• Summer STEM Challenge: Fire from Water

    STEM Challenge #49: A great big burning glass for solar-powered chemistry Heating things up is really important in chemistry. But in the early days of the science, this wasn’t easy. Fire was probably a pile of dirty wood or sooty coal in a grate. So pioneer chemists like Joseph Priestley and Anton Lavoisier used nice clean sunshine... and a lens. Not a little one like you keep in your pocket. No, these ‘burning glasses’ were huge, 30cm or more. Lavoisier even had a monster lens 2.5m in diameter. Here is how to make your own great big burning glass – out of water. As well as water, you’ll need cling-film and a ring, ideally a bit smaller than the cling-film. The wheel-rim from a child’s bike will do nicely, or even a full-size bike wheel-rim. You’ll also need a mirror as wide as the ring…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • EU battery recycling regulations should be adopted globally, scientists urge

    Experts from Newcastle University, the University of Birmingham, the University of California, amongst others, have written in the Science journal calling for a unified policy on approaches to batteries such as recycling, use of recycled raw materials and creating a circular economy. With the European Union becoming a rapidly growing market for electric vehicles, the effects of its regulation will be felt by battery supply chains in many other countries, the group said. The effects of these rules could be hard to predict, however, and could result in a competitive disadvantage for European companies. This is because the EU must operate in the global marketplace where there is an imbalance between new and mature markets and uncertainty caused by the rapid rate of growth and innovation in…

  • Customer trust is essential to large-scale adoption of connected cars

    When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was introduced in May 2018, it was a step-change that overhauled the way in which businesses process and handle personal data. It also raised public awareness of the importance of privacy and the need to protect personal data. This issue has only grown more significant with the accelerating pace of connected-technology deployment in vehicles, encompassing everything from connected applications, telematics and black-box insurance to mobile phone use. In-vehicle data collection and processing has increased in terms of content type and volume, and now encompasses a vast array of personal information including phone numbers, address books, emails, location history, browsing history, preferences and driving habits. Collection and processing…

  • R&D spending hiked to £22bn to stimulate UK innovation

    T he department for business, energy and industrial strategy said that the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that major challenges can be resolved by “ambitious” investment in innovation. The plan says that the crisis had proven that the UK can deliver when given the necessary support, freedom and risk tolerance, giving the example of the national vaccine taskforce which is composed of both public and private bodies. Riding on the back of this success, the government will lay out “innovation missions” to set direction, urgency and pace on issues confronting the UK. These will be determined by the new National Science and Technology Council and supported by the Office for Science and Technology Strategy. The government is also outlining seven strategic technologies in which the UK already…

  • US gears up to pursue right to repair with ‘new vigour’

    The FTC restated the growing impression that restrictions imposed on repairs to consumer electronics by the original manufacturers, whether through warranty clauses or by limiting the availability or compatibility of parts, have increasingly obliged customers to use manufacturers' and sellers' own repair networks or, in many case, simply abandon the item entirely and purchase a new replacement long before the end of its useful life. The FTC's 'Right to Repair for small businesses, workers, consumers and government entities' policy statement is the Commission's first step towards actively addressing this issue. The FTC has invited the public to submit complaints about offending companies. If the FTC acts as is expected, it would mean consumers in the US would be free either to repair popular…

  • Laser technique pushes data at 40Tbit/s through existing internet cabling

    The speeds, which are fast enough to download around 5,000 standard-definition Netflix films in a second, were achieved by using a new way of splitting up light channels to deliver more information inside and between data centres. Instead of using a single channel, the team use multiple wavelengths to deliver information all on a single Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC). PICs use photonics or light-based technology to deliver much higher bandwidth in a power-efficient manner than traditional chips. By using what are known as optical combs, a single laser can be used to generate a broad spectrum of equally-spaced optical frequencies which enable higher capacity internet traffic on a single fibre without upgrading existing infrastructure. It does this by eliminating 'guard-bands' or wasted…

