• Microscopic ocean predator exhibits taste for carbon capture

    Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have discovered a new species that has the potential to sequester carbon naturally, even as oceans warm and become more acidic. The microbe, abundant around the world, photosynthesises and releases a carbon-rich exopolymer that attracts and immobilises other microbes. It then eats some of the entrapped prey before abandoning its exopolymer 'mucosphere'. Having trapped other microbes, the exopolymer is made heavier and sinks, forming part of the ocean’s natural biological carbon pump. Marine biologist Dr Michaela Larsson led the research, published in the journal Nature Communications, and said the study is the first to demonstrate this behaviour. Marine microbes govern oceanic biogeochemistry through a range of processes including…

  • Sponsored: The Future of Sustainable Building will require Partnership

    Professional partnerships are the key to promoting innovation, meeting evolving customer demands, spurring greater sustainability, and fostering superior business efficiency. Collaborative ecosystems promote partner competitiveness and boost the capability to quickly scale up to confront disruptive changes, tap into new expertise and respond to new market opportunities. The ability to facilitate a more sustainable, efficient, and resilient future rests on three core concepts: Simplified, Open, and Digital. These tools are readily available to those who wish to digitalise design practices and increase operational efficiency from design through execution. The AEC (architectural,  engineering , and construction) sector is confronting a period of unprecedented challenges – but also one of opportunity…

  • View from India: Infrastructure projects key to growth as trade flows face new threats

    “The gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected at 7.8 per cent for the next fiscal, with risks like Fed-rate tilting to the downside. The risk factor associated with Covid-19 has now shifted to geopolitics, crude oil and interest rate hikes in the US.” That’s the view of Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at analyist firm CRISIL Ltd. However, “government-initiated infrastructure-investment-led growth is expected to lift the lid off risks to an extent,” he told media at CRISIL’s recent India Outlook webinar.   Infrastructure-investment-led growth could gradually filter to smaller companies and lower income categories and, consequently, have a mild positive impact on private consumption in the near term. The forex (foreign exchange) cover seems to provide some sort of buffer for some…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • The First Den in the Moon

    The first humans to live on the Moon and Mars will make their home in life-sustaining modules built on Earth. But there is no question of continually filling rockets with food, cement, and other consumables to support new human colonies. Living on other worlds hinges on our ability to live off those lands. “The initial habitat should be built on Earth; it is way more expensive, but it is safer,” says Dr Christiane Heinicke, who leads a team designing a pre-fabricated Moon and Mars base at the University of Bremen. “In the long term, if we send more people there and really want to have a permanent presence there, I think it makes much more sense to use local materials to construct the habitat. [...] On the surface of the Moon and Mars you have this regolith and you have so much of it you can…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • ‘Embedded finance comes with monumental challenges’: Ozan Özerk, founder of OpenPayd

    In the post-pandemic world every organisation will be a fintech company, says Ozan Özerk. With the buy-now-pay-later trend firmly behind us, “the next disruptor will be embedded finance”, states the founder of the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) software platform OpenPayd, which through its single integration approach to a portfolio of transaction types is “helping innovative fintechs get to market quickly and access cross-border services”. Özerk stresses that embedded finance comes with “monumental challenges. But cyber security isn’t one of them: because we’ve fixed that. The big issue is simply keeping pace with technology in the booming financial services sector.” Another factor identified by Özerk is the lack of end-user knowledge of what embedded finance is. “If you take a normal black…

  • Autonomous vehicles will no longer require steering wheels in the US

    Previously, autonomous vehicles needed to come equipped with a steering wheel and pedals so that human drivers could take control if needed. Carmakers have had to grapple with safety standards written decades before the concept of automated vehicles was even a realistic endeavour. “Through the 2020s, an important part of the US Department of Transportation’s safety mission will be to ensure safety standards keep pace with the development of automated driving and driver assistance systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary. “This new rule is an important step, establishing robust safety standards for ADS-equipped vehicles.” The rule updates the standards to clarify what is required of manufacturers when applying the standards to automated vehicles without traditional manual…

