• Railway sector warns Sunak that delays to proposed reforms risk investment

    The plea comes just two months after the Birmingham to Crewe leg of HS2 was delayed by two years as part of efforts to reduce costs for the over-budget project. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, over 60 rail business leaders urged him not to delay the proposed rail reform plans too. In May 2021, the government announced its plans for the biggest reform to the railway in three decades through the publication of the Plan for Rail. It includes a proposal to create Great British Railways (GBR) – a planned state-owned public body that will oversee rail transport in Great Britain. It will replace Network Rail as the operator of rail infrastructure across all of Great Britain. With the exception of services wholly within Scotland and Wales, it will also control the contracting…

  • European carmakers face dire profit warning due to China’s EV dominance

    According to insurers Allianz Trade, China’s decision to invest heavily in EV production over the last 15 years has made it the global leader in this sector. In the late 2000s, Chinese authorities recognised the potential that EVs had to address critical domestic issues such as air pollution and energy security. In 2022, Chinese manufacturers sold over twice as many EVs as their European and US counterparts combined, while also holding a competitive edge in nearly all aspects of the EV value chain. Chinese brands have seen their global market shares climb from less than 40 per cent in 2020 to close to 50 per cent in 2022. This is heavily bolstered by an 80 per cent market share in their densely-populated home country. At the same time, three of Europe’s best selling EVs were Chinese imports…

  • LinkedIn cuts 700 jobs and exits China in the latest round of tech layoffs

    LinkedIn has announced that it plans to cut 716 jobs and phase out its activities in China, in response to slowing revenue growth and changing customer behaviour. The company's chief executive Ryan Roslansky delivered the news in a letter to staff published on Monday. He explained the layoffs as part of a plan aimed at responding to economic conditions and making the business more agile. “In an evolving market, we must continuously have the conviction to adapt our strategy in order to make our vision a reality,” Roslansky said. He added that the changes would actually result in the creation of 250 new jobs, for which LinkedIn employees affected by the cuts in the company's sales, operations and support teams would be eligible to apply. At the moment, LinkedIn has around 20,000 employees…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Air pollutants from US fossil fuel extraction kills 7,500 annually, study finds

    Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US oil and gas sector has boosted exports to the point where the US is at the top of the world’s energy-exporting nations. A study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) has been looking into what this expansion in production means for air quality and human health. While there is extensive research on the climate effects of methane produced by the sector - a key contributor to air pollution - few studies have measured the health effects of the air pollution that oil and gas activity generates. The new findings estimate that the pollutants nitrogen oxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) from US oil and gas production contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks and 2,200 new cases of childhood…

  • Vietnam’s production of rare earth materials soared in 2022

    Vietnam has boosted its mining of rare earth materials as companies around the world look to divest from Chinese materials.  The Southeast Asian country has the world's second-largest estimated deposits of rare earths,  a group of 17 elements   that are crucial for making a range of electronic products, from m agnets, glass screens and speakers to trains, mobile phones and   missile guidance systems. At the moment, around 98 per cent of the rare earth materials used in the European Union are imported from China. From 2008 to 2018, China exported nearly  408,000 metric tons of rare earths, which amounted to 42.3 per cent of all rare earth exports over that period.  Vietnam's rare earth mine production jumped to 4,300 tonnes last year from 400 tonnes in 2021, according to the United States…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Charles III: A green king?

    “It all seems obvious to me,” King Charles III recently told German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, referring to the need for a green transition. During a boat ride to an electrolyser site in Hamburg’s harbour, the UK’s new monarch confessed he felt like he was becoming “a frustrated old man” over attitudes to the climate emergency.   The King is certainly no stranger to the climate fight. Over the last 50 years, Charles III has been very public about his concern for the environment, with many of his statements blurring the lines of the Crown’s political neutrality. In this way, his accession to the throne is expected to limit his ability to be outspoken about matters of public policy. Yet, it also marks the first time that the UK has a declared environmentalist as Head of State.   …

