• 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…

  • Shackleton’s Endurance ship found 107 years after sinking off Antarctica

    The three-mast wooden ship had not been seen since it sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915, having been gradually crushed by pack ice. In February this year, the Endurance22 Expedition set off from Cape Town, South Africa, one month after the 100th anniversary of Sir Ernest’s death on a mission to locate it. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust said Endurance was found at a depth of 3,008 metres and approximately four miles south of the position originally recorded by the ship’s captain Frank Worsley. The ship was located using two battery-powered submersibles - undersea drones - which combed the seafloor in six-hour stretches twice a day, using sonar to scan the seabed and identify any objects standing proud. Once the wreck had been located, the equipment was swapped for high-resolution cameras…

  • UK gives itself until end of 2022 to phase out Russian oil as cost of living soars

    The move is designed to increase the pressure on Russia’s economy by choking off one of its most valuable sources of income. With the UK still going through a fuel crisis that started months before the war in Ukraine, the phasing out of imports will not be immediate, with time given for supply chains to adjust and support for industry and consumers. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said it would also work with the US, the EU and other partners in a coordinated effort to end dependence on Russian-extracted fossil fuels. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “In another economic blow to the Putin regime following their illegal invasion of Ukraine, the UK will move away from dependence on Russian oil throughout this year, building on our severe package of international…

  • Sponsored: How 5G will influence autonomous driving systems

    5G autonomous driving will dramatically strengthen the capabilities of self-driving vehicles. Wireless communication technologies promise to enable safer driving for autonomous vehicles, enabled by new automotive innovations. Although 802.11p DSRC is ready to be deployed now, it requires huge investments to install numerous access points along miles of roads. On the other hand, major wireless companies are diligently working to bring 5G autonomous driving technologies into real-world application with LTE technologies bridging the transition to mainstream 5G cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) adoption. Key learning outcomes:  Understand the benefits and lim­itations of vehicle-to-X technologies. Learn how the ecosystem of a variety of sensing methods are connected. Understand why…

  • Shock-absorbent material could lead to stronger yet safer applications

    According to its creators at John Hopkins University, the new foam-like material could be a game-changer for helmets, body armour, and automobile and aerospace parts. “We are excited about our findings on the extreme energy-absorption capability of the new material,” said senior author Sung Hoon Kang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “The material offers more protection from a wide range of impacts, but being lighter could reduce fuel consumption and the environmental impact of vehicles while being more comfortable for protective gear wearers.” Johns Hopkins graduate student Beijun Shen places liquid crystal elastomer structure in drop tester machine. Image credit: John Hopkins University Kang wanted to create a material even more energy-absorbing…

  • Social media firms and search engines to face new penalties for scam adverts

    The latest draft of the Online Safety Bill will give regulators greater powers to tackle harmful, offensive and misleading adverts. It could also see tougher penalties places on influencers who fail to declare payment for promoting products on their social media channels. The latest changes to the bill follow calls from a coalition of 17 consumer and business groups last year for the government to include scams within the scope of the much-delayed bill. In December, the Joint Committee responsible for reviewing the bill concluded that serious changes are needed to “call time on the Wild West online”. Peers and MPs said the draft bill, which was published last May, must be clearer about what content is illegal. The latest additions are designed to improve protections for internet users…

  • Antimicrobial air filters could drastically cut Covid spread on trains

    The technology can kill an array of bacteria, fungi and viruses in seconds including providing a potential solution to prevent the spread of airborne infections. The air filters, which are coated with a chemical biocide called chlorhexidine digluconate (CHDG), were rigorously tested and compared to commonly used standard ‘control’ filters in the laboratory, in industrial air condensing units, and in a trial onboard trains operating on the UK’s railways. In the laboratory, Covid-19 cells were added to the surface of both the treated and control filters and measured at intervals over a period of more than an hour.  The results showed that, while much of the virus remained on the surface of the control filter for an hour, all the Covid cells were killed within 60 seconds on the treated filter…

  • Hands-on review: Intelli ScoutPro multi-device powerbank

    We've all been there. We're away from home, or even just away from wall sockets, and our devices are dying on us. Maybe it's because of an unplanned overnight stay or simply because you forgot to charge everything last night, being caught short electrically is a common modern-day malaise. Many of us already have a portable recharging powerbank or two lying around, good for a phone boost. The problem is that these powerbanks are usually a one-hit wonder, good enough to get us home, but only for one device and only for one time. If you're away from wall power for any greater stretch of time, you'll probably wind up carrying around two dead devices. Perhaps what you need is a heavy-duty charging brick, such as this ScoutPro chonk, positively bristling with enough sockets and wireless charging…

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