World Ocean Day: Meet 3 tech startups protecting our seas
The ocean covers over 70% of our planet. It regulates the global climate, is home to 80% of life on Earth, acts as a carbon sink, and supports the livelihoods…
NATO backs UK startup building ultralight materials for rockets, fighter jets — and F1 cars
NATO’s Innovation Fund has co-led a $22.5mn (€21mn) investment into iCOMAT, a UK startup building ultralight composites for the aerospace, automotive, and defence sectors. NATO’s fund has a budget of…
Teledriving startup Vay plans to bring remote-controlled cars to Belgium this year
Last week I rented a vehicle through one of the many popular car-sharing platforms. The whole process went pretty smoothly and I didn’t crash, which is always a good thing.…
Why Spain just banned Meta’s new EU election voting features
Spain’s privacy watchdog has barred Meta from launching two features on Facebook and Instagram that the tech giant says were intended to encourage users to vote in the upcoming EU…
Airbus to build satellite that will predict the northern lights
The European Space Agency has hired Airbus to build a space satellite. It will forecast solar storms like the one that caused the biggest northern lights display in over 20…
Airbus’ new Racer is half-plane, half-copter — and it’s lightning-fast
Business execs and politicians gathered at a helicopter base in France yesterday for the first public unveiling of Airbus’ new Racer aircraft. At first glance, Racer looks like a regular…
Inside the fight to ban — and destroy — PFAS ‘forever chemicals’
For over 40 years, Ted Van der Vlies and his wife Marga grew fruits and vegetables in their backyard on the outskirts of Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Onions, potatoes, lettuce, carrots,…
This tech investor will pay Ukrainian farmers to trap carbon in their soil
Lithuanian climate investment firm HeavyFinance has added over 700,000 football pitches-worth of farmland in Ukraine to its soil carbon credit programme. Modern agriculture has taken its toll on soils. Centuries…
Earth Day: Ecosia launches world’s first energy-generating browser
Today — on Earth Day — non-profit search engine Ecosia has launched the “greenest browser on Earth” as it seeks to offer customers a more sustainable alternative to Google Chrome…
Gamers suit up: You can now build ESA’s future lunar base in Fortnite
Space nerds delight: you can now play as an astronaut in Fortnite. You can even team up with your buddies to build a lunar habitat based on real future missions…
This ‘literacy pen’ instantly teaches you to read and write
The World Literacy Foundation and Dutch marketing firm Media.Monks have teamed up to create a pen designed to help millions of people around the world grappling with illiteracy. The device,…
This solar module could power and heat your home at the same time
European scientists have developed a solar module that can produce electricity and heat at the same time — in a potential breakthrough for low-cost clean energy generation. The device is…