• China's Alibaba to split into six business groups

    Alibaba Group will reorganise itself into six separate companies in what has been described as "the most significant governance overhaul" in the platform company’s 24-year history.  The Hangzhou-based firm is one of China's most prominent tech giants, with business operations spanning cloud computing, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment, and artificial intelligence. The decision to split it was therefore said to have been made to unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness.  Following the breakup, Daniel Zhang will continue to serve as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, which will follow a holding company management model, while each of the six business groups will be managed by a separate CEO and board of directors, the company has revealed .  The six new…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Britain faces climate change hardship due to adaptation failures, report warns

    A new report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) assessed what is needed to build climate resilience across the economy and the extent of policies needed to meet them. Despite some evidence of improved planning for key climate risks, a “fully credible” climate change plan is only found for five of the 45 adaptation outcomes examined in the report. Furthermore, it found that none of the adaptation efforts were happening fast enough to manage the predicted risks appropriately. The UK saw its first 40°C day last summer in a record-breaking heatwave that caused deaths, wildfire incidents and significant infrastructure disruption. The impact of climate change is expected to intensify over the coming decades, leaving the UK vulnerable without better resilience planning and preparation…

  • Government ‘must act urgently’ to stop the sale of unsafe electricals online

    A recent survey by Electrical Safety First (ESF) found nearly four in ten (37 per cent) people are using online marketplaces to compare prices in a bid to get the best deals as the cost-of-living crisis bites. But a new investigation by the charity has revealed that people are more at risk of buying dangerous products online than ever before. ESF investigated listings of electrical goods across five leading online marketplaces, including Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, AliExpress and Wish.com. It found more than 50 listings of products for use all over the home, from the driveway to the kitchen, were unsafe. One EV charging cable purchased from eBay presented a risk of electric shock and overheating when it was tested by a specialist lab. Two other EV charging cables purchased…

  • US and Japan reach deal on critical EV battery minerals

    The deal aims to "facilitate trade, promote fair competition and market-oriented conditions for trade in critical minerals, advance robust labour and environmental standards, and cooperate in efforts to ensure secure, transparent, sustainable, and equitable critical minerals supply chains", according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. Under the deal, both countries are prohibited from enacting bilateral export restrictions on the minerals most critical for EV batteries, including lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese.  The agreement will also allow electric vehicles made from metals processed in Japan to qualify for tax credits under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The Act will allow households to receive up to $7,500 (£6,140) in tax credits to buy an…

  • Hands-on review: PreSonus Studio One 6 Professional DAW

    Certain digital audio workstations (DAWs) have captured a specific niche by way of a future-facing concept - such as the grid-based Ableton Live , a firm favourite of the loop-based scene - while other DAWs seek to virtually emulate the sound and feel of working on a large-format analogue console (e.g. Harrison Mixbus 32C) to attract and reassure those familiar with old-school recording studios. For its part, Studio One's primary appeal has long been about providing an all-in-one music production environment: your brother in audio arms for everything from initial tracking through mixing, mastering, online distribution of the finished product and live performance. Practically all of its features take place within a single window. Streamlining operations from start to finish has always been…

  • British coastal waters feature 100 times more microplastics than six years ago

    The high levels of the pollutant represent a dramatic increase on similar surveys carried out just six years ago. Research also showed the presence of a species of shrimp not normally found this far north, which could be an indicator of climate change and warming seas. The data was collected during summer 2022 by teams competing in the GB Row Challenge, a 2,000-mile event that circumnavigates Great Britain. The aim of the research project was to build a picture of the many challenges facing British coastal waters. Using specialist equipment, the rowers gathered data on microplastics, temperature, noise pollution and biodiversity.  In 2017, Cefas (Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science) published microplastic data from many of their offshore trawls.  It found just…

