• AI ‘eye’ could help explore features on the Moon

    The choice of future landing and exploration sites on the Moon may come down to the most promising prospective locations for construction, minerals, or potential energy resources. But scanning across a large area, looking for features a few hundred metres across, by eye, is laborious and often inaccurate, experts have said, which makes it difficult to pick optimal areas for exploration. Siyuan Chen, Xin Gao, and Shuyu Sun at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, along with colleagues from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, have now applied machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the identification of prospective lunar landing and exploration areas. “We are looking for lunar features like craters and rilles, which are thought…

  • Massive Covid-19 testing lab opens to detect new variants

    The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in Royal Leamington Spa is expected to create around 1,500 skilled jobs for the area and will be capable of processing hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 samples every day. More than 300 are already employed at the lab with another 700 joining in the near future. The Department of Health and Social Care said it has equipped the lab with cutting-edge technology to process even more tests and adopt new ‘genotype assay’ testing to quickly identify variants of concern and new mutations. It is at the heart of the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) plans for the next phase of the battle against the pandemic. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Trailblazing technologies are going to be pivotal to delivering on this bold ambition and I’m delighted that today we…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • View from India: New work models and remote talent – pandemic outcomes

    The IT services sector is on a rebound spree, as leading companies are hiring thousands of freshers amid the pandemic. This can be attributed to increased outsourcing and the acceleration of digital transformation services spurred by Covid. It is mainly felt in sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, retail and manufacturing. “With customers focusing on optimising costs, outsourcing of IT services is seeing a steady rise globally. The pandemic has opened up additional opportunities in digital services due to surge in remote working, e-commerce and automated services,” said Anuj Sethi, senior director, CRISIL Ratings, and added, “Ergo, deal wins by Indian players have expanded by 20 per cent on-year in fiscal 2021, with 80 per cent of these being digital…

  • Is the aviation sector ready for another supersonic age?

    Somewhere between starting fires and flinging electric cars into space, human beings became disconnected from technology. Progress, long contingent on people doing things, was pushed across some invisible psychic line to become its own force. Moore’s Law is not an industry insider’s term – it’s a capitalist philosophy. Every year, tech brands release shinier, newer, and nebulously ‘better’ versions of the dusty, scuffed and concretely ‘worse’ things we bought last year, because this is what technology does. When it doesn’t – if, say, a global pandemic were to hobble the production of a new games console – the professionally furious will skitter out from the craterous hellscape of social media to shriek at technology until it can once again keep pace with their entitlement. Come war, come…

  • Letters to the editor: volume 16, issue 7

    Future vehicle solutions lie outside the box There’s been plenty of recent debate on the subject of switching from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles, and it seems that we are all fixated on the concept of swapping one form of energy for another, without stepping back to look at the bigger picture. Imagine that the motor car didn’t exist, and that someone had come up with the idea that in order to transport a person weighing less than 100kg from one place to another, we should encase them in a metal and plastic cocoon weighing around 2000kg, and carrying either 50kg of highly flammable fuel (petrol) or 100kg of toxic chemicals (batteries). We would probably think the inventor was deranged and that the idea would never become a reality. And yet here we are, making…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • Spain to invest €4.3bn in EV and battery manufacturing

    According to Pedro Sanchez, Spain's prime minister, the public plan will encompass the entire production chain. Grants will be given to companies with the goal of building the country’s first battery plant and boosting manufacturing of EVs. “It is important for Spain to react and to anticipate this transformation in Europe’s automotive sector,” said Sanchez. He added that government estimates found the private sector could contribute a further €19.7bn to the initiative between 2021 and 2023. Few industrial bidders have publicly stated their intent to seek a helping of the funds, although Volkswagen’s Spanish brand SEAT and energy company Iberdrola have teamed up to work on a bid as an alliance. Their involvement would fit within a wider project they are planning with Volkswagen which covers…

  • Up, up and away!

    After more than a decade, the market for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is on the rise, and its goal of making urban air mobility (UAM) for everyone personal, on-demand and carbon-free looks within reach. Big money is backing air taxis. This year, at least four leading players will go public. All will reverse-merge into existing listed investment vehicles – or SPACs – which will receive funding from current and new investors. The deals will take the companies’ resources beyond a $700m (£500m) threshold, defined by Lufthansa Innovation Hub as the “minimum estimated capital threshold needed for successful development, certification and industrialisation of air taxis”. Others look set to follow as the sector consolidates. Of the four front-runners, two are American…

  • Power sector will need negative carbon emissions for UK to meet net zero targets

    In its 'Our Future Energy Scenarios' report, it also outlines how people will need to change their lifestyle habits and switch over to low-carbon forms of heating such as those powered by renewable energy and hydrogen. The ESO drew on hundreds of experts’ views to model four credible energy pathways for Britain over coming decades. Its analysis suggests that the UK can achieve its legally binding carbon-reduction targets in three out of the four scenarios. Two of the scenarios see Britain reduce its emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, requiring significant shifts in technology and society in the near future. One such scenario sees people in 2050 turning down their thermostats by an average of 1°C, reducing heat demand by 13 per cent. It also predicts that over 80 per cent of households…

  • Gadgets: Gigabyte Aero laptop, Riutbag+, AirPop masks, Dyson Detect and more

    Gigabyte Aero laptop Image credit: Gigabyte Read Caramel’s hands-on review and suggestions of alternatives. This is the laptop to buy if you’re a creative who doesn’t favour Apple. Its Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 supplies state-of-the-art graphics processing. Powerful and slim, the flagship 17-inch HDR model boasts the largest screen, with 4K definition; meanwhile there’s a 15-inch with the world’s first Xrite Pantone colour calibrated OLED display. From £1,799   gigabyte.com RiutBag+ backpack Image credit: Riutbag Read E&T assistant technology editor Siobhan Doyle’s hands-on review. Inspired by a request from a doctor, this has...

