Rebel entrepreneurs plan EU island haven

Stories are emerging that a group of London entrepreneurs has laid plans to move from Old Street to Sealand, an artificial island which lies 12km off the Suffolk coast outside UK jurisdiction. The agreement was reached to fulfil the dreams of the current occupiers of becoming a recognised country eligible for EU membership and grants. […]

Plato harmonises vinyl and digital sounds for audiophiles

Trying to reinvigorate the reputation of Britain’s entertainment media hardware reputation, Newbury startup Entotem has announced the forthcoming release of its Plato Home Entertainment System. The system cashes in on the growing retro-love of vinyl but gives it a digital age twist. Unlike most modern entertainment systems, Plato has pre-amp inputs for the coil or magnetic pickups found […]

Bristol debuts microscopic ‘sonic screwdriver’ centrifuge

The University of Bristol and China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University have developed a method to create minute acoustic vortices that could be a basis for creating minute centrifuges for biological cell sorting or for water purification. Researchers from Bristol’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and their Chinese colleagues have published their results in Physical Review Letters, a highly influential journal outlining physics […]

Massive Analytic and UCL’s business brain breakthrough

Innovate UK is co-funding a collaboration between University College London and artificial intelligence specialist startup Massive Analytic to collaborate on developing artificial precognition capabilities for business analytics. The year-long Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) will seek to develop further ground-breaking uses of predictive analysis and data discovery to Massive Analytic’s Oscar AP platform which is currently […]

Graphene will light up the consumer market with the launch of LED bulbs

A lower-energy lightbulb based on graphene has been launched by Graphene Lighting, a spinout commercial enterprise from the National Graphene Institute (NGI). The company claims the bulbs will use less power and will have a longer lifetime with lower manufacturing costs. The claims have yet to be proven, but an estimated 10 percent energy saving […]

Beverage innovation as Shoreditch bistro introduces reflective coffees

A Shoreditch coffee house has developed a drink additive that creates a mirror-like surface to its “Very Big” Americano coffees. The company only introduced the drink this morning and sales of the large-sized drinks have rocketed. The silvered surface is applied by gently pouring it on the back of a spoon, in a similar way […]

Terry Pratchett – The good GNUs ensure he’ll never be forgotten

Terry Pratchett, the only living inhabitant of Discworld, has packed The Luggage and moved to Death’s Domain. But his passing will not go unmarked in a real world emulation of one of his fantasy world contrivances. Apart from being an extremely popular author, Pratchett was also a classic, eccentric creator of mad inventions in the […]

BIS and Accelerator Network challenge universities to find cybersecurity solutions

A cybersecurity hackathon that will bring together 50 of the most promising student specialists in the UK to pit their wits against some of the world’s more pressing security challenges has been announced by the Accelerator Network and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). The Cyber Agile Development Challenge event will take place […]

Newcastle team to develop mind-controlled prosthetic hand

A research project to develop a bionic hand that transmits pressure and temperature information directly to the user’s brain has attracted a £1.4 million investment. The eventual system will be controlled as though it was a natural hand. Signals translated into a form the nervous system understands will stimulate the brain and signals sent back […]