• Shenzhen shut down as China’s Covid cases double

    China's National Health Commission said 3,507 new locally spread cases had been identified in the latest 24-hour period, up from 1,337 a day earlier. A fast-spreading variant known as 'Stealth Omicron' – the B.A.2 lineage of the Omicron variant – is testing China’s zero-tolerance strategy, which has previously kept the virus at bay after a deadly initial outbreak in early 2020. Most of the new cases were in north-east China’s Jilin province, where 2,601 were reported. Smaller outbreaks have occurred around the country, including in the major cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. At the weekend, China’s government responded to a spike in coronavirus infections by shutting down the southern business centre and manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, and restricted…

  • Moon Gallery aboard ISS welcomes artworks from Singapore

    Researchers successfully launched the two artefacts into space recently as part of a test flight by the Moon Gallery and will come back to Earth after 10 months. Currently comprising 64 artworks made by artists all around the world, the Moon Gallery will eventually comprise 100 artworks. Astronauts also plan to place this collection on the Moon by 2025. The new artworks are two metal cubes featuring unique artworks, each measuring 0.98cm all around, designed by Singaporean artist and architect Lakshmi Mohanbabu, who sought to create new artworks using technology and to revolve around concepts of unity, diversity and complexity in humankind. Both cubes were borne out of a partnership between Lakshmi and scientists from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), supported…

  • Method for recycling wind turbine blades almost ‘waste-free’

    According to the researchers from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, the extracted materials can then be reused and the process is virtually waste-free. Wind turbine blades made from glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate composites can serve for up to 25 years, but after that they typically end up in landfills. The material is recognised as hard-to-break-down and has become a real challenge for the renewable energy industry. It is estimated that wind turbine blades account for 10 per cent of Europe’s fibre-reinforced composite material waste. Concerns have been raised that with the increase in renewable facilities, wind turbine blade waste will increase to around two million tonnes globally by 2050. With many countries banning composite materials from their landfills…

  • Merger between Norton and Avast paused over competition concerns

    The US-based NortonLifeLock had been planning to purchase UK firm Avast for £6bn but the CMA is now considering an “in-depth investigation” into the merger before the transaction is allowed to continue. Both firms offer cyber safety software to consumers under a variety of different brands. Products include antivirus software (also known as endpoint security software), privacy software (such as VPNs) and identity protection software. As the companies are close competitors, with few other significant rivals, the CMA said it was concerned that if completed, the proposed deal could lead to a reduction in competition in the UK market. This could lead to UK consumers getting a worse deal when looking for cyber safety software in the future, it added. David Stewart, CMA executive director…

  • Tens of thousands of home EV chargers could be dangerous

    The report, which was not made public but has been seen by E&T, was compiled last summer by the Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies (Cenex) for the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV). It shows that of the 371 audits carried out on electric vehicle chargepoints (EVCP) installed as part of the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS), 66 were found to have dangerous or potentially dangerous issues in one or more categories. This represents 17.8 per cent of the installations audited. Of all the new chargepoint installations carried out, only 32 per cent were recorded as satisfactory. The findings prompted transport minister Rachel Maclean to write to all installers registered on the scheme to warn them that if necessary “we will remove companies and individuals…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • The smart solutions to ageing UK healthcare infrastructure

    In October 2020, the UK's National Health Service released its ambitious strategy [PDF] to become the world’s first 'net zero' national health service. Even amid the myriad pressures of coronavirus, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens made clear that the climate emergency is one of the most significant health issues to be tackled. In his words: “With poor environmental health contributing to major diseases, including cardiac problems, asthma and cancer, our efforts must be accelerated.” As the largest employer in Britain, responsible for around 4 per cent of the nation's carbon emissions, it is clear that the will for a net-zero NHS is there. At the same time, with an ageing population and constant concerns over the costs of delivering high-quality care, the NHS is facing a perfect storm of…

  • When building preservation gets ugly (or beautiful)

    Brutalist buildings aren’t meant to be brutal. In fact, their name arguably comes from modernist architects’ love of béton brut or raw concrete, which to Le Corbusier and co was the epitome of modern elegance. Brutalist buildings are perhaps best characterised by their minimalist, angular constructions that showcase their structural elements and building materials, such as concrete, brick, steel, timber, and glass, but the definition is even disputed by architects. What is certain is that these bold buildings were intended to fulfil a need for affordable housing following the Second World War and help regenerate bombed cities. However, some people came to associate Brutalist buildings with totalitarianism. The architectural style dominates in parts of the USSR and, unlike the Berlin Wall…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Intel picks Germany for Silicon Junction

    Intel has picked Magdeburg, a city in the north of Germany, as the destination for a mega fab that will employ 3000 specialists with an initial investment of €17bn. The site will represent what Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger called the Silicon Junction for its ambitions on the continent. In announcing the decision, which is the result of a project to find a suitable European site for around a year and which comes a matter of weeks after the European Union unveiled its €43bn Chips Act, Gelsinger said a new fab needed to be built around an existing ecosystem. The German fab will not be far from an existing chipmaking hub Dresden as well as the leading supplier of lithography equipment ASML in The Netherlands.   In a video made for the announcement, Gelsinger said details of the financial support…

