All posts by Paul Stradling

News

Tech News : Satellite Connection For Android Phones

Iridium, a satellite phone company, and Qualcomm, a chip manufacturer, are partnering to bring satellite connectivity to premium Android smartphones later in the year.

Connect To Satellites 

The Partnership will mean that in areas where there is no mobile coverage, users will be able to connect to passing satellites to send and receive messages using their Android smartphones.

Premium Android Phones First – Then Other Devices 

Qualcomm’s chips are found in many Android smartphones, and the new feature, called Snapdragon Satellite, will initially only be available in premium chips. However, it is expected to eventually be rolled out to tablets, laptops, and even vehicles, plus it may also be offered as a fee-based service for non-emergency communication.

Qualcomm has said, however, that emergency messaging on Snapdragon ® Satellite is likely to be available, in conjunction with Garmin, on next-generation smartphones, launched in select regions starting in the second half of 2023.

What Is Snapdragon®? 

Qulacomm says that Snapdragon® technology will enable the satellite linking thanks to its AI-based and “groundbreaking” ‘Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform’. Qualcomm says Snapdragon® Satellite “offers truly global coverage1 from pole to pole and can support two-way messaging for emergency use, SMS texting, and other messaging applications – for a variety of purposes such as emergencies or recreation in remote, rural and offshore locations”.   

Irradicating ‘Not-Spots’ 

Satellite connectivity is seen as the next step in addressing “not-spots” – areas with no existing mobile coverage, particularly in rural or remote locations. However, use of the feature will be subject to local government regulations, as some countries, such as India and China, ban the usage of satellite phones.

Iridium 

Iridium provides satellite phone services by operating its own network of 66 active satellites in low-Earth orbit, providing coverage over the entire planet, including the poles.

Iridium satellite phone users can receive phone calls, send & receive text messages, plus access the internet from any location on Earth where there is an unobstructed view of the sky. The partnership between Iridium and chip manufacturer Qualcomm will open up satellite phone connections to a much wider customer base.

Starlink 

Elon Musk’s company SpaceX also famously provides a satellite connection service through Starlink which was recently announced as being chosen by the UK government to take part in a £100 million trial in the Lake District to bring satellite broadband to particularly remote areas, with plans to roll it out to all such UK areas if successful. In August last year, Cruise company Royal Caribbean Group also announced that it would be using Starlink to provide Internet for broadband connections aboard its ships.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Although being able to automatically get a satellite connection on the phone sounds like a very promising development, it is currently difficult to say exactly how this will affect the market as it will actually depend on a number of factors including the cost of the service, the quality of the connection, plus the availability of alternative methods of communication and any competing services, e.g. Starlink. However, it is fair to say that this technology could be particularly useful in areas where traditional cellular coverage is patchy or non-existent, as it would allow customers such as business users in those areas to have a more reliable way to communicate.

It could also potentially be useful for those people who frequently travel to remote locations or engage in outdoor activities, as it would allow them to stay connected even in areas where there is no cellular coverage. As the growth of Starlink shows, more satellites are being launched by more companies due to improved space and satellite technology, so with the ongoing need to quickly meet demand for more mobile devices around the world, satellite services for phone and broadband connections look set to grow.

News

Sustainability-in-Tech : Sailing Towards Sustainability

Here we look at the new technologies could lead to a more environmentally friendly and ‘cleaner’ shipping industry, and we look briefly at promising clean tech innovations for air freight.

The Challenge 

With 90 per cent of global trades transported by sea, traditional cargo ships are responsible for a significant portion of the world’s carbon emissions i.e., the international maritime sector produces almost 3 per cent of total global carbon emissions.

New Technologies That Could Clean Up Shipping 

Some of the new technological developments that could lead to more environmentally friendly, ‘cleaner’ shipping include innovative electric boats like the ‘Pioneer’.

The Pioneer flying boat developed by Artemis Technologies. This is a world’s first electric foiling workboat. It has foil/a wing-like structure underneath the boat that actually lifts the hull right out of the water which reduces drag and enables a smooth, fast ride. It has been designed and built by Belfast-based marine technology company Artemis Technologies to transport cargo over long distances in a more environmentally friendly manner. The Pioneer is essentially a hybrid electric flying boat, that’s powered by both a traditional internal combustion engine and an electric motor. According to the company, the flying boat will be able to carry up to 50 tons of cargo.