  • White House warns about the dangers of AI

    President Joe Biden's administration has summoned the leaders of the country's top technology companies to deliver a warning regarding the development of AI technologies.  The meeting's attendees included Google's Sundar Pichai, Microsoft's Satya Nadella and OpenAI's Sam Altmann.  In the meeting, led by Vice President Harris, the White House stressed that the companies have a "moral duty" to protect the public from the risks that come with AI tools, and made it clear that the government is considering drafting legislation that would further regulate these technologies.  The meeting included a "frank and constructive discussion" on the need for companies to be more transparent with policymakers about their AI systems, the importance of evaluating the safety of such products, and the need…

  • Facebook Marketplace fails to remove listings of dangerous electrical goods

    Electrical Safety First (ESF) flagged ten dangerous and substandard products to Meta in late February as part of a wide-scale investigation that identified dangerous goods for sale via five major online marketplaces.  Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Wish.com and AliExpress all responded to alerts from the charity by swiftly removing the listings. But ESF says goods that expose shoppers to risk of electric shock and fire remained on sale via Facebook Marketplace.  Lesley Rudd, ESF chief executive, said: “Meta has failed to act when presented with our evidence, leaving their shoppers exposed to avoidable harm. In doing so Meta has distinguished itself from other online platforms for all the wrong reasons.”  The charity reviewed the status of the ten listings it flagged to Meta in late April.…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Collaboration on optimisation of large batteries to revolutionise future energy use

    SSE Energy Solutions’ software grid balancing technology, Enhance, is designed to help maximise the efficiency of mega batteries. Now, the Enhance platform has been deployed at one of the world’s leading energy research centres, managing the operation of the 2MW battery at the University of Sheffield’s Willenhall Energy Storage facility. The £4m research facility is part of the University of Sheffield’s Centre for Research into Electrical Energy Storage and Applications (CREESA), which aims to advance the development of an affordable and clean energy future that is secure and sustainable. The intermittency of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar have been seen as a limiting factor in their adoption. Energy storage solutions have the potential to balance such fluctuations. SSE…

  • Centipede-inspired robot traverses tough terrain with ease

    Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology said their robots can move over complex, bumpy terrain and there is potential to use them for agriculture, space exploration, and even search and rescue. “When you see a scurrying centipede, you’re basically seeing an animal that inhabits a world that is very different than our world of movement,” said researcher Daniel Goldman. “Our movement is largely dominated by inertia. If I swing my leg, I land on my foot and I move forward. But in the world of centipedes, if they stop wiggling their body parts and limbs, they basically stop moving instantly.” Baxi Chong, a physics postdoctoral researcher, said: “We started this project to see what would happen if we had more legs on the robot: four, six, eight legs, and even 16 legs.” The team…

  • King Charles portrait accessible through augmented-reality technology

    The portrait has been created from thousands of drawings of King Charles III made by children across the UK.  The final portrait has been unveiled at Outernet London – BBC Children in Need Home of the Coronation – and will be open to visitors until 8  May 2023.  The project is known as 'Royally Big Portrait' and is led by artist Sam Barnett as part of a collaboration with BBC's Children in Need. In order to make the project accessible to people who can't visit the exhibit, the project leaders have collaborated with DEPT and 8th Wall to create an accompanying augmented-reality (AG) experience accessible through smartphones.  Augmented reality image of King Charles portrait/ DEPT Image credit: DEPT Through a web experience hosted on 8th Wall, children can enter

  • Guitar legends wanted in hunt for UK’s best engineer guitarist

    Engineers are known for many things, such as their curious minds, ability to think outside of the box, attention to detail and high intellect. As a group of people teeming with so much creativity, it is not unusual to find engineers dipping into more artistic hobbies in their spare time, including music. From physicist Brian Cox’s early '90s pop star dabblings on the keyboard, to rock royalty and astrophysicist Brian May’s lead-guitar-playing in Queen and beyond, there are many examples of the technically minded displaying their musical talents. To pay homage to this aspect of the engineering community, this year’s Manufacturing and Engineering Week (M&E Week) comes with a twist as it sets out to put visitors’ artistic talents on display with the chance to win one of two electric guitars…

