• Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2 expected to be scrapped

    Sky News announced the rumour minutes before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt took to the stage at the Conservative Party Conference. Speculation about the future of the project has been circulating for weeks, but both Hunt and Sunak have refused to comment on the future of this section of the high-speed rail link a number of times. HS2 was given the go-ahead in 2020, despite a decade of sharply rising costs and repeated delays to the original project timeframe. The cost of completing the project has ballooned from £33bn a decade ago to an estimated £100bn today. The Independent recently reported that ministers were considering shelving the northern phase amid concerns about increasing costs and severe delays. It said a cost estimate it had seen revealed that the government has already spent £2…

  • Extreme weather: the technologies used to combat climate change

    At the end of last year, the United Nations Foundation reflected that 2022 was a “split screen” in terms of climate change. The world, it said, had taken “several important steps to curb the climate crisis while its impacts continued to worsen”, reminding us of the “increasingly severe and irreversible consequences” of an increase in temperature with floods, record-breaking heatwaves, severe drought in Africa, forest fires and cyclones throughout the year. Cyclones  Cyclones are tropical rainstorms with strong, rotating winds, formed when low pressure is created in the oceans near the equator.  Thunderstorms move across the surface of the ocean and if the surface water is warm (i.e. 27°C/80°F), the storm sucks up the heat energy from the water and carries it in the converging winds. The…

  • Meta’s AI chatbot to feature over 25 personalities

    Speaking at the tech giant’s annual Meta Connect conference, the company’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, pictured, announced its AI chatbots will have “personality” and be played by celebrities and influencers.  Kendall Jenner, Charli D’Amelio, Dwyane Wade,  MrBeast, Naomi Osaka, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady are some of the celebrities who have partnered with Meta to play the AI characters, which will all have specific identities and hobbies. Paris Hilton’s Amber is “a detective partner for solving whodunnits”, while Tom Brady’s Bru is described as a “wisecracking sports debater who pulls no punches”.  The goal is for the Meta AI virtual assistants to be able to answer queries or craft responses in a fashion similar to ChatGPT and other programmes. The personalities will be…

  • MoD approves £4bn in contracts to build UK’s next-gen submarines

    The submarines will be built under the AUKUS pact – a trilateral security agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, designed to assist Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines. The pact also includes cooperation on artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities and electronic warfare. The UK’s next-generation nuclear-powered attack submarine programme, known as SSN-AUKUS, will see the construction of the largest and most powerful attack submarines the Royal Navy has ever operated, which will replace the Astute class currently in operation. BAE Systems started early design work in 2021, but the £3.95bn funding will cover development work up to 2028. It will enable the defence firm to move into the detailed design phase of the programme and begin to…

  • Water firms propose billpayers fund a £96bn plan to improve infrastructure

    “This investment is essential to maintain the highest-quality drinking water for a growing population, ensure the security of our water supply in the future and significantly reduce the amount of sewage entering rivers and seas,” said Water UK, which represents the sector. The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee recently warned that continued underinvestment would have serious consequences for the environment and the security of water supplies. It also found that Ofwat needed to go further to hold water companies to account for environmental pollution as well as ensure that companies invest sufficiently in infrastructure. Water UK said that under its proposed £96bn investment regime, for the 2025-30 funding period, the number of households receiving support with bills would…

  • Nasa validates a new AI-enabled form of energy

    During the Energy & Mobility Conference & Expo in Cleveland, Ohio, the two organisations presented a lternating direct current (ADC), a hybrid of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla technologies.  The research has been led by Nasa Langley Research Center scientist Narasimha Prasad PhD, with the goal of developing an AI-enabled technology that upgrades the entire foundation of energy. Currently, the energy sector relies on two different forms of energy:  alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) transmissions. In contrast, ADC has been defined as a hybrid form of energy transmission using AC and DC on the same wires. The new energy transmission option has been identified as safer and much less wasteful than the current two – especially when incorporating renewable energy sources.  According…

