• TfL warns RMT that Tube strike ‘increases risk to financial recovery’

    Transport for London (TfL) has written to the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) urging it to call off a planned strike on 19 August over issues including jobs and pensions, which will cause travel chaos in the capital.  Fiona Brunskill, TfL’s director of people and cultural change, pointed to the challenges the organisation is facing as it continues to wait for a long-term funding deal with the government. Brunskill said in a letter: “Having already taken a number of days of industrial action, your members continue to lose pay and our customers face disruption to their journeys, without achieving any resolution to the issues at dispute. “The calling of further industrial action risks further damage to our customers’ confidence in TfL and London Underground whilst also increasing…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Home test for Covid-19 boasts PCR accuracy using saliva sample

    At-home tests have become an easy way to self-diagnose Covid-19, but tests such as the commonly used lateral flow have drawbacks, such as the length of time it takes to get an answer, or how accurately the test can identify a positive case. Most of them also require the uncomfortable procedure of sticking a swab up one’s nose. Though PCR tests are known as the “gold-standard” because of their high sensitivity and specificity for Covid-19, it requires the sample to be sent away to a lab and be analysed by specialised personnel. The analysis itself can take up to an hour, but the total time from swab to answer can take days. Image credit: Weihua Guan The prototype device combines speed with PCR levels of sensitivity while only requiring a saliva sample, a palm…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Sluggish productivity and inequalities slowing UK economic growth, warns OECD

    The UK economy has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but high energy prices and the rising cost of living are slowing growth, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) said. The UK faces a combination of rocketing energy costs, increasing global prices of goods and services, and economic uncertainty fuelled by the war in Ukraine. Furthermore, the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) will reach a standstill with completely flat growth in 2023, according to the latest forecast. Improving “sluggish” productivity and reducing regional and gender disparities can help keep the economy’s recovery on track, the international organisation said. Mathias Cormann, the OECD’s secretary-general, said: “Like other economies around the world, the UK economy faces a number of headwinds…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Conservative Party delays voting for next PM over cyber security warnings

    According to The Daily Telegraph, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of the GCHQ, warned the party that the process was at risk and that ballots could be changed without better security. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss are competing in the leadership contest to succeed Boris Johnson as the next prime minister. Some 160,000 ballots were due to be sent out on Monday to Conservative Party members, but they are now not expected to arrive until as late as 11 August. The NCSC said it believed there was no specific threat from a hostile state and its concerns focused around the vulnerability of the voting process. A Conservative spokesman said: “We have consulted with the NCSC throughout this process and have decided to enhance security around…

  • Jaguar Land Rover opens test centre for electromagnetic compatibility

    Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has created the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) laboratory at Gaydon in Warwickshire to help ensure future vehicles satisfy legislation and meet quality standards for connectivity and electronics. A critical aspect of vehicle performance, EMC is the ability of electrical equipment and systems to function correctly in their electromagnetic environment. It works by limiting the unintentional generation, propagation and reception of electromagnetic energy to reduce the risk of unwanted effects such as electromagnetic interference. JLR’s new vehicle laboratory features two anechoic chambers: an electrically ‘quiet’ rolling road that enables engineers to test vehicles at speed, as well as equipment to assess the performance of individual components, such as batteries…

  • Toyota unit reveals it faked emissions data for 20 years

    The internal probe into a major affiliate of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp revealed Hino faked emissions data for ten years longer than previously indicated.  The investigative committee – composed of lawyers and a corporate adviser – blamed the scandal on an environment where engineers did not feel able to challenge superiors.  The lack of "psychological safety" and fear that they would not be able to meet strict targets led engine-developing teams to feel so pressured they falsified test results, the investigation's report revealed. This led to further deception, as workers covered up their wrongdoing, stretching over a 20-year-period. "The magnitude of their past successes has made them unable to change or look at themselves objectively, and they have been unaware of changes in the external…

