• Regulator investigates sale of UK telecoms towers over duopoly fears

    The proposed deal will see Cellnex buy all of CK Hutchison’s UK passive infrastructure assets in an £8.6bn deal that also involves assets in several other European countries. The telecoms towers are primarily used by wireless communication network providers to host their electronic equipment to in order to operate their networks. At present, Cellnex is one of only two large independent suppliers of passive infrastructure in the UK; it gained a market-leading position last year after it acquired the telecommunications division of Arqiva. The only other supplier with a similar presence is Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited (CTIL), a joint venture between O2 and Vodafone that was originally set up to provide services for its parent companies but became an independent supplier…

  • Global coal use expected to hit all-time high next year despite COP26 pledges

    According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the trend could elevate global coal demand to an all-time high next year. There was significant rhetoric over the damaging impact of coal on the environment at COP26, although the deal ultimately watered-down proposals to eliminate its use entirely. After falling in 2019 and 2020, the IEA said global power generation from coal is expected to jump by 9 per cent in 2021 to an all-time high of 10,350 terawatt-hours. According to the IEA's 'Coal 2021' report, the rebound is being driven by this year’s economic recovery, which has pushed up electricity demand faster than low-carbon supplies can keep pace. The steep rise in natural gas prices has also increased demand for coal power by making it more a cost-competitive alternative. Overall…

  • Smart window coating cools or heats the interior depending on climate

    A coating is applied to the glass that responds to changing external temperatures and can switch between heating and cooling as needed, potentially saving energy. The glass has no electrical components and works by exploiting the different wavelengths of light responsible for heating and cooling. During summer, the glass suppresses solar heating (near infrared light), while boosting radiative cooling (long-wave infrared) - a natural phenomenon where heat emits through surfaces towards the cold universe - to cool the room. In the winter, it does the opposite to warm up the room. In lab tests using an infrared camera to visualise results, the glass allowed a controlled amount of heat to emit in various conditions (room temperature – above 70°C), proving its ability to react dynamically…

  • ‘Nightmare’ robofish spooks virility out of tail-eating mosquitofish

    The invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) is a pest, chewing the tails from freshwater fish and tadpoles and leaving these native animals to perish while feasting on other creatures’ eggs. Aiming to frighten away this aquatic bully, researchers set about engineering a robot inspired by the appearance and movement of the mosquitofish’s natural predator, the largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). “Mosquitofish is one of the 100 world’s worst invasive species and current methods to eradicate it are too expensive and time-consuming to effectively contrast its spread,” said Giovanni Polverino of the University of Western Australia, first author of the iScience study . “This global pest is a serious threat to many aquatic animals. Instead of killing them one by one, we’re presenting an…

  • Train passengers hit by largest fare hikes in nine years

    The Department for Transport (DfT) announced that ticket prices will rise by 3.8 per cent from 1 March 2022. The confirmation comes just one day after transport secretary Grant Shapps refused to rule out the rumoured 'brutal' increase when challenged by Labour in the House of Commons. The increase of 3.8 per cent is in line with July’s Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation, below the current inflation rate of 7.1 per cent, the department said. Even at 3.8 per cent, the price hike will still be the steepest increase since January 2013, according to figures from industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG). This year’s rise in fares in England and Wales was based on the previous July’s RPI plus one percentage point. The Scottish government imposed smaller rises for some journeys…

  • Nine further Institutes of Technology announced in skills push

    According to a government statement, more than 100 short courses will be offered at institutions in England from September 2022. The courses, which will last between six weeks and one year, are intended as an alternative to a conventional three- or four-year degree for people looking to upskill or retrain. They will be provided by more than 20 universities and colleges and cover areas in which there are skills shortages, “such as digital, net zero, education, STEM, and healthcare”. £150m has been awarded to 100 colleges and universities to upgrade facilities and equipment to boost access to higher-level technical training and flexible courses. Colleges benefitting will include Weston College in Somerset while universities include the Universities of Wolverhampton and Keele. The government…