  • Supertanker with Russian oil due in UK today despite ban

    The environmental group has launched a beta version of its 'Russian Tanker Tracker' on Twitter - @RUTankerTracker - which uses shipping data to monitor supertankers delivering fossil fuels from the country. The fully automated Twitter tracker has been created by Greenpeace and aims to track the large oil and ga tankers (deadweight tonnage equal to or over 50,000 tonnes) that have left a list of Russian oil and gas terminals since Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24. Using MarineTraffic API data services, the cloud-based solution pulls data about vessel position from transceivers on board (AIS), as well as port calls data for a variety of events including departures, destination, change of destination and arrivals. Twitter posts then are generated from the data using pre-defined templates…

  • Government promises £84m to improve unreliable train services in the North-West

    The money will go towards works that will deliver trackside upgrades, platform extensions for longer trains and bigger depots across the region. According to a survey of 5086 passengers from Transport Focus last month, West Midlands Railway was found to have the lowest customer satisfaction rating in the country. Works are already under way to upgrade trackside equipment between Manchester and Liverpool and platform extensions on the Cumbrian route. This will support the introduction of longer trains with extra seats and an upcoming timetable change across the region with hopes that reliability will be improved. The government has been criticised in the past by peers and MPs for not focusing enough resources on Northern infrastructure and instead favouring rail services in other part…

  • US start-up unveils next-gen space rover

    The company, Venturi Astrolab Inc, released photos and video showing its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) vehicle riding over the rugged California desert near Death Valley National Park during a five-day field test in December 2021. Astrolab executives said they have designed the four-wheeled, car-sized FLEX rover for Nasa’s Artemis programme, aimed at returning humans to the Moon as early as 2025 and establishing a long-term lunar colony as a precursor to sending astronauts to Mars. “For humanity to live and operate in a sustained way off Earth, there needs to exist an efficient network all the way from the launchpad to the ultimate outpost,” Astrolab founder and CEO Jaret Matthews said in a statement announcing the rover’s development. Unlike the 1970s Apollo-era Moon buggies…

  • After All: Ukraine’s industrial capital made a new Stalingrad by invaders

    After a weak anaesthetic of fitful sleep, the nightmare returns every morning at the press of a DAB radio button. Something deep inside me resists, for it is probably better not to be aware of the dreadful reality that appeared entirely impossible only a couple weeks ago. But not knowing would mean guessing and wondering who else of my friends could have been killed, what other relic of my past had been bombed out of existence, what other blood-oozing morsels had been torn out of Ukraine’s tired heart? And of my own heart too. “Kharkiv is no more,” an old friend muttered into her phone, having peeped one morning out of the basement where she had been hiding with her husband for over a week. And my exhausted brain immediately made a terrifying connection: “Kharkiv, no more – my birthplace…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Iconic concrete structures around the world

    The world is full of wonderful engineering feats that push the boundaries in creativity. But most of these fascinating structures would not exist were it not for the use of one of the most ubiquitous and versatile building materials. Concrete forms a big part of our surrounding landscapes, whether it be in road surfaces, dams or buildings. Even the architects and builders of the most impressive structures across the globe aren’t shy about its use. Image credit: Dreamstime Christ The Redeemer Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Construction: 4 April 1922 - 12 October 1931 If you look up at the narrow summit of Mount Corcovado, you’ll see the imposing statue of Christ the Redeemer. The statue, which represents Jesus Christ, is made of reinforced concrete clad in…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Gadgets: Bissell Pet Stain Eraser, Hexclad high-tech pans, Nokia G21 and more

    Bissell Pet Stain Eraser Cordless and clever, this is designed for removing small stains from carpets and soft furnishing. You spray the stain then a power brush lifts it. It’s Bissell’s first mini cleaner for pet stains and at 2kg it’s half the weight of its previous cordless handhelds. £129.99 bisselldirect.co.uk Read Caramel’s full hands-on review. Hexclad pans High-tech pans with Gordon Ramsay’s seal of approval. The laser-etched hexagon pattern is the secret to its hybrid technology. The peaks are stainless steel, the valleys are non-stick. As a result, you can fry and sear without sticking but clean with a scourer. You can even use metal utensils. from £79 hexclad.co.uk Nokia G21 ...

