• Hands-on review: Majority Audio Tru Bio biodegradable wireless earbuds

    When it comes to Bluetooth earbuds, we're living in a bountiful era where the cost of manufacturing has plummeted and the essential core tech spec is by now well understood and easily replicated. It's become increasingly difficult to make a bad product. Equally, it's a bamboozling time to be a consumer. You're in the market for a new pair of true wireless earbuds, but you discover that there are approximately a million different styles and brands to choose from. These range in price from around £30 to over £300 (and then some, if you can afford to be truly profligate) and a lot of them look awfully similar to one another. Perhaps what you need – both you and the brand – is a specific niche, a USP. Something that differentiates: a reason to be chosen, a filter by which to hone the search…

  • View from Washington: Musk vs Google and OpenAI

    Elon Musk has confirmed that he wants to launch a third AI powerhouse to rival and, in his view, counterbalance Google and the OpenAI/Microsoft partnership. Truth GPT will be “a maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” More precisely, Musk wants to challenge the strategies and even philosophies of the two established players which, for him, raise the threat of “civilisational destruction” – a fear that, as leading technology commentator Kara Swisher (inevitably Kara Swisher) has pointed out, he has voiced repeatedly before . But in an interview with host Tucker Carlson, being broadcast over two nights on the Fox News network, Musk called for strong government regulation – even stronger, he suggested, than he faces in his automotive and space businesses…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from India: Covid cases surge in the country, again

    In the last few weeks, Covid cases have hit the headlines again. As of Monday 17 April, India reported 9,111 new coronavirus infections. As per data from the Health Ministry, active cases has increased to 60,313. The medical fraternity is of the opinion that rising Covid cases in the country may be attributed to XBB.1.16, a sub-variant of the Omicron virus. The coronavirus originally broke out in December 2019 before taking the world by storm in early 2020. Medically, the virus goes towards the endemic stage, which could be understood as a disease outbreak that is present but confined to a particular region. To that effect, it could be predictable and somewhat manageable. When the virus reaches the endemic stage it generates variants, one such being Omicron, which made news in 2021. Reportedly…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Europe’s largest nuclear reactor begins energy production

    Finland's Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor has begun producing regular output, boosting energy security in a region to which Russia has cut gas and power supplies. The reactor entered service the day after Germany bid goodbye to nuclear energy, by turning off its last three reactors.  OL3's operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, has said the unit is expected to meet around 14 per cent of Finland's electricity demand and produce energy for at least 60 years.  "The production of Olkiluoto 3 stabilises the price of electricity and plays an important role in the Finnish green transition," TVO Chief Executive Jarmo Tanhua said in a statement, adding that “the electricity production volume of Europe’s…

  • View from Brussels: MEPs call for funding focus to favour green transport

    Transport is one of the more visible proofs of Europe-wide harmony and unity. Intercity train travel and ferry links are physical reminders of how open borders now are. Conversely, dysfunctional transport networks also highlight any problems that exist. That is why members of the European Parliament’s transport committee want to make sure that governments are directing enough funding to rail and sail projects, instead of just focusing on traffic-clogged highways. Big infrastructure projects are governed by the EU’s Trans-European Transport rules (TEN-T), which lay out criteria that determine what is eligible for millions of euros in public money. TEN-T funding normally triggers a big injection of private capital. Ongoing projects that are underpinned by EU cash include Rail Baltica, which…

  • Russia’s energy dominance targeted by G7 nuclear deal

    The five nations have agreed to leverage their civil nuclear power capabilities to undermine Russia’s grip on energy supply chains and cut off a significant source of funding for the country's invasion of Ukraine. The UK's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that t he agreement was reached at the Nuclear Energy Forum at the G7 meeting in the Japanese town of Sapporo . The deal will see the five countries collaborating in activities related to uranium extraction, conversion, enrichment and fabrication to "establish a level playing field" to compete more effectively against "predatory suppliers". Officials said: "This agreement will support the stable supply of fuels for the needs of today, as well as guarantee the safe and secure development and deployment of fuels for the…

