• Openreach to waive broadband connection fees for poor households

    A recent report from telecoms regulator Ofcom found that UK households which don’t adopt an internet connection due to affordability “are likely to experience the greatest harm” and explained that a decent broadband connection can provide “better access to education and employment opportunities, as well as wider benefits such as social inclusion”. The issue has been particularly relevant during the pandemic due to a greater reliance on internet-based technologies for many activities. Furthermore, the Ada Lovelace Institute recently warned of a "data divide" of inequalities in access, knowledge and awareness of digital health technologies used in the pandemic, such as symptom-tracking apps, contact-tracing apps and consumer-facing mental and physical health apps. Openreach’s decision to…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • £270m Green Heat Network Fund to boost district heating

    Heating buildings, which overwhelmingly uses fossil fuels, accounts for 21 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Cutting these emissions through improvements in efficiency and alternative heating is a major part of the government’s decarbonisation plan . The new heating fund will assist the rollout of the “next generation of heat networks”, which will enable more towns and cities to take up green heating technologies from 2022. Heat networks, also known as district heating, supply heat to buildings from a central source, avoiding the need for individual buildings to have their own inefficient, energy-intensive heating sources such as gas boilers. At present, there are over 14,000 heat networks in the UK, providing heat to around 480,000 people. As well as improving heating efficiency…

  • British Airways pledges to source sustainable aviation fuel for COP26 flights

    The COP26 conference, set to take place in November this year, will be the most significant gathering of world leaders to discuss how to tackle climate change since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Sustainable aviation fuels are typically derived by combining jet fuel with alternatives such as bio-fuels or recycled oils from industrial food facilities. BA said that the fuel it intends to use provides a lifecycle carbon reduction of up to 80 per cent compared to traditional jet fuel. BA has also announced a programme allowing its customers to purchase sustainable aviation fuel to help reduce their personal carbon footprint via its not-for-profit organisation Pure Leapfrog. This is in addition to the existing option for customers to offset their emissions. Airlines, alongside fossil…

  • ICO proposes unspecified mechanism to overhaul endless cookie banners

    Denham will propose a mechanism that would allow people to set lasting data privacy preferences within their browsers, apps and device settings, rather than having to manage pop-up cookie banners for every website they visit. “I often hear people say how tired they are of having to engage with so many cookie pop-ups,” said Denham. “That fatigue is leading to people giving more personal data than they would like. The cookie mechanism is also far from ideal for businesses and other organisations running websites, as it is costly and it can lead to poor user experience. “While I expect businesses to comply with current laws, my office is encouraging international collaboration to bring practical solutions in this area.” She will raise the issue during a virtual meeting with leaders from…

  • Siemens Gamesa launches recyclable wind turbine blade

    Wind power is one cornerstone to help tackle the climate emergency. With more than 200GW of new offshore capacity projected by the Global Wind Energy Council to be installed by 2030, it is critical to introduce recyclable solutions. So catering to this, Siemens Gamesa has introduced RecyclableBlade which is ready for commercial use offshore. With this technology, separation of the materials in the blade is possible at the end of its lifetime, enabling recycling into new applications and defines the next milestone in sustainability, according to the company. The first six 81m-long RecyclableBlades have been produced at the Siemens Gamesa blade factory in Aalborg, Denmark. “The time to tackle climate emergency is now, and we need to do it in a holistic way,” said Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens…

  • Smishing and spoofing targeted for eradication by SMS Protection Registry

    In the UK, many major banks and government brands are now better protected, with 352 trusted SenderIDs registered to date. Furthermore, over 1,500 unauthorised variants are being blocked on an ever-growing list, including 300 senderIDs relating to the government’s coronavirus campaign. Government agencies, including HMRC and DVLA, are participating in this ecosystem wide anti-fraud solution, which is supported by BT/EE, O2, Three and Vodafone, along with the UK’s leading message providers including BT’s Smart Messaging Business, Commify, Dynamic Mobile Billing, Firetext, Fonix Mobile, IMImobile, Infobip/OpenMarket, mGage, Reach-Interactive, Sinch, TeleSign, Twilio and Vonage. The cross-stakeholder working group has seen a significant drop in fraudulent messages being sent to the UK consumers…