One of the main ways in which the Pioneer flying boat could contribute to cleaner, more sustainable shipping is by reducing carbon emissions thanks to its electric technology. Additionally, the Pioneer flying boat could potentially operate on a variety of alternative fuels, such as biofuels or hydrogen, which would further reduce its environmental impact.

Another way in which the Pioneer flying boat could contribute to cleaner shipping is by reducing the amount of road congestion and related air pollution. By transporting goods via sea rather than by road or rail, the flying boat could help to alleviate pressure on these already-congested transportation networks.

Also, electric boats such as those made by Artemis could benefit the environment (and passengers) due to the fact that they don’t produce the kind of wake that traditional boats create, can operate close to the harbour, don’t cause the same kind of coastal degradation, and can offer reduced journey times.

The Pioneer flying boat could be one technological advancement that has the potential to revolutionise the way goods are transported over long distances, offering a more environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to traditional cargo ships and other modes of transportation.

Other Ways The Shipping Industry Could Become More Environmentally Friendly 

Other ways that the shipping industry could become more environmentally friendly include:

– Using battery-powered boats for short distances.

– For international shipping, using green hydrogen-based fuels could reduce carbon emissions. However, transitioning to hydrogen would require changes to fuel infrastructure, as well as modifications to the ships to make them compatible with hydrogen fuel.

– Bridging the gap between fossil fuels and clean hydrogen by sustainably producing and using Syngas i.e., a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. For example, a Cambridge University experiment is using artificial leaves floated on the surface of rivers to generate clean fuels from sunlight and water. The hope is this could be scaled up to autonomous floating, fuel production centres in in remote areas, near the shore, on lakes, or on islands to create refuelling stations for ships.

– Using traditional, wind-powered cargo sailing ships e.g., Costs Rica-based ‘Sailcargo’ transports containers using traditional sailing ships.

Unmanned, Cargo-Hauling Drone Aircraft 

One way that air freight could be cleaned up may come from using cargo drones operated from the 3,000 smaller airstrips across Europe. The drones, flying below passenger air traffic could move smaller loads e.g., 350kg. Examples of companies already experimenting with these cargo drones include Bulgaria-based Dronamics (powered by an electric engine), and U Elroy Air (drones powered by a hybrid electric engine – includes an electric generating turbine and runs off aviation fuel). As well as operating from airfields, for longer distances, these drones could also be loaded aboard and operated from electric-powered ships.

Challenges 

Some of challenges to ‘cleaning up’ the shipping and air freight industries include:

– The lack of infrastructure for alternative fuels. Shipping and air freight currently rely heavily on fossil fuels, which are major contributors to carbon emissions. To reduce these emissions, it will be necessary to invest heavily in infrastructure for alternative fuels such as electric or hydrogen-based fuels.

– Another challenge is the cost of transitioning to alternative fuels. While the long-term benefits of using cleaner fuels may be significant, the upfront cost of converting ships and planes to alternative fuels, as well as the cost of building the necessary infrastructure, can be prohibitively expensive.

– Technological challenges. For example, electric and hydrogen-based fuels may not have the same energy density as fossil fuels, which means that they may not be suitable for use in long-distance shipping or air freight.

– Regulatory challenges. Governments will need to establish clear policies and incentives to encourage the use of cleaner fuels in the shipping and air freight industries.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

New, innovative, and cleaner technological developments, such as electric (foil) boats battery-powered (boats for short distances), hydrogen-based fuels, syngas, and launching electric cargo drones from electric boats all hold the promise of reducing carbon emissions and could be a beneficial alternative to environmentally unfriendly, carbon producing fossil fuels. In terms of benefits, using these technologies would allow shipping companies to not just reduce their environmental impact but also meet regulatory requirements for emissions reductions. It could also help businesses and consumers to meet their own sustainability goals. Additionally, the adoption of these cleaner technologies could help to reduce the long-term costs of shipping by reducing the need for expensive fuel sources. At the moment, however, there are still significant challenges to overcome in introducing these technologies at scale which means we won’t be reaping the benefits soon, but at least there are promising and practical alternatives to the current situation.

