• OneWeb suspends all satellite launches from Russian-run spaceport

    OneWeb was due to launch 36 broadband satellites on Friday (4 March) in Kazakhstan, in an operation that would have used Russian Soyuz rockets and have been overseen by the Russian space agency. Following political pressure after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the board of the London-based company voted to “suspend all launches” from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in a move welcomed by the UK government, which is a major shareholder. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng tweeted: “The UK government supports OneWeb’s decision. In light of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we are reviewing our participation in all further projects involving Russian collaboration.” Darren Jones, Labour chairman of the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, had written to…

  • Electric vehicle reliability survey paints bad picture for Tesla owners

    The annual Which? car survey is one of the largest motorist surveys assessing car reliability in the UK, collecting detailed feedback from over 48,000 vehicle owners. The survey asked owners if there had been any faults with their cars in the 12 months prior to answering. Overall, the consumer group found that of cars up to four years old, nearly one in three electric vehicle (EV) owners reported one fault or more, compared to less than one in five petrol cars. They also went an average of just over five days without the use of their car while it was being fixed – compared to just three days for petrol cars. It found that Tesla is the least reliable EV brand with two fifths (39 per cent) of Tesla owners reporting at least one fault in the prior four years and one in 20 (5 per cent) had…

  • Sponsored: Dalek or Doctor Who, what type of engineer are you?

    If COP26 has taught us anything, it is that our relationship with the planet and our use of finite resources is unsustainable and demands an urgent change in approach. To use a sci-fi analogy, what would you rather be? One of the Daleks – whose single-minded attempts to rule the earth are likely to result in mass extermination – or Doctor Who, who approaches each challenge creatively and always puts saving the planet and the people on it first? Time for change The challenges we face as a species are highly complex and daunting. The world population continues to grow, and increased urbanisation is leading to greater social inequality. Richer nations produce more food than they need, while over 800 million people globally are food insecure . Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics model clearly illustrates…

  • Government meets with industry over fears post-Brexit tests may derail housing targets

    As well as derailing government house-building targets, the construction industry has warned that the rules could impact the UK’s decarbonisation efforts and exacerbate the cost-of-living crisis. Under the UK’s new regulatory goods regime, manufacturers currently have until 1 January 2023 to obtain a UKCA marking on a huge range of products which will replace the EU CE marking. The government says the move is an opportunity “to make our regulations work in the best interests of UK consumers and businesses”. However, the construction industry says the deadline represents “a fast-approaching cliff edge” as there is not enough testing capacity in the UK to ensure certain crucial building products are certified. The CE mark demonstrates that products comply with health and safety and environmental…

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  • UK signs legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution

    While the terms of the treaty are still to be negotiated, it could include measures that promote sustainable production and consumption of plastics, as well as more environmentally sound waste management. It is also hoped the treaty will help to tackle marine plastic pollution; it’s predicted that unless action is taken there will be a threefold increase in the amount of plastic flowing into the ocean between 2016 and 2040. The new treaty follows a survey from WWF last month that found that nearly 90 per cent of people supported such a deal. The Ipsos poll of over 20,000 adults across 28 countries also found that three-quarters of respondents supported a total ban on single-use plastics. The UK’s new Environment Act gives the government new powers to tackle plastic pollution. The Department…

  • Book review: ‘Racing Green’ by Kit Chapman

    When you think of motorsport, your mind likely steers toward Formula One (no pun intended). But the science behind the sport is so much more than teams driving around a track at 200-plus mph. In fact, over the years, motorsport science has contributed to a wide range of applications: from climate change solutions to help in the fight against Covid. Indeed, motorsport science is “a story of invention, of myriad discoveries, ideas, and technologies developed through racing,” journalist Kit Chapman claims in his latest offering ‘ Racing Green: How Motorsport Science Can Save the World ’ (Bloomsbury, £18, ISBN 9781472982186). Full disclosure: this book is not one for those looking for a fun and easy read. Chapman goes into immense detail about the science behind why cars work, and how the racing…

