drone-on-drone collisions, US research university Virginia Tech has formed the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), supported by Nasa and the FAA. MAAP has created a drone traffic management system that enables governments and industry to share data about their flight operations. The aim is that this information will help deconflict drone flights quickly and safely. John Coggin, MAAP’s associate director, said: “This is a…

  • Bioprinting method marks ‘critical step’ towards ending insulin injections

    3D-printed human islets could lead to a more effective and less invasive treatment for type 1 diabetes. The ‘breakthrough’ research was presented by a group of international scientists at the biennial European Society for Organ Transplantation Congress currently taking place in London. The researchers developed a method for 3D printing human islets – insulin-producing cells held in the pancreas – using a customised bioink made from alginate and decellularised human pancreatic tissue. The durable, high-density islet structures remained alive and functional for up to three weeks, during which time they maintained strong insulin responses to glucose, according to the researchers. Bioprinting is a growing field focused on creating functional tissues and organs for transplantation and research…

  • British car makers gearing up for bumper shipments to the US as trade deal begins

    With the US-UK trade deal taking effect today, British car makers are getting ready to send a series of major shipments across the Atlantic to meet pent-up demand. US President Donald Trump imposed a range of tariffs on foreign-made goods in April in an attempt to rebalance what he perceived as trade deficits. The US initially raised tariffs on UK-made cars to 25% for all passenger vehicles and light trucks; this was on top of a flat 10% tariff on most other UK goods. But following negotiations with the UK government, the tariffs will now be dropped to a less stringent 10% on the first 100,000 cars exported to the US. The US was the UK’s largest export market for cars in 2024 – making up 27.4% of total exports. With around 102,000 vehicles exported last year, the vast majority should be…

  • Work begins on the UK’s future nuclear-powered attack submarines

    UK defence firm Babcock has announced it has started building key components for the SSN-AUKUS next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine programme. Babcock disclosed the update in its recently published report Preliminary results for the year ending 31 March 2025. The report revealed Babcock’s contribution to next-generation submarine programmes with the announcement of new contracts secured during the past financial year. “Our Mission Systems business was awarded two significant contracts in FY25. These included a contract for Long Lead Items for the Astute replacement, Submersible Ship Nuclear AUKUS (SSNA), enabling us to place orders for the first elements of the Weapon Handling and Launch System,” the report stated. The submarines will be built under the AUKUS pact – a trilateral…

  • Satellite constellation to scan Earth every 20 minutes to catch wildfires early

    Muon Space has released the first images from its upcoming satellite constellation that will be able to scan the Earth’s surface every 20 minutes to find incidences of wildfires. The Google-backed project sent its first prototype ‘FireSat’ into orbit on 14 March aboard SpaceX’s Transporter-13 mission. The satellite is equipped with a six-channel multispectral infrared (IR) instrument designed to be able to detect and monitor thermal activity happening on the Earth’s surface. The first images sent back were able to identify distinct vegetation, moisture and heat sources including urban heat islands, active airport runways and water temperature variations. Muon Space said the images demonstrate the technology’s ability to distinguish between different thermal signatures across large areas…

  • HS2 completes 8.4-mile tunnel under London despite wider delays to project

    HS2 has completed excavation on the 8.4-mile-long Northolt Tunnel under London in what will be a major artery for the upcoming rail route. Construction on HS2’s second-longest tunnel started in October 2022 and will eventually take trains between West Ruislip on the outer edge of the capital and the new Old Oak Common super-hub station in west London. A tunnel-boring machine (TBM) named Anne finally completed its work yesterday after 14 months of digging and installed the last concrete ring underground before emerging into a vent shaft at Green Park Way in Greenford. Anne will be lifted out of the shaft later this year. Four machines of similar stature were used to build the tunnel that lies about 35 metres below ground at its deepest point. Two were used to build the five-mile western…

  • Dyson’s ‘ferris-wheel’ vertical growing system boosts strawberry yields by 250%

    A trial of a hybrid vertical growing system in Dyson Farming’s 26-acre strawberry glasshouse on its Lincolnshire farm has massively boosted yields. James Dyson’s farming business Dyson Farming owns around 36,000 acres of farmland across Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, West Berkshire, Somerset and Gloucestershire. This makes it the single largest farming business in the UK by land area. Dyson Farming’s initiative to “invest in the future of sustainable British agriculture” was launched in 2013 with the purchase of Nocton Estate near Lincoln. The aim of purchasing this farmland was to apply technology to grow food “sustainably, at scale and in harmony with the environment”. Among the variety of crops grown by the business are 1,225,000 strawberry plants at its 26-acre glasshouse in Lincolnshire…

