• The road to smart homes starts with smart EV charging

    It is no longer enough to simply have an electric vehicle (EV) charger installed on your home – it must be smart. New government legislation  states that new EV charging points in all UK domestic and work properties must have smart functionality to reduce pressure on the grid and use renewable sources where possible. Add this to every new build needing a charging point included as standard, and that’s hundreds of thousands of smart charging stations on the horizon. With transport responsible for the largest percentage of emissions in the UK . and homes due to overtake this in the next 10 years, revolutionising sectoral relationships with energy is both the greatest challenge and opportunity in the journey to net zero. To meet sustainability targets, homes of the future are needed now, and…

  • £3m tree-planting package for London announced to combat climate change

    Khan’s announcement comes after a huge number of fires raged across the capital last week caused by the record high temperatures, prompting London Fire Brigade (LFB) to declare a major incident. “The extreme temperatures and fires that raged across the capital last week laid bare how vulnerable London is to the effects of climate change, which is why today I’ve pledged a further £3.1m for a mass tree-planting package to help limit the affects of the climate emergency and the ecological crisis,” Khan said. He added: “These additional street trees and improvements to green spaces are targeted in areas where they’re most needed and will improve resilience of neighbourhoods in our city.” London remains at immediate risk of wildfires because of tinder dry grass, with the LFB warning that any…

  • UK households facing ‘most expensive winter in history’

    The £400 payment, which is part of a package announced in May this year, will come in the form of a monthly deduction from bills over six months for approximately 29 million households. Customers will see £66 taken off their energy bills in October and November and £67 each month from December to March, the Government said. However, one energy company boss has said that households could burn through that money in just a few days. The news marks the first detail of how the Government will pay out the £400 support for all households, which the then chancellor Rishi Sunak first announced in May. Sunak also promised extra help for the poorest households.   That support came in response to predictions that energy bills will rise to £2,800 for the average household in October. Since May, however…

  • Nasa to switch rovers for helicopters in Mars sample recovery mission

    The Mars Sample Return Program is a proposed mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and return them to Earth. Such a mission, which includes contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), would allow more extensive analysis than that allowed by onboard sensors. While initially planning to use rovers to collect the sample, which are more comprehensively tested, the Ingenuity helicopters were tested extensively on Mars last year as part of the Perseverance mission. As of 11 June 2022, Ingenuity has made 29 successful flights, repeatedly setting new records for highest speed and distance travelled during a single flight. “The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science…

  • Jurassic marine world fossils unearthed in farmer’s field

    Discovered beneath a field grazed by an ancient breed of English Longhorn cattle, the roughly 183-million-year-old fossils are stunningly well preserved, as if they were frozen in time. Contained within three-dimensionally preserved limestone concretions, the remains of fish, ancient marine reptiles, squids, rare insects and more have been revealed for the first time by a team of palaeontologists.   The fossils come from an inland rock layer that was last exposed in the UK more than 100 years ago and represented a unique opportunity to collect fossils from a time when this part of the country was deep underwater. The newly found site is at Court Farm, Kings Stanley near Stroud, Gloucestershire, and was discovered by Sally and Neville Hollingworth, avid fossil collectors who recently uncovered…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Inefficient building electrification risks prolonging fossil fuel use, study finds

    Direct fossil fuel consumption by buildings, burned in water heaters, furnaces (boilers), and other heating sources, accounts for nearly 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. Switching to an electric system that powers heating through renewable energy sources, rather than coal, oil, and natural gas – the process known as building electrification or building decarbonisation – is a crucial step towards achieving global net-zero climate goals. However, most building decarbonisation models have not accounted for seasonal fluctuations in energy demand for heating or cooling. This makes it a challenge to predict what an eventual switch to cleaner, all-electric heating in buildings could mean for the nation’s electrical grid, especially during peaks in energy use. A new study by…