  • The new Moon race: behind India and China's space ambitions

    The race to the Moon is on – once again. Half a century after humans set foot on the lunar surface for the last time, nations are back at the drawing board, designing missions to reach the Earth’s only satellite. This time, they intend to stay. Towards the end of summer, two nations fought to become the first to land in a spacecraft at the Moon’s south pole. Luna 25 – the first Russian probe to set for the Moon in 47 years – was launched first. However, the spacecraft “ceased to exist” after suffering a technical glitch that sent it crashing into the lunar surface. Two days later, India launched Chandrayaan 3, becoming the first nation to land in the Moon’s south pole, and doing so with a budget of only $74m. Perhaps surprisingly, the US was not among the participants in the race, although…

  • Dear Evil Engineer: Could I hurl satellites into orbit with a trebuchet?

    Dear Evil Engineer, After several years working for a reusable rocket start-up in the US, I feel ready to take a risk and start my own business. I am interested in stylish, sustainable alternatives to rocket launches – something to set my offering apart from all of those the other private space companies jostling for contracts. My big idea is to revive and reimagine an iconic bit of engineering history: the trebuchet. We have access to materials and techniques today that would allow for trebuchets of unprecedented size to be constructed, if there is a business case for it, and I know from my years in the industry that there is demand for cheaper, lower-carbon launches. But is it possible to launch a satellite into orbit with a trebuchet? Yours, Not quite a villain   Dear Not quite…

  • Planning laws relaxed for undersea cable linking Moroccan and UK energy grids

    The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project is a proposal to create 10.5GW of renewable generation, 20GWh of battery storage and a 3.6GW high-voltage direct current interconnector to carry solar- and wind-generated electricity from Morocco to the UK. As Morocco has far more consistent weather, it should provide consistent solar power to the UK, even in midwinter. The solar panels are expected to produce three times more energy than they would in the UK. Coutinho has confirmed that the proposal has been given the ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project’ status, which means it can bypass normal local planning requirements in a bid to get it built faster. The designation is typically given to upcoming power plants, large renewable energy projects, new airports and major road projects. Xlinks…

  • Secret London spy tunnels to become WWII museum

    A network of tunnels used during World War II and the Cold War, located underneath Kingsway, near High Holborn, are set to become the capital’s latest tourist attraction.  The BT Group has agreed to sell the tunnels to London Tunnels Ltd, a consortium led by Australian banker Angus Murray and backed by a private equity fund.  The firm will invest £140m in restoring the site and an additional £80m for the installation of interactive screens and other museum features. London Tunnels has selected WSP to conduct the engineering surveys on the site and design the new museum. Also working on the project will be  WilkinsonEyre, the architect behind Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay and London’s Battersea Power Station.  Known as the Kingsway Exchange Tunnels, the network features over 8,000 square…

  • Ban on various single-use plastics comes into force this weekend

    According to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), people living in England use 2.7 billion single-use plastic cutlery items and 721 million single-use plates every year, with only 10 per cent of them being recycled. From Sunday, businesses will be banned from using various items in England, while the supply of single-use plastic plates, trays and bowls has also been restricted. Plastic pollution typically takes hundreds of years to break down, inflicts environmental damage and spreads microplastics, which could be harmful to human health. “This new ban is the next big step in our mission to crack down on harmful plastic waste. It will protect the environment and help to cut litter – stopping plastic pollution from dirtying our streets and threatening our wildlife…

  • How mechanics found in nature could make quantum computing a reality

    The travelling salesperson problem does not sound like a major quandary. The task? Compute the shortest possible route between a list of destinations and return to base. Unfortunately, although it’s conceptually simple to work it out, no one has come up with an algorithm that is efficient enough to run at speed for tasks with more than a short list of destinations. The naive approach of adding up the total distances for all possible routes results in a combinatorial explosion of calculations. Computer scientists have tried all manner of tricks to bring it down from the order of n-factorial needed for the naive approach. But you still wind up with a running time on the order of two to the power of the number of destinations. If you aren’t scheduling an entire lifetime of sales visits, that…

