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Born to Engineer

@borntoengineer.bsky.social
76 followers 20 following 1.3K posts

Inspiring the UK's next generation of engineers through films, scholarships & resources. Turning STEM dreams into engineering careers. 🚀 #BornToEngineer

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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
The material combines soft flexible structure with serious strength. It can support 10 times its own weight while shape-shifting on command via magnetic fields. Once transformed
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Find Out More: Researchers at Rice University just created a metamaterial that transforms like origami inside your body—and stays put without power. null
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Until vertical farms solve their energy problem that locally-grown winter lettuce comes with a hidden carbon cost that outweighs the diesel and transport emissions of shipping produce from Spain.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The promise remains compelling. Year-round local production minimal water use
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
The energy demands tell most of the story. But researchers uncovered an unexpected culprit: jute fiber plugs. These blocks that replace soil contribute massively to the carbon footprint. Switching to coconut coir could slash the land footprint by 95%. null
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Surrey University researchers compared UK and Spanish field farms with a commercial UK vertical farm. The results were stark. Even running on renewable electricity vertical farms generated 0.93 kg of greenhouse gases per kilogram of lettuce
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Find Out More: Vertical farms pack 20 times more lettuce into each square meter than traditional fields. But here's the catch: they're pumping out nearly double the CO2 emissions per kilogram of produce. null
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Engineers: What's the biggest challenge in communicating your work to non-engineers?
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Submit your story at the link below. Deadline approaches fast for inclusion in this year's materials. null
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Attention aspiring architects: Engineering is your blueprint for success. Design a future that amazes the world with your skills and creativity. #EngineeringBlueprint
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Last year reached 55 000 students. This year's goal is bigger. By sharing how you've navigated failures and discoveries
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Attention future pioneers: Engineering is your frontier. Explore uncharted territories, push boundaries, and engineer a future that exceeds expectations. #EngineeringFrontier
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Your stories become teaching resources for schools across the UK. Written accounts work but video submissions are welcome too. Even bullet points outlining your experience help shape how young people see engineering careers.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
or anyone whose journey wasn't a straight line from classroom to workplace. produced unexpected results
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The theme this year—Dare to Discover—aims to show students aged 11-14 that engineering isn't about getting everything right the first time. It's about iteration experimentation
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
and creative problem-solving. though its current breakdown highlights how dependent the canal system remains on this single piece of Victorian infrastructure. Tomorrow's Engineers Week kicks off November 10-14
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
By the 1960s trucks had replaced canal transport and the lift fell into disuse. Corrosion forced its closure in 1983. Local support drove a major restoration
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Edwin Clark's solution was radical for its time. His hydraulic lift could carry entire narrowboats and barges between the canal and river speeding salt shipments to Liverpool and beyond. The design worked so well that similar lifts appeared in France
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Hot take: The most important innovations in engineering come from interdisciplinary collaboration. Agree?
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
The whole thing started because of salt. Cheshire's salt industry drove the creation of the Weaver Navigation in 1732 followed by the Trent and Mersey Canal. These competing waterways ran at different elevations
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Engineering is the art of building. Let's build a world that's conscious of its impact and strives for sustainability. #EngineeringArt
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Attention young architects of change: Engineering is your blueprint for transforming the world. Design a future that embodies sustainability, inclusivity, and progress. #EngineeringBlueprint
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
UW-Madison professor Dan Negrut and his team uncovered this flaw using Project Chrono an open-source physics simulator they developed. The software models complex mechanical systems
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
The result? Overly optimistic predictions about rover performance. Lunar soil stays loose and shifts easily giving rovers less traction and a higher chance of getting stuck – exactly what happened to NASA's Spirit rover in 2009.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Here's the problem: Moon gravity is one-sixth of Earth's. So NASA builds test rovers that weigh one-sixth as much and drives them through desert sand. Seems logical right? But Earth's stronger gravity compresses sand
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Researchers made tonnes of a new green hydrogen steel before they understood why it worked. Now they do: it grows a second protective layer that conventional stainless steel cannot. And it costs 40x less than titanium.
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“Cannot be explained” – New ultra stainless steel stuns researchers
A team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far better than conventional stainless steel. Even more impressive, it could replace costly titanium parts used in today’s hydrogen systems.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Penn physicists created particles that are part light, part matter, and can switch signals using 4 quadrillionths of a joule. The idea: replace electrons in AI chips with something far faster and far cooler.