News

Security Stop-Press : 14 UK Schools Hacked And Data Leaked Online

Hackers from ‘Vice Society’ have stolen confidential pupil data from 14 UK schools and leaked the data online on the dark web. A variety of documents and data were stolen during the attacks in 2021 and 2022 including SEN information, child passport scans, staff pay scales and contract details. The ICO and Police are reported to be investigating and the targeted schools have taken post-breach measures which include working with cyber-security specialists, blocking remote access to all but a few staff with 2FA, and re-setting passwords.

News

Tech-Insight : Merry Messages (Tipsy Texting) : Don’t Do It!

In this insight, we look at some of the ways to avoid the potential awkwardness of ‘tipsy texting’ over the Christmas period.

Regrets… I’ve Had A Few 

A 2015 study (Dunne, Katz), for example, showed that 89 percent of participants said they’d sent a drunk text, and 40 per cent said they’d felt guilty about it after the fact. The study highlighted how alcohol can be a major factor in regrettable drinking-related social behaviours

Measures 

Here are some of the technological measures that can be taken to prevent any smartphone shenanigans, such as sending jokes and posting or commenting on social media which may be regretted later:

– Limit who can be contacted in advance. This can be done by going to Settings > Screen Time > Communication Limits > During Downtime > Specific Contacts in an iPhone. Here you can schedule ‘downtime’ so only phone calls and apps that you choose to allow are available, you can only reach your specified contacts, communications in both directions are stopped, and most apps are rendered inaccessible during that time. This means that even if you want to share something on social media, you can’t. For Android phones, use the ‘Focus’ mode (via Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls) to pick which apps you want to pause for a certain scheduled period.

– Remove or block certain contacts. If there are certain contacts that you want to avoid upsetting at all costs, considering removing their contact details from your phone (but storing them elsewhere to add back onto your contacts list after Christmas), or block their number and undo it later.

– Use apps. Apps like AppBlock, for example (iPhone and Android) lets you select the apps and app categories you’d like to temporarily ban so you’re unable to use them for ill-advised tipsy purposes, even if you want to. iPhone users may also want to consider installing “Drunk Mode Keyboard” which allows you to at least open social networking apps, but blocks your keyboard so you can’t comment or message anyone. A possible equivalent of “Drunk Mode Keyboard” for Android users is Bacco (Drunk Mode for apps and texts. Available from the Google Play Store, it has a lock screen and allows you to choose the words you particularly don’t want to be able to use (the letters will show as asterisks).

Other Ideas 

Other practical ways you can avoid potential problems caused by the combination of a smartphone, alcohol, and Christmas include:

– Turn on airplane mode.

– Give your phone to a trusted friend temporarily before, for example, going out on a work party. Or ask a friend to keep an eye on you.

– Temporarily change the settings on your phone to make it more difficult to access the text messaging app.

– If you’re on a night out, make a clear plan of action and set a clear drink limit for yourself to avoid getting into any tipsy texting situations in the first place.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Ever since the office party or work’s Christmas ‘do’ was invented, the potential for saying something that’s later regretted has been there. Smartphones, however, have made it so much easier for people to comment instantly to anybody on impulse. Sadly, sometimes, alcohol and over-confidence can play havoc with a person’s internal censoring system. Thankfully, the upside of technology in this situation is that various smartphone settings and apps can enable people to plan in advance and make it much less likely to happen, thereby ensuring a more harmonious workplace after New Year.

News

Featured Article : What’s All The Fuss About ChatGPT?

In this article, we look at what ChatGPT is, what it can do, and what type of businesses could get the most out of it.

What Is ChatGPT? 

Released by OpenAI in November 2022, ChatGPT is a free, text-based AI Chatbot that can answer questions, write essays seemingly on any subject, tell jokes, write literary parodies, answer complex coding questions, and more. Although, like other chatbots, it generates text based on written prompts, it appears to be more advanced and creative than previous and some rival chatbots. ChatGPT has been “trained” to generate human-like responses to prompts given to it and can be used to build chatbots that can engage in conversation with users in a variety of contexts. This has led to it becoming a viral sensation online.

Who? 

Some recent online evangelists for the abilities of ChatGPT include Bindu Reddy, CEO of Abacus.AI, Tobias Zwingmann, managing partner of RAPYD.AI (a German consulting firm), and Christopher Potts, a professor at Stanford University. Also, many people have been posting screenshots online of some of the amazing responses and results they’ve got from ChatGPT.