  • Airlines and airports scrap Covid restrictions as infections rise

    The UK is one of the first major economies to remove all its remaining travel restrictions even though Covid infections are on the rise once again. The last week has seen a 25 per cent increase in cases to over 170,000, with hospitalisations also rising over 10 per cent. From this Friday, all travel restrictions will be lifted, including the passenger locator form for arrivals into UK, as well as all tests for passengers who do not qualify as vaccinated. The change removes the need for unvaccinated passengers to take a pre-departure test and a 'day two' post-arrival test. The government said the changes are being implemented due to the success of the vaccine rollout, with 86 per cent of the population now having received a second dose and 67 per cent with a booster or third dose. Face…

  • How to create an effective digital transformation roadmap

    An effective DX strategy is vital for those working across today’s energy value chain. This guide explains the steps businesses must take to create value, secure long-term ROI and deliver lasting change as the industry moves to a more distributed model. Key Learning Points: Understand what’s needed to create an effective DX strategy Recognise common mistakes that others have made when embarking on a DX programme Have the ability to design a roadmap that creates value, improves performance and futureproofs an organisation Download free whitepaper

  • UK to make ‘big bets’ on nuclear power in move away from Russian oil

    Last week, the government committed to phase out Russian oil by the end of the year in response to Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine. Writing in the Telegraph , Johnson said that his government wanted to “exploit the potential” of renewable energy technologies including tidal power, hydro and geothermal energy but that consistent baseload electricity generation could be met with nuclear when renewables aren’t generating. The strategy would include small modular reactors as well as more traditional, larger power stations. “It was the UK that first split the atom. It was the UK that had the world’s first civilian nuclear power plant. It is time we recovered our lead,” Johnson wrote. Just last month, the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation approved the design for a new nuclear power…

  • Hoverfly brains inspire method for detecting distant drones

    Autonomous systems experts from the University of South Australia (UniSA), Flinders University and defence company Midspar Systems say that trials using bio-inspired signal-processing techniques show up to a 50 per cent better detection rate than existing methods. The findings could help combat the growing global threat posed by IED-carrying drones, including in Ukraine. Anthony Finn, UniSA professor of autonomous systems, said that insect vision systems have been mapped for some time now to improve camera-based detections, but this is the first time that bio-vision has been applied to acoustic data. “Bio-vision processing has been shown to greatly increase the detection range of drones in both visual and infrared data. However, we have now shown we can pick up clear and crisp acoustic…

  • Testing facility for lower carbon rocket engines opens in Scotland

    The state-of-the-art facility, which is the largest of its kind in the UK, represents another step forward for the UK’s burgeoning space sector. The government currently hopes to grow the UK’s share of the global space market to 10 per cent by 2030. It aims to build multiple spaceports in the UK, with a view to seeing commercial sub-orbital spaceflight and space tourism from UK spaceports. In October, Skyrora signed a deal with a spaceport based on the Shetland islands that could see rocket launches take place in the UK this year at the earliest. It said its new Midlothian facility would have a lower carbon footprint compared to having to transport engines and equipment to third-party facilities. It will also harness its natural surroundings and use rainfall from the Scottish Lowlands…

  • The Pantheon: still the world’s largest reinforced concrete dome

    If there Was a competition to find the most durable and beautiful concrete structure ever built, the Pantheon in Rome would most surely win the prize. It also stands as a monument to the genius of Roman concrete. Commissioned by Hadrian (who was emperor 117-138 CE) as a temple to all the gods, the Pantheon replaced Agrippa’s earlier temple following a fire. It is still the most visited site in Italy, having weathered centuries of tourists, floods, wars and earthquakes. Its huge concrete dome – 43.4m in diameter and 21.75m high – was unrivalled in size until the building of Florence Cathedral in the 1400s, and is still the largest ever made with unsupported concrete. “The mastery of building something so daring and having the structure resist essentially without any structural support…

  • Insulation simple solution to slash energy bills, as government considers more coal

    An Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) assessment has found that six million homes had been upgraded to energy performance certificate band C from 2009 to 2019 courtesy of relatively simple home-improvement measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation. Upgrading a home from band D to band C cuts gas demand by 20 per cent per home, saving each one around £194 per year from April 2022 – and potentially even more if energy bills climb further, as is expected in the face of ballooning gas prices due to reduced supply, increased demand and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The energy efficiency measures installed in the decade to 2019 will save bill-payers an estimated £1.15bn this year, the organisation said. As debate rages on how to tackle surging energy bills, green campaigners…

  • Ukraine to receive 500 generators from UK in efforts to keep electricity flowing

    The donation follows direct requests from President Zelenskyy in recent discussions with the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. The UK government has created a dedicated taskforce, including distribution network operators and the Energy Networks Association, to source and send the generators to Ukraine, which could provide enough to power around 20,000 homes or equivalent buildings. Some of Ukraine’s key facilities including hospitals, shelters and water treatment plants have lost power during the ongoing Russian invasion. Russian forces have attacked some key infrastructure during the invasion, including a high-voltage power line that links to the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Ukraine recently told the UN nuclear watchdog that staff operating radioactive…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Stricter rules for online purchases come into force today

    A new set of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements are being implemented that will change how people confirm their identity when making online purchases. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that customers will now be asked to prove their identity when making a purchase, by confirming their identify through two of the following three ‘factors’: Something they are – like a fingerprint or facial ID Something they know – like a passcode or password Something they have – like a mobile phone The SCA rules have already been applied to a small number of transactions for some time, but the proportion of transactions which need to adhere to the new requirements has been steadily increasing since the start of this year as merchants prepared themselves to meet the enforcement…

  • 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…

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