• Crushed plastic bottles could create nanodiamonds for quantum sensors

    An international team, headed by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the University of Rostock and France’s École Polytechnique, conducted a novel experiment to determine what goes on inside ice planets such as Neptune and Uranus. The researchers fired a laser at a thin film of simple PET plastic and investigated what happened using intensive laser flashes. One result was that the researchers were able to confirm that it really does 'rain diamonds' inside the ice giants at the periphery of our solar system.   This method could establish a new way of producing nanodiamonds, which are needed, for example, for highly-sensitive quantum sensors. The group has presented its findings in the journal Science Advances . The conditions in the interior of icy giant planets such as Neptune…

  • Hands-on review: Mio MiVue 798 dash cam and MiVue 818 dash cam

    From something of a slow-burn start as an optional car accessory, the dash cam market has exploded in recent years, producing an avalanche of new cams and new companies. Accordingly, when it comes to choosing your first dash cam, the sheer weight of options can seem daunting. Fortunately, the quality today of even the most cheap and cheerful models is sufficiently good that they'll still see you right in terms of at least proving what happened on the road, in the event of any legal debate. Where your shopping choice gets a bit gnarlier is when you want to step up to crystal-clear footage to capture the smallest crucial details, such as the registration on a moving number plate as a hit-and-run driver exits stage left at speed. Whilst there are some long-established heavy hitters in this…

  • Amazon switched off its solar rooftops after fires, report says

    Amazon reportedly took all US solar rooftops offline last year after they caused at least six "critical fire or arc flash events" in warehouses between April 2020 and June 2021, affecting 12 per cent of such facilities.  “The rate of dangerous incidents is unacceptable and above industry averages,” an Amazon employee wrote in an internal report viewed by CNBC, which described the company's intention to ensure its systems were designed, installed and maintained properly before “re-energising” any of them. The solar rooftop programme was launched in 2017, followed two years later by founder Jeff Bezos' Climate Pledge, promising the largest online retailer would zero out emissions by 2040 . By April 2022, Amazon had onsite solar at 176 facilities, according to its website.  In Amazon’s 2021…

  • James Webb Space Telescope takes ‘historic’ exoplanet picture

    For the first time, astronomers have used Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system, in what has been described as a “historic moment for astronomy”.  The exoplanet chosen was HIP 65426 b, which is about six to 12 times the mass of Jupiter and between 15 to 20 million years old - a young age compared to the 4.5-billion-year-old Planet Earth. Since the planet is a gas giant, similar to Jupiter, it would never be habitable by living organisms. The image, as seen through four different light filters, shows how Webb’s powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system.  “This is a transformative moment, not only for Webb but also for astronomy generally,” said Sasha Hinkley, associate professor of physics and astronomy…

  • Engineering leaders urge UK to scale up hydrogen production

    In a report, the 42 professional engineering organisations that constitute the centre said that the UK needs to act swiftly on hydrogen to avoid falling behind international competitors. It also highlights the risks associated with rapid scale-up of low-carbon hydrogen production such as emissions from fossil fuel extraction and dependencies on other technologies including carbon capture and storage (CCS), renewable electricity and electrolysers. Other risks identified include leakages, safety and public trust, skills gaps, cost uncertainties, regulations, blue and green hydrogen competition, and embodied carbon in infrastructure. Hydrogen can be produced in two ways – but only one of these is considered to be truly low-carbon. Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water by electrolysis…

  • Competition regulator clears £6bn merger between NortonLifeLock and Avast

    The US-based NortonLifeLock had been planning to purchase UK firm Avast back in March, but as the companies are close competitors, with few other significant rivals, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed concerns that the proposed deal could lead to a reduction in competition in the UK market. As well as offering antivirus software, the firms also offer privacy software (such as VPNs) and identity protection software. In its initial Phase 1 investigation, the CMA concluded that the deal raised a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition. But in its Phase 2 investigation, which applied more stringent tests, it reversed its decision. Following a consultation that ended on 24 August 2022, the CMA has upheld its provisional findings and cleared the deal…