  • Brain-machine interface with VR turns intentions into actions

    An international research team – led by the lab of Woon-Hong Yeo at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) – combined wireless soft-scalp electronics and virtual reality (VR) in a BMI system that allows the user to imagine an action and wirelessly control a wheelchair or robotic arm. The technology could even help those  struggling with locked-in syndrome – when a person is fully conscious but unable to move or communicate. “The major advantage of this system to the user, compared to what currently exists, is that it is comfortable to wear, and doesn’t have any wires,” said Yeo, associate professor Georgia Tech’s School of Mechanical Engineering. BMI systems are a rehabilitation technology that analyses a person’s brain signals and translates that neural activity into commands…

  • Industry calls for end to isolation for fully vaccinated as production slows

    Make UK's survey of 436 companies revealed that two-thirds of responding companies backed the call for free Covid-19 tests for workers and provision of statutory sick pay, in tandem with an end to isolation for fully vaccinated individuals. The follows a marked slowdown in production at many manufacturing facilities impacted by protracted staff absences. With an increasing number of staff having to isolate, 13 per cent of companies said that some production has already stopped. The survey, carried out on July 21, also showed that the majority of companies are continuing to prioritise the safety of their staff, with two-thirds (67 per cent) saying they had not removed any pandemic-related restrictions and would continue to uphold these safety measures in future. Around one-fifth of companies…

  • Sodium-based battery could enable cheap mass storage for renewable energy

    While molten sodium batteries have been used for many years to store energy from renewable sources such as solar panels and wind turbines, commercially available molten sodium batteries, called sodium-sulphur batteries, typically operate at 270-350°C. This new type of sodium battery operates at a much cooler 110°C, making it much cheaper to operate. “We’ve been working to bring the operating temperature of molten sodium batteries down as low as physically possible,” said Leo Small, lead researcher on the project. “There’s a whole cascading cost saving that comes along with lowering the battery temperature. You can use less expensive materials. The batteries need less insulation and the wiring that connects all the batteries can be a lot thinner.” But the traditional sodium-sulphur battery…

  • Simulator helps robots sharpen cutting skills

    The system – developed by researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Computer Science and computing company Nvidia – could also simulate cutting through human tissue, offering potential applications in surgical robotics. Many researchers in the past have had trouble creating intelligent robots that replicate cutting. One challenge, they’ve argued, is that no two objects are the same, and current robotic cutting systems struggle with a variation. To overcome this, the team devised a unique approach to simulate cutting by introducing springs between the two halves of the object being cut, represented by a mesh. These springs are weakened over time in proportion to the force exerted by the knife on the mesh. “What makes ours a special simulator is that it…

  • Paper-thin origami-like artworks wriggle, flutter and bend

    Their early creations, which they call Electriflow, include origami cranes with bending necks, wriggling flower petals and fluttering butterflies. “Usually books about butterflies are static,” said Purnendu, a graduate student. “But could you have a butterfly flap its wings within a book? We’ve shown that it’s possible.” Origami-inspired butterly/Pernendu Image credit: Purnendu Purnendu explained that Electriflow designs don't require motors or other traditional machine parts to come to life, allowing them to be soft to the touch. Instead, they use a type of artificial muscle developed at the university which has since been commercialised by Artimus Robotics. These artificial muscles harness hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuation; they rely…

  • Drone flight algorithm beats all human pilots in test race

    Due to their limited battery, speed is of the essence when drones are completing tasks like searching for survivors on a disaster site, inspecting a building or delivering cargo. The routes they take are sometimes complex and narrow, requiring precision flying. Up to now, the best human drone pilots would always outperform autonomous systems in drone racing, according to researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) in Switzerland. But they have now created an algorithm that can find the quickest trajectory to guide a quadrotor – specifically a drone with four propellers – through a series of waypoints on a circuit. “Our drone beat the fastest lap of two world-class human pilots on an experimental race track”, said researcher Davide Scaramuzza. “The novelty of the algorithm is that…