  • View from India: Manufacturing industry is working on sustainable goals

    India is home to several manufacturing companies, many of which are old legacy brands. They need to reshape their outlook and strategise waste management to address climate change. For instance, many old machines that consume a lot of energy need to be replaced with energy-efficient ones. Then, if there are any low-hanging fruit in the value chain, they can be easily replaced or eliminated. Efforts towards ensuring circularity in economy and energy efficiency can lead India on the path towards its net-zero goal. “A sustainable value chain needs to be deployed and scaled across the business. Perhaps regulatory measures towards data and de-carbonisation could be brought in for better outcomes. This could also be seen as an opportunity for delving into R&D options,” said Michel Fredeau, managing…

  • Waste heat from data centres used to warm local buildings

    Data centres typically consume huge amounts of energy – a significant proportion of which is used to cool the facilities due to the enormous amount of waste heat that is generated during computation. To help alleviate the issue, big tech giants have installed data farms in the Arctic Circle in order to utilise the ambient cold temperatures to reduce the amount of energy needed to cool the equipment. But the ramping popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and the Internet of Things (IoT), is requiring volumes of data to be processed rapidly with as minimal delay as possible on the user end. To achieve this, the processing of the data must move closer to the place where it was created such as for micro data centres in local neighbourhoods. The team hopes that…

  • Rare-earth metal prices will skyrocket as Ukraine-Russia tensions continue

    As the world barely recuperates from Covid-19-induced supply chain crunches, the international community braces for yet another crisis – the Russia-Ukraine War. Occurring against a background wherein price inflations are a big worry, the standoff may extend beyond gasoline prices, encompassing such industrial sectors as fertilisers, food products, and precious metals. From gold to palladium – the rare-earth metals industry across both countries and across the world are likely in for rough weather. Meeting 45 per cent of global palladium supply, Russia is likely to face significant pressure with the already struggling industry, where demand has outstripped supply. Furthermore, curbs on air transport since the genesis of the conflict have further heightened difficulties for palladium manufacturers…

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  • Google, Apple, Airbus and others join Russian exodus over Ukraine conflict

    Google has stopped Russian state publishers like RT from appearing on its news platform and has blocked their associated apps from its Play Store. Twitter has also made similar moves to stop the news sites from appearing on its feeds. Apple has ended the sale of iPhones and other products to Russian consumers while also making moves similar to Google on its App Store. It has also stopped live traffic updates on Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety measure, similar to actions Google has already taken. “We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence,” Apple said in a statement. Telecoms firm Nokia has joined rival Ericsson in saying it will stop deliveries to Russia to comply with sanctions. Meanwhile…

  • UK government has ‘no plan’ for replacing taxes from net zero drive, MPs say

    In a new report, it found that there is currently no pathway for replacing taxes from fuel duty and “no reliable estimate of what the process of implementing the net zero policy is actually likely to cost British consumers, households, businesses or government itself”. In 2019-20, fuel duty raised £28bn, representing about 3.3 per cent of all tax receipts, equivalent to £1,000 per household and 1.2 per cent of national income. The value of the duties are also expected to plummet over the coming decade in the lead-up to the 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles. The government has “too often pursued stop-start strategies which undermine confidence for business, investors and consumers in committing to measures which would reduce carbon emissions - especially when some green…

  • Ice Age animals ready to roam the metaverse

    A collaborative team based in California was investigating how AR affects learning in museums, but soon realised there weren’t any accurate Ice Age animals in the metaverse yet that they could use. As a result, the team at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, La Brea Tar Pits, in collaboration with designers at the University of Southern California (USC), built the models in a blocky, low poly style so that they could be scientifically accurate, but still simple enough to run on normal mobile phones with limited processing power. “The innovation of this approach is that it allows us to create scientifically accurate artwork for the metaverse without over-committing to details where we still lack good fossil evidence,” said Dr William Swartout, chief technology officer at the…