  • Hands-on review: STM Goods ChargeTree Go 3-in-1 charger

    Aside from its legacy in luggage , STM Goods is also known for some quirky lifestyle and smartphone accessories, where quirky mercifully does not mean "amusing but unnecessary" but instead its real-world antonym "actually unexpectedly useful". We've encountered a few examples of STM's quirky iPhone goods, such as its chonky-but-fonky Magpod tripod and its Magloop kickstand-bottle-opener (file under: actually unexpectedly useful). Now, we have the ChargeTree Go, STM's all-powering mobile device charger. Ever since we never got the mythical AirPower charging mat from Apple, many, many companies have obligingly rushed in with their own offerings to fill that multi-device charging void. Image credit: STM The ChargeTree Go is actually the evolved form of its STM.…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Money & Markets: AI chatbots will replace jobs – but not the cool ones

    According to Goldman Sachs, AI will automate 37 per cent of architecture and engineering tasks. For Luddites, this means 37 per cent fewer engineering jobs, yet we number people know Pareto and his distribution and understand that 80 per cent of the work we do is worth 20 per cent of the total value of our output and that with the removal of nearly half of our loathed spam tasks, AI will actually mean we can do so much more cool stuff. After getting over the wonder of AI writing broken limericks in the style of Edgar Allen Poe, the realisation is that AI creates spam. AI plays ‘consequences’ with the bell curve and pops out a spam cliché of the average hive mind. However, ChatGPT, the AI sensation, is ushering in a new era. According to Goldman Sachs, 25 per cent of jobs are already on…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from India: What is your password? Shh...

    A decade has passed since World Password Day was introduced. The intent has been to make people understand that weak passwords can lead to data breaches and losses. And this holds true even today. Working from home, a pandemic-led outcome, brought flexibility in the work pattern; but the dependence on cloud tools made data and devices vulnerable and prone to cyber attacks. Sensitive data became a compromise in many parts of the world. The threat landscape in the online world is evolving and  with this comes multi-device connectivity. Everything almost everywhere is, and will be, connected. Password protection is paramount. Typically, passwords are used for logging into accounts, checking email, and accessing applications and websites. Randomly putting together computer characters like numbers…

  • Construction starts on UK’s first vertical rocket launch pad

    Rocket manufacturer Orbex is building Sutherland Spaceport with hopes to use the site to launch up to 12 orbital rockets per year. The facility is also intended to become the first carbon-neutral spaceport in the world, both in its construction and its operation. As part of the efforts, peat that will be lifted during the construction will be re-used to repair large areas of peatland in other locations that have degraded over centuries. The government hopes to grow the UK’s share of the global space market to 10 per cent by 2030. It aims to build multiple spaceports on the mainland, with a view to seeing commercial sub-orbital spaceflight and space tourism from UK spaceports. The sector has had a rough start to 2023 after the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from the UK by…

  • Facebook’s ‘recklessness’ put children at risk, says regulator

    The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed sweeping changes to a 2020 privacy order with Facebook's owner, Meta, to limit its use of children's data.  The US regulator has found that the social media company misled parents about how much control they had over who their children had contact with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about how much access app developers had to users' private data, breaching a previous privacy agreement.  As a result, Meta could now face further limitations, including new privacy guidelines that would ban the company from making money off data collected from under-age users, as well as restrictions to its use of face-recognition technology.  "Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau…

  • Britons believe oil companies should cover climate change costs, poll finds

    The majority of UK citizens think the country has a responsibility to pay for climate action in poorer and vulnerable countries, according to new polling commissioned by the charity Christian Aid. The survey was carried out by Savanta, which polled 2,181 UK adults between 21 and 23 April. Out of those polled, 63 per cent of the respondents said they would back the government in taxing oil companies and using the money for the loss and damage fund that supported nations impacted by climate change. Women and people above 35 were more likely to support such a tax than men and 18 to 34-year-olds, the company revealed. Overall, only 6 per cent of people disagreed with the statement that it is unfair for oil and gas companies to make record profits without taking responsibility for the damage…