  • US generated more energy from renewables than coal for the first time in 2022

    In 2022, renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydro, biomass, and geothermal, produced more electricity than coal for the first time in the United States.  Additionally, renewable generation surpassed nuclear generation for the second time, the first time being in 2021.  In total, the US electric power sector produced 4,090 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity last year, according to new figures released by the EIA.   The figure was mainly attributed to a significant increase in wind and solar power, which contributed 14 per cent of the electricity produced domestically in 2022, an increase from 12 per cent the previous year. Natural gas remained the largest source of US electricity generation, increasing from a 37 per cent share in 2021 to 39 per cent in 2022. Hydropower…

  • Global energy transition ‘in need of fundamental course correction’

    Global green energy investments must quadruple to reach the target set by the Paris climate accords, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has said.  The agency's  World Energy Transitions Outlook 2023 Preview has warned that the global energy transition is "off-track" and in need of a "fundamental course correction", which would include a significant increase in funding.   In 2021,  $1.3tn (£1tn) was invested in renewable energy sources. However, the IRENA claimed that this figure must rise to around $5tn (£4tn) annually to limit global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels by 2030.  According to the agency, the world requires $35tn (£28tn) to be invested in the sector by 2030 in order to be able to reach a "successful energy transition". "A successful energy transition…

  • OneWeb-Eutelsat merger to be listed on London stock market this year

    OneWeb runs a constellation of satellites which is designed to enable access to broadband speed internet connectivity anywhere on the planet. The UK government bought a stake in OneWeb in 2020 after the latter entered bankruptcy after failing to raise the requisite capital to complete the build and deployment of the remaining 90 per cent of the network. French satellite operator Eutelsat already owns around 23 per cent of OneWeb and proposed a potential merger of the two firms last year when OneWeb was valued at around $3.4bn. According to The Times, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the executive chairman of OneWeb, said that a secondary listing on the LSE was a commitment negotiated by ministers in a bid to boost the domestic space and tech sector. “The benefit is that you have a varied investor…

  • Sponsored: Refining automotive battery management systems

    India is a fast-growing market for electric vehicles (EVs), with one study predicting that over 30% of the vehicles sold in India will be electric by 2030. The battery packs that power EVs are one of the main drivers of the electric mobility revolution in India. In order to monitor and manage battery pack performance and safety, packs are usually equipped with a battery management system (BMS). A BMS is an electronic system that monitors a battery's voltage, temperature, coolant flow and health and predicts a number of other performance parameters, such as current variation and heat generation, helping to extract optimum performance from a battery pack. The Role of Simulation in Developing Accurate BMS Exicom Tele-Systems Pvt. Ltd. designs, develops and deploys energy solutions, including…

  • Windfall taxes curtailing investment in fossil fuel extraction, sector warns

    Offshore Energies UK’s (OEUK) Business Outlook report finds that nine out of 10 North Sea operators are cutting back investment citing a mix of high taxes, political climate and inflation as key factors in their decisions. It follows the windfall taxes imposed on North Sea oil and gas operators, under which their overall tax rate has risen from 40 per cent to 75 per cent in the last 10 months. The taxes were put in place to try and mitigate soaring inflation and prices that have caused a cost-of-living crisis for many of the UK’s most impoverished households. Fossil fuel extractors globally have announced record profits in recent months driven by high prices in the wake of the Ukraine war. Both BP and Shell have extensive operations in the North Sea and were subject to windfall taxes but…

  • AI could be key to optimising chip design, Nvidia says

    Nvidia Corp, the world's leading designer of computer chips used in AI, has shown new research that explains how artificial intelligence tools can be used to improve chip design. In the paper , called ' AutoDMP: Automated DREAMPlace-based Macro Placement', the Nvidia research team proposed an AI-based methodology to optimise the placement of transistors on silicon chips, thereby improving their cost, speed and power consumption.  Billions of tiny switches called transistors are placed on a piece of silicon to create what we know as silicon chips, and so the placement of these switches has a great impact on the capabilities of the chips.  At the moment, chip design engineers use complex design software from firms like Synopsys Inc and Cadence Design Systems Inc to optimise the placement…