  • Space junk on 5,800-mph collision course with Moon

    The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of the Moon at approximately 5,800mph on Friday, away from Earth telescopes’ prying eyes. It may take weeks or even months to confirm the full extent of the impact through satellite images. Scientists expect the object to carve out a hole 33ft to 66ft across and send moon dust flying hundreds of miles across the barren, pockmarked surface. Low-orbiting space junk is relatively easy to track. Objects launching deeper into space are unlikely to hit anything and these far-flung pieces are usually soon forgotten, except by a handful of observers who enjoy playing celestial detective on the side. This particular rocket has been tumbling haphazardly through space for years. Experts believe it was originally launched by China nearly a decade ago…

  • UK could meet WHO air pollution targets by 2030 with planned policies

    The study, commissioned by the Clean Air Fund and carried out by researchers from Imperial College London, found that levels of airborne particle pollution known as PM2.5 could fall to within recommended interim limits for most of the country by the end of the decade. According to campaigners, such policies would be a “win, win, win”, delivering benefits for health ranging from cutting infant deaths to reducing coronary heart disease, as well as for the economy and reducing climate emissions. The report said it only requires existing or planned environmental, transport and clean air policies to be delivered, such as regulations on industrial emissions, vehicle standards and burning wood and coal. Recommendations by the Government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) on switching…

  • Combat Wombats crowned First Lego League champions

    The winning team – dubbed ‘Combat Wombats’ – was one of two teams from Freshford Church School in Bath that made it to the National Final. The Combat Wombats team was comprised of 10 boys and girls aged 9-10 years old. The Wombats were crowned champions at the competition final, which was held in Harrogate on Saturday 26 February, and will now have the opportunity to represent England on the global stage at the First World Festival in Houston, US, in April. The science and technology challenge, which is aimed at 9-16-year-olds, tasks teams to build a robot to tackle a series of missions and create an innovative solution to a real-world problem. This year’s competition was called ‘Cargo Connect’ and is designed to explore how cargo is transported to different destinations around the world…

  • When AI needs to work smarter, not harder

    It has been suggested recently that we are living in a ‘quantocracy’ – a society defined by the idea that everything must be counted and judged based on how many of something we have accumulated. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, more is usually deemed to be better. This school of thought has quickly infiltrated every aspect of our lives, including conversations around data. Today it is broadly assumed and accepted that the more data we have at our disposal, the more useful – and financially beneficial – it is. Ethical concerns aside, such an assumption sounds reasonable. The potent mix of unlimited data, powerful processing power and deep pockets should, in theory, enable us to understand every challenge facing society, and this would make the world an easier place to navigate. In practice…

  • MWC still feeling the effects of Covid

    Prior to the pandemic, many of the world’s biggest smartphone OEMs would announce their new flagship devices either at the conference hall itself or at another nearby venue in Barcelona.  However, Samsung - undoubtedly Android’s biggest player - chose to forgo this tradition in 2022 and instead announced the Galaxy S22 at its own event three weeks earlier. While the Korean firm still had a presence at MWC and unveiled some new laptops, the decision to keep the S22 reveal to itself put a dampener on the proceedings. With Sony also making the decision to pull out in January (in a decision branded as “disappointing” by the organisers), the only major new products announced were from mid-tier OEMs Honor and Realme. With the loss of major announcements, as well as the continuing threat of a…

  • Europe’s joint Mars mission with Russia ‘very unlikely’ due to war in Ukraine

    The space agency said that after a meeting of officials from its 22 member states, it was assessing the consequences of sanctions for its cooperation with Russia’s Roscosmos space agency. “The sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely,” for the Europe-Russia ExoMars rover mission, the agency said in a statement. "We deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the war in Ukraine. "We are giving absolute priority to taking proper decisions, not only for the sake of our workforce involved in the programmes, but in full respect of our European values, which have always fundamentally shaped our approach to international cooperation." The launch had already been postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and also because of technical problems.…

