Category: 4. Technology

Canyon has released a brand new version of its Grizl gravel bike today, and it has received quite an update.

The Grizl, Canyon’s more relaxed, adventure-focused gravel bike, which sits alongside the racier Grail model, was first launched in 2021. This marks its third iteration.

Challenger brands have become the norm these days, with the disruptor playgrounds of fintech, artificial intelligence and computing fuelling significant changes in traditional industries. Transport is a perfect example, and while the electric car world is grabbing all the headlines, especially with Elon Musk’s Tesla and his ill-fated bromance with the president of the United States, there is also a more dignified, quiet revolution occurring in the electric motorcycle market.

• This article contains affiliate links that can earn us revenue

It’s an industry filled with several well-established brands that date back over a century. T en years ago no motorcycle aficionado would have even heard the name Maeving. Today, however, this small British firm founded by a couple of university friends is at the forefront of electric motorcycle sales in the UK and is expanding its reach globally.

The Maeving philosophy appears relatively straightforward but is undoubtedly challenging to execute, especially when competing against industry titans. The product proposition is clearly electric-only, emissions-free power first. Yet right behind that is a handsome design aesthetic that nods to traditional motorcycle building while embracing the future optimism of the new tech. The Maeving RM1 that came out a few years ago epitomises this approach. Within a year of its launch it was the bestselling electric motorcycle in the UK. Maeving’s latest creation, the RM1S, leverages the company’s early learnings and public goodwill to create a bike that retains all the charm of the RM1 but with some notable upgrades.

First, power and, inevitably, performance have been increased, given the RM1S a top speed of 70mph, compared to the 45mph of the RM1. Second, the batteries have been placed lower down in the engine casing, which is crucial for a low centre of gravity. This also handily frees up space in the faux fuel tank, which is very useful for storing mobile phones, gloves or that essential pack of Haribos for a longer road trip.

Removable batteries make charging simple on a charging pad wired to a standard three-pin plug — or, new to the RM1S, the ability to charge in situ while still on the bike, allowing you to take advantage of public charging points en route. The heightened top speed should be as fast as you’d ever need to go, and a full charge will get you 80 miles of range — again, enough for a bike that will mostly appeal to commuters or weekend pleasure seekers. The RM1S also provides an accessible entry point into motorcycle riding, requiring only a Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) certificate. However, it is worth noting that to ride on a motorway in the UK you will need at least an A1 license.

Electric power has undergone significant development over the past few years. Apart from the all-important zero emissions, the silent delivery of clean power offers a unique contrast to the time-honoured image of a roaring motorbike. The liberty of a motorbike ride becomes more of a peaceful freedom on an electric version, which has often been seen as an expression of rebellion or a symbol of the free spirit. The Maeving brand ambassador Ashley Walters is a passionate exponent of these virtues. The actor and director talks enthusiastically about being “drawn to the silence” on his Maeving — something you wouldn’t always have associated with motorcycle riding. He describes how this adds a refreshing dimension to the joy of riding and escaping the daily grind. In his Maeving “rider story” he reflects on his motorbike journeys, stating, “I’m riding for peace in the moment.”

The Maeving RM1S is a handsome, convenient, emissions-free commuting tool, but more than that, and of interest to most potential purchasers, it achieves all this in a stylish and silent manner.

Discover Maeving’s full range and Ashley Walters’s rider story at maeving.com

Microsoft has taken its first concrete step towards making Visual Studio Code an open-source AI editor by open-sourcing the GitHub Copilot Chat extension under the MIT license. The company announced the milestone on June 30 via the VS Code team’s blog, calling it a move toward transparency, extensibility, and developer-centric AI tooling.

The newly open-sourced code reveals how Copilot Chat handles agent mode, context engineering, and telemetry. According to the blog post, “Everything, from our system prompts, implementation details, to the telemetry we capture, is available in all transparency.” Contributions and feedback from developers are welcome on GitHub, with the long-term goal of integrating this extension into the core VS Code codebase.

The announcement follows Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s keynote at Build 2025, where he confirmed the company’s commitment to AI-powered development. “This is a big deal. We will integrate these AI-powered capabilities directly into the core of VS Code, bringing them into the same open source repo that powers the world’s most loved dev tool,” said Nadella.

Erich Gamma, creator of VS Code, reinforced the motivation by highlighting that some organisations really don’t like closed-source IDEs, and for them, VS Code would be a great choice. The company will also open-source its prompt testing infrastructure to support third-party extension developers.

This strategic shift comes amid growing demand for openness in developer tooling. According to Microsoft, the rapid advancement in LLMs and the convergence of best practices across AI coding UIs have reduced the need for proprietary techniques.

While the GitHub Copilot extension for inline completions remains closed, Microsoft plans to bring that functionality into the open-sourced Chat extension in the coming months.

The move invites comparison with AI-first VS Code forks, such as Cursor and Windsurf, both valued in billions. “Is it just me or is it kinda funny that OpenAI bought Windsurf for $3B and then Microsoft just open-sourced Copilot,” quipped a user on X.

Whether it’s community-driven extensibility or agentic DevOps, Microsoft appears ready to reshape how developers interact with AI, on their own terms, and increasingly in the open.

Thank you. Listen to this article using the player above. ✖

Researchers at Northeastern University have discovered how to change the electronic state of matter on demand, a breakthrough that could make electronics 1,000 times faster and more efficient.