An Updated Variant of GTP-3 

ChatGPT uses a new variant of GPT-3 (Generative Pre-training Transformer 3), the language processing machine learning model developed by OpenAI which is available as a commercial API for programmers. GPT-3 is a neural network-based model that’s been trained on a massive dataset of text to learn the patterns and structures of human language. This has enabled it to carry out tasks like translation, summarisation, question answering, text generation, and even fine-tuning specific tasks or datasets to improve its performance on those tasks.

The difference with the GPT-3.5, which is the new variant at the heart of ChatGPT is that it includes additional training data and improvements to the model architecture. These mean that it is better at a variety of language processing tasks, such as taking a naturally phrased question and producing an impressive and natural human-like answer, hence so much positive online interest.

Additional Training 

According to OpenAI’s blog, the additional ‘training’ that’s helped to take ChatGPT to the next level has been the OpenAI team feeding human-written answers to GPT-3.5 and using a type of simulated reward and punishment called “reinforcement learning” to make ChatGPT produce better quality answers to example questions.

What Is ChatGPT Best At? 

Some of the things that ChatGPT is particularly good at include:

  • Generating responses to prompts that are appropriate and coherent in the context of a conversation.
  • Using natural language and mimicking human conversational style.
  • Maintaining the continuity of a conversation by being able to remember and use information from previous exchanges
  • Providing general knowledge and answering questions about a wide range of topics

OpenAI says the dialogue format of ChatGPT enables it to “answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.” 

One caveat, however, is that ChatGPT is a machine learning model, and its performance depends as such on the quality of the data it was trained on and the specific task it is being used for.

How Do I Try ChatGPT? 

The best way to find out what the fuss about ChatGPT is all about is to try out the beta (free) version. To do so, go to https://chat.openai.com/ and register (name and telephone number for the 2FA code). This results in being directed to ChatGPT where users can see a list of its main, standout capabilities, e.g. remembering previous conversations. Open AI also list some of its main limitations, and examples of the kinds of questions that users may like to try asking it.

What Businesses Could Make Best Use Of ChatGPT? 

There are a variety of businesses that could potentially make use of ChatGPT or similar chatbot technologies. Some examples of industries that might find ChatGPT useful include:

  • E-commerce: ChatGPT could be used to build chatbots that assist customers with their online shopping experience. For example, ChatGPT could help customers find products, answer questions about product details, or provide recommendations based on their purchase history.
  • Customer service: ChatGPT could be used to build chatbots that handle customer inquiries and complaints, freeing up human customer service representatives to handle more complex or urgent issues.
  • Healthcare: ChatGPT could be used to build chatbots that provide basic healthcare information or triage to users, helping to reduce the burden on healthcare providers and allowing them to focus on more complex cases.
  • Education: ChatGPT could be used to build chatbots that provide tutoring or assistance with homework for students.
  • Financial services: ChatGPT could be used to build chatbots that provide financial advice or assistance with banking tasks.

Top Three Advantages Over Other Chatbots?

ChatGPT itself sums up its top 3 advantages over other chatbots as:

  1. High quality responses: Because it has been trained on a large dataset of human language, it is able to generate responses that are more human-like and coherent than some other chatbots. This can make it easier for users to communicate with the chatbot and may result in a more pleasant user experience.
  2. The ability to handle a wide range of topics: ChatGPT is trained on a diverse dataset and is able to provide information and responses about a wide range of topics. This can make it more versatile and able to handle a broader set of user inquiries compared to chatbots that are only trained on a specific domain or task.
  3. Continuity and context awareness: ChatGPT is able to maintain the continuity of a conversation and use information from previous exchanges to provide more contextually relevant responses. This can make it feel more like a natural conversation and may help the chatbot better understand the user’s intentions and needs.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The coherent human-like responses, continuity and contextual awareness, and the sheer diversity of subjects that ChatGPT can write high quality information about (and very quickly) are just some of the main reasons why it is being talked about online in such a positive way.

A powerful chatbot like this has multiple, value-adding applications for many businesses and could deliver cost and time savings, improve efficiency and customer service. As noted above, ChatGPT can also enable businesses to build chatbots, freeing up more of their resources. What’s more, the beta version is currently free. In essence, although this is not the only chatbot available, it is impressive, it could provide advantages and leverage for smaller businesses and is an example of the next phase of chatbots that it’s harder to tell are actually chatbots. The advice would be to give it try and experience it for yourself.