  • £24bn Moroccan solar power project rejected by UK government

    A proposed infrastructure link connecting the Moroccan energy grid with the UK has been dropped by the government due to it not being in the “UK national interest at this time”. The UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has rejected the £24bn power project to bring solar and wind power from the Moroccan desert to the UK via 3,800km-long high-voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables. If built it would be the world’s longest undersea power cable. Led by developer Xlinks with financial backing from a number of partners including Octopus Energy Group, the project included a proposal to create 10.5GW of renewable generation, 20GWh of battery storage and a 3.6GW HVDC interconnector. With Morocco’s consistent weather, Xlinks said the solar panels could produce…

  • Private jet emissions now exceed all Heathrow flights, soaring 25% in a decade

    Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private jets have soared by 25% over the past decade and now account for nearly 4% of all civil aviation emissions, a study has found. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), private jets produced roughly 19.5 million tonnes of GHG emissions in 2023, which is more than that produced from all flights, including commercial airliners, departing London Heathrow airport in 2023. Private jets are estimated to be five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than commercial flights because they carry fewer passengers, creating a higher carbon footprint for each individual on board. The report attempts to improve our understanding of aviation’s environmental impact by providing the first detailed global mapping of private jet…

  • Radioactive waste-sorting robots to accelerate nuclear plant decommissioning

    Robots will be used to remotely and autonomously sort and segregate radioactive waste at defunct nuclear sites. Manual segregation of radioactive waste at nuclear sites being decommissioned is a complex and hazardous process. Robotics could help automate this time-consuming process while also removing humans from these hazardous environments. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has announced the £9.5m project Auto-SAS, in collaboration with Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) and Sellafield and Nuclear Waste Services, to develop automated systems and robotics to address decommissioning challenges. The aim of the project is to ultimately accelerate the decommissioning of nuclear sites “safely and cost-effectively”. The project will be delivered by ARCTEC, a partnership of engineering…

  • WhatsApp adds AI message summaries as US officials raise security concerns

    WhatsApp has added AI-powered private summaries for messages as Meta looks to further integrate AI into its social media platforms. The tool will be able to “privately and quickly” summarise the contents of unread messages for users at the top of the chat window. WhatsApp has used an end-to-end encryption model for messages since 2016 that means third parties cannot covertly intercept or read them. Meta said the AI functionality would not compromise the encrypted features, with message summaries using “Private Processing technology” that allows Meta AI to generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp seeing the messages themselves or the private summaries. The feature is also off by default, with users able to switch it on through the Advanced Chat Privacy settings. It is initially rolling…

  • BAE Systems opens 170 metre shipbuilding facility in Glasgow for Royal Navy warships

    The new Janet Harvey Hall at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Govan, located on the south bank of the River Clyde, will be used to assemble and outfit Royal Navy warships. A multi-million-pound investment by BAE Systems, the hall has the capacity to build two Type 26 frigates simultaneously side-by-side. The facility will help the defence company speed up its delivery of eight Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy. The Type 26 frigate is an advanced warship designed primarily for anti-submarine warfare. Currently, HMS Belfast and HMS Birmingham are being built in the hall. HMS Glasgow and HMS Cardiff are being outfitted at BAE Systems’ Scotstoun site further up the River Clyde and steel has been cut on HMS Sheffield. The new hall features two 100-tonne cranes and two 20-tonne cranes. With 500…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Trump-branded smartphone website quietly removes ‘Made in USA’ claim

    Speculation is mounting that Donald Trump’s soon-to-be-released mobile phone may not be produced in the US after all, after despite initial claims on its official website. Last week, the Trump Organization launched Trump Mobile, unveiling a $47.45 per month wireless plan dubbed ‘The 47 Plan’ and a $499 Android smartphone branded the ‘T1’. The service, which features patriotic imagery and Trump’s campaign slogan, was originally set to launch in September and is priced higher than many comparable plans. The website initially stated that the phone would be “built in the United States”, but did not clarify what elements of the supply chain specifically would be handled domestically. But experts had questioned this claim due to the lack of a robust supply chain and manufacturing facilities in…

  • E+T | Eccentric Engineer - Long before the Model T....