By switching from insulating to conducting and vice versa, the discovery creates the potential to replace silicon components in electronics with exponentially smaller and faster quantum materials. 

“Processors work in gigahertz right now,” said Alberto de la Torre, assistant professor of physics and lead author of the research. “The speed of change that this would enable would allow you to go to terahertz.”

Via controlled heating and cooling, a technique they call “thermal quenching,” researchers are able to make a quantum material switch between a metal conductive state and an insulating state. These states can be reversed instantly using the same technique.

Published in the journal Nature Physics, the research findings represent a breakthrough for materials scientists and the future of electronics: instant control over whether a material conducts or insulates electricity.

The effect is like a transistor switching electronic signals. And just as transistors allowed computers to become smaller — from the huge machines the size of rooms to the phone in your pocket — control over quantum materials has the potential to transform electronics, says Gregory Fiete, a professor of physics at Northeastern who worked with de la Torre to interpret the findings.

“Everyone who has ever used a computer encounters a point where they wish something would load faster,” says Fiete. “There’s nothing faster than light, and we’re using light to control material properties at essentially the fastest possible speed that’s allowed by physics.”

By shining light on a quantum material called 1T-TaS₂ at close to room temperature, researchers achieved a “hidden metallic state” that had so far only been stable at cryogenically cold temperatures. Now researchers have created that conductive metallic state at more practical temperatures, says de la Torre. The material maintains its programmed state for months — something that has never been accomplished before.

“One of the grand challenges is, how do you control material properties at will?” says Fiete. “What we’re shooting for is the highest level of control over material properties. We want it to do something very fast, with a very certain outcome, because that’s the sort of thing that can be then exploited in a device.”

So far, electronic devices have needed both conductive and insulating materials, plus a well-engineered interface between the two. This discovery makes it possible to use just one material that can be controlled with light to conduct and then insulate.

“We eliminate one of the engineering challenges by putting it all into one material,” Fiete says. “And we replace the interface with light within a wider range of temperatures.”

The research expands upon previous work that used ultra-fast laser pulses to temporarily change the way materials conduct electricity. But those changes only lasted tiny fractions of a second and usually at extremely cold temperatures.

Stable conductivity switching at higher temperatures is a significant advance for quantum mechanics, Fiete says, and for the long game of supplementing or replacing silicon-based technology. Semiconductors, he says, are so dense with logic components that engineers are now stacking them in three dimensions. But this approach has limitations, he said, which make tiny quantum materials more important for electronics design.

“We’re at a point where in order to get amazing enhancements in information storage or the speed of operation, we need a new paradigm,” Fiete says. “Quantum computing is one route for handling this and another is to innovate in materials. That’s what this work is really about.”

Reference: De La Torre A, Wang Q, Masoumi Y, et al. Dynamic phase transition in 1T-TaS2 via a thermal quench. Nat Phys. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41567-025-02938-1

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.

In a remarkable astronomical achievement, astrophotographers from the Emirates Astronomy Society (EAS) have captured breathtaking images of a distant nebula from the skies of the UAE. The phenomenon was spotted in the country’s eastern mountainous regions, offering a rare and awe-inspiring view of the Crescent Nebula, an object located thousands of light-years away from Earth.What Was Seen: the Crescent NebulaThe celestial object observed is the Crescent Nebula, scientifically designated as NGC 6888 and also known as Caldwell 27-Sharpless 105. This stunning emission nebula lies in the Cygnus constellation, roughly 5,000 light-years away from Earth.According to Tamim Al Tamimi, a member of the Emirates Astronomy Society and an astronomical photographer, the nebula was not only observed but also photographed in high resolution, providing a vivid glimpse into deep space from the UAE.

The nebula’s origin is tied to a dramatic cosmic event involving a dying star. Ibrahim Al Jarwan, Chairman of the Emirates Astronomy Society, explained the formation process in a statement to WAM (Emirates News Agency).He said the Crescent Nebula was created by strong stellar winds from a Wolf-Rayet star, known as WR 136, which clashed with material previously ejected by the same star during its red giant phase. The result is a massive glowing bubble of gas composed largely of ionized hydrogen and oxygen.“This large gas bubble of ionized hydrogen and oxygen is formed and appears in fine detail when imaged using narrow-field techniques,” Al Jarwan noted.

The stunning images were the result of over 10 hours of observation, using specialized filters, H-alpha and O3, that help isolate specific wavelengths of light emitted by the nebula’s chemical elements. The data was then processed using the HOO (H-alpha, OIII, OIII) scientific color mode to clearly reveal the chemical structures within the nebula.Capturing these detailed images required a combination of advanced equipment and careful planning. The setup included:

The observation and photography of such a distant and intricate deep-sky object underscore the dedication and technical expertise of UAE’s growing astronomy community.Al Jarwan emphasized that this achievement reflects the resilience of Emirati astrophotographers, who continue their work despite harsh environmental conditions. “Night-time temperatures during the photographing period sometimes reach between 36 and 40 degrees Celsius in the mountainous or desert regions,” he said.This sighting not only showcases the beauty of space but also positions the UAE as an emerging center for serious astronomical observation and documentation, especially in regions not traditionally associated with deep-sky astrophotography.