  • California passes ‘aggressive’ $54bn net-zero plan

    California - the US state whose economy ranks as the fifth largest in the world - has approved a $54bn (£47bn) climate package that includes sweeping new restrictions on oil and gas drilling as well as a mandate to move away from fossil fuels by 2045. Legislators also voted to extend the life of Diablo Canyon, California’s last nuclear power plant , by five years, after warning the state could face rolling blackouts if the facility's twin reactors were retired too soon. At the moment, the plant is still the state's largest source of power, providing roughly 9 per cent of its energy.  The legislation, known as Senate Bill 1137, is part of California governor Gavin Newsom's ambitious climate pledge, which has established a target for the state to be powered 90 per cent with clean electricity…

  • Heat-tolerant plants being bred to combat climate change

    Climate change is causing major challenges for plant breeders. Summers are getting hotter, year on year: this summer, Germany experienced a heatwave with temperatures of up to 40°C. The resulting drought inevitably affected plants. Given an ample supply of water, these plants can cool themselves via evaporation. However, they cannot do this when under drought stress. This is why plant breeders hope to develop heat-tolerant, drought-resistant plants that can survive with less water whilst still producing a good yield, using the smallest possible amount of fertiliser and pesticides. The breeders have been receiving support from researchers at Fraunhofer EZRT, where for many years research has been carried out into technologies for determining plant phenotypes. This refers to their external…

  • Hands-on review: Victrola Revolution Go portable record player

    Victrola is a turntable specialist originally founded in 1906, with models that tend to have nostalgic designs, so the Revolution Go is a new, contemporary look for the company and perhaps aimed at a new audience. This unusual portable turntable has a built-in rechargeable battery so you can spin vinyl anywhere, such as at a picnic in the park. The guitar-style thick strap gives it a messenger bag look and the lid pops off to display up to five albums. Campervan-owning retrophiles may wish to take a briefcase-style portable turntable on their travels, but most will require mains power or some form of rechargeable source. The Revolution Go is a rechargeable turntable, with a design aimed more at modern hipsters picnicking or who just can’t wait to get home from Rough Trade to listen to their…

  • Plastic waste converted into feedstock for 3D printers

    They have developed a simple and efficient way to convert polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament, plastic silverware and food packaging, to a high-quality resin. “We found a way to immediately turn this into something that’s stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people the incentive to upcycle this stuff instead of just tossing it away,” said Yu-Chung Chang, a postdoctoral researcher and a co-corresponding author on the work.  “We made stronger materials just straight out of trash. We believe this could be a great opportunity.” About 300,000 tons of PLA are produced annually, and its use is increasing dramatically.  Although it’s bio-based, PLA, which is categorised as a number seven plastic, doesn’t break down easily. It can float in…

  • California asks residents not to charge electric vehicles during heatwave

    California is currently suffering a severe heatwave. The extremely high temperatures - which reached 44°C in Los Angeles - have created a huge demand in the state's already-stretched power grid, leading energy providers to ask residents not to charge their electric vehicles.  The recommendations made by the state's Independent System Operator also include limiting the use of major appliances such as laundry machines, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers, and turning off unnecessary lights during peak times.  "Consumers are urged to reduce  energy use  from 4 to 9pm when the system is most stressed because demand for electricity remains high and there is less  solar energy  available," said the American Public Power Association, a body that represents public utilities. It said that the top…

  • Boris Johnson promises £700m in funding for Sizewell C nuclear plant

    The go-ahead for the plant, which is expected to generate about 7 per cent of the UK's electricity needs and operate for 60 years, was confirmed in July but negotiations were still ongoing with French energy giant EDF about the exact funding arrangements with the UK Government. The new plant will be built next to the existing Sizewell B, which is still generating electricity, and Sizewell A, which has been decommissioned. In one of his last policy speeches as Prime Minister, Johnson said: “We need to pull our national finger out and get on with Sizewell C. “That’s why we’re putting £700m into the deal, just part of the £1.7bn of government funding available for developing a large-scale nuclear project to final investment stage in this Parliament. “In the course of the next few weeks…