  • ‘High-entropy’ semiconductor could be processed at room temperature

    S emiconductors are key to the development of almost every electronic device. However, f orming semiconductor materials from sand consumes a significant amount of heat-intensive energy, as it can only be done at extremely high temperatures. In order to make this process more energy-efficient, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have developed ‘multielement ink’, the first ‘high-entropy’ semiconductor that can be processed at low or room temperature.  “The traditional way of making semiconductor devices is energy-intensive and one of the major sources of carbon emissions,” said Peidong Yang, the senior author on the study. “Our new method of making semiconductors could pave the way for a more sustainable semiconductor industry.” The new…

  • National Grid ‘cautiously optimistic’ the UK will avoid blackouts this winter

    The operator said it anticipated a margin of around 4.4 GW, or 7.4 per cent excess generation at peak times, which is slightly higher than last year’s 3.7GW. It said a combination of factors were responsible for the higher margins for this winter, including more generation being available, as well as increased levels of battery storage. Last winter, the energy markets across Europe were able to cope with consumer demand, despite record-high prices of gas and oil driven by the Ukraine war. Coordination and cooperation across European electricity systems helped to meet the demand – if one country was producing excess energy, interconnectors would be used to transport this to other areas of the continent where demand outstripped supply. This winter, both European gas storage and French…

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  • Scotland can't afford its ambitious infrastructure plan, auditor warns

    Scotland is expected to miss its infrastructure targets and will be forced to pause several of its schedule projects despite “significant” need , the public spending watchdog has said.  The latest Audit Scotland report has found that the Scottish government is faced with a combination of reduced capital budgets, higher costs and increased maintenance requirements that would make it unable to afford the cost of delivering its public sector infrastructure plan.  As a result, plans for improving and building roads, railways and hospitals might be paused.  The auditor said it expects a cost increase for the 45 infrastructure projects of at least £55m between December 2022 and June 2023, while ministers expect a 7 per cent real-terms reduction in the capital block grant it receives from the…

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  • Fingernail-sized robot autonomously travels 10 metres without battery power

    Moving robots typically demand a lot of energy, which requires a battery that only has a limited lifetime. Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have created MilliMobile, which is equipped with a solar panel-like energy harvester and four wheels. The robot is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move roughly the length of a bus (approximately 10 metres) in an hour, even on a cloudy day. Image credit: Mark Stone University Of Washington The robot can also drive on surfaces such as concrete or packed soil and carry nearly three times its own weight in equipment, such as a camera or sensors. It uses a light sensor to move automatically toward light sources so it can run indefinitely on harvested power. “We took inspiration from…

  • Britain to build the world's most powerful laser

    The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has been awarded £85m to upgrade its Vulcan system, with the aim of turning it into the most powerful laser in the world. The Central Laser Facility’s (CLF’s) current Vulcan laser has been delivering 1 petawatt (PW) pulses for more than 25 years. In contrast, the new laser will feature one beam capable of delivering 20PW pulses, alongside eight additional high-intensity beams producing a pulse energy of up to 20kJ. The updated Vulcan 20-20 will support the work of scientists studying nuclear fusion, plasma, new renewable energy sources and electromagnetic fields. “This is a 20-fold increase in power, which is expected to make it the most powerful laser in the world,” said funding body UK Research and Innovation. The laser is expected…

  • Averting Armageddon: the mission that knocked an asteroid off course

    From the threat of artificial intelligence taking over the world to governments admitting to the presence of UFOs, we seem to be living in an era when the wildest imaginings of science fiction have unexpectedly morphed into reality. When the 1998 disaster movie Armageddon told the far-fetched story of a mission into space to destroy a meteor the size of Texas to prevent it from hitting Earth, few would have believed that a real planetary defence system would smash into an asteroid just over a couple of decades later. The Hollywood blockbuster is riddled with scientific inaccuracies, but its central premise of creating an explosion to knock an asteroid off course played out in our solar system in September last year when Nasa’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) successfully impacted…

