• MPs recommend ‘national mobilisation’ to reach net zero

    In a recent report, a cross-party committee of MPs has asked for a “national mobilisation” that would improve home insulation and accelerate the transition towards net-zero. The document has also called on ministers to set ambitious targets for rolling-out onshore wind and tidal energy, as well as recommending the government should set an end date for domestic oil and gas licensing. “To reduce the UK’s demand on fossil fuels, we must stop consuming more than we need," said Philip Dunne MP, the committee chairman.  “We must fix our leaky housing stock, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and wastes our constituents’ hard-earned cash: we must make homes warmer and retain heat for longer." At the moment, the UK remains dependent on fossil fuels for 78 per cent of its…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • New York City buys 900 EVs to replace government fleets

    The US Transportation Department has granted $10.1m (£8.4m) for the change, which is part of efforts to improve air quality across the city. New York City’s air quality has improved in recent decades, as the City and State have worked to lower emissions from regional and local sources. But despite this progress, air pollution remains a leading environmental health threat to citizens. “When New Yorkers see cars, trucks and vans with the ‘NYC’ logo on the side, they can rest assured that those vehicles are contributing to a greener city,” Adams said. “We are already ahead of schedule in transitioning city vehicles away from fossil fuels, and this new grant will allow us to take nearly 1,000 fossil-fuel vehicles off our roads, helping us reduce carbon emissions, make our air cleaner and save…

  • UK smashes temperature records in 2022 with an average over 10°C

    In a new study, the Met Office also concluded that human-induced climate change made the record-breaking temperatures around 160 times more likely. Without climate change, it was estimated that such temperatures would only be experienced in around one in 500 years, but it is now likely they will recur every three to four years under current climate conditions. The full annual UK mean temperature data for 2022 resulted in a provisional figure of 10.03°C, the highest yet in records dating back to 1884. This made 2022 0.89°C above the 1991-2020 average and 0.15°C higher than the previous record of 9.88°C set in 2014. Dr Nikos Christidis, Met Office climate attribution scientist, said: “We also used climate models to project how often this sort of temperature could be recorded in the future…

  • Dell to phase out Chinese semiconductors with a year

    Dell is said to be taking significant steps to end its use of Chinese-made components, starting with silicon chips.  The technology company has set out to stop using semiconductors made in China - including those produced in facilities owned by non-Chinese chipmakers - by 2024. It has also told its suppliers to reduce the amount of other made-in-China components in its products.  The world's third-largest computer maker by shipments told suppliers late last year that it aims to "meaningfully lower" the amount of China-made chips it uses, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Nikkei Asia. Dell's goal is to have all chips used in its products produced in plants located outside China by 2024, they said.  The move is the latest development in a long-running trade dispute…

  • Hands-on review: SnapGrip Creator Kit

    ShiftCam has introduced several products aimed at making the most of the phenomenal photographic power of modern smartphones. The latest is the SnapGrip Creators Kit. So, what’s in the SnapGrip Creators Kit? Principally there are three components to what ShiftCam rather grandly calls an ecosystem: SnapGrip, SnapPod and SnapLight. SnapGrip is a device that magnetically docks to a smartphone. Upon making a Bluetooth connection, users can hold the phone more like a camera, with no fingers getting in the way of the picture. It also charges the phone – which could be viewed as useful backup or a way of prolonging your photo session. It’s a well-balanced device as well and can act as a stand, although not tested on the biggest phones. For sturdier and more flexible mounting we have the second…

  • Sony and Honda unveil Afeela electric car brand

    The technology and car giant’s joint venture is called Afeela, with a prototype electric car appearing on-stage at Sony’s press conference ahead of CES 2023 in Las Vegas, which opens today (Thursday). Many of the car’s key specifications are still to be revealed, but Yasuhide Mizuno, chief executive of the Sony Honda Mobility Group, said that it would combine “Sony sensors and Honda safety”, with the car set to feature 45 cameras and sensors inside and out which will monitor the car’s condition and surroundings, as well as the driver. Sony also said it would use its expertise in gaming and entertainment to create a unique in-car experience for passengers – concept images of the inside of the car show an array of screens and interactive environments. The front of the car also includes…