  • Book review: ‘The New Fire’ by Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie

    Dissatisfied with the widespread cliché comparing the importance and potential ubiquity of artificial intelligence with electricity, Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie have set out to find a better metaphor. The problem with the electricity analogy, they contend, is that after a couple of centuries working out what it is and what it does, we’ve harnessed it in such a way that it has become a potent force for universal good, safely and cheaply working its magic behind the scenes to deliver our modern world on demand and in a reliable way. The same can’t be said for artificial intelligence, say the pair, who having completed ‘The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI’ (The MIT Press, $29.95, ISBN 0262046541) now hold senior posts in the United States government: Buchanan as assistant…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from India: Think nano, get big results

    Logically, anything which is of the size of a nanometer will have gone unnoticed; but in the nano world almost everything seems different. “The properties of the nanometre are far too fascinating and intriguing for researchers and scientists to ignore. Nano-engineering enables professionals to exploit the physical-chemical properties of the nanometer. It has found applications in diverse verticals ranging from the semiconductor chip to transistors,” said Professor Srinivasan Raghavan of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), at the Bengaluru India Nano 2022. Broadly, nanotechnology finds applications in medicine, energy and industrial verticals, and may gain mainstream relevance if it is positioned as a low-cost technology for the healthcare of the…

  • The quest for smarter, and greener, cement

    This is because there is no real alternative to the material that underpins everything from Hadrian’s Wall to the Burj Khalifa. Concrete – and the cement that plays a critical role in its performance – is here to stay. Long experience with cement and concrete, however, has led to constant improvement. This, coupled with a natural industry conservatism, makes technology advances hard to come by. “Portland cement is an amazing material,” says Theo Hanein, a researcher in cement materials at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Sheffield University. “There’s no reason to move away from it, other than its effect on the planet.” Cement’s lack of sustainability is well known. When producing clinker – a precursor to cement – the calcining process converts calcium carbonate…

  • How to meet the challenges of concrete’s carbon footprint

    Even the Covid pandemic put barely a dent in the production of concrete. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 2020 saw just a 4 per cent fall in cement and steel production, though the crackdown on speculative construction in China might arrest the rampant growth of concrete jungles across that country, which now has an estimated 90 million empty apartments. In 1980, Europe and North America accounted for 40 per cent of global cement production of 900 million tonnes. By 2017, that share had dropped to less than 7 per cent, according to US environmental charity ClimateWorks Foundation. By that time, China and India accounted for more than 60 per cent of cement production, churning out some 2.6 billion tonnes annually. Analysts expect China’s status as number-​one consumer will…

  • Huge funding gaps in UK’s energy efficiency plans, climate advisors warn

    The body, which independently advises the government on climate change, praised the 'Heat and Buildings Strategy' which includes proposals such as phasing out gas and oil boilers, new long-term policies for low-carbon heat and new funding for heat networks, public buildings and the fuel poor. However, the CCC said that while the government has committed some funds towards the goals, it will likely need to invest much more, especially in light of the rising number of households in fuel poverty caused by the rocketing wholesale price of gas over the last few months, further exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. The funding allocated up to 2025 for public sector buildings such as schools and hospitals is only a third of what is needed to achieve its goals for cutting emissions from those…

  • Relocating farmland worldwide could drastically reduce carbon emissions

    The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large new farming areas for many major crops both around the cornbelt in the mid-western US and below the Sahara desert. Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat. The redesign – assuming high-input, mechanised farming – would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71 per cent, by allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is the equivalent of capturing 20 years’ worth of our current net CO 2 emissions. Trees capture carbon as they grow and also enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when crops are grown in it. In this optimised scenario, the impact of crop production on the world’s biodiversity would be reduced by 87 per cent. This would drastically reduce the extinction…