  • Social impacts of Covid-19 negatively affecting nation’s psyche

    According to a survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 39 per cent of adults do not expect life to be back to normal for at least 12 months. This is more than double the number (18 per cent) answering the same question in December 2020. Around 7 per cent expect life to return to normal in less than six months – significantly down from the 28 per cent of optimists last December. Measures for life satisfaction – the feeling that things done in life are worthwhile – and happiness all fell, while anxiety increased somewhat. The ONS analysed responses from 3,276 adults in Britain between 1 and 12 December as part of its 'Opinions and Lifestyle' survey on the social impacts of Covid-19. During this period, the government announced its Plan B in response to the rapidly spreading…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Christmas STEM Challenge: E&T carousel

    Put a magnet next to a piece of aluminium or copper and what do you get? Nothing! They’re not magnetic, right? Yup, that’s true. But this isn’t the whole story. Whoosh the magnet past the aluminium without touching it and you may see it twitch. More dramatically, try dropping a powerful magnet down a length of plastic pipe, and then down a similar length of copper plumbing pipe. The plastic pipe has no effect – the magnet accelerates down with gravity. But the magnet lingers and rattles down the metal pipe incredibly slowly. That’s because of eddy currents. Image credit: Neil Downie The traditional Christmas Carousel or Christmas Pyramid Carousel is driven round and round by a fan and a bunch of candles. This version of the Christmas Carousel replaces the candle…

  • AI accurately predicts whether people will develop dementia within two years

    University of Exeter researchers used machine learning techniques to analyse data from more than 15,000 patients in the US. The technique works by spotting hidden patterns in the data and learning who is most at risk. The study also suggested that the algorithm could help reduce the number of people who may have been falsely diagnosed with dementia. The researchers analysed data from people who attended a network of 30 National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centre memory clinics in the US. The attendees did not have dementia at the start of the study, though many were experiencing problems with memory or other brain functions. In the study timeframe between 2005 and 2015, one in ten attendees (1,568) received a new diagnosis of dementia within two years of visiting the memory clinic. The…

  • Hands-on review: Meazor 6-in-1 laser measurer

    For most people, measuring things comes down to one of two tools: a ruler they've probably owned since their schooldays or one of those snappy retractable measuring tapes that threatens to do you a serious whiplash injury as it reels itself in at lightning speed. Naturally, there are more technologically advanced ways to measure things now. It's 2021, dagnammit. In this spirit, Hozo Design has launched the Meazor, which Hozo claims to be the world’s most compact 6-in-1 multifunctional laser measurer. This seems like a reasonable enough claim, Meazor not being much bigger than a chonky car key fob (100mm x 54mm x 21.3mm). It also has a "cutting-edge" (Hozo says) 2D floorplan scanning function, as well as unit conversion; a laser distance measure; a built-in bubble level, and curve scanning…

  • Climate change threatens up to 40 per cent of world’s oil and gas reserves

    Risk consultancy firm Verisk Maplecroft said that Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria are among the oil- and gas-producing countries with the highest risk of climate-related events disrupting their supply. Between them, these three countries account for nearly 19 per cent of commercially recoverable oil and gas. Furthermore, climate-related supply threats to the sector have already begun to manifest, such as recent freezing conditions in Texas that knocked US oil and gas output to a three-year low, while Hurricane Ida caused a record 55 spills in the Gulf of Mexico and created historic disruptions to the supply of both crude oil and refined products. Record heat in Russia accelerated the melting of permafrost, a trend that has damaged 40 per cent of buildings and infrastructure in northern…

  • ‘Brutal’ rail fare price hikes mooted by government

    Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said such a “hike” would be “brutal”. The Labour MP said: “Ahead of a tough Christmas, people across this country are paying the price of Tory inflation.” Haigh added that since the Conservatives entered government the price of commuting from Dewsbury into Leeds has risen more than three times faster than pay. She asked Shapps if that was reasonable, addressing him directly: “Will he rule out the brutal 3.8 per cent hike in rail fares rumoured for millions of passengers next year?” Shapps said Dewsbury “benefits much more” from the integrated rail plan than the original HS2 plan, adding that Haigh was "right about inflation, of course, but it is a global post-pandemic issue, rather than specific to this country, and that’s why the Chancellor of…

