• ‘Ultra-early’ wildfire detection network installed in Spanish forests

    Dryad Networks has developed a wireless network of environmental, solar-powered gas sensors, based on the open standard for long-range IoT networks. Its distributed architecture enables large-scale deployment in areas without network coverage and the data collected on the network is processed by machine-learning tools embedded within the sensor and cloud-based data tools for analysis, monitoring and alerting. Dryad’s wireless sensor network will operate deep within forest environments, where the impacts of climate change are more difficult to monitor. The installation is intended to reduce the percentage of area devastated by fire, which according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) rose in Spain to almost 310,000 hectares in the last year. With its deep experience in…

  • Banks’ finance for clean energy still lags behind fossil fuels, report says

    Several climate scenarios suggest that to limit global temperature rises to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average, the world needs to be investing $4 in renewable energy for every $1 invested in fossil fuels by 2030. Energy analysts BloombergNEF compiled data from 1,142 banks for what it calls an 'Energy Supply Banking Ratio' to assess whether banks are aligning their financing to the real economy and the 1.5°C target. In 2021, bank financing for energy supply totalled $1.9tn, just over $1tn of which went to fossil fuels and $842bn to low-carbon energy projects and companies, according to the report. The bank financing ratio, of 81 cents to $1, was below the global energy supply investment ratio of 90 cents to $1. The latter ratio has been climbing in recent years from around 0.45:1…

  • ‘Biocomputers’ could be developed within our lifetime, scientists say

    The Johns Hopkins research team has outlined their plan for the development of a 'biocomputer' that could create faster, more efficient, and more powerful computers.  They called this type of technology "organoid intelligence" (OI), as it is powered by living human brain cells.  "Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution, but they are reaching a ceiling," said  Thomas Hartung , the leader of the research team. "Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits." Organoids are three-dimensional clumps of biological tissue that scientists have been growing and experimenting with for years, to avoid resorting to human or animal testing. However, Hartung…

  • No long-term plan for decarbonising UK power sector risks 2035 goal, warns NAO

    Under current proposals, by 2035 all electricity is expected to be generated using clean sources by phasing out gas-fired power stations in favour of wind, solar and nuclear power. But the NAO warned that the UK’s net-zero strategy predicts a 60 per cent increase in electricity demand − due to modes of transport and heating in buildings switching to electricity from fossil fuels – which could make it more difficult to fully decarbonise. Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak split the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) into two, which included the creation of the Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) department. The original plan was for the BEIS to draw up a clear pathway to decarbonisation by 2035 by October 2022 at the latest. But the department was forced…

  • Digital treatments for depression conditionally approved by NHS body

    Eight digital therapies have been “conditionally recommended” by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) while further evidence is generated. One in six people in the UK report experiencing a common mental health problem such as anxiety and depression in any given week, according to NHS Digital. The high demand for NHS talking therapies means that some people currently have to wait up to six weeks to access help. Six technologies were conditionally recommended for helping adults with anxiety disorders. The Perspectives app was approved for those suffering from body dysmorphic disorder. For depression, the committee conditionally recommended the use of three online CBT programmes – Beating the Blues, Deprexis, and Space from Depression (Silvercloud) – as treatment…

  • Book review: ‘Collision: Stories from the Science of CERN’

    CERN is a centre of exciting intellectual activity, so – as the introduction to ‘Collision’ asks – why should that stop with the sciences? Why shouldn’t its discoveries also inspire work in the non-scientific disciplines? The answer is, of course, that it shouldn’t. ‘Collision: Stories from the Science of CERN’ (Comma Press, £9.99, ISBN 9781912697687) was produced by pairing up esteemed authors with esteemed CERN scientists to explore ideas being investigated at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest experiment. The authors were provided with a list of themes suggested by the scientists, took their pick, and each wrote a story inspired by their chosen theme. After the story was completed, the corresponding scientist wrote an afterword expanding on the scientific background. The collection…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Net-zero flying would require using half of the UK's agricultural land