  • Book review: ‘Hegemony Now’ by Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams

    From the writings of an Italian political theorist more than a century ago to the observation that there were no generic structural changes in popular music in the first decade of the 21st century, ‘Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back)’ (Verso, £16.99, ISBN 9781786633149) is an extraordinary extended essay on the evolution of political power, finance and the role technology has played in that. A few short years ago - before the Trump presidency, Brexit and Covid came along - we knew where we were, say Jeremy Gilbert and Alex Williams. Well, if we didn’t exactly know where we were, we knew where we weren’t, because the way the world spun was based on the economics of neoliberalism. It was structured and obeyed rules. There was one (admittedly broad…

  • Battery-as-a-service model moves up the grid

    With inflation rising and the outlook for the UK economy worsening, funding constraints and a dip in investor confidence are threatening to slow down the roll-out of battery charging infrastructure. For the automotive industry, the worry is that this could have a knock-on effect on demand for new battery electric vehicles (BEVs), particularly in densely populated cities such as London where home-based charging is less feasible. There are a number of options that cost-conscious consumers can consider when weighing up the benefits of BEV ownership. For example, instead of buying and owning a new vehicle, complete with its own lithium-ion battery pack, the battery-as-a-service (BaaS) model could be worth considering. And while its focus is on the consumer, this approach could also bring value…

  • Oxygen produced on Mars with lunchbox-sized instrument

    The MIT-led 'Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilisation Experiment' - aka 'Moxie' - has been successfully making oxygen from the Red Planet’s carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere since February 2021, when it touched down on the Martian surface as part of Nasa’s Perseverance rover mission. By the end of 2021, MOXIE (pictured below) was able to produce oxygen on seven experimental runs, in a variety of atmospheric conditions, including during the day and night, and through different Martian seasons. In each run, the instrument reached its target of producing six grams of oxygen per hour - roughly the rate of a modest tree on Earth. Researchers envision that a scaled-up version of Moxie could be sent to Mars ahead of a human mission to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees…

  • US limits sales of artificial intelligence chips to China

    Two of America's top chipmakers have been ordered by US regulators to halt exports of some of their artificial intelligence (AI) technology to China.    In a regulatory filing, Nvidia said that it had been told by the US Department of Commerce that the requirement was due to a potential risk of the products being used by, or diverted to, a "military end-user".  The restrictions cover Nvidia's A100 and forthcoming H100 integrated circuits, and any systems that include them. The enforcement of this measure would threaten $400m (345m) worth of business for the company, according to the filing. AMD has also told CNN that the same restrictions have been applied to the company with regard to its shipments of MI250 integrated circuits to China. “The US government has imposed a new license requirement…

  • Robots could be better at determining child wellbeing than people, study finds

    The researchers from the University of Cambridge found that children would see the robot as a confidante and believed they wouldn’t get into trouble if they shared secrets with it. The study, conducted with 28 children between the ages of eight and 13, used a child-sized humanoid robot administrator to carry out a series of standard psychological questionnaires to assess the mental wellbeing of each participant. Each child took part in a one-to-one 45-minute session with a Nao robot (pictured), a humanoid robot approximately 60cm tall. Image credit: Dreamstime During each session, the robot performed different tasks including asking open-ended questions about happy and sad memories over the last week. It also used the 'Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression…

  • Nokia offers users eco-friendly rewards for keeping phones for longer

    Called 'Circular', the service will also recycle, refurbish and re-subscribe devices returned to the firm or donate them to charitable causes in order to keep them out of landfill, the Finnish tech firm said. The longer a user keeps their phone, the Circular programme will reward them with an increasing number of 'Seeds of Tomorrow' credits. These eco credits can then be put towards a range of global sustainability and charitable causes, such as planting trees with Ecologi, helping clean pollution from rivers with Clear Rivers, or providing connectivity to those in need. When a user wishes to upgrade their phone or tablet, they can return it to Nokia, who will securely wipe the device before refurbishing it either to send to another Circular subscriber or donating it to someone in need…