  • How it works: An electric fix for aviation’s air pollution problem

    Land vehicles’ contribution to degrading air quality and climate change has been the talk of the town. However, a study led by a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that “aviation emissions are an increasingly significant contributor to anthropogenic climate change”. Upon reaching cruise altitude, aeroplanes spew out steady streams of oxides into the atmosphere. The suspended oxides, mostly nitrogen, linger long enough to spark new chemical reactions with atmospheric oxygen, producing ozone and fine particulate matter. Such highly reactive and toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) are known to cause asthma, decreased lung function and cardiovascular disorders. “When you consider the full flight, which includes emissions from take-off, cruise and landing, aircraft emissions are…

  • Post-pandemic travel: ready for take-off?

    Unquestionably, the pandemic has resulted in aviation’s biggest ever peacetime crisis. From aircraft manufacturers to airlines, from maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) to supply and service organisations, aviation has been hit extremely hard by Covid-19. The immense challenges, including enterprise survival, have forced aviation to adapt on an unprecedented scale to meet customers’ ever-changing requirements. And significantly, the sector continues to play an absolutely critical role in fighting the pandemic. Let’s set the scene on some of the technical fronts, what the situation is now and where things are likely to be heading. For starters, aircraft have still had to be maintained during the pandemic – passengers stopped flying for the most part, but cargo has most definitely not…

  • WhatsApp accused of breaching consumer rights in the EU over new privacy policy

    In January this year, the Facebook-owned messaging app introduced new data-collection terms for when users interact with businesses on the platform. People were originally given until the next month to accept the terms, before a massive public backlash forced Facebook to extend this to May before features of the app would start becoming unavailable. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which represents consumers in the EU, has now filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding what it claims is a breach of EU consumer rights. “For several months now, WhatsApp has been unduly pressuring its users to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy. Yet these terms are neither transparent nor comprehensible for users,” the body said. The complaint is first due to the “persistent…

  • Small number of megacities responsible for majority of urban emissions

    Under the Paris Agreement, governments are obliged to take action to cut carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, with the goal of limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. According to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2020, current climate mitigation plans are insufficient and will lead to a temperature increase of more than 3°C by the end of the 21st century. Such a significant rise in global average temperature could see major cities largely submerged by rising sea levels (including Shanghai, Miami, Alexandria and Rio de Janeiro); increasing extreme weather including droughts and heatwaves, and the spread of desert and tropical disease to other parts of the globe. A new study presents the first international 'balance sheet' of greenhouse gases…

  • Virgin Galactic marks milestone for commercial space travel

    US-based Virgin Galactic, which is partially owned by Sir Richard’s Virgin Group, aims to develop commercial spacecraft for the purposes of space tourism. This most recent flight marked the 22nd flight test for the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity, its fourth crewed flight, and its first with a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists. Take-off was delayed by around 90 minutes by adverse weather conditions. In a livestreamed video hosted by television personality Stephen Colbert, Virgin Galactic demonstrated its launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico at 15.45 UK time. The vehicle reached 40,000ft (12.2km) 15 minutes later. It was carried into the atmosphere by its mothership, VMS Eve, after which it was released and ignited, powering high above Earth’s surface. This approach could…

  • Tesla updates its cars with trial autonomous features

    Owners who have purchased the option will now be able to use the Autopilot’s driver-assist features on roads outside of highways. However, Tesla founder Elon Musk stressed on Twitter that the software is still just in beta and although it “addresses most known issues” there will still be “unknown issues” that will need to be unaccounted for. “Safety is always a top priority at Tesla,” he added. While Tesla vehicles do have a degree of automated capability, drivers are still legally obliged to be sitting in the driver’s seat with their hands on the wheel. One of the firm’s vehicles was involved in a crash in April after losing control while trying to take a curve at high speed. The incident in Texas killed both of the vehicle’s passengers. They were reportedly not in a position to…

  • The bigger picture: Burrowing robot

    This action is harder than moving through air or water because the surrounding material has to be moved out of the way. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Georgia Institute of Technology have taken cues from plants and animals to develop “a fast, controllable soft robot” that can burrow through granular material. Two key ideas taken from nature are to advance by extending the tip, which keeps resistive forces localised to the growing end, and to use ‘granular fluidisation’ by sending a jet of air down into the sand to loosen it. Image credit: . The team is working on a project with Nasa to develop burrowing for the Moon or other bodies. Potential terrestrial uses could include soil sampling, underground installation of utilities and erosion control. It…

