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The US passes ‘historic’ $700bn climate, tax and healthcare package

The bill approved by US Senate is a stripped-down version of the $2.2tn (£1.8tn) Build Back Better proposal that the House of Representatives passed last November. This was in itself a cut-down plan, based on the $3.5tn (£2.9tn) package that was first proposed by Biden upon his arrival to the White House. The bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, was passed by a margin of 51 to 50 on Sunday with Vice-President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote after 18 months of intense negotiations. When signed into law, the Act will become the largest investment the US has ever made to tackle climate change and reduce the country's carbon emissions. The bill w ould allocate $369bn (£302bn) to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewable energy sources in a plan…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
LEDs illuminate London’s Elizabeth Line

Using LEDs to light up the stations, escalator shafts and concourses of the Elizabeth line was a bold move from Transport for London; especially as when they decided on its use back in the late 2000s, LED technology was yet to break into the lighting world. But this did not stop Paul Kerrigan, the lead electrical engineer responsible for Crossrail’s line-wide lighting solutions and uninterruptible power supply, and his team from taking the plunge to make this a reality. In fact, the Elizabeth line is one of the first sub-surface infrastructure projects to be lit entirely by LEDs, and the decision to use the technology was based on industry evidence that its use will help reduce energy consumption and maintenance requirements. “We decided on its use during the very early development stages…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Illegal weapons for sale on third-party marketplaces including eBay, Amazon

The consumer group carried out simple searches for banned offensive weapons on popular online marketplaces, and was easily able to find items including zombie and flick knives, knuckle dusters, swords and batons. It said some of the products were selling for as little as 49p. The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 bans the sale of these weapons in the UK and they are also banned for personal ownership, even in a private home. Searching on Amazon, Which? found more than a dozen listings for friction lock batons, which are also banned offensive weapons, masquerading as ‘trekking poles. Some of the listings used special characters, such as ‘bătõň’, in the title or only used the word baton in the artwork – presumably to avoid detection by Amazon. Some of the images on the listings indicated that…

E+T Magazine
Small satellites offer hope of true worldwide broadband

Despite all the advances that technology has brought about, there is a digital divide around the globe: those with connectivity and those without. The reality is that no amount of technology will circumvent poverty, and the proper ‘levelling up’ of connectivity will only happen when the necessary hardware – namely a smartphone – is available for everyone. Theoretically, that’s possible, but even then not everyone has access to a network. Space-based internet is set to resolve this problem. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space is filling up with satellite constellations that aim, when complete, to give total broadband internet coverage around the world. Starlink, which is a division of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, claims that both speed and latency could be at least equivalent to those currently experienced…

E+T Magazine in Space
Nasa finds Antarctica ice losses are double previous estimates

One study maps how iceberg calving – the breaking off of ice from a glacier front – has changed the Antarctic coastline over the last 25 years. The researchers found that the edge of the ice sheet has been shedding icebergs faster than the ice can be replaced. The finding doubles previous estimates of ice loss from Antarctic’s floating ice shelves since 1997, from 6 trillion to 12 trillion tonnes. Ice loss from calving has weakened the ice shelves and allowed Antarctic glaciers to flow more rapidly to the ocean, accelerating the rate of global sea level rise. The other study shows in unprecedented detail how the Antarctic ice is thinning as ocean water melts it. The thinning has spread from the continent’s outward edges into its interior, almost doubling in the western parts of the ice…

E+T Magazine in Space
Water companies prepare ‘drought plans’ to protect essential supplies

Water companies have been urged to protect supplies in light of the dry autumn that is expected to follow one of the hottest summers in UK history. The predictions for high autumn temperatures come as the driest first seven months of the year in decades and hot spells have left parts of the UK facing looming drought. The situation has prompted Environment Secretary George Eustice to meet with chief executives of water companies, to discuss the resilience of the country's water supplies. “Each company has a pre-agreed drought plan which they are following, and I have urged them to take any precautionary steps needed to protect essential supplies as we go into a likely very dry autumn,” he said. In order to prepare for an autumn of water scarcity, many water companies – including South…