  • Stamp-sized ultrasound stickers can see inside the body

    Currently, ultrasound imaging requires bulky equipment available only in hospitals and doctor’s offices. The new devices stick to the skin and can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. The researchers, who believe their devices could eventually be cheaply available in pharmacies, applied the stickers to volunteers and showed the devices produced live, high-resolution images of major blood vessels and deeper organs such as the heart, lungs and stomach. The stickers maintained a strong adhesion and captured changes in underlying organs as volunteers performed various activities, including sitting, standing, jogging and biking. The current design requires connecting the stickers to instruments that translate the reflected sound waves into images. The researchers…

  • Paper battery could power disposable electronics

    The researchers at Swiss materials science institute Empa said the battery also had minimal environmental impact due to the materials used. It is made of at least one cell measuring one centimetre squared and consisting of three inks printed onto a rectangular strip of paper. Sodium chloride (salt) is dispersed throughout the strip of paper and one of its shorter ends has been dipped in wax. An ink containing graphite flakes, which acts as the positive end of the battery (cathode), is printed onto one of the flat sides of the paper while an ink containing zinc powder, which acts as the negative end of the battery (anode), is printed onto the reverse side of the paper. Additionally, an ink containing graphite flakes and carbon black is printed on both sides of the paper, on top of the…

  • Scientists warn against using drone footage for environment monitoring

    Relying on drone imagery to measure surface movement over time could result in significant deformation of maps used for environmental research, a study has found.  Natural heritage studies often leverage drone imagery and photogrammetric techniques in order to map and monitor geomorphological objects. Some of the characteristics that make this technology so popular are the affordability of the drones, as well as the ease with which these images can be used to generate 3D models of large areas of terrain.  However, scientists from the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), in Spain have found that variations in the lens profiles of images taken by low-cost drones could have a significant influence on the deformations quantified, thereby affecting analyses of…

  • Why every engineer should be a mentor

    One of the greatest issues facing women who have the talent, ambition and skills to be top engineers is that they simply don’t believe they can be.  According to EngineeringUK , only 60 per cent of girls aged between 11 and 14 think they could become an engineer if they wanted to, compared to 72 per cent of boys. This drops to 53 per cent in the 16-19 age range, where only a quarter of girls say they would ever consider a career in engineering. There are similar issues for all under-represented groups in the sector. If people don’t have the advice, support and role models they need to encourage them into engineering, they are less likely to consider it a viable option. And while these are in part societal issues, there is more the sector can do to make itself accessible to all. Mentoring…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Letters to the editor: volume 17, issue 8

    Power disruption ‘is the result of self-inflicted policies’ I am amazed at the lack of concern over the future of UK electricity supply following the reality check caused by the Ukraine conflict. The hike in electricity prices was predictable, as with gas having a regional market the only alternative option for the UK would have been coal for generating electricity. Not only did the UK retire its coal portfolio prematurely, unlike Germany, but the state also failed to increase its gas storage and deliberately prevented the hydraulic fracturing of indigenous gas through regulation. Political ineptitude is not new – the mid-1970s shutdown of a nuclear option prevented any future indigenous capability. Only after 2008 was this intent reversed with a devastating failure to promote an intended…

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    E+T Magazine

  • UK faces ‘tight’ energy supplies this winter, grid operator warns

    In a report forecasting electricity availability this winter, the body said it expects system margins to be broadly in line with recent winters and there will be sufficient available capacity to meet demand. But it added: “Our operational modelling indicates that there could be some tight periods this winter, which are most likely to occur in the first half of December.” There are various uncertainties this winter as a direct result of possible shortfalls in Europe’s gas supply – partly driven by the turmoil around securing energy supplies from Russia. Earlier this week, the Russian state-run energy firm Gazprom reduced flows through the key Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to around 20 per cent of its capacity leading to concerns about energy security on the continent as demand rises heading…

