• UK ‘in recession’ as Bank of England hikes interest rates to 14-year high

    The central bank had previously projected the economy would grow in the current financial quarter, but said it now believes gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by 0.1 per cent. This comes after a reported 0.2 per cent fall in GDP in the second quarter, meaning that the economy is now in recession. A recession is when GDP shrinks for two consecutive quarters. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to raise rates to 2.25 per cent – their highest since November 2008 – from 1.75 per cent, in an effort to grapple big increases in the cost of living. In committee minutes, it said the “tight labour with wage growth and domestic inflation” above targets called for a “forceful response”. Nevertheless, the hike was below the expectations of the financial markets, who had predicted…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Nasa prepares to intentionally crash spacecraft into a small asteroid

    A spacecraft built by Nasa is set to intentionally smash into a small asteroid as part of a planetary protection test mission, to help prove that this could be an effective way of deflecting dangerous incoming rocks. The chosen asteroid, named Dimorphos, orbits Didymos in around 11 hours and 55 minutes, but Nasa astronomers hope that Dart will destroy itself and cut about 10 minutes off this time. The collision is expected to take place at about 6.8 million miles from Earth.   "Dart's target asteroid is not a threat to Earth but is the perfect testing ground to see if this method of asteroid deflection - known as the kinetic impactor technique - would be a viable way to protect our planet if an asteroid on a collision course with Earth were discovered in the future," a Nasa spokesperson…

  • AI system that keeps ships from hitting whales launches off California

    Whale Safe, a technology-based mapping and analysis system to help prevent whale-ship collisions, is scheduled to launch off to the San Francisco Bay Area Region, after finding success in southern California.  The announcement comes on the heels of the news of the death of Fran, the most photographed whale in California, caused by a ship strike. Whale Safe has been developed by the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Center, to help detect endangered whale presence and track ship speeds to provide data to the shipping industry, public and government to reduce preventable whale deaths.  "Whale Safe is on a mission to help save the incredible mammals who have ruled the oceans for tens of millions of years,” said Marc Benioff, chair and co-CEO of Salesforce…

  • View from India: Mixed tech makes IR journey memorable

    With around 24 million passengers commuting a day, Indian Railways (IR) is described as the lifeline of the nation. With 5G, the number of trains that run on the existing tracks can increase and efficiency levels are expected to improve. Trains may communicate with each other through the 5G network; smart ticketing and smart coaches are other hallmarks. The next-gen designs in locomotives are being implemented through multiple software and a fusion of technologies such as AI-ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning) and AR-VR (augmented reality and virtual reality). “We have partnered with Indian Railways for making 14,000 coaches, 3,500 metro coaches and over 3,000 IR locomotives. In 2018, we did locomotive broad gauge, which was a Make in India product as it was manufactured in…

  • Biology continues to inspire AI

    There is no guarantee that artificial intelligence needs to match what happens in biology or even be biologically inspired. The early days of AI research focused far more heavily on building machines that could reason more formally about the world around them compared to the approaches in vogue today; these consist of feeding enormous quantities of data in the hope that a training algorithm will help a similarly large network of simple arithmetic blocks figure out some complex, common pattern intuitively. “My big question is how do we get machines to learn more like animals and humans? We observe astonishing learning abilities from humans who can figure out how the world works partly by observation, partly by interaction. And it’s much more efficient than what we can reproduce on machines…

  • Is the quest for driverless trucking in it for the long haul?