  • Keyboard warriors join Ukrainian resistance

    Ukrainian cyber-security expert Dyma Budorin hasn’t slept much since he relocated his Kyiv-based company a fortnight before the Russian invasion. He saw the writing on the wall and hastily moved with most of his staff to Barcelona, where his wife anxiously checks on her parents in Mariupol. Bleary but resolute, he details plans hatched in a Spanish village to unleash mayhem upon Russian targets. Aided by an underground band of volunteers – part of an ‘IT army’ galvanised by a direct appeal from the Ukrainian government – his cybersecurity company Hacken has managed to adapt a tool originally designed to stress-test company systems and protect against fraud. Volunteers rewrote code in record time to allow disBalancer to work across all platforms, beyond Windows. “They did in three days what…

  • £4bn funding package for UK shipbuilders to deliver 150 new vessels

    The domestic shipbuilding sector has been struggling for some time due to strong competition from China and other Asian countries. But the government hopes its new multi-billion pound investment will help to stimulate the industry for the next 30 years with orders coming in for naval and civil vessels for the UK government as well as devolved administrations. The £4bn in funds for the new vessels was originally announced in both the 2020 Spending review and the 2021 Autumn Budget. The funding comes as the Ministry of Defence prepares to publish its refreshed National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSbS) today, which will outline how the government will support UK shipyards across the nation to upskill workers, create high-quality jobs and drive technology development. The strategy also builds…

  • Letters to the editor: volume 17, issue 3

    The Different Meanings of Productivity The reference to ‘productivity’ in the article ‘Zombie Nation’  (E&T, February 2022) illustrates the danger of assuming that one discipline’s understanding of a term is the same as another’s. For engineers, ‘productivity’ translates into the number of objects output per person, and an increase means making more in your shift. When politicians refer to ‘productivity’ they mean economic productivity, or contribution to GDP (gross domestic product), an increase in which means people spending more on goods and services. While there is some alignment, the optima do not coincide. Ultimately the economy depends on people spending their income, and the credit that their employment enables. Industry’s role is to create goods and services that people require…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Customers reject basic robot interactions in fine margins for automation

    The research from analytics leader SAS revealed that just 13 per cent of respondents would want to use digital-only options to interact with customer services. Automated tech which lacks intelligence can’t rival human interaction, respondents said, with three-quarters (74 per cent) expressing  frustration when they realise they are communicating with a robot. Almost nine in 10 (88 per cent) said that speaking to a human is an essential part of the customer service experience, with 64 per cent of these mentioning that this is because they feel better understood when speaking to a human. At the same time, customers also said that they would switch to another provider if they didn't get a satisfactory response in five minutes or less. Additionally, the research also found that 75 per cent…

  • Hands-on gadget review: Bissell Pet Stain Eraser

    This cordless cleaner is designed for removing small stains from carpets and soft furnishing. It’s also good for car seats. It boasts two tanks: one for water and detergent, one for the dirty water it lifts. You spray the stain then a power brush lifts it and a vacuum sucks it up into the second tank. Most rival handhelds just have a brush you scrub with, not a rotating power brush. And it’s Bissell’s first mini cleaner designed specifically for pet stains. At 2kg, it’s half the weight of Bissell’s previous cordless handhelds. The Pet Stain Eraser arrives ready to use and was quick to unpack. I noted that it uses a 10V charger, rather than a USB cable. The capacity of 200ml and 20-minute battery life aren’t huge, and there’s a long charge time of “less than 4.5 hours”, so it’s best used…

  • Want to benefit from automation? Start early, and think big

    The coming world of autonomous machines will transform how we live, travel, work and engage with the world. Industry – from agriculture and infrastructure to logistics – looks set to enjoy incredible commercial opportunities. Businesses will benefit from augmentation of human effort that could improve safety, productivity, efficiency, comfort and more. But there’s a big question here: how can we trust the intelligence behind it? Trust is a fascinating, multi-dimensional topic, with both objective (using high rigour disciplines) and subjective (human behaviour) perspectives. Assurances can be given on each dimension, giving us confidence in how a system should behave in any event, and in a way that is not only safe but in keeping with what humans reasonably expect of that machine at any given…

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