  • Improve Twitter passwords, experts warn, after minister’s account hacked

    The Twitter account of Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has become the latest to be compromised as a string of offensive messages was posted before being deleted. It comes only days after the Twitter profile of education secretary Gillian Keegan also fell victim to hackers. In a string of high-profile hacking incidents, Piers Morgan’s account has also been compromised in recent weeks. In the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform and the departure of around half the company’s staff amid a ‘chaotic’ staff restructuring, there have been concerns raised over the strength and responsiveness of Twitter’s security systems. There have also been reports of millions of user email addresses being scraped from the platform as part of a data leak and offered to hackers…

  • UK employers determined to keep hiring in battle to retain talent, survey says

    In the context of high inflation and an economic downturn, UK employers have signalled they are determined to keep hiring in the New Year, with the Net Employment Outlook remaining positive at +19 per cent for Q1 2023, according to the latest survey from ManpowerGroup. The survey is based on responses from 2,030 UK employers and asks whether they intend to hire additional workers, maintain current headcount, or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter (January to March 2023). Although UK employers stated an intention to keep hiring at pace to maintain productivity and business as usual, the latest Outlook marks a decline of five percentage points on the fourth quarter of 2022. With a stretched and tightened labour market to contend with, retaining skilled talent will be…

  • Friends of the Earth to launch legal action against Cumbria coal mine

    The £165m project, which was approved in December nearly two years after it was first proposed, has faced significant criticism over its potential environmental impact and its clash with UK climate targets. The mine is expected to produce nearly 2.8 million tonnes of coking coal annually which will be used in the production of steel, rather than electricity generation. South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) - the other main opponent of the mine - is also considering legal action and sent a letter to the levelling-up secretary, Michael Gove, in December seeking more information and setting out some of the errors in law in his decision. When approving the decision, Gove said the government was “satisfied that there is currently a UK and European market for the coal” and that it was…

  • Scientist develop safe alternative refrigeration method

    Based on the science behind the practice of adding salt to roads to prevent ice from forming, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new method of heating and cooling. Ionocaloric cooling takes advantage of the process by which energy, or heat, is stored or released when a material changes phase – such as changing from a solid to a liquid state. For example, while  material absorbs heat from the surroundings, solidifying it releases heat. Following a similar process, the Berkeley Lab team used salt ions to cause changes in temperature. They expect this new method could eventually provide efficient heating and cooling and help phase out current 'vapor compression' systems, which use gases with high global warming potential…

  • UK set several clean energy records in 2022

    RenewableUK and National Grid ESO have highlighted two wind energy records achieved in the UK at the end of 2022: one related to wind energy generation and another regarding the overall percentage of low-carbon electricity produced.  On 30 December, a new record for wind generation was set in Britain for the third time in the year.  The record saw 20.91 gigawatts (GW) of power being produced from offshore and onshore wind turbines in Britain, in the half-hour period between 6 and 6.30pm on the second-to-last day of the year.  This metric beat the previous record of 20.896GW set on 2 November 2022.  "The fact that the UK's onshore and offshore wind farms keep setting new electricity generation records shows just how important this technology has become in our modern energy system," said…

  • Europe’s largest carbon emitter failed to curb emissions in 2022

    According to climate think tank Agora Energiewende, Europe’s largest CO2 emitter needs to “urgently” implement structural measures to achieve both climate targets and energy security. Greenhouse gas emissions stagnated at around 761 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent, which means last year was the second time that the country has failed to meet its target. “CO2 emissions are stagnating at a high level, despite significantly lower energy consumption by households and industry. This is an alarm signal with regard to the climate goals,” said Simon Müller, a director at Agora Energiewende. According to an evaluation by the firm, energy consumption in Germany fell by 4.7 per cent or 162 terawatt-hours compared to 2021, partly as a result of the massive price increases for natural gas and electricity…