  • Covid-19 vaccine patch more effective against Omicron than injection

    The team tested a high-density microarray patch developed by biotechnology company Vaxxas and found that - when tested in mice - it was more effective at neutralising Covid-19 variants than injections. “The high-density microarray patch is a vaccine delivery platform that precisely delivers the vaccine into the layers of the skin which are rich in immune cells,” said UQ’s Dr Christopher McMillan. “We found that vaccination via a patch was approximately 11 times more effective at combatting the Omicron variant when compared with the same vaccine administered via a needle. “So far, every vaccine type we have tested through the patch, including subunit, DNA, inactivated virus and conjugate produces superior immune responses compared to traditional needle vaccination methods.” Currently…

  • Sponsored: Making critical power distribution safer, more reliable and more sustainable

    Yet, most organisations are still not taking advantage of these latest advances in power distribution connectivity and intelligence, some of which may already be in place in their facilities. Without this crucial last step, facility teams are working blind, unaware of many hidden risks and opportunities. You will learn: The importance of digitalising the electrical power distribution infrastructure through an easily understood comparison The different devices, communications, and architectures that make a digitalised power distribution system possible About specific applications that can provide valuable outcomes like enhanced electrical safety, improved power availability and reliability, optimised efficiency, and simplified compliance Download free whitepaper

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • South Australia battery to deliver world-first inertia services

    The Hornsdale Power Reserve big battery developed by Neoen Australia is expected to become the first big battery in the world to deliver grid-scale inertia services, using Tesla’s Virtual Machine Mode technology. The 150MW/193.5MWh facility has recently received the go-ahead from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), allowing it to provide this innovative service to the National Electricity Market (NEM) in South Australia. System inertia is a form of energy stored in e lectricity-producing generators comprised of spinning parts, which rotate at the right frequency to balance supply and demand, spinning faster or slower as needed.  Although system inertia is key to the stability of grids, as it caters for these supply and demand imbalances, in recent years it has become increasingly…

  • Linux malware rapidly rising as hackers target enterprise

    Until recently, cyber criminals have largely ignored Linux compared to other more popular operating systems. However, the most recent data shows that cyber attack trends are shifting. According to the data presented by the Atlas VPN team, based on AV-ATLAS.org statistics, the numbers of new Linux malware reached record highs in the first half of 2022, with nearly 1.7 million samples discovered. Compared to the same period in 2021, new Linux malware numbers have soared by an astonishing 650 per cent. The cumulative number of new Linux malware samples in H1 2022 alone was 31 per cent higher than the number of such samples in the whole year of 2021. The first half of 2022 saw more new Linux malware samples than any other year since 2008.   Image credit: Atlas VPN …

  • AI equals experts in lung disease diagnosis

    The AI model developed at Nagoya University makes its  diagnosis based only on information from non-invasive examinations, including lung images and medical information collected during daily medical care.   Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a potentially fatal disease that can scar a person’s lungs, is famously difficult to diagnose, particularly in the early stages.  This AI model, developed in collaboration with RIKEN and Tosei General Hospital, was able to analyse data from the hospital's patients and diagnose the disease with a similar level of accuracy to that of a human specialist, which doctors often have to consult when dealing with pulmonary fibrosis.  “Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis has a very poor prognosis among lung diseases,” said Taiki Furukawa, assistant professor of the…

  • Saudi Arabia unveils The Line, a carbon-neutral ‘city of the future’

    A year and a half after the initial announcement of Saudi Arabia's plans to build a linear megacity in the heart of the desert, the country's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has revealed the first artist impressions of how The Line might look. The impactful images show a city made from two single parallel structures stretching over 170km (105 miles) and connecting the country's west and east coast.  Each of the two skyscrapers will be 500m (1,640 feet) tall - higher than the Empire State Building - and the whole complex will only be 200m (656 feet) wide.  The vertical design of The Line means that the city is expected to accommodate nine million people, while only using an area of 13 square miles (34sq/km).   "The designs revealed today for the city's vertically layered communities…