  • Qualcomm unveils new chips with next-gen WiFi and Bluetooth support

    The new chips will include Qualcomm's 'FastConnect 7800' platform which will allow them to support the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 standard, which isn’t even expected to be formalised until 2024 at the earliest. The firm said the chips would be the “world’s first” with Wi-Fi 7 compatibility which will enable new performance benchmarks with peak speeds of 5.8Gbps and sub-2 millisecond latency. It also includes support for 'High Band Simultaneous' technology, which is capable of utilising both 5 and 6GHz spectrum bands concurrently in order to keep latency to an absolute minimum. For consumers, the low latency features may be most keenly utilised by online gamers, where even split-second delays can make the difference in victories. The technology is also useful for firms leveraging Industry 4.0, which…

  • Digital finance doesn’t reduce inequality but perpetuates it, says study

    Previous research has suggested that digital financial services have the potential to improve access to money and reduce income inequalities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many administrations have moved to mobile money or digital payments. For example, the government of Rwanda has increased the use of digital cash transfers, while Senegal has expanded the use of mobile money and lowered fees for these services. But who takes part in these programmes and whether they have the potential to reach the most vulnerable depends on the distribution of digital financial services, according to a recent paper in Oxford Open Economics. The research addresses this topic by studying how physical infrastructure and mobile phone network quality, as well as individual characteristics like education,…

  • Shetland Islands spaceport ready for launch by end of 2022

    The Lamba Ness peninsular in Unst will be home to the £43m spaceport, with builders set to start work in late March, after Shetland Islands Council gave the project planning permission. Three launchpads will be built at the SaxaVord spaceport, allowing for the launch of small satellites into either polar or Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbits. The company is aiming to launch 30 rockets a year and has set the target of seeing its first orbital launch from UK soil after the third quarter of this year. Frank Strang, chief executive, SaxaVord Spaceport, said: “Our team will collectively do everything in its power to ensure we can deliver this historic mission for Shetland, Scotland, and the UK.” After the initial build costs, the company is expected to spend £100m at the port in the next five…

  • View from India: Reimagine businesses, become resilient

    Building resilience is essential for the manufacturing industry to prepare itself for contingencies. “Resilience is more important than what we think, it may be understood as something that enables companies to have a competitive advantage, build scale and chalk out newer opportunities. Resilience could mean that companies have to adapt to change and become agile to reimagine businesses,” said Martin Reeves, Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group, USA, at the CII Manufacturing Conclave 2022. When businesses are reimagined, they could factor in risk mitigation measures in the supply chain. Like the proverbial belief that it’s not wise to put all eggs into one basket, goods procurement need to be diversified rather than relying on a single source. Along with this, procedures…

  • Honor unveils Magic4 Pro phone and thermometer earbuds at MWC

    In 2019, Huawei was added to the US entity list by President Donald Trump which effectively blacklisted American firms such as Google from working with it. This hamstrung both Huawei and Honor’s smartphone business in the West as they could not run the Google Play Store or other key Google services, such as Maps and Gmail. This inevitably led to some rickety smartphone launches, such as the Honor 20 in May 2019 which made no mention of what operating system it would be running. Image credit: Jack Loughran Last year, Honor separated from Huawei, allowing it to once again work with Google and other US firms. This year’s MWC in Barcelona is the firm’s first major in-person event since going it alone and it is taking the opportunity to showcase devices that are yet again…

  • ‘An atlas of human suffering’ - UN report issues stark warning on climate change

    Already some of the impacts of global warming are irreversible, as nature and humans are pushed to the limits of their ability to adapt to rising temperatures, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said. In the second part of its report, released today, comprising a global assessment of climate science, the UN body looked at the impacts of, and vulnerabilities to, climate change and adaptation to global warming. The first part of the report, labelled a “ code red for humanity ” when it was published in August 2021 ahead of COP26, examined the physical basis of climate change. The third part will set out solutions to the crisis when it is published later this year. The study is the sixth such assessment the UN body has conducted, with the most recent one being back in 2013…