E+T Magazine in Water Supply
Biosensor could predict liver transplant complications

The prototype electrochemical biosensor is being developed by University of Edinburgh-based scientists SensiBile and Scottish technology company Integrated Graphene. The new diagnostic tool, which is currently in the early stages of development, uses a small sample of bile from the donor’s liver to assess the organ’s risk of biliary complications before it is transplanted. Electrodes in the sensor, developed by Integrated Graphene and dubbed Gii-Sens, will pick up any risk of complications from the bile and quickly translate the signal into a “high risk/low risk” message on the device. At present, doctors transplant over 30,000 donor livers annually worldwide. But up to 30 per cent of the transplanted livers will develop biliary complications, a major factor determining long-term patient…

E+T Magazine in Biotechnology
Half a city’s methane emissions may come from one landfill

Methane is the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming behind carbon dioxide. The largest source of human-caused methane emissions is from oil and gas production, while most of the rest – almost a fifth of global methane emissions – comes from rotting landfills. For the study, Joannes Maasakkers at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research and a team used satellites to identify the landfills behind much of the methane emissions in four cities: Buenos Aires in Argentina, Lahore in Pakistan, and Mumbai and Delhi in India. The researchers identified the cities as methane hotspots using an instrument on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite that monitors methane emissions across the planet each day. Because the satellite has a broad field of view, the team could point two…

E+T Magazine in Waste Management
Teardown: Framework Mainboard

When we looked at the upgradable Framework laptop in December 2021, the ease with which it can be assembled, fixed, or undergo a main component swap earned it a rare 10 out of 10 score for repairability from iFixit. All that for a unit that offered the clout of the 11th generation of Intel processors. Its upgradability is now going to be put to the test. Framework is about to offer mainboards for Intel’s 12th generation (pre-orders were available as this was published). As before, you will be able to buy assembled and configurable laptops, or put one together yourself – a comparatively straightforward process. Just as important, you can install one of the new mainboards to beef up an existing Framework chassis. This raises an interesting question. Framework wants to promote computing that…

E+T Magazine in Computing
After All: Reflections of an incomplete Angler

“Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” – Henry David Thoreau. “BEE COOL, Mackerel Fishing. Reef Fishing. Boat Trips...” I spotted this sign in the small and picturesque, almost toy-like, harbour of the Cornish seaside town of Looe. We were on a short camping holiday in Cornwall last July and fishing – mackerel or reef – was not on the agenda. I was unable to unglue my eyes from that sun-drenched little billboard promising my favourite adventure – fishing, which I had not pursued for the last 20-odd years, having kept myself so busy that sitting on a bank (or a shore) with a fishing rod began to look like a selfishly hedonistic waste of time. From a dedicated and almost always lucky angler, I had been slowly but surely turning into a virtual…

E+T Magazine in Marine Transport
Book interview: How AI can be a force for ‘not bad’

“One of the biggest technological advances that we’re about now is artificial intelligence,” says Reid Blackman. The development, procurement and deployment of AI and its associated machine learning (ML) is happening at a scale and pace “we’ve not seen before, and it is only going to increase over the next few years.” Which is ‘great’, he continues, explaining how AI can take the grunt-work out of formerly paper-based iterative tasks, while increasing speed, productivity and profitability. “But it comes with real ethical risks that can and have been realised.” When they do, he says such is the nature of AI, “they always happen at scale.” Most of us will be aware of the ‘holy trinity’ of these risks: bias, lack of transparency and privacy. But there are plenty more to go with them, as Blackman…

E+T Magazine in Cybersecurity
UK faces targeted blackouts this winter as energy crisis bites

Under the government’s latest “reasonable worst-case scenario,” some industries and even households could have their electricity supplies temporarily suspended for several days. The scenario has been updated due to concerns that the UK could face an energy shortfall amounting to up to a sixth of peak demand. For the plan to be instigated, a confluence of factors would need to occur simultaneously including below-average temperatures coupled with reduced electricity imports from Norway and France. But it could see Britain exposed to four days in January when it may need to trigger emergency measures to conserve gas. The UK has already delayed the closure of coal plants in order to bolster energy supplies, although ministers were warned in May that millions of UK households could still…

