According to TheRegister.com, several key tech trends beyond AI are defining 2025. Structural battery composites (SBCs) are emerging, allowing a device’s frame to also be its battery, potentially eliminating massive components in EVs. Generation IV nuclear reactors, using novel coolants like helium and liquid metals, are combining with small modular reactor (SMR) concepts to revitalize nuclear power. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force in 2025, mandating that all products and services in the EU be made accessible, with inaccessible systems banned from 2030. Finally, Cyber Security Mesh Architecture (CSMA) and zero-trust security are evolving from concepts into standards, aiming to create intrinsically secure systems.
The End of the Battery Pack?
Here’s the thing about structural batteries: the concept is so elegantly simple it’s crazy we’re not further along. Why build a heavy frame and a heavy, bulky battery pack when one material could do both jobs? It’s not just about saving weight in your next EV. It’s about completely rethinking product design from the ground up. Your phone casing could be the battery. The wings of a drone could store its power. The potential to simplify supply chains and manufacturing is huge.
And let’s talk about the geopolitical angle. We’re all nervously watching the lithium supply chain. What if you could use a different, more abundant electrochemical because the energy density doesn’t need to be as insane when the battery is everywhere in the structure? That’s a game-changer. Research into this is heating up, as seen in pieces on batteries that double as structure. This isn’t just an incremental improvement. It’s a fundamental shift in material science.
Nuclear’s Quiet Comeback Story
Fusion gets the flashy headlines, but fission is having a real, practical renaissance. And it’s happening on two fronts. First, Generation IV reactors. These aren’t your granddad’s pressurized water reactors. Using coolants like molten salt or liquid metal allows them to run hotter and more efficiently, with inherently safer designs. It’s seventy years of nuclear experience finally meeting modern materials science.
The second piece is small modular reactors (SMRs). Think about it: we’ve had small, reliable nuclear reactors powering submarines since the 1950s. The new idea is making them modular—factory-built, standardized components shipped to a site for assembly. This slashes the insane cost and decade-long timelines of traditional nuclear plants. Organizations like ANSTO are exploring how SMRs can use Gen IV designs. This shift could finally make nuclear a flexible, scalable part of the clean energy grid. Not a silver bullet, but a crucial, reliable baseload.
The EU is Forcing a Better-Built World
This one’s a sleeper hit with massive implications. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) isn’t just another regulation. It’s a mandate that, by 2030, inaccessible products and services are banned in the EU. That’s a hard deadline. We’re not talking about adding alt-text as an afterthought. This forces a “born accessible” design philosophy into everything—from websites and apps to ATMs and physical infrastructure.
Look, accessibility today is often a patchy, expensive, compliance-driven nightmare. The EAA aims to change that by creating a huge, unified market demand. When every developer, designer, and manufacturer in Europe has to build this way, the tools, frameworks, and libraries will get better and cheaper for everyone. The cost of doing it right plummets. As analysis on the European Accessibility Act 2025 outlines, this is about economic and sustainable implementation. The pushback will be fierce, but the outcome is a world that works better for millions more people. That’s progress you can feel.
From Hype to Hardened Security
Zero trust and security mesh architecture sound like buzzword bingo. But they’re crystallizing into something real because they have to. The old model of “hard shell, soft center” network security is broken. Zero trust’s core philosophy—”never trust, always verify”—is the only sane response to modern threats.
But here’s the rub: zero trust is hard to implement across a complex, messy system. That’s where Cyber Security Mesh Architecture (CSMA) comes in. It’s the idea of having different security tools for different parts of your environment that can actually talk to each other. CSMA can provide the multiple, independent verification paths that zero trust needs. Together, they promise systems that are secure by design, not by bolt-on. Think about it: in a world where a simple phishing call to IT can cause billions in damage, can we afford not to move this way? This is the trend that underpins trust in everything else digital. For industries relying on robust, secure computing at the edge—from manufacturing floors to energy grids—this architectural shift is critical. It’s why partners who understand hardened systems, like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, are essential; they provide the secure, reliable hardware foundation these new security paradigms run on.