    The global trucking industry is estimated to be worth around £600bn annually, equivalent to $700bn in the US, where truck driving is the number one occupation in no fewer than 29 states. In addition, the sector has emerged as the key battleground in the development of automated driving. Engineers’ initial efforts focused on the quest to build commercially viable driverless automobiles, but in the last year there has been a move toward the commercial vehicle sector. This shift can be seen in several key partnerships that have been signed between tech startups and the world’s largest truck manufacturers. Waymo, often seen as the leader in driverless technology, has partnered with Daimler, the world’s largest truck manufacturer. Meanwhile, TuSimple is teaming up with Traton, a subsidiary of…

  • Scientists to develop a quantum computer dedicated to life sciences

    The foundation is expected to spend $200m (£176m) to develop what it says will be the first quantum computer dedicated to life sciences research and the green transition.  The programme has been launched by the nonprofit foundation - the majority owner of pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk - in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen and includes world-leading researchers in quantum computing from Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and the USA.  By applying next-generation quantum computing to life sciences, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is expecting to speed up the development of new medicines and provide new insights into climate change and the green transition, which is not possible with standard computers today.   The ambition is that a quantum computer will also be a fundamental…

  • Insulating UK homes could save the country ‘billions’, assessments show

    The UK government is under increasing pressure from political parties and research groups to increase investments in home insulation, as assessments show that it could save billions in energy costs. The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has drawn up a 28-year plan - at an annual cost of £7bn - to deliver energy-saving domestic upgrades across the country in a bid to ease the strain on people’s wallets and the environment. They claim the move is “uniquely placed” to become “the cornerstone of the government’s levelling-up strategy in England”.  The IPPR said that all of England’s 24 million homes need upgrading, putting the country “far behind” its European neighbours, such as Germany and France. According to the  think tank, investing in its proposals for a multibillion-pound…

  • Scottish beaver population boosted, as world leaders plan nature-focused COP15

    Scotland’s 'Beaver Strategy 2022-2045' involves more than 50 stakeholder organisations and represents one of the most ambitious approaches to managing and conserving the species. The new national strategy has been developed to expand Scotland’s beaver population for decades to come. Beavers create wetland habitats that help wildlife thrive as well as reducing flood risks for farmland and human settlements. The Beaver Strategy aims to assess how to support communities to maximise the environmental benefits of beavers, while minimising any negative effects through appropriate management and mitigation. The strategy highlights the need for ongoing monitoring of the beaver population and its effects to improve management as the species expands. It is estimated that Scotland’s existing beaver…

  • EU court rules against Germany's blanket data retention law

    The  European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that data retention in Germany is not compatible with EU law, stating that internet and phone service providers should  not store citizens' communications data  without cause. The case was triggered after Deutsche Telekom unit Telekom Deutschland and internet service provider SpaceNet AG challenged Germany’s data retention law, arguing it breached EU rules. The German court subsequently sought the advice of the EU court, which said that indiscriminate data retention should only be applied in exceptional circumstances.  “The Court of Justice confirms that EU law precludes the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data, except in the case of a serious threat to national security,” the judges said. “However, in order to…

  • Sponsored: How the electric drivetrain is helping to push industry forward

    Transportation of people, goods and raw materials accounts for around 24% of the world’s total energy consumption and almost 30 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions worldwide. While the emissions from vehicles like passenger cars are often the first consideration given their high volume, non-rail transport of either people or goods like buses, ferries and industrial vehicles also have a significant impact. For example, in the EU, although trucks, buses and coaches account for less than 5 percent of traffic they account for about 25 percent of vehicle CO2 emissions. In addition, diesel engines emit significant amounts of particulate air pollution, which can be harmful to people’s health. Given the urgency to reduce the impact on our planet, in addition to ongoing price and supply volatility…

  • Cellular origins of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders uncovered by AI

    The research team found that studying the causes of cognitive impairment by using an unbiased AI-based method — as opposed to traditional markers such as amyloid plaques — revealed unexpected microscopic abnormalities that can predict the presence of cognitive impairment. “AI represents an entirely new paradigm for studying dementia and will have a transformative effect on research into complex brain diseases, especially Alzheimer’s disease,” said co-corresponding author John Crary, professor of pathology, molecular and cell-based medicine, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence and human health, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “The deep-learning approach was applied to the prediction of cognitive impairment, a challenging problem for which no current human-performed…

