• 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…

  • EU and US authorities move to strengthen cyber-security protections

    From laptops to fridges to mobile apps, smart devices connected to the internet will have to be assessed for their cyber-security risks under draft European Union rules announced on Thursday.  "[The Act] will put the responsibility where it belongs, with those that place the products on the market," EU digital chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. Under the proposed bill, known as the Cyber Resilience Act, companies would face fines of as much as €15m (£13m) or up to 2.5 per cent of their total global turnover if they fail to fix any problems that are identified. The Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have increased the risk of cyber attacks, according to EU authorities. Although most companies do have plans in place to protect their digital infrastructure, the Commission…

  • Back Story: ‘The more diverse our industry, the more beneficial it is to society’

    Shini Somara: How did Teen Tech begin? Maggie Philbin: Teen Tech began through a need for more diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). When I look back on my days working in both BBC Children’s and in what was the Science and Features Department, it is clear that I was living in a female-empowered bubble. Back then, I got to work with many fabulous female producers, editors, and researchers, which made me unaware of the lack of diversity in the science and tech world.   After ‘Tomorrow’s World’ I became acutely aware that women struggle to stay in male-​dominated industries, such as the science and technology industries, and I wanted to do something about this.   After a couple of decades of experience in science and technology media, the huge void between…

  • Constipated scorpions and love at first sight inspire winners of Ig Nobels

    The winners at the 32nd annual Ig Nobels ceremony - held a few weeks before the actual Nobel prizes are announced - were celebrated virtually via a webcast on the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website, in light of ongoing Covid considerations. Previous Ig Nobel award ceremonies had been held in person at Harvard University. The winners, honoured in 10 categories, also included scientists who found that when people on a blind date are attracted to each other their heart rates synchronise, and researchers who looked at why legal documents can be so utterly baffling, even to lawyers themselves. In keeping with Ig Nobel tradition, real Nobel laureates handed out this year's prizes, deploying video trickery to give a sense of the traditional person-to-person interaction. Each Nobel…

  • The measure of: Boom Supersonic’s Overture airliner

    It’s nearly 20 years since the world-​renowned Concorde flew for the last time. While some companies aspire to bring   back supersonic travel, it has yet to happen.  Colorado-based Boom Supersonic is taking major steps to turn this pipe dream into a reality. Indeed, the start-up recently revealed the latest design of its Overture supersonic jet , which it says could fly from New York to London in 3.5 hours.  Details were revealed at the Farnborough International Air Show in July during a press conference that also announced new agreements with Northrop Grumman and other major aerospace suppliers. The updated design features a fourth engine, contoured fuselage and gull wings.  Image credit: Boom Clouds Boom Supersonic’s president and chief business officer,…

  • The eccentric engineer: Ralph Baer and the origins of the games console

    If you have teenage children, you probably have, tucked by the TV, a gleaming games console that would once have been considered a supercomputer. This owes its origins to one man and his brown box.   The Brown Box would not have existed to begin with were it not for a lucky escape. Aged 14, Rudolph Baer was expelled from school for being Jewish. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, the Baer family decided to leave Nazi Germany for New York, arriving in 1938 just in time to escape the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom. In America, Rudolph became Ralph and a new life began. Ralph’s great interest was the then burgeoning subject of radio communication. Having qualified as a radio technician, he was drafted into military intelligence when the European War finally came to America. After the war, America…

  • Scientists teach robot to laugh at jokes

    The shared-laughter AI system is being used to train a robot called Erica to detect laughter from those around 'her', then decide whether to laugh and what kind of laughter would be best, differentiating between light chuckles and rip-roaring peals of laughter. The scientists' findings - described in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI - could in future help make conversations between humans and robots more natural.  “We think that one of the important functions of conversational AI is empathy,” said lead author Dr Koji Inoue. “Conversation is, of course, multimodal, not just responding correctly. We decided that one way a robot can empathise with users is to share their laughter, which you cannot do with a text-based chatbot.” In the shared-laughter model, a human initially laughs…

  • TerraXcube investigates the effects of extreme environments

    Until recently, the only way to find out what happened to anything in extreme cold, or heat, or at low atmospheric pressures, was to take it somewhere suitably extreme and run tests on site – and this was for large-scale testing. This, however, is expensive, often perilous, and hit-and-miss when it comes to the replication or control of variables. Although small-scale environmental testing within specially designed chambers has been around for decades, solar panels, technical clothing, drones, bulldozers and even humans, plants and other living things can now all be tested to their limits at a facility in Bolzano in the Italian Tyrol – the terraXcube . The team at terraXcube can match atmospheric pressures from sea level to the top of Everest, simulate blizzards and torrential rain, high…

  • Space-based solar station: helping to deliver net zero

    One of the most pressing questions facing the world today is that of how to ensure a reliable source of energy that comes without carbon emissions or the ‘intermittency’ associated with existing sources of renewables. According to Martin Soltau it is a question with an answer that is clearly visible every day: the Sun. Soltau, currently business manager for aerospace with engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash, is not arguing for increasing areas of the Earth’s surface to be covered in solar panels. Instead he is a proponent of a much more radical idea. This is that massive satellites that could ultimately measure several kilometres across be put into orbit to convert sunlight into electricity in a highly efficient manner free from atmospheric interference and then beam it down to Earth in the…

  • Book review: ‘Made in London: From Workshops to Factories’

    With all its department stores, theatres, cafés, pubs and underground stations, possibly one of the last things you’d ever expect of the great metropolis of London is for it to be teeming with manufacturing. While we might dimly recall that the South Bank, with its repurposed factories and workshops, was once the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, it’s hard to imagine today that much traditional manufacturing goes on in trendy boroughs replete with digital start-ups, innovation spaces and wall-to-wall fintech. But as the superb ‘Made in London’ (Merrell, £40, ISBN 9781858947020) shows, nothing could be further from the truth. London today is packed with mechanical enterprise from the hand crafting of propellers to the design and manufacture of commuter bicycles. One of those upscale coffee…

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