News

Tech News : Rent-a-Robot

It’s been reported that global logistics firm DHL is using “a good number” of leased robots to help it deal with high demand over the Christmas period.

What For … And Where? 

The Wall Street Journal has reported that DHL is using leased robots for package handling over the Christmas period. Jobs the robots can help with include sorting/receiving/unloading [packages], moving heavy payloads, replenishing stock shelves, picking up orders, fulfilment, and helping to handle returns after the Christmas period.

Why? 

The reasons why temporary so-called “surge bots” are being used include:

– A surge in demand for delivery services over the Christmas period.

– A shortage of labour/workers.

– Supply-chain disruptions.

– A sharp increase in online shopping triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

– Enabling smaller businesses to achieve low-cost, low risk automation and avoid high wages.

– Potential for immediate savings through improved efficiency.

– Companies can try out the technology and move to lease-to buy (for example) if it delivers results.

How Many Robots? 

It’s not clear exactly how many “a good number” of leased robots is for this Christmas period but, according to reports of comments by Sally Miller, chief information officer of DHL’s North American supply-chain business, DHL may have as many as 2,000 robots working in its facilities by the end of the year.

How Do You Lease A Robot? 

Leasing a robot / involves paying a subscription-like fee from third-party robotics firms. Frees vary depending on the tasks the robots are required to perform, along with other variables such as processing volumes and the kinds of packages being handled.

Part of the preparation by the companies leasing the robots involves taking a 3-D scan of a facility and feeding the data into an AI program to create a mock-up of a robot’s mechanical, electrical, and software systems.

Why Lease Instead Of Buy? 

Companies such as DHL and others may lease instead of buy robots because surges in demand may only be short-lived and relatively predictable (leased robots can be ordered in advance where and upturn is expected), e.g. Christmas, where companies can also avoid upfront costs and ongoing maintenance expenses.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

As Amazon has shown with its use of robot arms ‘Robin’ and ‘Cardinal’ to re-direct boxed-up pre-delivery items around its warehouses and now the ‘Sparrow’ robot in the handling (parcels) part of its business, robots can bring the business benefits of improved efficiency, safety, and 24-hour / 365 days a year working. Amazon, however, is a huge and growing company and the largest manufacturer of industrial robots in the world. Other companies, however, don’t manufacture their own, may not have the scale, funds, figures, confidence in, or commitment to justify buying robots but may need to tackle periods of high demand, while not having the labour or be able to pay higher wages to do it.

This is where leasing robots / robots-as-a-service come into their own, not only giving often smaller businesses a way to achieve low-cost, low risk automation but also enabling them to try robot technology in their business before committing to buying it. In the case of this story, DHL is a large global business which already has warehousing and logistics robots such as its Stretch robot (from Boston Dynamics) for its automated trailer loading. Automation of this kind is revolutionising not just parcel and warehousing businesses but businesses in many other sectors that need to meet similar challenges. For now, although robots can’t completely replace humans in most factories and warehouses, they can make operations more efficient.

News

Tech News : Microsoft Tops List Of Best-Run Companies

Microsoft has retained the No.1 spot in Drucker Institute’s annual Management Top 250 ranking for the best-run companies in the U.S. for the third year in a row, while rankings for some other tech companies have slipped.

Top Five Not All Tech This Year 

One of the most notable aspects of this year’s rankings is that unlike last year, tech companies have not taken all top five spots. Instead, General Motors Co. is ranked at No. 4 and Whirlpool Corp has reached No. 5.

How Is Being ‘The Best’ Measured? 

The Drucker Institute’s Management Top 250 ranking is arrived at by analysing 34 data inputs provided by 14 third-party sources and by measuring corporate effectiveness and performance in the five areas of customer satisfaction, employee engagement and development, innovation, social responsibility, and financial strength.

What’s Happened To Other Tech Company Rankings? 

Although Apple (in the ‘all-star’ list) and IBM are ranked second and third behind Microsoft, some of the other tech companies of note that have slipped in the rankings this year include:

– Meta: showed the fourth-largest decline in overall score, dropping from 31st to 130th in this year’s ranking.

– Amazon: showed the biggest decline in overall score this year, dropping to eighth from second.

