• Biodegradable silk process developed to replace microplastics

    Some microplastics are intentionally added to a variety of products, amounting to an estimated 50,000 tons a year in the EU alone. The EU has already declared that these added, nonbiodegradable microplastics must be eliminated by 2025, so the search is on for suitable replacements, which do not currently exist. The microplastics widely used in industrial products generally protect some specific active ingredient (or ingredients) from being degraded by exposure to air or moisture, until the time they are needed. They provide a slow release of the active ingredient for a targeted period of time and minimise adverse effects to its surroundings. The materials used today for such microencapsulation are plastics that persist in the environment for a long time and with no currently available substitute…

  • Sponsored: eGuide, delivering exceptional resilience for extraordinary care

    Extreme weather, cyberattacks, and epidemics place tremendous strain on healthcare facilities. While it may not be possible to predict the next catastrophic event, it is possible to plan for it. Download this eGuide to explore the solutions that can help prepare for and respond to unforeseen events - without disrupting the delivery of critical services. You will learn: How to ensure 24/7 power availability for healthcare facilities How to keep critical infrastructure cybersecure How to select the right solution for end-to-end resilience for future-ready healthcare facilities Download free whitepaper

  • Eutelsat proposes merger with UK-owned OneWeb for satellite launches

    Eutelsat said the combined firm would be the first multi-orbit satellite operator offering both low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit communication services and would be “uniquely positioned” to take advantage of the satellite connectivity market. OneWeb commenced launches of its satellite constellation – a network of more than 650 LEO satellites designed for internet services – in February 2019. The UK government bought a stake in the firm in 2020 when it entered bankruptcy after failing to raise the requisite capital to complete the build and deployment of the remaining 90 per cent of the network. The purchase was seen as a means to expand the UK’s space industry, following its withdrawal from the EU and its Galileo project. The OneWeb service is finally expected to be fully…

  • Bowel cancer diagnosis set to improve with ‘gamechanger’ €6m AI project

    Bowel cancer is the second most-common cause of cancer death in Scotland, with around 1,600 people dying of the disease each year. The current detection method involves inserting an endoscope, a thin flexible tube with a camera on the end, into a patient’s colon which then travels around the large bowel allowing doctors to check for cancer. The new procedure being developed by the research team - known as a Clinical Capsule Endoscopy (CCE) – utilises an artificial intelligence-assisted ‘smart pill’ containing cameras (pictured below) which, once swallowed by a patient, records images of the intestines as it passes through.   At present, images captured by the capsules are reviewed by trained doctors, but AI offers the potential to safely and ethically speed up the process, make it more…

  • China launches science laboratory into space

    Last night, the Wentian lab module was launched from the Wenchang space base in the tropical island province of Hainan on Sunday, with a view to expanding China's positioning within the space research sector.  The module docked successfully with the Tiangong station’s main Tianhe living module at 3.13am on Monday (8.13pm on Sunday BST), after 13 hours of flight, according to the China Manned Space Agency. The Wentian is the heaviest single-module spacecraft currently in space, according to the state-owned Global Times. Its name means ' Quest for the Heavens'.  China space station / CMS Image credit: CMS   The 23-tonne lab has been designed for science and biology experiments and is only one of the two modules that will form the final laboratory. The second

  • View from India: 5G spectrum up for auction

    The bidders for the spectrum are Reliance Jio Infocomm; Adani Data Networks Ltd; Vodafone Idea Ltd, and Bharti Airtel Ltd. Reliance Jio has made an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 14,000 crore. Adani Group has made EMD of Rs100 crore. Bharti Airtel has contributed Rs 5,500 crore as EMD, while Vodafone Idea has contributed Rs 2,200 crore. EMD is indicative of the quantity of airwaves a company can bid for in the auction. Looking at the deposit amounts, Reliance Jio appears to be bidding the most aggressively. The auction will be held for spectrum in varying frequency bands. The low-frequency band is represented by 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2300MHz; the mid-frequency band by 3300MHz, and the high-frequency band by 26GHz. Payments for the spectrum can be made in…

  • Sprayable coating prevents spread of pathogens including Covid-19

    The spray works by repelling viruses and bacteria through an air-filled barrier as well as killing pathogens through microscopic materials if the layer becomes damaged or submerged for extended periods. It uses a combination of plastics strong enough to be considered an alternative to bullet-proof glass. A 2020 study showed that Covid-19 could survive for up to 28 days on surfaces such as mobile phone screens and banknotes. The coating provides a reliable alternative to standard disinfectants, which are becoming less effective and require regular reapplication, and is safer than existing alternatives to disinfectant, the researchers said. Testing has shown it has no harmful side effects and more stable potency – unlike the next most promising non-disinfectant agent that kills bacteria…

  • Book review: ‘Sweet Stakeholder Love’ by Sigi Osagie

    It was the great American statesman Benjamin Franklin who said that in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. Of course, he wrote that at the end of the 18th century. Had he been considering the position today, and had he been in possession of Sigi Osagie’s latest book, he may well have extended his list of certainties to include stakeholders. This is because, as Osagie says in the thoroughly engaging ‘Sweet Stakeholder Love’ (EPG Solutions, £11.97, ISBN 9781838489205), this is a category of management challenge that faces you, whichever way you turn. Stakeholders are everywhere, everyone has them, and if you don’t know how to deal with them you won’t realise your full potential as a manager. Osagie, who is a leading expert on effectiveness in procurement and…