  • Smaller chips, bigger packages, even bigger headaches

    When OpenAI unveiled its GPT-3 engine and showed how its AI model could generate sensible text seemingly out of nothing based on a few cues, it set a new limit in how much processing and memory a language model could use. At 175 billion trainable parameters, GPT-3 is enormous. But it’s time at the top of the supermodels did not last long. Google, which introduced the Transformer concept on which many of today’s AI language models are based, soared past it earlier this year with the 1.6 trillion-parameter Switch. At his company’s Spring Processor Conference in April, analyst Linley Gwennap claimed language models are currently growing at the rate of around 40 times a year. Apparently, the rapid growth is worth it and not just in natural language processing. The results from other areas, such…

  • Tesla’s self-driving software ‘lacks safeguards’, safety experts claim

    Elon Musk’s electric car firm started rolling out over-the-air updates earlier this month to enable “full self-driving” for eligible owners, albeit in a beta form. Owners are still obliged to be able to take control of the vehicle at a moment’s notice, and Musk admitted on Twitter that there could be “unknown issues” that could need to be addressed in the future. Consumer Reports (CR) said it plans to independently test the software update, known as FSD beta 9, once its in-house vehicle has received it, but its experts have already expressed concern over footage of the car’s behaviour that has emerged online. They saw it scrape against bushes, miss turnings and even head towards parked cars. Tesla’s vehicles already had some level of autonomy when travelling on highways, but the FSD beta…

  • Engineered fibres are stronger than steel and spider silk

    Spider silk is recognised as one of the strongest, toughest materials on Earth. Now, engineers at Washington University have developed fibres stronger and tougher than some natural spider silks which are produced by engineered bacteria. The amyloid-silk hybrid proteins were developed in the laboratory of Professor Fuzhong Zhang, who has worked extensively with spider silk. In 2018, his lab engineered bacteria to produce a recombinant spider silk on par with its natural counterparts regarding all important mechanical properties. “After our previous work, I wondered if we could create something better than spider silk using our synthetic biology platform,” said Zhang. Zhang and his team modified the amino acid sequence of spider silk proteins to introduce new properties, while maintaining…

  • Poorly designed power lines killing globally threatened birds of prey

    Ongoing developments to improve universal access to electricity, while necessary, are unfortunately also undermining conservation work to protect endangered birds of prey and potentially causing population declines in Europe. The widespread threats in Ethiopia are particularly worrying as the country is a global hotspot for vulture conservation. Endangered birds of prey are being killed in Africa and the Middle East through poorly designed power lines, scientists have warned. Two papers, published recently in the journal Bird Conservation International, have highlighted the threats posed to globally threatened birds of prey. Large wintering congregations of steppe eagles in the Saudi Arabian desert and Egyptian vultures in Ethiopia are increasingly being exposed to electricity infrastructure…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • EU proposes crackdown on anonymous cryptocurrency payments

    The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) proposed a law to apply the travel rule to cryptocurrency transactions, rendering them traceable. This rule already applied to conventional wire transfers. It forces the sender and recipient to exchange certain identifying information when funds are transferred between financial institutions. Under the proposal, a company handling cryptocurrency for a customer must note the customer’s name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient. The company handling the recipient’s account must then check that all this information is correct and present. Just as anonymous bank accounts are illegal under EU anti-money-laundering rules, anonymous cryptocurrency wallets will also be prohibited. “We shouldn’t have different rules for…

  • UK homes are not sufficiently protected from climate change risk, insurer warns

    A Heriot-Watt University study from earlier this year predicted that flooding across the UK could increase by an average of 15-35 per cent by the year 2080. Areas of West London faced nearly three inches of rain in just 90 minutes last week, causing widespread issues. In its 'Building Future Communities' report, Aviva has called for action from all parties concerned to address the threats climate change poses to UK property and livelihoods. The insurance company said that greater use of “nature-based solutions” should be employed which can help guard against multiple climate risks and called for a strengthening of planning regulations to protect UK properties. New properties should not be being built on floodplains, the report said, while all existing and future properties should have adequate…

