• Nationalisation of Thames Water closer as government objects to rescue deal

    The government has objected to a proposed £10bn rescue deal from Thames Water’s creditors, a move that could bring the water company a step closer towards public ownership. In recent years, Thames Water, one of the biggest water and sewerage companies in the UK, has increasingly found itself in hot water – mostly due to the nearly £15bn debt it has racked up. A 2023 analysis of its accounts showed that the firm had repeatedly made cuts and underinvested in critical water infrastructure in the south-east of England, while at the same time paying out billions to shareholders. To help claw its way out of its debts, the private firm stated in 2024 that it would require an increase in customer bills of 40% (59% after accounting for inflation). The industry regulator Ofwat rejected these…

  • £219m to boost UK homegrown sustainable aviation fuel production

    The UK government has announced a new Low Carbon Fuels Fund (LCFF) to scale up domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Due to launch later this summer, the £219m funding programme aims to position the UK as global SAF production hub. According to the government, the sector will support more than 15,000 jobs and add up to £5bn to the UK economy by 2050. Commenting on the announcement, aviation, maritime and decarbonisation minister Keir Mather said that the investment will help to ensure that the “UK leads the world in the fuels that will power the future of flight”. Of the fund, £93m will be made available in the next month to UK companies that are looking to develop and scale up SAF production. Applications will open in mid-July and those closest to the actual production…

  • Threads hits 500 million users as it closes in on X

    Threads, the social media platform set up in 2023 to rival X, has now reached 500 million monthly active users (MAU), according to Meta. The new data, which was revealed in a blog post, means that its MAU is nearly equivalent to X, which is estimated to have between 500 million and 570 million users logging in on a monthly basis. Threads attributed the sharp growth to a feature known as “communities” that was introduced in October. The feature allows users sharing similar interests to congregate into specific subsections on the platform to discuss particular topics. “Those communities built Threads into what it is, and now we’re adding new tools to help them become even more meaningful and dynamic,” Meta said. Bluesky, another social media platform that opened registrations to the public…

  • Autonomous 450g micro-drones can keep constant watch over battlefield

    A micro-drone system has been developed that provides military forces with autonomous reconnaissance capabilities to give them constant awareness of their surroundings. Developed by Teledyne FLIR Defense, the Black Recon system can launch drones from military vehicles to provide detailed knowledge of the battlefield, even when GPS services and other communication systems face disruption from hostile forces. “Black Recon represents a major step forward in integrated reconnaissance for ground forces,” said Dr JihFen Lei, president of Teledyne FLIR Defense. “By bringing autonomous launch, recovery and recharging directly to the vehicle, we give operators persistent situational awareness, faster access to actionable intelligence and greater protection in high-tempo missions.” The system itself…

  • Rolls-Royce SMR to supply Sweden’s first new nuclear power plant in over 40 years

    A multi-billion pound contract with Swedish development firm Videberg Kraft will see Rolls-Royce SMR deliver three small modular reactors (SMRs) on Sweden’s west coast. UK nuclear technology firm Rolls-Royce SMR won the contract following a selection process that started in 2022 where both large-scale nuclear plants and SMR designs were assessed. The deal includes three SMRs constructed as part of the Videberg Project on Sweden’s Värö Peninsula. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer referred to the deal as a “major win for Britain’s economy” that will see “UK engineering showcased on the world stage”. It marks the third contract for Rolls-Royce SMR following a deal with Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) announced earlier this year to deliver the UK’s first three SMRs at Wylfa in North Wales…

  • UK offshore wind to get £9bn boost from Japanese investment deal

    The UK and Japan have announced new investment deals that will see Japanese firms invest more than £9bn on UK infrastructure and financial services and up to £9bn on UK floating offshore wind. The announcement was made during a summit meeting at 10 Downing Street between UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Takaichi Sanae, Prime Minister of Japan, who is currently visiting London as part of a European trip. The two leaders announced numerous deals relating to technology and business cooperation, including the UK-Japan Frontier Technology Partnership. This new partnership will see the UK’s expertise in software and research combined with Japan’s hardware and manufacturing capabilities to accelerate developments in AI, quantum, nuclear and defence tech. According to a statement from the…