  • UK plans to increase storage time limits for frozen sperm, eggs and embryos

    The new rules are a significant boost to the 10-year time limit currently imposed and will allow people to reassess whether they want to keep or discard their frozen cells on a 10-yearly basis. The same rules will apply to everyone and storage limits will not be dictated by medical need. The proposed changes are made possible by using the latest freezing methods. Research from the Royal College of Obstetricians (RCO) has found that frozen eggs can be stored indefinitely without deterioration, due to a new freezing technique called vitrification. The changes also reflect the increasing success of using frozen embryos in routine in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. The Department of Health and Social Care said it would be “inappropriate” for the limit to apply to all cases and there…

  • View from Washington: Theranos 2 - Fake it... and then what?

    The story of collapsed healthcare start-up Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes fits into a popular Silicon Valley genre: ‘Fake it till you make it’. The fact that it does is set to form a major – and, for other tech companies and investors, discomforting – part of the disgraced CEO’s defence over the coming weeks. FITYMI does have a more positive side where it describes an approach to personal empowerment and optimistic positivity: behave like the person you want to be, and gradually you will turn into that person. Holmes herself leveraged the concept, most notably adopting a Steve Jobs polo neck-led uniform to look like a tech mover-and-shaker some time before she was declared a billionaire and, according to former fellow students at Stanford University, lowering her voice so that…

  • View from Brussels: Europe’s train of thought

    The jewel in the year’s locomotive facilities was unveiled last week in Lisbon, when a special ‘Connecting Europe Express’ pulled into the station in Lisbon, ready for a month-long trip through most of the EU’s member states. After 20,000 kilometres and 26 countries, the train should pull into station in Paris on 7 October. The idea is to show people how connected Europe is and demonstrate the green credentials of train travel, at a time when clean transport is sorely needed. According to EU transport commissioner Adina Valean: “Over the coming weeks, the Express will become a rolling conference, laboratory and forum for public debate on how to make rail the transport mode of choice for passengers and businesses alike.” “Rail has shaped our rich, common history. But, rail is also Europe…

  • Fact-checking shown to be highly effective in four-country study

    A team at George Washington University looked at the impact of fact-checking in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa and the UK, and found little variation in their positive effects. They also found no evidence of a “backfire” effect of fact-checking, said co-author of the study Thomas Wood. “When we started doing misinformation work about five years ago, it was the consensus that correcting misinformation wasn’t just ineffective, but that it was aggravating the problem and making people more entrenched in their false beliefs,” he explained. “We found no evidence of that in these four countries.  What we did find was that fact-checking can be a very effective tool against misinformation.” The researchers worked with fact-checking organisations in the four countries that are part of the…

  • Book review: ‘Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances’ by Owen Hatherley

    Ever since I was asked to review his book ‘Landscapes of Communism’ in 2015, Owen Hatherley has been one of my favourite authors. I have read most of his books – from ‘Militant Modernism’ (described by The Guardian as an "intelligent and passionately argued attempt to excavate Utopia”) to ‘Red Metropolis’ and the less well known ‘Across the Plaza: The Public Voids of the Soviet City’. ‘Trans-Europe Express’, his comprehensive and witty guide to European architecture, has been my faithful travel companion on a number of trips. These days, as I find myself in the middle of researching a book on the Utopian settlements of Britain, some of Hatherley’s works are proving helpful, eye-opening and simply indispensable and are likely to be among my own book’s most quoted sources. The scope of Hatherley…

  • Hands-on review: Geomag Mechanics Gravity – Loops and Turns

    Good STEM toys tick the boxes marked challenging, interesting, satisfying and inspiring - but they also need to be fun. A decision to play with something is always going to have more worth if it is the child’s choice rather than that of the parents. Will the latest offering from Geomag get that 'new toy thrill' thumbs up from children? The kit under review is the 'Geomag Mechanics Gravity – Loops and Turns'. What’s in the box? There are around 120 small pieces of plastic (made of 74 per cent recycled plastic), ten-ball bearings and an instruction booklet. Straightaway, there is the first realisation that this is not the Geomag of old, where ball bearings and magnetised rods could be assembled in infinite combinations – the imagination was the limit, as they say. This kit is aimed at those…