  • Analysis: How open data is helping to solve Covid-related crime

    Covid-19 lockdown periods have been a boon for crime rates . In some areas, the decline in crime has been considerable. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a 32 per cent reduction in total crime excluding fraud and computer misuse during April and May last year. With more people at home, fewer criminals dared to commit burglary during the pandemic - some prudently eschewed risky in-person encounters with homeowners.  However, crime in some categories noticeably increased. One was dog theft, where criminal activity flourished as demand for the cuddly four-legged friends soared. Criminal gangs prefer stealing puppies as they can often quickly sell them on online to families in search of a companion. Loopholes in British law may have assisted them.  UK law permits…

  • Crossrail’s current budget is not enough to complete the project, watchdog says

    It said the revised schedule and budget agreed for Crossrail in April 2019 was unachievable because the programme was further from being complete than Crossrail Ltd and its other sponsors understood. Although cost increases and schedule delays are in line with Crossrail Ltd’s 2020 estimates , they exceed the available budget and there are still significant issues that could arise as the railway is brought into service, the NAO said. The joint sponsors for Crossrail are the Department for Transport and Transport for London (TfL), while Crossrail Ltd, a subsidiary of TfL, is responsible for delivering the programme. When the NAO last reported in May 2019, the funding package for Crossrail stood at £17.6bn, the forecast cost was £17bn, and the central section of the Elizabeth line was due…

  • Higher exposure to air pollution contributes to Covid-19 severity, study finds

    According to the research, set to be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases this year, the greater the exposure, the greater the risk. It also found each small (ug/m³) increase in long-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with over three times the odds of being mechanically ventilated and twice the likelihood of a stay in ICU. “Our study calls attention to the systemic inequalities that may have led to the stark differences in Covid-19 outcomes along racial and ethnic lines,” said Dr Anita Shallal from the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, US. “Communities of colour are more likely to be in areas closer to industrial pollution, and to work in businesses that expose them to air pollution.” According to the American Lung Association, Detroit is the 12th…

  • Global carbon debt piling up for future generations

    Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming through accords such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Despite the ratification of these agreements by a large number of countries, the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 continues to rise. At the present rate, the remaining quantity of CO 2 emissions to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C approximately within the next ten years will soon be used up. If this 'carbon budget' becomes depleted before net-zero emissions are achieved globally, it is likely that we will have to remove one tonne of CO 2 from the atmosphere later in the century for every additional tonne of CO 2  that we emit after this point. In other words, continuing on the current trajectory will result in building up a carbon…

  • Scotland’s first carbon capture site to be operational by 2027

    The firms believe it will be able to store around one million tonnes a year of CO2 by 2027 and hopes it will be able to take on greater capacity in the future. Ineos said it plans to make its Grangemouth oil refinery business carbon-neutral by 2045 at the latest whilst remaining profitable, and staying ahead of evolving regulations and legislation. The firm added that its roadmap has set several “ambitious” targets for 2030 as part of this commitment. The latest announcement may be an attempt to revitalise its image with regards to climate change after it fought against Scotland’s ban on fracking in 2018 and invested £1bn in prolonging the North Sea’s main oil and gas pipeline the year after. Acorn CCS is a carbon capture and storage facility specifically designed to overcome the high…

  • Why fairness needs to be hardwired into future tech policy

    The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever why it’s only fair that everyone has access to technology and connectivity. During this period, it has been those with access to high-speed internet connections who have been better equipped to continue their lives during lockdown. However, as it stands, connectivity isn’t something enjoyed by everyone and barriers remain not only to this, but also to establishing access to technology and digital literacy for all. With technology acting as a key enabler of economic growth, for starters, it’s vital that everyone is granted the same ease of access and use. Currently, what technology companies offer is not perfect, and as such it’s important to find a way to code fairness into technology that is beneficial for all societies and enables them…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • Radio receiver opens wider window to exploring universe

    The receiver, created by a team of researchers at Osaka Prefecture University (OPU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), can capture radio waves at frequencies over a range several times wider than conventional ones. It is also expected to enable significant signs of progress in studying the evolution of the Universe and the mechanisms of star and planet formation. Interstellar molecular clouds of gas and dust provide the material for stars and planets. Each type of molecule emits radio waves at characteristic frequencies and astronomers have detected emissions from various molecules over a wide range of frequencies. By observing these radio waves, astronomers and scientists can learn about the physical properties and chemical composition of interstellar molecular…

  • View from Brussels: Less than harmonious

    Vaccination numbers continue to climb across the whole of Europe, and to promote safe travel to countries that desperately need a shot of tourism euros the EU has rolled out a ‘vaccine passport’ of sorts. The certificate scheme is accepted in every one of the 27 EU member countries, meaning double-vaccinated travellers, for the most part, can skip quarantine and testing. It also allows tests and Covid-recovery certificates to be logged. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose executive branch designed the scheme, is so proud of the initiative that she has been making a grand tour of every EU capital to show that it works. This week, the EU agreed that Switzerland’s parallel system should be granted full equivalence by the scheme. That means that Swiss travellers have…

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