  • 3D printing used to make lighter-weight knee brace

    Developed by Singapore engineering firm Delsson, in collaboration with 3D printing specialists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, the X-Brace is around 30 per cent lighter than traditional exoskeleton knee braces. The weight savings were achieved thanks to a new 3D-printed design that uses lightweight plastic and assistive springs instead of metal. It weighs about 720g - 30 per cent lighter than the typical metal orthopaedic braces that can weigh over 1kg. Braces are often prescribed to elderly patients to help alleviate the burden on their knee joints, as well as to assist patients who have undergone surgery on their knees, such as reconstruction of torn ligaments, often suffered by athletes. The researchers used 3D-modelling to help validate their design ideas and…

  • Mummified pets from Ancient Egypt automatically segmented

    The hidden internal structures of archaeological remains can be revealed through a technique, Propagation Phase Contrast Synchrotron Microtomography (PPC-SRμCT), which is considered the gold standard for non-invasive and non-destructive imaging. PPC-SRμCT allows researchers to perform a “virtual autopsy” and “virtual unwrapping” of mummified remains, uncovering information about processes used to create mummies and informing historical study. It has been applied to archaeozoological studies of mummified animal remains from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods of Ancient Egypt, originating from the third century BC to the fourth century AD. Image segmentation is an important process in computer vision, unlocking higher level tasks such as understanding the progress of a disease from a CT image…

  • How standardisation for ecodesign and circular economy contributes to sustainability

    Key Learning Points You will learn how international standardisation bodies work so that each country and organisation can have digital tools and the environment can benefit from the performance of digital technology What is The European Commission standardisation; extending product lifetime; ability to re-use components or recycle materials from products at end-of-life; use of re-used components and/or recycled materials in products; ecodesign system EN4555x You will learn about global approaches based on system engineering that covers life cycle management and supports SDGs number 12 (responsible consumption production) and 13 (climate action) Download free white paper

  • AI-generated BMJ study titles amuse, but could also inspire

    The Christmas issue of The BMJ is by tradition a mix of light-hearted content combined with rigorous, peer-reviewed research, with many Christmas articles among The BMJ’s most memorable studies. For example, an article titled 'The Darwin Awards: sex difference in idiotic behaviour', published in the Christmas 2014 BMJ, received more than 700,000 page impressions in just 12 months. In this year’s issue, one study reviewed the quality of AI-generated titles of potential Christmas BMJ articles, finding they were as attractive and entertaining as real titles, although performance of the AI was enhanced by human intervention. The study, 'Ghost in the machine or monkey with a typewriter – generating titles for Christmas research articles in The BMJ using artificial intelligence: observational study…

  • Are you ready to ride the next wave of digital disruption?

    Technology that once seemed a long-term ambition for many companies has become a necessity in the past two years, as companies have accelerated their digital transformation efforts to cope with the impacts of the pandemic. Previously innovative practices such as virtual communications, personalised digital engagement, immersive modelling, rapid prototyping and efficient remote-collaboration tools are now mainstream. The pandemic catalysed the creation of two classes of company. The first, with a low level of digital maturity, struggled to implement innovative systems, having to play catch-up before they could tackle the challenges that Covid-19 restrictions put on organisations. The second, which already had high levels of digital maturity, thrived, adopting future-proofing technologies to…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Wall climbing robot designed to reduce workplace accidents

    Designed by Birmingham-based firm HausBots, the robot can climb vertical surfaces with ease and after several years of prototyping, it has now been released as a commercial product. In the US, 85,000 workers fall from heights every year, killing around 700 of them and costing insurance companies over $1bn in claims. To ensure the robot itself doesn’t fall it had to undergo extensive electro-magnetic compatibility (EMC) testing to make sure the fans, which essentially attach it to the surface function correctly. The WMG team at the University of Warwick, which helped develop the robots, tested it by placing it in the EMC chamber and assessing how it responds to noise and to make sure it does not emit any unwanted noise itself. Using amplifiers to simulate noise and analysers, the researchers…