    Scientists have not been able to find a single clear alternative to jet fuel that would help the aviation industry achieve net zero.  Currently, the UK aviation sector consumes 12.3 million tonnes of jet fuel a year and produces 8 per cent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. However, it is considered a hard-to-abate sector  due to a lack of technologically mature alternatives to jet-fuelled engines.   Made from waste materials or by-products such as household waste, industrial gases or used cooking oil, SAFs have often been considered as the most efficient option, as they can achieve greenhouse gas emissions savings of more than 70 per cent compared to conventional fossil jet fuels.  Nonetheless, the authors of a report published by the Royal Society have found that replacing jet…

  • Brexit agreement ‘good news’ for UK membership of Horizon Europe

    The debate over the UK's long-delayed request to join the EU’s flagship research programme, post-Brexit, has seemingly been solved by a new UK-EU agreement. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said work on associating the UK to the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme will start “immediately” once the wider deal between Brussels and London over the Northern Ireland protocol is implemented. The deal, dubbed the 'Windsor Framework', was hailed as a “decisive breakthrough” in post-Brexit rules by UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. Sunak said the agreement would open "a new chapter" in the UK's relations with the European Union, which have been frosty over the past year due to the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Windsor Framework is expected to remove trade barriers…

  • Norway’s Seed Vault acquires 20,000 new samples as climate pressure mounts

    20 depositors, including those with seed collections from Albania, Croatia, North Macedonia and Benin, took the trip to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week. The Seed Vault is a secure backup facility designed to provide long-term storage of duplicates of seeds conserved in gene banks around the world. Since it opened in 2008, the Seed Vault has been steadily collecting seeds and now holds over 1.2 million distinct crop samples, representing more than 13,000 years of agricultural history. In total, the Vault holds over 20 million individual seeds. The Vault is set 120m inside an Arctic mountainside on the remote Spitsbergen Island, off the coast of Norway. The latest deposit includes 290 samples of maize, wheat and beans from the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources of Albania and…

  • Solar radiation modification a potential climate solution, but more research needed

    The report by the panel finds that SRM is not yet ready for large-scale deployment to cool the Earth. The Panel says it is no substitute for a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which must remain the global priority. Emergency temporary measures such as SRM are being raised in scientific and public discourse since global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not on track to meet the 1.5°C Paris Agreement goal. Climate change continues to worsen, with some of its impacts already irreversible. SRM aims to cool the Earth rapidly by reflecting a small percentage of sunlight back into space. While some SRM technologies, such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, are more mature and outdoor experiments are being actively pursued, the review finds critical unresolved issues overall…

  • Bacteria used to extract rare earth elements from wastewater

    REEs are a group of 17 chemically similar metals which got their name because they typically occur at low concentrations (between 0.5 and 67 parts per million) within the Earth’s crust. Indispensable in modern technology – featuring in light-emitting diodes, mobile phones, electric motors, wind turbines, hard disks, cameras, magnets and low-energy lightbulbs, for example – the demand for REEs has increased steadily over the past few decades, and is predicted to rise further by 2030. Due to their rarity and high demand, they have become very expensive. A kilogram of neodymium oxide, for instance, currently costs approximately £175, while the same amount of terbium oxide costs approximately £3,350. China currently has a near-monopoly on the mining of REEs, although the discovery of promising…

  • UK and US hail commitment to delivering energy independence for Britain

    UK energy security secretary Grant Shapps met his US counterpart in London and committed the UK to greater energy independence through nuclear and renewables. Shapps and the US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has shown the need to accelerate the move away from fossil fuel dependence. Shapps pledged this would mean ever greater energy independence – powering Britain from Britain by switching to home-grown sources including nuclear and renewables.  “Secretary Granholm and I stand shoulder to shoulder in our unending support for Ukraine and in ensuring that neither Putin nor any tyrant ever think they can hold the world to ransom through their energy supply," he said.  “The war has shown the UK, the US and countries the world…