  • Twitter hits back against publication of source code

    Elon Musk's platform Twitter has asked a US court to provide information on who was behind the account which leaked parts of the company's source code – the underlying software on which the service operates. The company stated in a filing that the code had been posted by a user named FreeSpeechEnthusiast on GitHub, a Microsoft-owned hosting service where software developers share code.  The code has now been deleted by GitHub. However, Twitter has asked the District Court of the Northern District of California to order the Microsoft-owned business to “identify the alleged infringer or infringers who posted Twitter’s source code on systems operated by GitHub without Twitter’s authorisation”. Elon Musk's company claimed the account had infringed copyrights owned by the company. In the court…

  • New source of lunar water discovered by China’s Chang’e-5 Moon lander

    China’s Chang’e-5, which touched down on the Moon in December 2020, found water at its landing site using spectral reflectance measurements of soil and rocks. Now, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found that impact glass beads in Chang’e-5’s lunar soils also contain some water. Detailed studies suggest that these glass beads are likely to be a new water reservoir on the Moon reflecting the movement of water into and away from the surface due to solar wind. Solar winds originating from the Sun are capable of changing the chemical composition of the Moon’s surface by causing it to eject oxygen which then combines with hydrogen ions in the same solar winds to create water. Many lunar missions have confirmed the presence of structural water or water ice on the Moon and…

  • View from Brussels: No justice yet for time thieves

    Back in 2018, the European Union said that it was high time to do away with twice-yearly clock changes and stick to one timezone all year round. The EU’s executive branch, the Commission, responded to a pan-European survey that showed more than 80 per cent of respondents favoured scrapping the system, which was first deployed by Germany during World War I. A fair majority of the survey’s replies were actually from Germans. No surprise, given the country’s central and northern location within the Central European Timezone, which means that evenings draw in earlier. The Commission did not propose such a radical change just based on what one survey says, of course, as it also referenced numerous studies over the years that have suggested factors like road safety and even human health would…

  • UK making ‘negligible advances’ on infrastructure initiatives, advisers say

    The UK is "moving too slowly" on projects set to push forward economic and climate targets, according to the National Infrastructure Commission's (NIC) latest   Infrastructure Progress Review . The country's official independent infrastructure adviser has warned the government is at risk of failing to deliver the aims of its National Infrastructure Strategy unless it picks up the pace with detailed policy design and implementation. The NIC stressed that the UK is "off track to meet its targets and ambitions" across a range of measures such as planning, funding and delivery of many of its infrastructure targets. In particular, advisers criticised the government over its “negligible advances in improving the energy efficiency of UK homes, the installation of low-carbon heating solutions…

  • Western banks lack transparency in their usage of AI, report finds

    According to a report from Evident, which scrutinises the adoption of AI by businesses, one-third of Western banks lack transparency on their practices, despite the fact that AI is already being used by them for many critical processes. Used for such tasks as authenticating customers and risk modelling, eight of the 23 largest banks in the US, Canada and Europe currently provide no public responsible AI principles. Evident analysed millions of publicly available data points to assess how banks create AI leadership roles and define their ethical principles. Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Evident CEO, said: “AI could be the key driver of better risk management and decision-making across the global banking sector. However, it is vital that banks develop AI in a way that meets high ethical standards…

  • Watchdog urges ‘realistic’ budget for HS2’s Euston Station revamp to lower costs

    Earlier this month, the Department for Transport (DfT) delayed the project due to inflationary pressures coupled with the UK’s struggling finances. The changes will see services not stopping in Euston for years to come, with passengers expected instead to travel for half an hour on the Elizabeth Line instead. The latest cost estimate for the 10-platform design at Euston is £4.8bn, £2.2bn more than its original budget. The NAO report recommends that the DfT looks again at the project with regards to its budget and public benefits. “Government is once again having to revise plans for Euston HS2. Clearly, the 2020 reset of the station design has not succeeded. DfT and HS2 Ltd have not been able to develop an affordable scope that is integrated with other activity at Euston, despite their…