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Forget electrons, this breakthrough uses light-matter particles to power AI
Researchers at Penn have created a hybrid light-matter particle that could dramatically speed up AI computing while using far less energy. The breakthrough may help replace some electronic computing processes with ultra-efficient light-based technology.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
JAXA tested a Mach 5 hydrogen ramjet with the fuselage exterior hitting 1,000C. Inside temps: 60C. That thermal engineering gap is what separates ambition from actual hypersonic flight.
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Japan completes Mach 5 hypersonic engine test for 2-hour Pacific travel
Japan successfully tested a Mach 5 ramjet engine that could power hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching the US in just 2 hours.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
What's an engineering marvel that deserves more recognition?
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
JCB built a 1,600-hp hydrogen car to break 350 mph at Bonneville this August. The same engines are already in their production excavators. Not a concept. A proof.
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JCB's hydrogen car chases 350 mph to nearly double world record
JCB, the British construction equipment giant best known for its signature yellow construction machinery, is returning to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with the Hydromax – a hydrogen-powered land speed racer 32.8 ft (nearly 10 m) long – with a declared target of exceeding 350 mph (563 km/h).
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Engineering is a collaborative dance between creativity and precision. Step onto the dance floor and create something extraordinary. #EngineeringCollaboration
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
AECOM, Tokamak Energy, and Type One Energy have formed a consortium to build the UK's first private fusion power plant using stellarator technology. A commercial plant, not a research facility. The target is the 2030s.
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Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy, and AECOM form the UK Infinity Fusion Consortium to accelerate development of a commercial fusion power plant in the United Kingdom | AECOM
LONDON (6 May 2026) — Type One Energy, Tokamak Energy, and AECOM today announced the UK Infinity Fusion Consortium to pursue development of the first private-sector-led fusion power plant project in the United Kingdom. Together, the companies intend to develop a fusion project that is commercially credible, deployable using existing enabling technologies, and capable of...
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Offshore floating solar outperforms land-based panels by 12% over a system's lifetime. Seawater keeps panels cooler, and cooler panels produce more power. For coastal, land-constrained nations, that 12% is a significant engineering argument.
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Offshore floating solar farms could outperform land-based solar by 12%
Scientists in Taiwan found that offshore floating solar farms can produce 12 percent more electricity than land-based arrays.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Japan's JAXA tested a hydrogen-fuelled Mach 5 ramjet on a ground rig at 1,832 degrees F. The next step is a live hypersonic flight test. Tokyo to New York in two hours moves closer to engineering timeline rather than science fiction.
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Japan completes Mach 5 hypersonic engine test for 2-hour Pacific travel
Japan successfully tested a Mach 5 ramjet engine that could power hypersonic aircraft capable of reaching the US in just 2 hours.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Scientists fused silkworm fibres using heat and pressure to create a material rivalling Kevlar, tunable for use in human bone implants, and potentially useful for 6G communications. Published in Nature Sustainability today.
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Heat-pressed silk material beats wood, nears Kevlar strength
Scientists fused natural silk into a super-strong material rivaling Kevlar for implants and advanced tech uses.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Three humanoid robots sorted 28,000 packages in a 24-hour autonomous run with zero human interventions. Each self-corrected, handed off during maintenance, and matched human sorting speeds. The robotics industry has been building toward exactly this.
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Figure AI humanoids sort 28,000 packages in 24-hour autonomous test
Figure AI says its humanoid robots completed over 24 hours of nonstop autonomous work using Helix-02 AI.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Hydrogen fuel cells need water to work, which caps how hot they can run. Monash University engineers just built a graphene membrane that operates at 482°F completely dry. That removes a barrier constraining fuel cells for decades.
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Ultra-thin membrane helps hydrogen fuel cells perform at 482°F heat
Researchers at University of Monash have developed atomically thin sheets of membrane that can carry out proton transport without using water.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Japanese engineers just hit 112 Gbps wireless transmission at 560 GHz, the first time anyone has broken 100 Gbps at these frequencies. 6G infrastructure just got a credible engineering foundation.
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Japan demonstrates record 112 Gbps wireless transmission at 560 GHz
Researchers have developed a new microcomb-driven terahertz (THz) wireless communication system that achieves data rates up to 112 Gbps.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
The Earth has been making clean hydrogen for a billion years. Geochemists just measured it seeping from mine tunnels in Ontario. One site alone could power 400+ homes annually, with no electrolysis and no carbon cost.