  • Virtual reality helps separate conjoined twins with fused brains

    Three-year-olds Bernardo and Arthur Lima have been separated after undergoing seven surgical procedures over 27 hours of operating time, involving over 100 medical staff.  To achieve this feat, surgeons in London and Rio de Janeiro leveraged virtual reality (VR) projections of the twins based on CT and MRI scans. The procedures then took place in Brazil, with the direction of Great Ormond Street Hospital paediatric surgeon Noor ul Owase Jeelani, who participated in the surgery from the UK via virtual reality. The separation was "one of the most complex separation processes ever completed", according to the charity Jeelani founded in 2018, Gemini Untwined, which funded the procedure. He described the use of VR as “space-age stuff”.  Noor ul Owase Jeelani with Bernardo…

  • Morrisons launches carbon-neutral eggs laid by chickens fed on insects

    The supermarket said the insects were in turn fed on food waste from its bakery, fruit and vegetable sites, creating a ‘circular waste’ feeding scheme. A report by the University of Cambridge found that the eggs were carbon-neutral after analysing the emissions created in the eggs’ production and those which are offset on Morrisons' first carbon-neutral egg farm. The egg farm where the first stock of Planet Friendly Eggs will originate also has a large wind turbine, 50kWh solar panels, and a carbon sequestration programme to offset any remaining emissions on the farm - with 20 per cent of its land planted with trees. The report considered the entire production process including the insect growing unit and food waste transport, the sourcing of locally grown grain and the hen housing and…

  • Sponsored: Space-Comm Expo sets to revolutionise the commercial space sector

    The next generation of the commercial space industry Space-Comm Expo will demonstrate the technologies, partners and policy required and showcase the manufacturing supply chain for products, services and solutions available to support commercial enterprises and developments in space. Positioned at the forefront of the space industry, Space-Comm Expo is supported by ADS, KTN, UK Space Agency, ESA and UK Space. The event brings professionals and experts across the aerospace industry and wider ecosystem, such as agriculture, defence, fintech, mining and telecommunications, together to build long-lasting commercial and intellectual partnerships. Discussing the need for Space-Comm Expo, Nik Smith, Regional Director UK & Europe at Lockheed Martin said: “Having Space-Comm Expo now, at this time…

  • Surgery robot heading to ISS to test operations in space

    The tiny surgical robot is known as MIRA, short for ‘Miniaturised In vivo Robotic Assistant.” Its developers at Virtual Incision are currently configuring MIRA to fit inside a space station experiment locker, as well as exhaustively testing it to make sure it’s robust enough to survive a space launch and that its systems will continue to perform as anticipated in space. Once this has been completed, they will have to wait a year or so for the robot to get its turn aboard the station. In the future, Nasa hopes to launch a manned trip to Mars which will take about seven months to complete the 480-million  kilometre journey. Over that period, it is possible that astronauts could succumb to many debilitating health problems, especially considering the harsh space environment. Virtual Incision…

  • Catastrophic effects of climate change ‘dangerously underexplored’

    The authors of the study said the potential for climate change to lead to worldwide societal collapse or even human extinction is a “dangerously underexplored topic”. According to the authors, although the catastrophe has a small chance of occurring, given the uncertainties in future emissions and the climate system, we should not rule out cataclysmic scenarios. “Facing a future of accelerating climate change while blind to worst-case scenarios is naïve risk management and fatally foolish at worst,” the scientists said, adding that there were “ample reasons” to suspect global heating could cause an apocalyptic disaster. The international team of experts argues the world needs to prepare for the possibility of a “ climate endgame ”. “Analysing the mechanisms for these extreme consequences…

  • Public sector buildings to access £635m green energy fund

    From September, hundreds of public buildings across England will be able to join the £635m Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme recently presented by the government.  The funds will be used to install low-carbon heating such as heat pumps and energy efficiency measures including double glazing and loft insulation, which will aim to decrease soaring energy bills and improve the buildings' climate resilience amid more and more frequent extreme weather events, such as the heatwave that hit the UK earlier this summer.  The energy efficiency upgrades are expected to help public organisations and taxpayers save an average £650m a year on energy bills over the next 15 years, according to the Business Department (BEIS).  It is the second part of more than £1.4bn due to be allocated through the…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • 50 per cent cut in freshwater methane emissions possible, say researchers