  • VW unveils autonomous version of its electric camper van, the ID.Buzz

    The vehicle was first unveiled in 2017 as a modernised, fully-electric update of the classic VW camper van. The latest prototypes include a self-driving system developed by AI firm Argo, which comprises a suite of sensors (including cameras, radar and lidar), software and the computer platforms to provide a 360-degree awareness of the vehicle’s environment. The system allows it to predict the actions of pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles, directing the engine, braking and steering systems in response. Image credit: vw VW said the current models can detect objects from a distance of more than 400m and its patented “Geiger-mode” technology is capable of detecting the smallest particles of light (a single photon), so that even objects with low reflectivity, like…

  • View from Washington: Theranos – Silicon Valley on trial

    It feels like something from another time and the wheels of US justice have ground not just slow, but Covid-slow. Nevertheless, more than three years after the two most senior executives at Silicon Valley blood-test venture Theranos were indicted in a $700m fraud, the first trial has begun. Jury selection in the case against founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes took place last week and hearings are set to begin after today’s Labor Day holiday. It promises to be one of the most intensely analysed tech court actions in many years, and not just because of the egregiousness of the scandal itself. Two controversial aspects of Valley culture will, based on initial filings, form key planks in Holmes’s defence. First will be the acceptability of start-ups using the ‘Fake it till you make it’ strategy…

  • Stretchy wormlike robots offer new possibilities for movement

    A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow say the 'roboworms' can stretch up to nine times their own length and are capable of a form of proprioception – the method by which biological organisms like worms perceive their position in space. This allows the robot worms to squeeze into tight spots that rigid robots cannot reach. The researchers hope that the invention could lead to a new generation of robots capable of autonomously exploring difficult-to-reach places, which could be used in areas such as mining and construction or disaster relief to search for survivors trapped in rubble. The technology could also be used to develop more lifelike prosthetics or equip robots with the ability to wrap around and lift irregularly-shaped heavy objects. The way the robots move was inspired…

  • Broadband complaints hit three-year high during lockdown; Virgin Media rated worst

    Ofcom's latest league tables on the number of complaints it received about the UK’s major home phone, broadband, mobile and pay-TV firms took place during the third UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, when millions of people were heavily reliant on their telecoms services. While complaints about mobile services remained broadly stable, broadband and home phone complaints hit a three-year high, while complaints about pay-TV services also increased. This was largely driven by Virgin Media, which was the most complained-about broadband, home phone and pay-TV provider. The main reason customers complained to Ofcom about Virgin Media was to do with how the company handled their complaints. Joint second on the list of the most complaints were TalkTalk and Vodafone, with 24 complaints per 100,000 each…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Anomaly detection: a game changing approach to predictive maintenance

    The purpose of preventative maintenance is to avoid the costly impact of unscheduled downtime should machine components fail. In many cases the components replaced may still be within specification, but we replace them anyway rather than take the risk – especially where the equipment is critical to output. An accusation regularly levelled at this approach is that it can lead to excessive maintenance. Operators would much prefer to know when a machine part is going to fail, so they can avoid carrying out the work until it is absolutely necessary. Ideally, this would be the exact remaining lifetime of the component, but predictive maintenance technology is some way off achieving that level of precision. What we tend to see happening currently, when it comes to critical machinery, is a condition…

  • View from India: Software as a living organism

    Co-WIN is a vaccine registration platform that has been operational since January 2021. The platform has created a digital ecosystem of national significance, becoming a trendsetter as it has illustrated that software can be scalable and inexpensive. “The scalable digital system happens through an open API (application programming interface). It’s the openness combined with a minimalist system that has made it work. A monolithic approach would never have worked here,” said Dr RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India). He was speaking to an online audience at the Nasscom Cloud Summit 2021. The vaccine registration itself is a digital exercise, which documents the registration and details the type of vaccine along with the dose…