  • Air pollution likely to exacerbate dementia risk, meta-study finds

    The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (CMEAP) reviewed nearly 70 studies in human populations which have examined the possible link between air pollutants and effects on mental ability and dementia. It found that the studies show “it is likely” that air pollution can contribute to a decline in mental ability and dementia in older people. It is already known that air pollution, particularly small particle pollution, can affect the heart and the circulatory system, including circulation to the brain. These effects are linked to a form of dementia caused by damage to the blood vessels in the brain. Experimental studies suggest that air pollution might also stimulate the immune cells in the brain, which can then damage nerve cells. It is not clear whether this effect is…

  • Is unconscious bias behind our ‘uncanny valley’ fears?

    The concept of the ‘uncanny valley’ was first introduced more than 50 years ago by robotics professor Masahiro Mori to describe the hypothetical relation between an object’s human-likeness and people’s emotional response to it. In the decades since the emergence of this concept, robotics has made giant leaps in anthropomorphism and natural language processing, leading to the creation of social robots that are increasingly similar to humans in both appearance and intelligence. As society at large prepares to overcome unprecedented challenges, from the burnout of healthcare workers to the necessity to assist an ageing global population, help from social robots could be a blessing. In particular, humanoid robots have proved to be very effective in socially engaging people, which makes them a…

  • Why all roads lead to a tax on EVs

    The government is facing increasing pressure to look seriously at a way of taxing motorists who drive EVs, with the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles otherwise set to leave the Treasury with a £35bn fiscal black hole. Speaking in front of MPs in the Commons Liaison Select Committee, outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson recently accepted that it was “certainly the case that we will need a substitute for fuel duty”. The need is clear: combined with vehicle excise duty (VED), the two taxes amount to 7 per cent of the exchequer’s annual take, although Number 10 has been accused of blocking the Treasury from setting up a working body to investigate the issue.  Road pricing is not a new concept and it has always proved a difficult political sale. “The government doesn…

  • US Senate advances sweeping semiconductor bill

    The US took a key step towards reducing reliance on Chinese exports with the advancement of a key bill aimed at boosting the country's chip production.  The legislation is expected to provide $52bn (£43bn) in incentives for the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, as well as related research and development projects. It would also provide an investment tax credit for chip plants estimated to be worth $24bn (£19.8bn). The bill could become law as early as the end of the week, once it obtains final approvals from the Senate and the House of Commons. The proposed legislation has been praised, not only in terms of economic growth and the trade war with China, but also within the framework of national security. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called it "one of the most consequential…

  • Gadgets: Acer ConceptD7 SpatialLabs Edition, Nothing Phone (1), Samsung Freestyle and more

    Acer ConceptD 7 SpatialLabs Edition Pricey, but this is no ordinary laptop. It features Acer’s new glasses-free 3D screen technology. This combines lenticular lenses (like a funny birthday card with a chihuahua on) with a pair of cameras that track your eyes, to deliver them the perfect 3D image. It’s powerful enough to render 3D in real time too, unlocking a new experience for designers. £3,499.99 acer.com Read Caramel’s full hands-on review. Kelda BubbleSpa This unique shower tech has to be seen, hence the video. 16 microprocessor-controlled nozzles create 20mm air-filled water droplets that fall softly on the body. Kelda calls this BubbleTapping shower therapy. Magical and the rhythmic tapping feels a lot like a traditional Swedish massage.

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Russia reveals plans to withdraw from International Space Station

    Following China's example, Russia is planning on building its own orbital outpost once its commitments with the International Space Station (ISS) have been fulfilled.  "Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made," Yuri Borisov, leader of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.  “I think that by that time we will start forming a Russian orbiting station,” he added.  Although expected, t he announcement throws into question the future of the 24-year-old space station, with experts saying it would be extremely difficult, and even a “nightmare”, to maintain the orbiting post without Russia's involvement.  The ISS has for many years symbolised international…

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