  • North Sea oil and gas industry ‘on track’ to meet emission reduction targets

    The North Sea oil and gas industry is on track to meet early emissions reduction targets, according to a new analysis from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). The organisation, formerly known as the Oil and Gas Authority, said the sector posted cuts of more than one-fifth between 2018 and 2021, adding up to an overall reduction of 21.5 per cent since 2018. However, NSTA pointed out that this rate might not be enough to meet the government's goal of halving emissions by 2030, a target that would require undertaking "bold" measures. Among these measures, the upgrading of platforms to run on clean electricity, rather than gas or diesel, is considered “essential”. Without such action, targets agreed as part of the North Sea Transition Deal (NSTD) will not be delivered, NSTA said. It…

  • Wearable device could be attached to the skin to measure tumours

    The Flexible Autonomous Sensor measuring Tumors (FAST) device could represent a new, fast, inexpensive, hands-free, and accurate way to test the efficacy of cancer drugs, and even lead to promising new directions in cancer treatment, according to the researchers.  The process of finding new therapies for the detection of subcutaneous tumours is slow because technologies for measuring tumour regression from drug treatment take weeks to read out a response, making drug screenings difficult and labour-intensive. "In some cases, the tumours under observation must be measured by hand with callipers," says Alex Abramson, the project's lead researcher. In contrast to the less-than-ideal use of metal pincer-like callipers to measure soft tissues, and radiological approaches that cannot deliver…

  • European Union seeks supply chain emergency powers

    The bloc's 'Single Market Emergency Instrument' is intended as an emergency tool that would give the EU executive powers to protect supply chains and ensure that essential goods can continue to circulate around the continent in times of crisis, such as a pandemic.  The proposal is a response to b ottlenecks caused by unexpected events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and it echoes similar measures adopted by the United States and Japan. However, it is expected to face strong pushback from businesses and some of the countries in the bloc - including Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands - have already warned that it could overstep the bloc’s authority. The EU's plan has been designed as a way of avoiding the spring 2020 scenario, when the bloc's governments…

  • Smartphone camera and flash could help measure blood oxygen levels

    The research team has demonstrated a technique that involves participants placing their finger over the camera and flash of a phone, whereafter a deep-learning algorithm deciphers the blood oxygen levels from the blood flow patterns captured in the resulting video. When we breathe in, our lungs fill with oxygen, which is distributed to our red blood cells for transportation throughout our bodies. Our bodies need a lot of oxygen to function and healthy people have at least 95 per cent oxygen saturation all the time. Conditions like asthma or Covid-19 make it harder for bodies to absorb oxygen from the lungs. This leads to oxygen saturation percentages that drop to 90 per cent or below - an indication that medical attention may be needed. In a clinic, doctors monitor oxygen saturation using…

  • Indonesia passes ambitious data protection law, following series of leaks

    Indonesia has passed a long-awaited data protection bill, which authorises the president to form an oversight body to fine data handlers for breaching rules on distributing or gathering personal data. The passing of the legislation follows a number of data leaks and alleged breaches that have impacted government firms as well as a state insurer, a telecoms company and a public utility.  Last year, a contact-tracing app  leaked Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s Covid vaccine records. With the new move, Indonesia has become the fifth country in South-East Asia to have specific legislation on personal data protection after Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The legislation includes strict consequences for data handlers that leak or misuse private information, such as fines…

  • ECITB pledges £87m for new engineering skills strategy

    The ECITB's strategy aims to support growth in the engineering construction industry by tackling the problem of labour shortages and skills gaps over the next three years. According to the organisation's forecasts, 25,000 additional workers are needed for major projects, including those related to net zero, by 2026. The situation is expected to place employers in direct competition for labour needed to fulfil £650bn of infrastructure projects in the wider UK economy. The UK government’s Energy Security Strategy - which aims to significantly increase. the country's energy generating capabilities - has put greater pressure on the industry to find the talent required to meet those goals.  Published by the employer-led Board of the ECITB, the new strategy sets out a three-year plan, from…