  • Forecast Catastrophe: how a network of sensors saves lives in Colombia

    If she has saved one life, that’s enough for Lina Cabellos, engineer, meteorologist and the driving force behind the Colombian city of Medellín’s ingenious early warning system – and that’s the answer she gives authorities when they ask about value for money.  “Part of our success is to convince the government that these are services worth paying for,” she says. “Any life is worth saving. Here where we live in Medellín, emergencies happen all the time.” If the United Nations had its way, there’d be more networks like these, which reap insights from both technology and people on the ground to warn of impending danger.  Only half of the world’s nations, many of them prone to extreme weather, have any kind of early warning system in place, as do just a third of small island states, “which…

  • FTC and 17 states sue Amazon for illegally maintaining market dominance

    The US competition regulator and 17 state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against the e-commerce giant after completing a year-long investigation into its business model. It is considered one of the biggest legal challenges the company has faced since its inception in 1994. In the filing , the FTC alleged that Amazon maintained its dominant position in the marketplace through a series of “anti-competitive and unfair” strategies that harmed competitors.  Amazon has denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and law”. As part of the suit, the FTC has asked the court to issue a permanent injunction that would prohibit Amazon from engaging in its unlawful conduct and loosen its “monopolistic control to restore competition”. “The complaint sets forth detailed…

  • A warm welcome to E+T

    We have been busy exploring different ways of delivering great content to our readers, and I’d like to share some updates, along with our plans for the future direction of E+T. E+T is our flagship publication that provides all of you, our 154,000 global IET members, with a credible and informative voice that challenges thinking to drive important change within the sector.  We have been conducting a review of all the different elements of E+T to see how we can  best enhance the portfolio we offer, evolving the solutions we provide for readers and remaining digitally innovative and relevant.  We want to balance the focus on print and digital to grow E+T’s impact, while leveraging publishing industry best practice to continuously evolve our digital content. Our vision for the new E+T is…

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  • UK carbon capture projects consider moving abroad for more financial support

    According to a study from the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), greater support for the sector could secure around £40bn of inward investment by 2030. But without this, many projects are thinking about moving to countries that are backing the technology more vigorously. The CCSA wants the government to accelerate permitting and consenting options for carbon capture projects, make efforts to build public support for the sector and ensure “timely delivery” of its promised £20bn funding, which was announced in the Spring Budget. Since March 2022, the number of projects planned for the UK has grown from 55 to more than 90 – with enough schemes now in the pipeline to capture around 94 million tonnes of CO2 per year – up 29 per cent from 73 million tonnes last year. This is equivalent…

  • Development on controversial Rosebank oil field given the go-ahead

    The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) gave consent to owners Equinor and Ithaca Energy to start developing at Rosebank, which is the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield. An NSTA spokesperson said: “We have today approved the Rosebank Field Development Plan, which allows the owners to proceed with their project. “The Field Development Plan is awarded in accordance with our published guidance and taking net zero considerations into account throughout the project’s life cycle.” It announced plans to issue more than 100 new oil and gas drilling licences in October last year in a bid to “boost” the UK’s energy sector, despite backlash from climate scientists. At the time, business and energy secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted that the new exploration was compatible with the government’s legal…

  • UK tech sector valued at £817bn

    UK tech start-ups are valued at $996.8bn (£817bn), up from $988bn (£812bn) last year, following a surge in the use of artificial intelligence tools.  The valuation places the UK as the third-largest global tech player, behind the US and China. The numbers come as part of a new ‘Data Commons’ initiative from analysis firm Dealroom and HSBC Innovation Banking. The latter was launched earlier this summer and includes the former Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK), which collapsed in March .  The two organisations have partnered to analyse the overall health of the start-up and innovation industry in the UK, tracking data including job openings, active investors and capital injected into the UK.  Their findings also showed that venture capital investment into UK start-ups has significantly…

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