  • Social networks face the wisdom of crowds

    Elon Musk wanted to make sure his newly won control of Twitter would ‘sink in’ as he staggered through the doors of the company’s San Francisco office with a heavy ceramic kitchen basin. He left it in the foyer with the photographers before beginning a programme of layoffs and policy changes. What may have yet to sink in with Musk in the following months is not just that running a social media enterprise like Twitter is surprisingly costly and beset with social issues, but that a previous CEO wound up bankrolling what may turn out to be Twitter’s replacement in the market. If successful, it might take other companies of the same Web 2.0 generation with it. Technology executives like to talk of disruption. To break through, they need to disrupt whatever is in the lead spot now. Disruption…

  • New smart motorway plans scrapped over safety concerns

    The building of new smart motorways in England is being cancelled, the government has announced. The Department for Transport had said the new schemes would have cost more than £1bn, and cancelling them would allow time to track public trust in smart motorways over a longer period. Smart motorways are a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and ease congestion. However, there have been growing concerns over these roads - which involve the hard shoulder being converted into a running lane – because of several fatal accidents in which stationary vehicles were hit from behind. “We want the public to know that this government is listening to their concerns," said transport secretary Mark Harper. “Today’s announcement means no new smart motorways will be built,…

  • It’s time for responsible social media

    “We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they are running on our children for profit.And it’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop Big Tech from collecting personal data on kids and teenagers online, ban targeted advertising to children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect on all of us.” President Joe Biden got a standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans when he proposed tough regulation of social media in February’s State of the Union address. But getting something into federal law is proving tricky. The US has lagged the UK and the EU on online regulation. Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation has become a global template for privacy and has for now been retained in British law. Until more recently…

  • Britain’s first shared solar park to be built in Devon

    Ripple Energy has announced that Derril Water Solar Park will become Britain’s first shared solar park. The project, developed by renewable energy company RES, will provide an alternative way solar parks can be owned and run in Britain. The announcement comes as RES, which developed the project, enters an agreement to sell its Derril Water Solar Park to a Ripple-managed co-operative. The shared ownership model offers an affordable and simple way for households to act on climate change and shrink their carbon footprint, with the chance to buy and part-own the solar park in conjunction with thousands of other people. From tomorrow (Tuesday 18 April), households across Britain will be able to buy and own part of the pioneering project at Derril Water Solar Park, located approximately 1.2km…

  • Winners of the IET Impact in Society Awards revealed

    The winning teams at the IET Impact in Society Awards, which celebrate global teams providing innovative solutions to world challenges, have been revealed. The awards celebrate people and projects that provide solutions to societal challenges through science, technology, engineering and maths.   In the awards, the  UK Atomic Energy Authority’s (UKAEA) RACE team was recognised for their teamwork in the Digital Futures category for its in-house developed robotics control system, CorteX.  The technology is the result of a collaborative effort between experts in robotics research, software engineering, UI/UX design, quality assurance, standards compliance, and technical authoring, with the aim of supporting other teams all over the globe who are facing complex interoperability challenges…

  • Scottish seaweed sparks idea to boost electric vehicle batteries

    The team from Marine Biopolymers and The University of Glasgow’s School of Chemistry received funding from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) to explore the use of tailored alginates – a naturally occurring material found in brown seaweed – to help develop batteries using silicon as an alternative to graphite. Graphite or carbon electrodes are a core component of standard lithium-ion batteries, but can only store a limited amount of charge and have a restricted lifespan. Silicon has been suggested as a viable alternative for the battery anode, and can increase charging capacity by up to ten times. Used on its own, silicon expands and contracts each time the battery is cycled, eventually cracking and becoming damaged. The researchers' prototype combines silicon with…