    Lakes and other freshwater systems emit large quantities of methane, the second-most important greenhouse gas worldwide after CO2. Dredging and the use of Phoslock (a phosphate-binding clay particle) could reduce these lake emissions by over 50 per cent, according to a study by Radboud University researchers, published today in Science of The Total Environment. Methane largely originates in natural systems, with 49 per cent of all emissions coming from freshwater systems. Worldwide methane emissions also continue to increase as a result of global warming and eutrophication (an excess of nutrients in water). Radboud University researchers investigated whether reducing this eutrophication could help curb methane emissions. The study used a system of 16 testing ponds: some of the ponds were…

  • West London homebuilding on pause as electricity grid hits capacity

    Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said he was “very concerned” and had written to the government weeks ago requesting a meeting to discuss the issue. The government declined to meet with him. Khan said that electricity capacity constraints in the London boroughs of Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow were “creating a significant challenge for developers securing timely connections to the electricity network, which could affect the delivery of thousands of much-needed homes”. The Energy Networks Association (ENA), which represents UK Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), said the increased demand for electricity capacity in the area was largely due to a rapid influx of batteries and data centres. These uses often place huge demands on the electricity supply compared to housing developments.…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Smartphones could improve memory skills, study finds

    The research showed that digital devices help people to store and remember important information which frees up their memory to recall additional, less important things. Neuroscientists have previously expressed concerns that the overuse of technology could result in the breakdown of cognitive abilities and cause “digital dementia”. However, the findings show that using a digital device as external memory not only helps people to remember the information saved within the device, but it also helps them to remember unsaved information, too. To demonstrate this, researchers developed a memory task to be played on a touchscreen digital tablet or computer. The test was undertaken by 158 volunteers aged between 18 and 71. Participants were shown up to 12 numbered circles on the screen and…

  • Air pollution boosts cloud cover but reduces rain, study finds

    Aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere which play a key role in the formation of clouds. With aerosols increasing due to human activities, numerous assessments by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have suggested they could have an important impact on climate change because clouds reflect sunlight and therefore keep temperatures cooler. However, the cooling impact of aerosols on clouds is difficult to measure which has led to significant uncertainty climate change projections. The University of Exeter study used data from the 2014 Icelandic volcano eruption to investigate the effect alongside satellite data and computer learning to study cloud cover and brightness. It also used 20 years of satellite cloud images from two different satellite platforms…

  • Hands-on review: Renpho Eye Massager With Heat and Music

    With so many of us now staring at a screen of one size or another pretty much all day - starting with the 9-5 work laptop before moving to a personal smartphone and tablet until bedtime - our eyes are doing a lot of heavy lifting. The eye has six muscles and all this screentime is giving them a real workout. Not to mention the wide-ranging environmental conditions in which our eyes have to exist, as well as a lack of sleep and other physical or medical ailments. No wonder they can feel fatigued. Looking into the solutions to help with tired eyes, we discovered a rich niche market exists to help with the problem. This Renpho model - Eye Massager With Heat and Bluetooth Music (to give its full title) - is in fact just one of half a dozen or so variations on the theme from the California/Shenzen…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Brazil probes company that sold NFTs of Amazon rainforest land

    Brazil's Nemus has been given 15 days to provide proof of ownership of the land to which the NFTs are linked. The land is located in the Pauini, in the southern region of the rainforest, an area  which is the size of Belgium.   Federal prosecutors have accused the company – which claims to encourage eco-conscious customers to help preserve rainforest land − of pushing indigenous people in the region to endorse documents they could not understand.  The sale of the NFTs was reported to authorities by leaders of the Apurinã people, who traditionally occupy the claimed indigenous territory of Baixo Seruini/Baixo Tumiã, in the Amazon, as stated by a press release published by the prosecutor's office. The indigenous leaders claimed that Nemus' activities directly violated their rights, as stated…