– Alphabet Inc. (Google)

– Über

– Salesforce

– Cisco Systems

– Intel

– Adobe

– HP

Perhaps not surprisingly, given the problems leading up to and following Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter did not make the top 250.

Why Tech Ranking Falls? 

Some of the reasons why some of the big technology companies have dropped in the rankings this year include:

– A slowing of revenue growth as they came out of the pandemic boom.

– Concerns and bad press about the power and market concentration of the big tech companies.

– In the case of Meta, for example, its rebrand and investor confusion about the metaverse concept (and the resulting cuts in its workforce) plus other concerns about the safety of its young users may explain the fall.

– In the case of Amazon, for example, its customer service ranking suffered this year which may be due to customer-service concerns, shipping delays, and search results full of advertised products causing frustration.

Why Is Microsoft No.1? 

One of the main reasons why Microsoft has stayed at the top of the rankings is the growth and continuing success of its cloud business, i.e. even though Microsoft’s business has seen some revenue declines, its cloud computing services revenue grew by 35 per cent.

Cars Bounce Back

One other trend of note in this year’s Management Top 250 ranking is the gaining of rankings by car companies, e.g. Ford (up to 15th from 26th), GM and Tesla (up to 76th from 249th). The reasons for this may include the ability of customers to get cars (the pandemic limited supply), and increased knowledge of the benefits of and demand for electric vehicles.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Peter Drucker realised the importance of marketing and innovation and taking a wider more holistic view of what makes business great, i.e. taking many different factors into account. This is why the Management Top 250 ranking is so significant and while some businesses may not rank in the top 10 for all the five areas the ranking uses, a relatively fair overall ranking can be arrived at, and the specific areas of strength and weakness can be highlighted. In general, this year’s rankings show how Microsoft appears to have been getting it right with its cloud business, how a slowing of revenue growth coming out of the pandemic boom has had an adverse impact on other tech companies, and how demand for electric cars is rising.

News

Sustainability : Fuss Over Fusion

US scientists have announced a major breakthrough in their efforts to create nuclear fusion energy after they were able to produce more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in.

What Is Nuclear Fusion? 

Whereas current nuclear power plants split atoms in a process known as ‘fission’ to generate energy, ‘fusion’ generates energy by fusing atoms together (hence ‘fusion’), which is the same process that powers our sun. The fusion process, which can actually create temperatures much hotter than the sun, is achieved by combining lighter elements (hydrogen) to make a heavier one (helium). Fusion reactors use powerful magnetic fields (magnetised target fusion) to control charged gas/plasma and keep it within a container.

The Benefits of Fusion 

Fusion power, which was described by National Geographic (2019) as the “holy grail for the future of nuclear power” is safer than fission nuclear power, produces very little radioactive waste, and is a carbon-free energy source.

The Breakthrough 

This latest nuclear fusion a breakthrough was made at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California. The experiment reportedly involved focusing 192 lasers on a small metal can to heat and compress the hydrogen fuel (to more than 100 billion times that of Earth’s atmosphere). This created temperatures multiple times hotter than the centre of the sun (100 million degrees Celsius) and with the result being a brief nuclear fusion reaction. The significant aspect of the reaction on this occasion (it has been tried before) was that more energy was produced from the fusion experiment than was put in to make it happen

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

Now more than ever, the race is on to find an effective way to supply a limitless, clean, cost-effective, and safe power source could benefit us all, help the environment, and create new opportunities in a whole new sector. Although producing more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in may not sound like a major breakthrough, the complexity of being able to generate massive temperatures and pressure in a controlled and safe way shouldn’t be underestimated. This result is being hailed as a turning point and major step which shows that the nuclear fusion testing methods work and brings the promise of clean, limitless energy without lots of radioactive waste one step closer. Success at scale with nuclear fusion energy could benefit not just humanity but the whole planet and could be a major way to tackle global warming challenges.

The potential importance of nuclear fusion energy has meant that there has been a race to be first to harness it in different locations around the world, even in the UK. For example, a nuclear demonstration plant is being built at Culham Oxfordshire by a Canadian company (with Jeff Bezos as a backer). It is estimated to cost around $400m and aims to be operational by 2025. When ready it could give the UK government the chance to develop a fusion industry in the UK and be seen to be at the cutting edge of the new industry is the justification for the investment.