  • Researchers build edible rechargeable battery

    The IIT team has created a totally edible and rechargeable battery, which could be used in health diagnostics, food quality monitoring and edible soft robotics. Edible electronics is an emergin field that could have a great impact on the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal tract diseases, as well as on food quality monitoring. One of the field's largest challenges is the development of edible power sources. The IIT research group took inspiration from the biochemical redox reactions that happen in the body. They developed a battery that utilises riboflavin (vitamin B2) as an anode and quercetin (a food supplement and ingredient) as a cathode. The researchers used a water-based electrolyte and leveraged activated charcoal to increase electrical conductivity The separator, needed…

  • Canadian bank becomes the world’s top fossil fuel financer

    The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has surpassed the United States' JP Morgan Chase as the largest global investor in fossil fuel projects for the first time since 2019. The Canadian bank invested $42.1bn (£33.7bn) in fossil fuel projects in 2022, according to the 'Banking on Climate Chaos' report commissioned by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). The investment included $7.4bn (£5.9bn) for fracking projects and $4.8bn (£3.8bn) for the excavation of tar sands deposits, the report said.  The report found that RBC had invested a total of $253bn (£202bn) since 2016. Canadian banks hav e provided fossil fuel companies with $862bn (£689bn) in funding, with the RAN identifying them as “the banks of last resort” for fossil fuels.  Since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the world’s 60 largest…

  • Blockchain successors look to new forms of crypto

    The blockchain bubble claimed another victim at the beginning of March. An institution on the US west coast set up, like many of its peers, to collect deposits to lend on land and property purchases, Silvergate Bank moved into what seemed to be the lucrative world of blockchain almost a decade ago. It found a business in funnelling cash between conventional currencies and a rapidly burgeoning range of cryptocurrencies. But as the FTX empire collapsed and cryptocoin values fell, the bank became another piece of collateral damage. Since the bubble’s peak, interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) issued on various blockchains has fallen sharply as well. The daily value of sales of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain fell to less than $10m at the end of 2022, from a peak of close to $200m at the beginning…

  • EU's data regulator sets up ChatGPT task force

    The European Union has taken the first significant step towards regulating generative AI tools, as it announces the creation of a bespoke ChatGPT task force.  "The EDPB members discussed the recent enforcement action undertaken by the Italian data protection authority against OpenAI about the Chat GPT service," the statement said. "The EDPB decided to launch a dedicated task force to foster cooperation and to exchange information on possible enforcement actions conducted by data protection authorities." 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 even poetry. However,  governments and experts have  raised concerns  about…

  • Self-driving car system approved for use on GB motorways by government

    Ford announced that it has been given the go-ahead by the government to switch on its “hands-off, eyes-on” BlueCruise Level 2 hands-free advanced driver assistance system for 2,300 miles (3,700 km) of pre-mapped motorways in England, Scotland and Wales, designated as Blue Zones. It is not yet available in Northern Ireland. The BlueCruise system can be activated to control functions such as steering, acceleration, braking and lane positioning. It is currently only available on the 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E, a pure electric vehicle. BlueCruise operates up to a maximum speed of 80mph (130 km/h), using a combination of five radars and cameras to detect and track the position and speed of other vehicles on the road. A forward-facing camera detects lane markings and speed signs and the system…

  • The eccentric engineer: The biggest kit in the world

    Kit homes were pioneered in the USA by the Aladdin Company, whose ‘Readi-Cut’ houses proved popular, particularly with corporations that were spreading across the wide-open spaces of the US, who had land, but no houses to put their workforce in. Companies like DuPont built entire towns using Aladdin kits, which were cheap and easy to assemble – even by an unskilled workforce. In 1917, 252 Aladdin kits made their way to England to form ‘Austin Village’, a town for the workforce of Austin Motors then busily engaged in war work. Yet the company that really cornered the market in kit houses was Sears Roebuck. Already one of the major players in the home catalogue business, it prided itself on selling everything from knickerbockers to steel joists. Naturally, not everything sold equally well.…

