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Community Teach a robot to fish… Science is getting a bit of a rough ride these days, what with evidence-based research now considered a bourgeois construct. Anyone who sticks their head above the parapet with an inconvenient truth is in danger of being lynched. How today's boffins must yearn for the days when they were merely considered socially untouchable rather than enemies of the people. It's not a point of view Disconnector has time for, of course. Science doesn't always get things right, but it has a way better success rate than alchemy. That said, the great man can't help but observe that scientists don't always do themselves any favours. Take the eggheads over at MIT in the US, for instance. Now, these boys are clever, there's no denying that. Any- one able to design and build a robotic arm made of "hydrogel" that's invisible to the naked eye but fast enough in the water to catch a fish is clearly bright. But does the world need fast, invisible underwater robots? This, posits Disconnector, is where the brilliantly named professor Xuanhe Zhao and graduate student Hyunwoo Yuk have not really thought things through. Their intentions are pure: professor Zhao is looking at medical applications. "Hydro- gels are so, wet, biocompati- ble, and can form more friendly interfaces with human organs," he says. But that leaves you with an invisible underwater robot that has been programmed about the minutiae of human anatomy. Again, Disconnector sees scope for things going awry here. All in the mind Of course, while robots tend to get all the glory, the sticklers among you will point out that they are just glorified machines. We don't have anything to fear as long as they can't think. Three cheers, then, for scientists led by professor Win- fried Hensinger, head of the Ion Quantum Technology Group at Sussex University, who have designed a full-scale quantum computer – a world first. Quantum computers have been built before to verify the theory, but only as lab experi- ments that work at a fraction of their theoretical ability. Prof Hensinger and his chums reckon they have overcome the main technical problems that have prevented the construction of more powerful machines. They are currently building a prototype and a full-scale quantum computer – many millions of times faster than the best currently avail- able – could be built in about a decade. "We are now publishing the actual nuts-and-bolts construc- tion plan for a large-scale quantum computer," Hensinger is quoted as saying. "Life will change completely. We will be able to do things we could never even dream of before." Indeed. We may have had enough of experts, sighs Disconnector, but it very much looks as though they have not finished with us. Can you dig it? Last year, brilliant billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was stuck in traffic in Los Angeles and it irked him, so he tweeted angrily that he was going to get his people to build a tunnel-boring machine and "just start digging". This being Elon, two months later photos have started emerging of an actual prototype tunnel-boring machine being tested at his SpaceX facility. Disconnector for one is pleased at this development. The ability to dig a network of underground tunnels quickly and at short notice could be exactly the sort of capability mankind is going to need pretty darn soon. Disconnector Editor, Utility Week, and content director, Utilities: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellenbennett@fav-house.com; Deputy editor: Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: janegray@ fav-house.com; Insights editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathewbeech@fav-house. com; News editor: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080, e: loisvallely@fav-house.com; Networks correspondent: Lucinda Dann, t: 01342 332083, e: lucindadann@fav-house.com; Reporter: Tom Grimwood, t: 01342 332061, e: tomgrimwood@fav-house.com; Policy correspondent: David Blackman, e: davidblackman@fav-house.com; Production editor: Paul Newton, t: 01342 332085, e: paulnewton@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Nigel Searle, t: 01342 332009, e: nigelsearle@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amandabarnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership enquiries: Peter Bissell, t: 01342 332057, e: peterbissell@fav-house.com. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham House Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, East Grinstead, West Sussex Rh19 1UZ 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2015 Membership subscriptions: UK £669 per year. Overseas £781 per year. Contact Peter Bissell on: 01342 332057 Utility Week is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (which regulates the UK's magazine and newspaper industry). We abide by the Editors' Code of Practice and are committed to upholding the highest standards of journalism. If you think that we have not met those standards and want to make a complaint please contact the editor, Ellen Bennett, at ellenbennett@fav-house.com. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, or if you would like more information about IPSO or the Editors' Code, contact IPSO on 0300 123 2220 or visit www.ipso.co.uk William Marchant @richonlyinname Try not to poop in the regulatory sandbox. Solarcentury @solarcentury With renewables inc #solar approaching grid parity, their momentum is becoming unstoppable. Limejump @Limejump The clear winners of the T1/EA #Capacity- Market Auction were anyone with existing generation and interconnectors (96.4%). John Wren @JohnWren1950 The only "clean coal" is the stuff left in the ground. #auspol Jay Kuo @nycjayjay Under Trump, it's already easier for the men- tally ill to buy guns, coal companies to pollute streams, and Wall St to screw us. #2WeeksIn Jean @ceesav #Ofgem's answer to 10% price rise is "switch"? Other suppliers raise their prices, what then? Ofgem is a toothless poodle! #r4today #bbcdp Deborah Sampson @Debsam1760 Does anyone know if there's a black market where you can buy shower heads that aren't water saving? Asking for a friend. John Short @JDherts I am an #NPower customer, well I am until tomorrow, bye bye Macclabour @MaccLabour Oh how you sneered when @Ed_Miliband proposed a freeze on #Utilities before in depth scrutiny of how big 6 traded now #npower screwing us Stephen Bush @stephenkb You can tell how bad things are based on how quickly Caroline Lucas speaks in the Commons. Currently set to "Hummingbird/ Apocalypse". Top Tweets UTILITy WEEK | 10Th - 16Th FEBRUARy 2017 | 31