  • Arm files breach of licence lawsuit against Qualcomm

    Arm has sued Qualcomm and its subsidiary, Nuvia - which the company acquired last year in a $1.4bn (£1.2bn) deal - accusing both organisations of breach of licence agreements and trademark infringements. If successful, the lawsuit could unwind one of Qualcomm's largest strategic moves of the last few years, in which the company aimed to broaden its portfolio beyond the smartphone sector and develop more powerful chips that could be used in laptops and servers for data centres.  The British company's complaint centres around Nuvia's use of Arm's licences, which the organisation argues can't be transferred over to Qualcomm without its permission. Moreover, Arm has also accused Qualcomm of continuing to use its CPU designs in its products after its licences expired in March 2022.  “Qualcomm…

  • Strict new rules for telecoms firms to prevent cyber-attacks on UK networks

    The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) said the security regulations will be “among the strongest in the world” and will provide protections designed to prevent network failure or the theft of sensitive data. This will include protections to the electronic equipment and software at phone mast sites and in telephone exchanges which handle internet traffic and telephone calls. Currently, telecoms providers are responsible for setting their own security standards in their networks. However, the government’s Telecoms Supply Chain Review found providers often have little incentive to adopt the best security practices. The new regulations and code of practice were developed with the National Cyber Security Centre and the industry regulator Ofcom, and will force providers…

  • Book review: ‘Superspy Science’ by Kathryn Harkup

    Reading ‘Superspy Science’ brought back memories. Let me share a couple of them. How do you like this? “My name is Zakhov, Avvakum Zakhov.” Hmm... Sounds weird... Let’s try again: “My name is Boyev, Emil Boyev.” Even harder to digest for an ‘English-speaking ear’ more accustomed to one of the world’s most popular soundbites: “My name’s Bond. James Bond.” No wonder. Trust me, had the West lost the Cold War, the first two quotes could have been on everybody’s lips too. Why? Because both Avvakum Zakhov and Emil Boyev were the former communist world’s answers to James Bond. Let me explain. In the Soviet Union of my childhood and youth, where Ian Fleming’s Bond novels and the movie versions were strictly banned, the global phenomenon was either silenced completely or silenced and heavily…

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    E+T Magazine

  • The sustainable approach that will help avoid a third ‘AI winter’

    The majority of big artificial intelligence companies are pouring huge amounts of energy and resources into AI in the hope of creating a more efficient and automated future. However, throwing large volumes of data at machine-learning algorithms and using vast amounts of processing power is neither efficient nor futureproof. Algorithms were never developed with efficiency in mind, so focusing on this aspect is a vital step towards avoiding another ‘AI winter’. The energy consumption required for mining and managing Bitcoin has been in the media spotlight for years now. The energy usage of crypto transactions has even been compared to that of countries the size of Greece, a country with a population of over 10 million people. The response of environmental organisations and the public on social…

  • Researchers use dental scanner to study coral growth

    Australian researchers are using technology most commonly found in dentists’ surgeries to study coral, after noting the similarities between coral and human teeth: both are calcium-based and need to be measured on wet surfaces.  Dr Kate Quigley, a senior research scientist at the Minderoo Foundation who conducted the research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University, said she came up with the idea to use dental scanning technology in her coral studies during a visit to the dentist.  “One day I was at the dentist and they rolled out this new scanning machine," she said.  “I knew immediately that it was something that could apply to scanning very small corals given corals and teeth actually share many similar properties." Coral reefs are among the Earth’s…

  • Cruise operator to use SpaceX’s Starlink to provide passengers with broadband

    Starlink uses a constellation of orbiting satellites to provide continuous internet coverage to remote locations around the globe. The first batch of 60 small satellites was launched in 2019, although the firm has been given permission to send almost 12,000 satellites into space, an endeavour that will require multiple launches over the course of several years. RCG’s announcement makes it the first in the cruise industry to adopt the service which can provide high-speed, low-latency connectivity. The broadband internet service will be installed on all Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises and Silversea Cruises ships, along with all new vessels for each of the brands. Deployment of the Starlink technology across the fleet will begin immediately and is estimated to be completed…

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