  • Self-powered, printable smart sensors could mean cheaper, greener Internet of Things

    Powering the increasing number of sensor nodes used in the IoT creates a technological challenge. The economic and sustainability issues of battery-powered devices mean that wirelessly powered operation – combined with environmentally friendly circuit technologies – will be needed. Large-area electronics – which can be based on organic semiconductors, amorphous metal oxide semiconductors, semiconducting carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional semiconductors – could provide a solution. Simon Fraser University (SFU) professor Vincenzo Pecunia believes that emerging alternative semiconductors that are printable, low-cost and eco-friendly could lead the way to a cheaper and more sustainable IoT. Leading a multinational team of experts in various areas of printable electronics from SFU's campus…

  • BT confirms £5m deal to launch the UK’s first drone superhighway

    Traffic management firm Altitude Angel wants to create a drone superhighway that would be the largest and longest network of its kind in the world. Its Unified Traffic Management (UTM) software has been designed to allow drones to fly safely, without a pilot, over large distances. The deal with BT will accelerate the roll-out of technology which detects and identifies drones to allow them to safely share the airspace with crewed aviation. It is estimated that the UK’s drone cargo delivery could be worth £45bn by 2030 and enable drones to transform how essential services function – from supporting the emergency services with real-time search and rescue, fast transportation of medical supplies, farming analysis, and architectural planning. The long-term aim of the project is to connect…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Caltech launches solar power prototype into space

    The 110lb SSPD prototype was launched into space on the Transporter-6 mission, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday 3 January 2023.  The demonstrator is part of the Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP). The scientists behind the mission have designed three experiments to test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.   Satellites in geosynchronous orbit receive sunlight for more than 99 per cent of the time – as they are not subjected to the cycles of a day and changes in weather – and at a much greater intensity than solar panels on Earth, making them a much more efficient source of energy.  The launch of SSPD is the first step on a mission that could see the deployment of a constellation of space solar…

  • View from India: National Geospatial Policy promises citizen-centric approach

    A 13-year guideline has been formulated for the development of the geospatial data industry in the country. A national framework is also in place. The government plans to develop a geospatial knowledge infrastructure by 2030. This is expected to happen with the establishment of an Integrated Data and Information Framework. By 2035, it is envisioned to leverage geospatial data for mapping the sub-surface infrastructure in major cities and towns across India. It’s not just terrestrial but geospatial data’s high-resolution accuracy could also contribute towards the betterment of the blue economy. For instance, the Bathymetric Geospatial Data of inland waters and sea surface topography of shallow waters or deep seas could help in building a blue economy. Geospatial technology is vital to the…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Volvo completes purchase of autonomous driving firm

    The car firm raised its stake in Zenseact to 100 per cent ownership. It already owned 86.5 per cent of the company. Zenseact develops software using AI that is currently used for driver assistance systems but could one day enable full self-driving vehicles. The OnePilot software is currently capable of anticipating and avoiding dangerous traffic situations, even in darkness and generally poor visibility. It is capable of maintaining safe distances from nearby cars by automatically adjusting the vehicle’s speed and position to handle sharp turns and other tricky situations. It also makes real-time use of high-definition maps to help the car see beyond the visible horizon and better adjust the driving to what’s beyond the next turn. It uses maps to ensure the vehicle stays centred in…

  • Book review: ‘A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars’ by Les Johnson

    The idea of a guide book to the Universe is not new. At different times it has been tried by the likes of Stanislaw Lem (‘The Star Diaries’) and Douglas Adams (‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’). It is the American writer and physicist Les Johnson, however, who with ‘A Traveler’s Guide to the Stars’ (Princeton University Press, £22, ISBN 9780691212371) adds solid scientific and engineering foundations to that so far nebulous, utterly fictitious, and, in the case of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, humorous, concept, which, incidentally, Johnson does not reject. On the contrary, he uses a quote from Douglas Adams as an epigraph to one of his opening chapters: “Space is big. You won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the…