  • Demand for electric vehicles slows as public chargers remain elusive

    The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said these factors had led to it downgrading its market share forecast for EVs from 19.7 to 18.4 per cent for 2023. Its latest outlook for 2024, meanwhile, suggests that 22.6 per cent of new car registrations will be an EV, a downward revision from the 23.3 per cent forecast in January. Demand fell last year as the average cost of charging an electric car soared by more than a fifth as electricity prices rose amid global turmoil in the energy markets. A 2021 study also found that the installation of chargers needs to increase by five times the current rate if the plan to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 is to be achieved. The SMMT said that new zero-emission vehicle mandates, greater and faster investment in infrastructure…

  • Europe’s newest weather satellite reveals Earth in all her (cloudy) beauty

    Europe’s meteorological satellite agency, EUMETSAT, and the European Space Agency (ESA) jointly released the image from the first satellite in the new generation of European weather satellites, Meteosat Third Generation – Imager 1 (MTG-I1). MTG-I1 was launched on 13 December 2022. The image, captured by the satellite’s imager at 11:50 UTC on 18 March 2023, shows much of Northern and Western Europe and Scandinavia cloaked in clouds, with relatively clear skies over Italy and the Western Balkans. Details it contains, such as cloud vortices over the Canary Islands, snow cover on the Alps and sediment in the water along the coast of Italy, are not as clearly visible, or not visible at all, in imagery from the instruments on the current Meteosat Second Generation satellites. Crucially for…

  • UK competition regulator to review AI market

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an official review into foundational AI models, used to train and support popular tools such as ChatGPT.  The investigation aims to "ensure that innovation in AI continues in a way that benefits consumers, businesses and the UK economy", according to the regulator. It is expected to asses the rapid rise of foundational models, and recommend principles that would continue to support this growth in a way that does not harm consumers.  The announcement comes amid growing concerns over the rapid development of generative AI. Over the last few months, AI-powered chatbots such as OpenAI’s   ChatGPT   have seen a dramatic rise in popularity. These free tools can  generate text in response to a prompt, including articles, essays, jokes and…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Littered cigarette filters shown to have toxic effect on aquatic life

    Researchers from the University of Gothenburg have called for the filters - one of the most common forms of litter - to be completely banned. “The filter is full of thousands of toxic chemicals and microplastic fibres, so it’s not just any piece of plastic that’s being discarded into the environment. It’s hazardous waste,” says Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Gothenburg. The researchers tested the effects of the toxins that are found in the filter after smoking, as well as the substances that are in the filter from the start, on aquatic mosquito larvae. It turns out that the toxins lead to a 20 per cent higher mortality rate among mosquito larvae. Previous research has shown that the toxins in the filters also have adverse effects on many other…

  • Scientists see ‘future of the Earth’ as dying star swallows Jupiter-sized planet

    In a world-first, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists have witnessed the death of a star, which caused it to engulf a planet the size of Jupiter. The planetary demise appears to have taken place in our own galaxy, some 12,000 light-years away, near the eagle-like constellation Aquila. There, astronomers spotted an outburst from a star that became more than 100 times brighter over just 10 days, before quickly fading away. This white-hot flash was followed by a colder, longer-lasting signal, the researchers reported, concluding that it could only have been produced by one event: a star engulfing a nearby planet.  “We were seeing the end-stage of the swallowing,” said lead author Kishalay De, a postdoc…

  • Continuous 3D deep-tissue monitoring possible with ultrasound patch

    The elastography monitoring system can provide ongoing, non-invasive mapping of deep tissues which can be used to measure progression of diseases such as cancer, which normally causes cells to stiffen, as well as monitoring muscles, tendons and ligaments to diagnose and treat sports injuries. “We invented a wearable device that can frequently evaluate the stiffness of human tissue,” said Hongjie Hu, a postdoctoral researcher and study co-author. “In particular, we integrated an array of ultrasound elements into a soft elastomer matrix and used wavy serpentine stretchable electrodes to connect these elements, enabling the device to conform to human skin for serial assessment of tissue stiffness.” Ultrasound patch worn on the neck Image credit: UC San Diego Jacobs…

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