  • Britain faces ‘deindustrialisation’ without energy bill relief, says Make UK

    Britain risk rampant deindustrialisation if domestic energy prices remain at current levels, Make UK has warned. The body warned that an increasing number of manufacturers are moving production overseas, or actively considering doing so, in response to soaring costs. Electricity in the UK is more expensive than in many of its European counterparts and remains more costly than it was before the 2022 price spikes driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is largely because the UK relies on gas to provide a consistent base load energy supply and the fuel has been subject to significant market volatility. British manufacturers have been hit particularly hard, while businesses looking to expand or modernise have faced delays connecting to the grid. While the government has said it will…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Social media ban for under-16s to launch in the UK next spring

    Keir Starmer has announced plans to ban people under the age of 16 from social media using the same model that was deployed in Australia late last year. During the announcement, the Prime Minister said he hoped the measures would be introduced next spring and aimed to avoid the lengthy delays that plagued the Online Safety Bill (OSB). Australia’s implementation, which the UK intends to replicate, impacts all platforms whose purpose is to enable social interaction alongside the posting of user-generated material. The law affected platforms including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, although the UK does not intend for messaging services including WhatsApp and Signal to be included in the ban. Australia’s enforcement strategy does not penalise children or parents. Instead…

  • Fibres in jacket pull drinking water directly from ambient air

    A jacket embedded with textile fibres capable of extracting and storing drinking water from the air offers a new approach to atmospheric water harvesting. Researchers at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin have developed a textile that can be incorporated into a jacket to harvest moisture from the air as the user is moving around. The moisture is funnelled into harvesting units, which can be detached once full and placed into a foldable unit that can be heated to produce water. The textile is capable of producing between 400ml and 900ml of drinkable water per day depending on humidity levels, according to the researchers. While water harvesting technologies are not new, with this particular design the team was focused on a wearable system that would allow for easy access to drinking…

  • UK sovereign AI lab to be hosted at the University of Cambridge

    AMD, Dell and the University of Cambridge have announced plans to establish the Sovereign AI Innovation Lab (SAIL) designed to support AI research and development across the UK. SAIL, hosted by the University of Cambridge’s Research Computing Service, has been designed as a collaborative hub focused on open and interoperable AI infrastructure built using AMD technologies. The aim is that researchers, public bodies, healthcare organisations and industry partners will be able to build, validate and scale trusted AI tools on sovereign infrastructure. Coinciding with this announcement, the university also officially launched the Zenith AI supercomputer (above), the UK’s largest AI-for-science platform. Powered by 5th Generation AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct MI355X GPU accelerators integrated…

  • Evil engineer: How do you make a billboard advert visible from orbit?

    Dear Evil Engineer,I got into out-of-home (OOH) advertising in 2008. After learning how it worked from some of the best in the business, I created my own OOH company and set my focus on steady, continuous expansion, placing digital billboards in high-traffic thoroughfares. This was first in the south-east of England, then throughout the UK, and finally expanding through Europe and the Middle East and North Africa region. This included buying up advertising space on some of the most ancient tourist attractions – it takes rare imagination and negotiating skills to convince the Tourist Board of Jordan to turn Al-Khazneh into a 40-metre-high digital billboard, but it wasn’t for nothing that I got where I am today (top of OOH Magazine’s 10 Advertising Stars to Watch for two years in a row). I…

  • Europe unveils first end-to-end manufacturing flow for security-critical chips

    Europe has unveiled an end-to-end manufacturing flow for security-critical semiconductors to reduce its reliance on foreign chip suppliers. The new 300mm wafer production facility is based at GlobalFoundries’ Dresden site in Germany, with the chips produced there specifically targeted at aerospace, defence and critical infrastructure sectors. It marks the first time that these technologies will be produced at scale in Europe. Global semiconductor contract manufacturing firm GlobalFoundries has teamed up with Dutch semiconductor startup Qualinx to produce its security-sensitive Qualinx QLX3xx, a family of ultra-low-power global navigation satellite system systems-on-chip. Developed for positioning, navigation and timing applications, potential uses include military platforms, critical communications…