  • Stellar nurseries take form in 3D-printed spheres

    Stellar nurseries are vast clouds of gas and dust in which new stars can form under the gravitational influence of denser areas known as “clumps”. Although false-colour photographs and concept art of stellar nurseries are familiar images in popular science, Professor Nia Imara was interested in creating stellar nursery models which captured the complex structural detail of these formations. Imara made the models using data from simulations of star-forming clouds and a sophisticated 3D printing process in which the fine-scale densities and gradients of the clouds are embedded within a transparent resin. The resulting models are smooth, polished spheres around 8cm in diameter, in which the clouds appear as delicate, swirling clumps and filaments. “We wanted an interactive object to help us…

  • ‘No way’ to solve climate crisis without China, Kerry says

    The virtual meeting was held ahead of the critical COP26 conference, due to be held in Glasgow in November, at which world leaders will seek to secure accelerated action to keep average global warming to within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This target is still possible, but will require immediate and drastic decarbonisation action, a landmark IPCC report concluded . China and the US are the world's first and second-largest carbon emitters, respectively. China alone is responsible for an estimated 27 per cent of global greenhouse gases. The US has, by far, the world’s largest share of emissions per capita. Kerry has implored Chinese leaders to expand efforts to reduce carbon emissions as part of the global effort to keep back the rise in temperatures. Kerry is currently in the eastern…

  • UK public backs limits on ‘legal but harmful’ content online

    The research involved Hope not Hate, Demos and the Antisemitism Policy Trust, among other groups. The study involved more than 1,500 people weighed to be representative of the UK public. It identified online abuse as a key issue among the public, with 73 per cent stating that they are worried about the quantity of this content on social media. A large majority (74 per cent) of respondents said they do not trust social media companies alone to decide what is extreme content or disinformation when it appears on their platforms. There is strong public support for stronger regulations forcing these companies to take action against harmful content, with 71 per cent agreeing they should be held legally responsible for user-generated content on their platforms and 73 per cent agreeing they should…

  • Faster digitalisation helps firms improve operations and diversify revenues

    Engineering, procurement and construction firms are doing all they can to rebound rapidly amid the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic. But while many EPCs view cost savings as an effective short-term response, longer-term adverse trends demand a more strategic view and the acceleration of digitalisation. Even before Covid-19 emerged, companies faced the commoditisation of their services, regular cost and schedule overruns, risk-laden lump-sum projects and net margins of less than two per cent on average. Digitalisation can not only help EPCs overcome these long-term challenges, but can also lay the groundwork for improved profitability and new sources of revenue. Fortunately, there are already signs that digitalisation will pick up speed. Two-thirds of construction industry respondents…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Money & Markets: The latest technology to invest in – gene editing

    Most people are aware that the dotcom boom was technology-based, but few realise that since the very start of stock markets in the 1700s, the whole shooting match has been driven by technological advancement. The history of the stock market is the history of funding and the speculation in technology: sail, navigation, canals, railways, radio, automobiles, electronic, computing, the internet and finally the internet applications like Facebook, Google and Amazon. So the way to invest is to catch new technology at a stage where it is exciting enough to be incorporated into listed enterprises, but not so late as to be a later entrant buying at increasingly lofty valuations. Some people call this investing, but it is in the end speculation, a less respectful way of typifying someone putting…

  • Database aims to help prevent mine-waste disasters

    The study forms the first global picture of the occurrence rates, behaviours and physical impacts of mine-waste disasters known as tailings flow. Tailings flows are rapid downstream movements of mine waste, following tailing dam failures. Catastrophic tailings flows have occurred approximately one every two to three years since 1965, causing death, long-term environmental contamination and severe infrastructure damage over distances that can span tens of kilometres. In the past few decades, hazardous weather and inadequate drainage have been the most frequent triggers for these events. “Despite the strict engineering requirements, tailings dams can fail, sometimes catastrophically, so our research raises awareness of the potential downstream effects for public safety purposes,” said PhD…

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