  • British construction workforce too small to meet home-building targets

    The UK's construction industry would need a considerable boost to its labour force or a change in building methods to meet the government's annual 300,000 new homes target, according to a report by Make UK Modular.  The organisation found that the country's workforce is not large enough to meet the current demand for housing, replace workers who will retire in the coming years and help retrofit homes for the path to net zero. In 2019-20 there were just 242,700 net additional dwellings, which fell to 216,490 in 2020-21, partly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the research, the traditional housebuilding sector needs to recruit 137,000 more workers to hit the new homes 300,000 target by 2030 – triple the current rate. The manufacturers’ organisation said only 11,000 construction…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • That TikTok privacy debate in 10 questions

    I live under a rock. What is TikTok? TikTok is a social media app based around short-form video. It was launched internationally in 2017 and has since become one of the most popular social media apps with over one billion monthly active users, almost half of which are between the ages of 16 and 25. TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin are owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. I’m too old for TikTok. Do I have to think about this? Even if you have never seen a TikTok video, the company can (and will) still gather your data. Like Facebook, it allows third parties to embed a tracker on their websites to gather activity data, which is aggregated and sent to advertisers. If you do use TikTok – even without an account – expect the company to collect data about all your activity on the platform…

  • Book review: ‘Virtual You’ by Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield

    It will be second nature to the engineering mindset that digital twins, as Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield point out in their introduction to ‘Virtual You: How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionize Medicine and Change Your Life’ (Princeton University Press, £25, ISBN 9780691223278) “have been used to help create wind turbines, oil rigs, cars, jet engines, aircraft, spacecraft and more besides.” What might not be so obvious is that, thanks to the data revolution in biology, digital twins are successfully operating in the field of medicine. The reason for this assumption, says Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan in his foreword to this immensely thought-provoking book, is that while we’re used to thinking of physics and chemistry as disciplines which lend themselves to predictive simulations…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Breakthrough method creates 2D-layered metallic materials

    A research team at the University of Chicago has discovered a new way of making the fabrication of MXene (pronounced max-ene) materials much more efficient, paving the way for their use in  high-tech electronics or energy storage methods.  These materials are made from extremely thin layers of  metal, between which scientists can slip different ions for various purposes. The majority of metals, when shaved, stop reacting like a metal. MXenes, in contrast, have unusually strong chemical bonds that allow them to retain  the special abilities of metal, like conducting electricity strongly, while also being easily customisable.  “You can put ions between the layers to use them to store energy, for example,” said chemistry graduate student Di Wang, one of the researchers involved.  All of…

  • TikTok pushes back against US and UK opposition

    TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have become the focus of a geopolitical trade and technology dispute between Beijing and Washington, as the company tries to prevent further regulatory restrictions.  Shou Zi Chew, the social media app's CEO, faced four and a half hours of what TikTok described as "grandstanding" questioning from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers. The Congressmen questioned TikTok's links to the Chinese administration and the effects that the short-video platform could have on children's well-being.  “Mr Chew, you are here because the American people need the truth about the threat TikTok poses to our national and personal security,” committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers said in her opening statement. “TikTok has repeatedly chosen a path for more control, more…

  • North Korea claims its subsea drones could trigger ‘radioactive tsunamis’

    North Korea's new Unmanned Underwater Nuclear Attack Craft Haeil drone is said to be able to generate giant "radioactive tsunamis" to attack enemy targets.   The drone is built to “stealthily infiltrate into operational waters and make a super-scale radioactive tsunami through an underwater explosion" to destroy enemy naval strike groups and ports, state news agency Korean Central News Agency (KCNW) has reported.  The device was tested in the waters off South Hamgyong province on Tuesday (21 March), and it cruised for over 59 hours at between 80 to 150 metres deep before being detonated, according to the agency.  The test "verified [the drone's] reliability" and "confirmed its lethal strike capability", KCNA said. The test of the  “nuclear underwater attack drone” was part of a three…

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