  • SpaceX launches onto stock market with $1.77tn valuation

    SpaceX has sold $75bn in shares to financial firms ahead of its debut on the US stock market today. The move was part of a fundraising exercise designed to generate enough capital to drive various infrastructure projects in space, its global connectivity service known as Starlink and its AI efforts. While the firm has traditionally been focused on the space sector, in February it acquired xAI, an AI firm also founded by Elon Musk that develops and operates the Grok chatbot. The initial public offering only sold around 4.2% of the company’s equity, giving an implied total valuation for SpaceX of $1.77tn (£1.32tn). The deal was structured using dual-class stock options that effectively give the public very minimal voting power. Musk himself holds super-voting Class B shares, which typically…

  • “World first” large-scale 100% hydrogen engine supplies power to Spanish grid

    An engine-based power plant that can run entirely on hydrogen is supplying electricity to Spain’s national grid. Finnish technology firm Wärtsilä’s demonstration of its 31H2 hydrogen power plant, which took place at its laboratory in Bermeo, northern Spain, showed that the plant is is capable of supplying electricity to the grid. For the company, this marks a significant step forward – from the hydrogen-ready engine power plant it first unveiled in 2024 to what it describes as a world-first demonstration of a hydrogen engine that runs on 100% hydrogen. With the International Energy Agency forecasting that global renewable energy generation is set to grow by almost 4,600GW by 2030, there is a rising need for flexible, rapid-response solutions that can balance the grid during periods of…

  • Xbox boss admits we are in a ‘hardware component crisis’ as AI makes its impact

    Xbox’s new boss has issued a warning about the rising cost of gaming hardware components, which could reduce the production of new consoles in the short term. Asha Sharma took over the reins of Microsoft’s gaming arm Xbox earlier this year after the departure of long-time CEO Phil Spencer. She has since been trying to improve the fortunes of the platform, which has struggled to attract as many gamers as rivals such as Nintendo and Sony in recent years. Outlining the next 100 days for Xbox in a blog post, Sharma made clear the difficulties faced by the firm in acquiring the hardware needed to manufacture new consoles. “When I joined as CEO in February, the price we paid for console storage components was over 2x as high as we paid last fall,” she said. “These costs have since doubled again…

  • Steel grilles fitted to 13,000 prison windows to block drone smuggling

    Thousands of prison cell windows across England and Wales are going to fitted with bars designed to stop drones smuggling contraband into prisons. In a report from last year, the Justice Committee said the use of illicit drugs and their trade across prisons has reached “endemic” levels, which is fostering a “dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken”. Official data showed that in the 12 months to March 2025, the number of drone incidents in prisons rose to 1,712 from 1,196 – an increase of 43% in just a year. Over a longer timeframe, the body recorded a 770% increase in drone sightings around prisons between 2019 and 2023, rising from 122 incidents to over 1,050. The report found that drones could carry payloads of up to 1.3kg of contraband into prisons, often under cover of…

  • E+T | Eccentric Engineer - The beer of national revenge

    Light, crisp and easy-drinking, lager is enjoyed the world over. And while today it is brewed in many countries, rewind 150 years and the only country able to successfully brew lager was the German state of Prussia. In 1870, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur set out to topple Germany’s monopoly of lager brewing in an act of vengeful chemical engineering. In his lab, Pasteur set out to create ‘superbeer’ by applying his vast knowledge of microbiology to beer fermentation. Using his namesake process of pasteurisation - the process of heat treating liquids to stop bacterial contamination - he showed that gently heating beer for a short time could kill organisms, making it far more palatable and longer lasting. He shared his techniques with European breweries and soon easy to produce and…

  • Espresso brewed using ultrasonic sound waves could cut energy use by up to 75%

    Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney have developed a method for brewing espresso-strength coffee using ultrasonic sound waves instead of boiling water. If you are to brew espresso traditionally using a coffee machine, ground coffee beans and boiling water are crucial to the process. In about 30 seconds the machine will deliver you a shot of espresso for that caffeine kick. The UNSW Sydney researchers have developed a completely new brewing process that uses room-temperature water instead of boiling water, but crucially still delivers the same rich flavour. “As someone from Colombia, I like to think coffee is in my blood – and I’m proud to come from a country known for producing some of the best coffee beans in the world. So perhaps that’s why I have spent a…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Two-in-one propulsion system could transform how microsatellites manoeuvre in space