  • Enzyme-based plastics recycling more energy efficient, analysis suggests

    The analysis - conducted by researchers in the Bottle Consortium, including representatives from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the University of Portsmouth - identified that using enzymes could be a more sustainable approach for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a type of plastic commonly used to manufacture single-use beverage bottles, clothing and food packaging, all of which are increasingly relevant in addressing the environmental challenge of plastic pollution. The new research addresses the challenges of plastic recyclability. While images of discarded bottles floating in oceans and other waterways provide a visual reminder of the problems posed by plastic waste, the lesser-seen issue remains of what to do with the PET…

  • Reusable masks could slash pandemic waste

    Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, doctors and other healthcare professionals have at times struggled to access enough face masks and other PPE as demand soars for protection capable of filtering SARS-CoV-2. Disposable N95 masks (approximately equivalent to FFF3 masks in Europe) have been in especially high demand, and in the early stages of the pandemic many hospitals reduced use by having healthcare workers wear a mask for a full day rather than switching between patients. Some US hospitals used decontamination systems – which use hydrogen peroxide vapour or UV light – to sterilise masks for reuse, allowing one mask to be worn for several days. All of those masks carry both financial and environmental costs; a new MIT study which analysed the costs of different mask use, has found that…

  • How a few basic principles can help protect critical IIoT systems

    The industrial sector is facing a new set of challenges when it comes to securing a converged IT-OT (information technology/operational technology) environment. We’ve seen these growing pains come to light over the past several months in the form of the Solarwinds incident, and through continued attacks on critical infrastructure, including major pipeline operators, food distributors, water and power supply. In the past, cyber security was focused on IT assets like servers and workstations, but the increased connectivity of systems requires that industrial security professionals expand their understanding of what’s in their environment. Bottom line – you can’t protect what you don’t know about. Not to mention, the increase in large-scale ransomware attacks has proven that IT events often…

  • Helium balloon-lifted space telescope could be cheap rival for Hubble

    Developed by Nasa and the Canadian Space Agency, the 'Superpressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope' (SuperBIT) flies above 99.5 per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere and is carried by a helium balloon the size of a football stadium. While light from distant galaxies can travel for billions of years to reach our telescopes, once it reaches the Earth’s turbulent atmosphere the view becomes blurred. Observatories on the ground are built at high altitude sites to overcome some of this, but until now only placing a telescope in space can escape the effects of the atmosphere completely. The SuperBIT has a 0.5 metre diameter mirror and will be carried to a 40km altitude by a helium balloon with a volume of 532,000 cubic metres, about the size of a football stadium. Its final test flight in 2019…

  • Hands-on review: Zhiyun Smooth-Q3 smartphone gimbal

    We looked at this unit's predecessor, the Smooth-Q2 , and were impressed with its feature set, its capabilities and the photo and video results we got with it. What does the Q3 bring to the party? The obvious standout new feature is the 4,300-kelvins warm-toned integrated fill light built into the clamp of the gimbal. This features three levels of brightness adjustment and touch-button control and can be rotated for either 180° front or rear lighting. This soft but powerful light contributes to a warmer, more natural skin tone and is well-suited to day or night-time use. Obviously at night, or in dark spaces indoors, having a dedicated light is immensely useful, making it much easier to capture clear portrait images or moody videos in low-light conditions. It's a little like having your…

  • Crackdown planned for online rip-offs and fake reviews

    Businesses offering subscriptions will be required to make clear exactly what consumers are signing up for and allow them to cancel easily. The government also said that “consumer catfishes” responsible for fake online reviews would be targeted with rules making it automatically illegal to pay someone to write or host a fake review. Fake reviews are a serious problem for large online marketplaces such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google on which third-party sellers and businesses compete, with dishonest incentives being widely offered for five-star reviews in some areas. Regulators will also be helped to stamp out other dodgy tactics used to manipulate people browsing for goods and services online. These include tactics that manipulate consumers into spending more than they wanted to, and negative…

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