  • Uncontrolled debris from Chinese rocket hits Earth

    China's space agency has said that most remains of the Long March 5 burnt in the atmosphere, identifying the Sulu Sea in the Pacific as the re-entry location.  The announcement did not detail whether the remains of the rocket fell on land or sea but it identified the “landing area” as 119 degrees east longitude and 9.1 degrees north latitude, which equates to waters south-east of the Philippine city of Puerto Princesa, on the island of Palawan. The Long March 5B rocket was launched on Sunday, carrying Wentian ( ‘ Quest for the Heavens’) , the second of three modules that will make up China's new Tiangong space station, where   three astronauts are currently living. The 23-tonne lab module will be used for scientific experiments and it is the heaviest   single-module spacecraft currently…

  • UK cuts to fuel duty are less than most of Europe, RAC finds

    Prices at the pump have rocketed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but UK drivers are currently paying as much as 20p more per litre of petrol than drivers in France. Out of 13 EU countries that have cut petrol taxes, only Luxembourg has done less than the UK government, with a duty cut in April worth the equivalent of 4.52p compared to the 5p duty cut announced at the UK Budget in March. It’s a similar picture for diesel, with only Croatia doing less for its drivers than the UK, with a cut worth 4.5p. Germany, which sits at the top of the table, has taken the equivalent of 25p a litre in tax off per litre of petrol on 1 June, with Italy close behind with a 21p cut and Portugal with a 16p cut. As an alternative to cutting fuel duty, governments of other countries in the EU have introduced…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Graphene foam imbues robots with human sense of touch

    The introduction of more accurate pressure sensors, which provide haptic feedback and distributed touch, will help robots to improve their dexterity and motor skills. “Over recent years the advancements in the robotics industry have been remarkable. However, due to a lack of sensory capabilities, robotic systems often fail to execute certain tasks easily. For robots to reach their full potential, accurate pressure sensors, capable of providing greater tactile ability, are required,” said professor Des Gibson, project principal investigator. Made from 3D graphene foam, which offers unique capabilities when put under mechanical stress, the sensors use a piezoresistive approach, meaning when the material is put under pressure it dynamically changes its electric resistance, easily detecting…

  • Nuclear fusion instabilities detected with simulation code

    The simulation code is able to calculate and predict changes in TAE instability to increase fast ion confinement and ensure the success of fusion reactions.  The TAE instability occurs in the course of interactions between fast ions and the perturbed magnetic fields surrounding them. As a result, fast ions disengage from the plasma core, hindering ion trapping.  In plasma particles, fast ions are much higher in kinetic energy than general ions and increase the temperature and performance of plasma necessary for nuclear fusion. Therefore, stable fast ion trapping is essential in maintaining a nuclear fusion reaction. The team at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KFE) was able to develop the code by using and improving upon the  Gyro Kinetic Plasma Simulation Program (gKPSP) nuclear…

  • View from India: Reverence takes on a green hue

    The Government of Karnataka (GoK) has allocated 25 crore towards waste management initiatives in the temples, which are places of worship for Hindus. It’s a circular economy approach. Karnataka, as recent media reports indicate, will be the first state to roll out the concept on a mega scale. In Karnataka, 34,000 temples come under Muzrai (Endowment) department. They have been categorized as grade A, B and C, based on their revenue generation. The A-grade temples have an annual income exceeding 25 lakh. The B category is represented by temples earning between 5 lakh and 25 lakh, while C category has temples with an annual income of less than 5 lakh. The initiative comes under the Swachh Mandira Abhiyana gamut. Waste-processing plants will be set up inside temple premises to convert 'nairmalya…

  • Severe disruption to rail services as drivers continue strike action

    The Rail Delivery Group said the industrial action has been timed to coincide with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the start of the new season for most English football league clubs. There will be disruption to parts of the rail network on Saturday and into the morning of Sunday. The strike is hitting Arriva Rail London, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains. Steve Montgomery, chairman of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We’re really disappointed that the Aslef leadership has decided to impose yet more uncertainty and disruption for passengers and businesses in a week which has already seen a strike by the RMT. “Millions of passengers will have their weekend plans disrupted, particularly those who are working, or going to the Commonwealth…

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