    A new “best of both worlds” rocket system could enable tiny satellites to perform multiple manoeuvres in space using a single fuel tank. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, US have developed a rocket propulsion system that combines the power and speed of traditional chemical thrusters with the precision and efficiency of electric thrusters. Chemical thrusters enable small satellites to perform short, fast manoeuvres, such as quickly ascending or descending, while electrical or electrospray thrusters enable them to perform slower but more precise manoeuvres, such as travelling bit by bit through space. Combining the two types of thruster could give small satellites more flexibility in space and would mean that they would only have to carry one fuel…

  • New optical system mimics human eye to help self-driving cars adapt to light

    A new optical system that mimics the human eye’s ability to adapt from bright to dark conditions in seconds could help self-driving vehicles better navigate their environment, according to a study. Self-driving vehicles and sophisticated robots use advanced cameras, computer algorithms and AI to perceive their surroundings. However, these ‘artificial eyes’ struggle to remain reliable when the surrounding environment changes from bright to dark. In a study, co-led by Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in the US, researchers took inspiration from the mechanics of the human eye to develop a new optical system that can rapidly adapt in changing light. “Self-driving cars are exposed to a mixture of light levels in use – imagine the contrast of the dark sky with the bright headlights…

  • National Grid anticipates major power surges during England’s World Cup matches

    The National Grid is preparing for massive peaks in electricity demand during the World Cup, with Scotland and England’s group games anticipated to drive especially high usage. According to the National Energy System Operator (NESO), games that feature domestic teams could see demand rise by up to 600MW – equivalent to the output of a single massive generator unit at a major thermal power station. NESO expects that it will generate around 40–50% of the demand from renewable sources, and that requirements will be roughly 20% lower than during 1998 World Cup matches – largely down to the improved efficiency of televisions and devices, which use much less energy than those in use during past tournaments. As the largest World Cup ever staged, featuring 40 more games than any previous tournament…

  • Airbus unveils autonomous helicopter for military and disaster response missions

    Airbus has revealed an entirely autonomous version of its H145 helicopter, which is designed to deliver payloads for both civilian and military operations. The U145, which was unveiled during the ILA Berlin airshow, is preparing to undertake its maiden flight with a safety pilot onboard towards the end of 2026, with commercial availability at the beginning of the next decade. The aircraft can lift up to 3,800kg of cargo and is envisioned as a craft that could support roles such as disaster management, firefighting, armed scouting, surveillance and drone mothership functionality. Airbus also envisages the aircraft being used to support missions alongside other crewed aircraft, with autonomous helicopters operating alongside traditional helicopters and fighter aircraft. “With the U145…

  • Wayve and Uber say first London robotaxi service is ‘ready to go’

    London could see a commercial autonomous taxi service launch as early as this summer. Uber, a US-based transportation firm that pioneered a ride-hailing smartphone app connecting passengers directly with nearby drivers, has launched a ‘list of interest’ on its app. Those users who sign up could be among the first to ride in London’s first Wayve robotaxis. These rides will initially take place with a safety driver onboard and will start as soon as regulators give the go-ahead for launch. “We’re hopeful to be launching in the next couple of months. We’re ready to go. We’re just waiting for a couple of last approvals,” Kaity Fischer, Wayve’s vice-president of commercial and operations, told European news agency AFP. “This is the first time the general public will be able to hail an autonomous…

  • Russian satellites may be capable of continent-wide GPS jamming, scientists warn

    Russian satellites may have the ability to block GPS signals on a continental scale, according to tests from a group of scientists. While Moscow has repeatedly denied that it has carried out hostile actions such as GPS jamming and spoofing, Western intelligence authorities have traced local signal blackouts back to Russian territories in the past. But a paper from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University in California claims that a small constellation of Russian satellites in the Molniya (‘lightning’) orbit could have the capability of causing GPS signal drops on a continental scale. The Molniya orbit is a unique, egg-shaped orbit used by Russia in the past for military, communications and spy satellites. The paper says: “On scores of occasions since 2019…

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