E+T Magazine in Power Equipment
Musk dumps billions of Tesla shares to fund Twitter fight

Musk has unloaded about eight million shares in recent days, as revealed in a series of regulatory filings. “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close and some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock,” Musk tweeted late on Tuesday. Musk is by far the largest individual shareholder in both Tesla and Twitter. Shares of Tesla rose almost 2 per cent before the opening bell on Wall Street on Wednesday. Shares of Twitter, meanwhile - already up 16 per cent in the past month, with most observers believing that Musk faces long-shot odds of success in court - jumped another 3 per cent. Musk countersued Twitter last week, accusing the company of fraud over his aborted $44bn (£36.4bn) acquisition. He claims that…

E+T Magazine
The EU takes on Big Tech with landmark legislative package

It’s been a long-time coming, but in July the European Union finally adopted two legislative initiatives that create a single set of new online rules applicable across the bloc. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are intended to create safer online spaces and bring more competition and transparency to digital markets. “The DSA is largely focused on protecting individuals from the harms which are generally acknowledged to be proliferating in online environments,” Will Richmond-Coggan, a data and information law specialist at Freeths LLP explains, “while the DMA is primarily aimed at protecting smaller businesses from what are considered to be the market-distorting effects of certain companies referred to as ‘Gatekeepers’ having a broad grip on the fundamental…

E+T Magazine in Computing
Network Rail signs milestone solar agreement with EDF Renewables

The announcement represents another marker in Network Rail's ambition to establish a greener, more sustainable railway for Britain. The contract will mean 49.9MW of renewable energy capacity is available, covering around 15 per cent of Network Rail’s annual non-traction electricity consumption. The energy will be supplied from EDF Renewables UK’s Bloy’s Grove solar farm between Swainsthorpe and Mulbarton in Norfolk, which received planning consent in June this year. This builds upon the existing traction supply partnership between Network Rail and the wider EDF Group in the UK. This latest agreement is in line with Network Rail’s commitment to sourcing 100 per cent of non-traction energy from renewable sources by 2030 as part of its 'Environmental Sustainability Strategy'. Jo Lewington…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Healthcare inequalities could be exacerbated by net zero efforts

The NHS in England has committed to ambitious net-zero targets – an 80 per cent reduction in emissions under its direct control by 2028-2032 and across the supply chain by 2036-39, reaching net zero by 2040 and 2045 respectively. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the researchers said that the most deprived people typically have poorer health, a lower life expectancy, and consume a greater amount of health services. Given healthcare consumption is the ultimate driver of healthcare emissions, they write, this has important implications in terms of justice for the pursuit of net zero healthcare. Lead author Dr Anand Bhopal, a PhD research fellow at the Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting, said: “Lifetime health costs among the poorest people are 10-20 per…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Hands-on review: Excitrus NitroCharge 30 Pro charger

Portable charging is almost an essential for many people now, be it a business laptop user out in the field; a power phone user constantly interrogating social media; a vlogger or mobile photographer capturing new footage, or any other peripatetic rover with a bag full of gadgets. No matter how much more powerful the batteries in our devices get, there is inevitably a concurrent drain on their resources with the uptick in screen size and app demand. There are few things in the modern consumer technology world more disappointing than being left holding a useless hunk of metal and plastic simply because the battery is dead. Portable chargers rule, OK. Image credit: Excitrus We were recently sent the NitroCharge 30 Pro by Excitrus. It's one of the company's many mobile…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
The long and winding road to energy net-zero 2050

For a power plant due to be mothballed amid a long-term plan to abandon electricity generation from coal, West Burton A weathered last winter surprisingly well. And following a letter from secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy Kwasi Kwarteng to its owner EDF Energy telling them it would need to be on standby for a while longer, it is probably going to have another good winter. Amid generation shortages in the winter of 2021, the electricity system operator (ESO) arm of National Grid was forced to call West Burton A back into action to the point that for a while it would match wind generation: 5.5 per cent of the nation’s electricity mix. Though it was the lack of wind that made the headlines, according to the spring 2022 Energy Trends report published by Kwarteng…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Four-day amber warning issued for extreme temperatures across UK