  • Mars lander captures strikes by four meteoroids

    Scientists reported that the InSight lander detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. A satellite orbiting the Red Planet confirmed the impact location as being up to 180 miles away from the lander. Scientists are delighted by the detections, as they are a first for another planet. The first confirmed meteoroid exploded into at least three pieces, each leaving its own crater. An 11-second audio snippet of this strike includes three 'bloops', as Nasa calls them, sounding like metal flapping loudly in the wind here on Earth. “After three years of InSight waiting to detect an impact, those craters looked beautiful,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, co-author of a research paper in the journal Nature Geoscience describing the findings. The InSight…

  • View from Brussels: EU wants a better metaverse

    Brussels is slowly but surely getting its regulatory game together when it comes to the digital sector, gradually fulfilling the EU’s ambition to be ‘rulemaker not a ruletaker’. GDPR is arguably the global standard on data protection, the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act are already establishing themselves as benchmarks and new rules on cryptocurrencies have recently been adopted. High-profile court cases against Google and Apple have also shown that Brussels is not rolling over for Big Tech. Now, regulators are looking at another fledgling technology that the industry says is going to be the next big thing: the metaverse. ‘Metaverse’ is already synonymous with Facebook, as the social media giant has launched its own digital universe where users can hold meetings, meet new…

  • View from India: Software is the heart of mobility

    Mileage and price points used to be determining factors for owning a car. Now it’s more to do with the joy of use, ease of use, safe driving, safety, connectivity and personalised experience. A combination of various technologies may help fulfil these modern mobility needs. “The trend in the auto industry points to a world which is EACSY, short form for electrified, automated, connected, shared, yearly update,” said Latha Chembrakalam, head of Technical Centre India, Continental Automotive India, at the India Altair Technology Conference 2022. “Cars of the future will be like smartphones, as they will be connected to the internet while also providing updates. The number of sensors will increase as the thrust is on user experience and personalised tastes,” Software could be the heart of…

  • Device designed for extraterrestrial use could detect CO2 leaks

    The Portable Active Seismic Source (PASS), originally designed to be used in outer space, could have significant uses on the planet where it was developed.  The team of researchers led by The University of Tokyo and Kyushu University have found that the device could help advance carbon-sequestration technology by providing continuous kilometre-scale subsurface monitoring to detect carbon dioxide leaks Underground features like carbon reservoirs can be monitored using seismic waves, either generated by earthquakes or by man-made sources. But seismic monitoring typically requires large, expensive machinery, making continuous monitoring at the scales needed for carbon reservoirs cost prohibitive and practically challenging. In contrast, PASS is an ultra-compact, centimetre-scale seismic…

  • Pound sinks to 37-year low, as consumers feel the squeeze

    Sterling dropped below $1.14 for a few hours on Wednesday morning, pushing it below recent lows and taking it to its worst and lowest position since 1985. The drop came after newly released retail figures showed a drop of 1.6 per cent in August, compared to the 0.5 per cent fall that economists had optimistically predicted. “This morning’s retail sales in the UK continued to show a deteriorating consumption picture in the UK, which emerged more from the continuation of a steady downtrend from last summer rather than the single grim data point in a rather volatile series,” said Francesco Pesole, a currency expert at ING. “This has been the last important piece of data before the Bank of England meeting on Thursday and has hit the pound this morning.” The pound regained some ground in…

  • The power of AI in helping prevent blindness

    Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 600,000 people, according to the Macular Society, a UK vision-loss charity. The ability to control AMD and other causes of blindness, such as diabetic retinopathy, has improved hugely over the years. While fundamental research and new drug therapies are crucial, emerging techniques that scan and assess the eye also play an important role. (Furthermore, eye scans can be used to diagnose other conditions, such as ADHD and heart disease.) Despite these advances, not all sight conditions can be treated. For instance, there are two forms of AMD, called ‘wet’ and ‘dry’. Wet AMD, caused by the growth of extra blood vessels, can be controlled by drug injections into the eye. Dry AMD – caused…

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