    Not only did Henry Ford make the motor car available to the wider public, he also invented the automated production line. Or did he? In fact, the Venetians had automated ship production several centuries before, floating one ship a day off the production line - and allowed them to rule to waves.

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Faulty laser led to private lander crashing on the Moon, says ispace

    The crash of a commercial spacecraft on the surface of the Moon this month was due to problems with the vehicle’s laser range finder (LRF), Japanese firm ispace has said. As the Resilience lunar lander began its descent on 5 June, mission control suddenly lost all contact with the craft two minutes before it was scheduled for a soft touchdown. The proposed landing site for the mission was the far northern Mare Frigoris – a location chosen because it allows for continuous line-of-sight radio communication from Earth. But by the following morning, ispace issued an update saying that mission controllers had determined that it was “unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored” and had decided to conclude the mission entirely. After analysing the data from the landing sequence…

  • Aviation now responsible for more UK carbon emissions than entire electricity sector

    Aviation now contributes a greater share of total UK emissions than the entire electricity supply sector, putting future climate change targets at risk, a report has found. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), which acts as an advisory body to the government, said that domestic emissions have now fallen by more than half (50.4%) compared with 1990 levels. The pace of reduction has more than doubled since the introduction of the Climate Change Act in 2008. But progress to date has been primarily driven by decarbonisation of the electricity system, with renewables replacing both coal and, increasingly, gas. Aviation is a much more difficult sector to abate emissions from and consumers have embraced more frequent air travel in recent years. Due to these factors, the sector now contributes…

  • Air taxi passenger comfort assessed in Nasa simulator study

    To better understand how passengers may experience future travel by air taxi, Nasa researchers have carried out studies using a vertical motion simulator. Turbulence can severely affect a passenger’s experience of flying. As turbulence can cause discomfort, anxiety and motion sickness, airlines aim to avoid it as much as possible. With the possibility of our skies being filled with new types of aircraft in the future, including air taxis, Nasa has been conducting research to evaluate how air taxi motion, vibration and other factors may affect ride comfort. The future of air taxi transport depends on whether people will actually want to ride these aircraft. These studies have tried to assess what passengers will and will not tolerate. Nasa has said the data gathered from the research…

  • UK’s modern industrial strategy welcomed by industry as a ‘big step in the right direction’

    The UK government has launched its long-awaited industrial strategy, with businesses welcoming support through trade investment, skills training and lower energy prices. Published on Monday (23 June), the 10-year plan is intended to increase business investment and drive growth in the UK economy. At its launch, Jonathan Reynolds, business and trade secretary, said the strategy would “ensure the UK is the best country to invest and do business”. The strategy comes shortly after the recent spending review, where Rachel Reeves committed £39bn for affordable homes and £15bn for transport improvements across the North and Midlands, as well as an £86bn boost for science and tech R&D, £14.2bn to build Sizewell C, and £2.5bn for small modular reactors. The 160-page strategy white paper sets…

  • Industry insight: Why engineers should stop trying to break AI and start designing with it

    This article has been provided by Aly MacGregor, property executive at WSP Have you heard the one about an AI that couldn’t create an image of a bike with square wheels, since all its training data had bikes with round wheels? You could take that as a humorous illustration of AI’s limitations – or a cautionary tale of the limitations of human engineers. Most engineers I know take a degree of pleasure in demonstrating how clever they are, in this case outwitting AI. Yet, I question whether that’s the best demonstration of intelligence. After all, breaking a model isn’t necessarily that hard, if that’s your goal. We would be far smarter and better served to figure out new ways to use AI to address more meaningful questions. Instead of figuring out how to break a model, engineers should…

  • Shoebox-sized satellite launched to test ultra-secure quantum communications

    A nano satellite known as QUICK³ has been blasted into orbit to test components for use in future quantum satellite systems to be used for secure communications. The satellite, developed by a research consortium headed by Technical University of Munich professor Tobias Vogl, was launched into orbit with a booster rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Monday. The satellite, which is no bigger than a shoebox and weighs around 4kg, will test quantum communication components that will achieve fully secure data transmissions from the sender to the receiver. Unlike conventional communications through fibre-optic cables, the information transmitted by a quantum communication satellite is not contained in light pulses made up of many photons, but rather in individual, precisely…

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