The warning, for Thursday to Sunday, comes as the forecaster predicted 35°C in places or even an “isolated” 36°C – below last month’s record temperatures, which peaked above 40°C in some spots, but still uncomfortably hot for many people. The vulnerable are likely to experience adverse health affects, while the wider population could also be affected, the alert said. Delays to travel are possible and there is an increased risk of water accidents and fires as more people visit coasts and beauty spots, the Met Office also warned. Technology has also been feeling the heat, with a spike in overheating phones, tablets and laptops reported by users, as the high ambient temperatures affect components. The UK Health Security Agency has already issued an amber alert covering southern and central…

E+T Magazine in Water Supply
What would it take to get everyone in the world connected?

Many of us in the West take things like the internet, electricity, clean water and transport for granted, yet millions of people around the world still aren’t connected to these utilities. Without these an individual’s educational and economic opportunities are greatly impacted, as well as their access to services such as banking and healthcare. But which of the most disenfranchised groups should we focus on to increase the number of people connected to what we consider as essentials to modern life, and is it possible to connect everyone in the world? For most people reading this article, fast, reliable internet access is a given. When we have a question, it is second nature to pick up our phone and search on Google, or even ask your smart home device of choice. Yet the reality is,…

E+T Magazine in Water Supply
Closing the gap in the elderly and digital divide

In Spain, Carlos San Juan de Laordon, a 78-year-old Parkinson’s patient, was frustrated by banks that were happy to hold his pension and savings but had closed all their branches, forcing all transactions online. So, he launched a petition. De Laordon was comfortable using internet services like Skype but because of his tremors, found the dexterity involved in banking apps too difficult. The retired urologist’s ‘I’m Old, not Stupid’ cyber protest quickly garnered more than 600,000 signatures, and perhaps more importantly, gained widespread media coverage in Spain and abroad. Spain’s economic ministry then invited Dr de Laordon to attend the signing of a pact with the country’s main banks to do more for elderly customers who help keep them solvent. Here in the UK, author and broadcaster…

E+T Magazine in Computing
Pollutants from Deepwater Horizon oil spill detectable 10 years on

Once released into the environment, crude oil typically undergoes chemical reactions in the environment that transform it into different chemicals which can impact local ecosystems. The new study from Louisiana State University (LSU) researchers found that the oil spilled during the accident was largely transformed by the end of that summer, but some small quantities of chemical residues still persisted in the environment even ten years later. “The better we understand the chemicals and their chemical reactive properties as well as their physical properties, the better we will be able to mitigate oil spills and understand and detect environmental damages from oil spills,” said first author Professor Edward Overton from LSU. “Our paper describes the most abundant chemicals that make up…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Tiny robot helps discover learning process of ants

Rock ants have been found to use one-to-one tuition to teach other ants the location of a new nest and the route to get there. Key to this process of teaching is tandem running where one ant literally leads another ant quite slowly along a route to the new nest. The pupil ant learns the route sufficiently well that it can find its own way back home and then lead a tandem-run with another ant to the new nest, and so on. Professor Nigel Franks of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences said: “Teaching is so important in our own lives that we spend a great deal of time either instructing others or being taught ourselves. “This should cause us to wonder whether teaching actually occurs among non-human animals. And, in fact, the first case in which teaching was demonstrated rigorously in any…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
The measure of: Padma Multipurpose Bridge, Bangladesh

Ushering in a new era for connecting the country of Bangladesh, the nation’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Padma Multipurpose Bridge on 25 June. It is a multipurpose rail-road bridge over the Padma river, the downstream part of the Ganges after it enters Bangladesh territory. The bridge is the longest in the country and aims to reduce the distance between the capital city of Dhaka to the Mongla seaport, which is important for regional and international trade. The Benapole land port and Payra seaport will also benefit from the construction of the bridge. Image credit: Cover Images They also deemed it as one of the most innovative yet most challenging developmental projects in the country’s history. “The completion of the Padma Bridge is a dream come…

E+T Magazine in Road transport systems

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