  • MWC round-up: 3D screens return, foldable phone competition heats up

    Honor This year’s major keynote from Honor saw the Chinese firm unveil a raft of new smartphones as it distances itself from former parent company Huawei after the two split in 2020 following a US trade embargo . With smartphone development cycles typically lasting at least 18 months, this year’s devices represent a shift away from Huawei’s design philosophies. The Honor Magic Vs is Honor’s stab at competing with the likes of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, which has largely dominated the nascent foldable phone market in the West until now. The device features a screen on the outside – akin to a typical smartphone experience – and a larger, tablet-like screen on the inside once opened. Image credit: Jack Loughran While clearly taking inspiration from the Fold, the…

  • Qualcomm phones to incorporate satellite-based messaging features

    Qualcomm revealed it is working with a group of Android smartphone companies to add  satellite-based messaging capabilities to their devices. The California-based company, which is the world's biggest supplier of chips that connect mobile phones to wireless data networks, said it is working with Honor, Lenovo-owned Motorola, Nothing, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi Corp to develop the devices. However, manufacturers didn’t provide details about what devices will first have these features and when the companies would launch them. Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon Satellite tech in partnership with satellite service provider Iridium at the CES consumer technology show in January this year. The solution is expected to allow smartphone users to text from remote locations where other telecommunications…

  • Welcome to the Angstrom Age

    I used to joke that we’d run out nanometres before we run out of Moore’s Law. Well, it’s happened. Now we’re in the Angstrom Age, apparently. Yet the dimensions that determine logic density remain at least an order of magnitude larger than 1nm and are likely to stay this way for a while, possibly for good. At the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) last week, AMD CEO Lisa Su pointed to how increasing cost and slowing progress in physical scaling is changing not how they design their processors but the architecture of the high-performance computers some of them go into. To some extent the metric has gone back to performance rather than scaling, in much the same fashion as the end of the 1990s when Intel used Moore’s Law as a proxy for speed and not just logic density. …

  • UK drivers at risk of losing £9bn from electric vehicle savings

    The report from the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) warns of the risk that slower roll-out of new EVs could reduce the size of the second-hand market, and force low-income drivers to pay more to continue running petrol cars.  The ECIU is calling on the government to increase its proposed level for the incoming zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate to avoid this scenario.   The ZEV mandate will require UK manufacturers to increase the proportion of new zero-emission cars and vans they sell in the UK. The proportion has currently been set at 22 per cent for 2024, rising each year until 2035, when 100 per cent of sales must be zero emission. However, this plan is set to lead to 2.1 million fewer used small and mid-sized EVs being placed on sale by 2033, compared with a scenario…

  • Tiny climbing robot inspired by geckos and inchworms

    The new untethered soft robot, developed by engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada, utilises ultraviolet (UV) light and magnetic force to move on any surface, even up walls and across ceilings. It is the first soft robot of its kind that doesn't require connection to an external power supply, enabling remote operation and versatility for potential applications such as assisting surgeons and searching otherwise inaccessible places. “This work is the first time a holistic soft robot has climbed on inverted surfaces, advancing state-of-the-art soft robotics innovation,” said Dr Boxin Zhao, a professor of chemical engineering. “We are optimistic about its potential, with much more development, in several different fields.” Constructed from a smart material, the robot - dubbed the…

  • Britishvolt acquired by Australian start-up Recharge

    Australian start-up Recharge Industries has bought the defunct battery maker Britishvolt out of administration for an undisclosed amount.  The British appointed administrators at EY and made the majority of its 300 staff redundant in late January, after  failing to raise enough cash for its research and the development of its manufacturing site.  The company was founded in 2019 and had ambitions of building a £4bn battery plant in Cambois, outside Blyth in north-east England, where it had hoped to employ up to 3,000 workers. Britishvolt has now been acquired by Recharge Industries, an Australian start-up with little manufacturing experience founded in 2022. The firm is  owned and run by a New York-based investment fund called Scale Facilitation. "What we are bringing is validated technology…