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Geochemists find natural white hydrogen source in billion-year-old Canadian Shield
Geochemists have measured and tracked long-term accumulations of natural hydrogen leaking from billion-year-old rocks in the Canadian Shield.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Existing construction tech could cut cement and steel emissions by 73% by 2050. No new inventions required. The technologies already exist. The gap is policy, building codes, and industrial capacity in the regions where demand is growing fastest.
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Construction tech could reduce emissions while supporting growth
An international study with EPFL researchers suggests that large reductions in carbon emissions from cement and steel building materials may be achievable by 2050 using already-existing construction technologies. Production of construction materials contributes up to 17% of human-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year, and most materials used in construction today are cement-based. Biobased materials (...)
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
NASA's X-59 just completed its first two-flight day, reaching Mach 0.95. Twelve test flights in. The goal: replace Concorde's sonic boom with a gentle thump, and build the evidence base to reopen supersonic flight over land.
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NASA’s X-59 Flight Tests Pick Up Speed with Two-Flight Days - NASA
As flight operations for NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft accelerate, its team has picked up their testing tempo, completing two test flights in a single
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Manganese was thought to weaken stainless steel. A Hong Kong engineering team proved the opposite. The result could cut green hydrogen production costs by 40x. Six years from surprise lab result to tonnes in production.
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“Cannot be explained” – New ultra stainless steel stuns researchers
A team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far better than conventional stainless steel. Even more impressive, it could replace costly titanium parts used in today’s hydrogen systems.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
True or false: Engineering is becoming too focused on short-term results rather than long-term impact.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The UK just consented a 3GW offshore wind project from RWE and Masdar. 200 turbines. Enough to power 3 million homes. Commissioning from 2031. The consents are stacking up fast, now comes the delivery challenge.
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UK Grants Development Consent for 3 GW Dogger Bank South Offshore Wind Project
The UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has granted development consent for two Dogger Bank South (DBS) offshore wind farms, Dogger Bank South West and Dogger Bank South East, which are planned to have a combined installed capacity of 3 GW.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Engineering is the bridge between innovation and impact. Let's build bridges that lead to a more conscious and caring world. #EngineeringImpact
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Workers in South Australia hit 1,000 precast concrete tunnel segments for a $15.4 billion road project beneath Adelaide. At peak, they will produce 160 a day. Total needed: 55,000 segments. Each one weighs 12 tonnes. Civil engineering, up close.
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1,000th Tunnel Segment Manufactured Locally
Inside one of South Australia's largest sheds, workers at Waterloo Corner are celebrating a manufacturing milestone, with 1,000 precast tunnel-lining
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Engineers, we are the innovators of change. Let's innovate for a change towards a more sustainable and conscious world. #EngineeringInnovators
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Manganese is supposed to weaken stainless steel. A Hong Kong engineering team found the opposite under specific conditions, building a steel that could cut green hydrogen electrolyser costs by 40 times. It defies current corrosion science.
f.mtr.cool
“Cannot be explained” – New ultra stainless steel stuns researchers
A team at the University of Hong Kong has developed a new “super steel” that can survive the harsh conditions needed to make green hydrogen from seawater. The material uses an unexpected double-protection mechanism that resists corrosion far better than conventional stainless steel. Even more impressive, it could replace costly titanium parts used in today’s hydrogen systems.
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Standard fuel cell membranes need water to conduct protons and fail above 100°C. Monash engineers built one from graphene and boron nitride that works at 250°C, no water required. That opens up a lot of industrial applications.
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Membrane Breakthrough Boosts Fuel Cell Efficiency
Engineers have developed a new ultra-thin membrane that allows fuel cells to operate more efficiently at high temperatures by enabling proton
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Born to Engineer @borntoengineer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
NASA just tested an electric thruster at 120 kilowatts at JPL. That is 25 times the power of anything currently flying on a NASA spacecraft. It runs on lithium vapour and could one day push crewed missions to Mars.
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NASA Fires Up Powerful Lithium-Fed Thruster for Trips to Mars
A novel electromagnetic thruster passed an initial test in a specialized chamber at JPL. With further development, these thrusters could support human missions to the Red Planet.
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