  • Major UK banks join forces to ensure future access to cash

    While cash payments were already declining year-on-year before the pandemic hit, Covid-19 accelerated the trend, with current usage 35 per cent below pre-Covid levels. One study from Merchant Machine found a 10 per cent decrease in the number of ATMs available to UK cardholders in 2020 alone. The new deal will see shared banking hubs being rolled out alongside free ATMs, enhanced Post Office services, and access to cashback without purchases. The collaboration was achieved through the Access to Cash Action Group which has signed up all the major retail banks alongside Age UK, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and others. With millions of people across the UK still reliant on cash, Chancellor Rishi Sunak was urged last year to protect people’s access to it as it becomes increasingly…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Nasa spacecraft does hokey cokey in and out of the Sun

    The Parker Space Probe was launched in 2018 with the intent of observing the Sun more closely than any other spacecraft. The boundary between solar atmosphere and outgoing solar wind is known as the Alfvén critical surface. Researchers aimed to discover where this surface lay, using data collected by the spacecraft. In April, during its eighth close approach to the Sun, the probe encountered the tell-tale magnetic and particle conditions that marked this surface, 8.1 million miles from the centre of the Sun. However, it has taken several months to return the data and confirm the encounter. The plunge was announced this week during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. “Parker Solar Probe 'touching the Sun' is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,” said…

  • National Cyber Strategy devised to improve skills and build resilience

    The government’s new National Cyber Strategy calls for a “whole-of-society” approach from the classroom to industry to open up access to high-skill, high-priority jobs. At the same time, the government has said it is increasing investment in the National Cyber Force, which represents the UK’s offensive capability to “counter, disrupt, degrade and contest” hostile actors seeking to harm the country’s interests. Cabinet Office minister Steve Barclay said a “core” aim is to strengthen the UK’s hand in technologies critical to cyber while reducing reliance on suppliers from countries under regimes that “do not share our values”. He said the new strategy would “transform” the way Britain advances its national interests in cyberspace following the publication earlier this year of the Integrated…

  • Sponsored: The Benefits of Integrating Hardware, Software, and Services within a Modular Data Centre

    As organizations shift their data centre strategy from a centralized approach to a distributed model design to process IoT-generated data,  prefabricated modular data centres  are emerging as a “go-to” solution. These modular data centres should ideally come with a system-level service and maintenance plan – integrating the UPS, cooling, switchboard, and container. To optimize operations, companies should look for modular data centres built to integrate hardware, software, and services that enable organizations to connect more products and devices at the system level. This approach allows for a standard data model with cloud-based applications, tools, and services to increase performance, boost availability, and decrease operational costs. Just as today’s automobiles are factory built with…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Energy suppliers to undergo financial stress testing to prevent future collapse

    The regulator wants to measure supplier’s resilience against a range of scenarios and will agree an improvement plan for companies to address any concerns should they come up, particularly where consumers are at risk. According to analysts at Investec last month, consumers in England, Scotland and Wales could be forced to pay £3.2bn to cover the costs left behind by 26 gas and electricity providers that went bust in the wake of the high prices. Ofgem believes its new reforms will help to bolster risk management in the sector, protecting the interests of consumers and strengthening the resilience of the energy market. As well as the financial stress testing for suppliers from January, supplier executive boards will also be required to undertake self-assessments of their management control…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Paper-thin biodegradable batteries could power future wearables

    The team from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore developed the batteries from electrodes that have been screen-printed on to both sides of a piece of cellulose paper which is then reinforced with hydrogel. Once the battery has been expended, it can be buried in soil, where it breaks down completely within a month. In a proof-of-concept experiment, a 4cm x 4cm square of printed paper battery was used to power a small electric fan for  45 minutes. Bending or twisting the battery did not interrupt the power supply. In another experiment using a 4cm x 4cm battery to power an LED, the scientists showed that despite cutting away parts of the paper battery, the LED remained lit. The scientists think their printed battery could be integrated into flexible electronics…

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