  • Scotland’s move toward a Passivhaus standard

    Passivhaus is, in short, the gold standard for energy-efficient homes. According to physicist Wolfgang Feist, co-founder of the concept: “The heat losses of the building are reduced so much that it hardly needs any heating at all.” Certified houses are built with high-quality insulation, triple glazing, insulated frames, mechanical ventilation, and airtightness levels around twenty times higher than a typical UK build. These homes are so good at retaining heat that the sun, inhabitants, and household appliances fulfil most heating needs – hence ‘passive house’. The standard was developed by Feist and structural engineer Bo Adamson in the early 1990s, with the first certified homes appearing in Germany soon after. It is managed by the Darmstadt-based Passivhaus Institute, an independent non…

  • Engineering culture in the UK is not inclusive enough, report says

    Engineering firms should work to become more inclusive if they want to attract the right talent, the organisation's report states.  The research commissioned by the Academy aimed to improve understanding of how engineers perceive the current culture of the engineering profession and whether it is attracting, developing and retaining the number and diversity of engineers needed in the UK. The majority of the 1,657 engineers surveyed stated that they feel pride in their profession, with eight in ten (81 per cent) being keen to promote it as a career. Moreover, out of those that i dentified as both LGBTQ+ and Black, Asian or minority ethnic, and those with a disability and who are Black, Asian or minority ethnic, the majority agreed that diversity had improved in engineering (87 per cent…

  • Researchers build solar cells to power IoT devices

    The team was able to build new sustainable solar cells for artificial intelligence-powered energy management.  The research has the potential to revolutionise the way IoT devices are powered, the team said, as it could make these systems more sustainable and efficient, as well as open up new opportunities in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and smart city development. To create the photovoltaic cells, the team used copper (II/I) electrolyte, achieving an unprecedented power conversion efficiency of 38 per cent and 1.0V open-circuit voltage at 1,000 lux (fluorescent lamp). The cells are non-toxic and environmentally friendly, setting a new standard for sustainable energy sources in ambient environments. Solar cells for IoT devices / Ella Maru Studio Image…

  • Book interview: ‘Beyond Data: Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse’

    “My book isn’t about data, not really,” says Elizabeth M Renieris, author of ‘Beyond Data’. “It’s about how our historical obsession with data in the context of technology governance has been problematic, and why we need a materially different approach: one less focused on data and more focused on people.” Subtitled ‘Reclaiming Human Rights at the Dawn of the Metaverse’, her book’s central argument is encapsulated in the opening sentence of the first chapter: “For more than fifty years, we have been so busy protecting data that we have largely forgotten to protect people.” Senior research associate at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, Renieris’ position on the current state of data legislation is that, “so long as we continue to focus on data as a…

  • Netvue Birdfy Feeder AI hands-on review

    This high-tech bird feeder, in pastel plastic, features a wireless video camera with a rechargeable battery. It can send video clips to a phone app and there’s also a MicroSD card slot to capture footage. We tested it with the optional solar panel (around £20) and a Pro Perch Extension (around £33). After fully charging it overnight via USB-C, we set it up with the app and looked for a position outdoors. It comes with multiple mounting options. You can screw a bracket to a wall, mount it on a pole (it even comes with a cone to fend off climbing squirrels) or use a large Velcro strap to tie the bracket to a tree. The tricky part is that you need to be within (2.4GHz) Wi-Fi range. So forget positioning Birdfy at the bottom of your garden unless your garden is the size of a postage stamp.…

  • ESA’s Jupiter mission launch postponed due to lightning risks

    ESA’s spacecraft Juice (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) has been forced to cancel its planned liftoff due to the risk of lightning, only minutes before its scheduled take-off time.  The spacecraft was meant to begin today its 8-year journey to Jupiter, to discover whether the planet's three icy moons - Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede - could support life.  The spacecraft has been loaded with 10 scientific instruments, in what is the ESA’s biggest deep-space mission yet. The 6.6-billion km journey has been supported by British scientists, as well as the UK Space Agency, which has provided £9m of funding for the £1.4bn project.  The next launch window has been scheduled for 1.14pm BST on Friday, April 14. Today's launch is postponed because of lightning risk. See you tomorrow! https:/…

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