  • Meta paid over 80 per cent of EU's 2022 GDPR fines

    The latest data analysed by Atlas VPN revealed that as of December 2022, companies paid a total of €2.83bn (£2.48bn) in 1,401 cases of violating various data protection laws. Of that amount, GDPR fines in the last year totalled €832m (£731m), a 36 per cent decrease from the previous year. The most shocking part of the report, however, was the severity of the charges imposed on a single entity – Meta. Overall, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was ordered to pay an amount equal to 80 per cent of all fines imposed by the EU, over its data protection practices.  The largest fine imposed upon Meta was worth €405m (£355m). It was imposed by the Data Protection Commission (DPC), an authority for GDPR enforcement in Ireland, on 5 September 2022, over issues regarding the…

  • Elon Musk's SpaceX reaches $137bn valuation

    Elon Musk's reusable rocket maker and satellite internet company is currently raising more capital in a funding round that is reportedly being led by  Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z.  The company had previously invested in SpaceX, alongside Founders Fund ,  Sequoia , Gigafund and others, and participated in Musk’s controversial Twitter acquisition .  Musk’s SpaceX was the first private company to send humans into orbit and its constellation of over  3,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit and ground terminals has recently exceeded one million subscribers and provided a lifeline to users in Ukraine who suffered infrastructure disruptions after Russia’s invasion.  In 2022, the company raised over $2bn (£1.67bn) in funding and was valued at $127bn (£106bn) during an equity round in…

  • Tesla hit with £1.8m fine for exaggerating EV range

    The car firm, which is headed by Elon Musk, claims that its Model S can drive up to 360 miles between charges. According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Tesla had been exaggerating the “driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles as well as the performance of its Superchargers” on its official local website from August 2019 until recently. The KFTC also added that driving ranges for Tesla EVs could plummet by as much as 50 per cent in cold temperatures. Some studies have shown that in extremely low temperatures, the likes of which were recently experienced in the US (around -20°C), Tesla vehicles could lose up to 50 per cent of their range from an equivalently charged battery. Even temperatures as high as 5°C…

  • Next-gen solar cell study could help resolve instability issues

    A University of Warwick team is undertaking a five-year study which will delve into the atomic-level structure of the new material known as perovskite. Perovskite solar panels could be easily deposited onto most surfaces, including flexible and textured ones. The materials are also lightweight, cheap to produce, and as efficient as today's leading photovoltaic materials, which are mainly silicon. However, it currently faces issues with stability and a short lifespan which decreases further in high humidity, strong sunlight and at elevated temperatures. While the properties of perovskite solar cells change in a range of atmospheric conditions, they remain remarkably stable outside the Earth’s atmosphere. This points to the potential for harvesting energy in space. The European Space Agency…

  • TSMC begins mass production of 3nm semiconductors

    Taiwanese tech giant TSMC said on Thursday (29 December) that it had started mass production of next-generation chips, among the most advanced to come to market. The Taiwanese company operates the world's largest silicon wafer factories and produces high-performance chips used in everything from smartphones and cars to missiles. It is also Apple's primary chip supplier.  The news follows last year's announcement that Samsung Electronics had become the first chipmaker in the world to mass-produce advanced 3nm microchips, which are said to be smaller as well as more powerful and efficient than currently used 5nm semiconductors. "Our 3nm technology will be used massively in future state-of-the-art technological products, including supercomputers, cloud servers, high-speed internet and many…

  • Lab-grown meat and insect protein more appealing to younger people, survey finds

    While these foods avoid many of the environmental and ethical impacts of rearing animals, they also have their detractors. University of Reading researchers interviewed 23,000 consumers across 18 countries and asked how they felt about lab-grown foods – also known as cellular agriculture – and eating insects. The survey showed that young adults are most open to consuming these products, with around half of 18 to 24-year-olds saying they would happily eat lab-grown foods. People up to the age of 44 are less also likely to totally reject the idea of eating insects. Professor Richard Bennett led the research. He said: “This is an interesting result for the future of sustainable food. Young people tend to be the innovators in changing food habits. They are likely to influence older people…

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