  • View from India: Enhanced safety and speed for future train journeys

    A confluence of factors has opened out opportunities for players in the railway segment. The National Metro Rail Policy (2017) indicated that cities with a population of over two million could opt for the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS). The government announced 5,000km of Metro rail network by 2047 in 100 cities. The market overview of urban transit points to a thrust on Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), a semi high-speed rail that plans to lower the dependence on road-based travel. RRTS, under construction by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), will connect Delhi with its distant suburbs. The purpose is to improve regional connectivity within the National Capital Region (NCR). Besides this, two new RRTS corridors are in the pipeline in Telangana. Metro is…

  • Energy bills will continue to rise despite lower price cap, estimates suggest

    Cornwall Insight has estimated that the new cap will be set at £3,294 equivalent per year for the average household. However, due to the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), consumers will not be directly impacted by the price cap, as the government will limit a typical household’s energy bill to £3,000 equivalent per year. This is a rise from the current rate of £2,500, meaning that consumers will be forced to pay more despite the fact that wholesale prices are down. If the forecast is correct and the level of the EPG is lower than the April price cap, the government will pay suppliers the difference. The greater the disparity between the cost of the two schemes, the higher the governmental expense. The rise in the EPG is estimated to save the government approximately £2.6bn across the entire…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Infrastructure overhaul to bring gigabit internet to all EU countries by 2030

    It said that given the rapid uptake of advanced digital technologies, there is an “urgent need” for more bandwidth at faster speeds. The Gigabit Infrastructure Act aims to overcome the typically slow and costly deployment of the underlying physical infrastructure that is needed to sustain advanced networks. The European Commission said it will reduce “red tape” and the costs and administrative burden associated with the deployment of the networks. It will simplify and digitalise permitting procedures and coordinate civil works between network operators so that the underlying physical infrastructure, such as ducts and masts, can be built as quickly as possible. Such works represent up to 70 per cent of the costs of network deployment. The new rules will also see all new or majorly renovated…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Flying Scotsman steams into Edinburgh to mark centenary

    The world-famous steam locomotive entered service on February 24 1923 as it set off on its first journey from the sheds at Doncaster Works. One hundred years later to the day, following a fresh lick of paint, she arrived at Edinburgh Waverley station where celebrations took place to mark the centenary. Image credit: PA Wire/PA Images | Andrew Milligan Poet Laureate Simon Armitage read out a poem called 'The Making Of The Flying Scotsman' to mark the event. Armitage rode on the locomotive as part of the process of writing the poem, in which he describes how the world-famous steam engine “coughed into life” and features “vast steel circumferences” and “rippling bodywork pouring with sweat”. He said he was struck by “this incredible coming together of both mechanics…

  • Bill to make flexible working easier for employees clears the Commons

    Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi put forward proposals in a Private Member’s Bill which she said would help secure more flexible working “where it meets the needs of both individuals and businesses”. The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill seeks to amend existing legislation to allow employees to make two requests for flexible working in a 12-month period; to no longer have to explain the impact on their employer, and to require consultation before an application is refused. Both the Conservatives and Labour committed to make flexible working the default state in their 2019 election manifestos. Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East, is a shadow equalities minister but was speaking from the backbenches. She told the Commons: “By removing these invisible restrictions, flexible working…

  • UK electric vehicle production soars by 50 per cent

    The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hybrid electric vehicle volumes were up 49.9 per cent to 28,329 units. The increase tallies with the ongoing shift towards EVs, with electric car registrations continuing to rise in absolute numbers year on year. UK car production as a whole was slightly lower in the first month of 2023, with output down -0.3 per cent to 68,575 units. The loss, equivalent to just 215 fewer cars, was driven chiefly by structural changes, reflecting a move from car to van making at one major plant, but with supply chain shortages still afflicting some manufacturers. In 2021, the UK car industry saw the worst output for the month of July since 1956 as the sector struggled with ongoing staff shortages associated…

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