  • Diversity must be at the heart of equitable AI development

    People often think of artificial intelligence as just code – cold, lifeless and objective. In important ways, however, AI is more like a child. It learns from the data it is exposed to and optimises based on objectives that are established by its developers, who in this analogy would be its ‘parents’. Like a young child, AI doesn’t know about the history or societal dynamics that have shaped the world to be the way it is. And just as children sometimes make strange or inappropriate remarks without knowing any better, AI learns patterns from the world naively without understanding the broader sociotechnical context that underlies the data it learns from. Unlike children, however, AI is increasingly being asked to make decisions in high-stakes contexts, including finding criminal suspects…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Apple and Amazon bet on healthcare as Big Tech realm expands

    Big Tech seems to have targeted the healthcare sector, as two of its biggest players pledge their commitment to invest in the industry.  On Wednesday, Apple published a nearly 60-pages-long report outlining the company's health features and partnerships with medical institutions to highlight its commitment to "science-based technology" and Apple's vision to double down on health-related features as part of its future expansion. Some of the features that reportedly show the company's "pioneering" healthcare offering include sleep monitoring and fitness classes, as well as atrial-fibrillation detection and cycle tracking applications. Apple also is working on technologies such as glucose and blood pressure monitoring that are expected to go live soon. Currently, the iPhone and Apple Watch…

  • La Palma telescope observes the collisions of dead suns

    The Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO), led by the University of Warwick and built in Spain's La Palma island, is expected to bring forth a new era of gravitational wave (GW) science. The GOTO project consists of multiple wide-field telescopes on a single mount, which allows it to map large source regions in the sky to detect gravitational waves, and learn about their cause: the collisions of dead suns, scientifically known as neutron stars. The crashes between these types of stars are thought to be the origin of most of the heavy metals in the universe including gold and platinum, billions of years ago. With the new addition to the telescope, scientists are expected to be able to witness this process and observe stars "being smashed together and observe the rich material…

  • UK to build second-largest magnet refinery outside China

    The country is looking to diversify critical mineral supplies away from dominant players such as China, with a multi-billion pound investment in the sector.  The new  rare earths refinery facility will be built by Pensana in Saltend, North Yorkshire, and it will process the critical minerals used in magnets, a key component for manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs).  The facility is backed by the government’s Automotive Transformation Fund, an £850 million programme to electrify Britain’s automotive supply chain. It will make the UK "one of the only places in Europe to have the facility to refine the rare earth oxides used in the creation of magnets", the government has said, adding that it expects the facility to create 126 new and skilled jobs in the area. Currently, China provides…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • £1.5m cash boost from government to help aviation recruitment

    The sector has been suffering from severe staff shortages in recent months which has forced airports to cut the number of flights that can take off per day over the busy summer period. While Covid-19 restrictions significantly dampened demand for flights over the last two years, Gatwick recently said it had already seen over 10 million passengers travel through the airport in the first six months of this year compared to just 6.3 million across the whole of 2021. As part of the new government funding, £700,000 has been allocated to the ‘Reach for the Sky Challenge Fund’, which will fund outreach programmes and events to educate young people on the career opportunities on offer in aviation. The scheme will see government working with the industry on a new campaign to increase the number…

  • Molecular-sized motor created from DNA

    The tiny machine made of genetic material self-assembles and converts electrical energy into kinetic energy. The nanomotors can be switched on and off and the rotation speed and rotational direction can also be controlled. The researchers used what is known as the DNA “origami method” to construct the nanoscale molecular rotary motor. Several long single strands of DNA serve as a basis to which additional DNA strands attach themselves as counterparts. The DNA sequences are selected in such a way that the attached strands and folds create the desired structures. “We’ve been advancing this method of fabrication for many years and can now develop very precise and complex objects, such as molecular switches or hollow bodies that can trap viruses. If you put the DNA strands with the right sequences…

  • Fibre overtakes cable to become most common fixed broadband option

    The analysis found that 34.9 per cent of connections were fixed broadband subscriptions - an 18.6 per cent jump over the year to December 2021 - to move ahead of cable, now at 32.4 per cent of fixed broadband subscriptions, with DSL at 27 per cent and declining. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries including the UK, US, Japan, France, Germany and Canada. “This is good news for the delivery of data-intense services and applications, given the symmetrical capacity that fibre offers,” the OECD said in a statement. The biggest areas of growth were in Costa Rica, Israel, Greece and Belgium, which all increased fibre connections by more than 80 per cent in 2021. The share of fibre in total broadband is…

  • Robotic pets can improve memory care, according to research

    Robotic pets could provide support in therapy sessions with patients suffering from dementia, research finds.  In a paper published in the  Canadian Journal of Recreation Therapy , University of Utah researcher Rhonda Nelson and graduate student Rebecca Westenskow describe a new protocol for using robotic pets with older adults with dementia. The protocol uses a low-cost robotic pet, establishes ideal session lengths, and identifies common participant responses to the pets to aid in future research. The animals used in the sessions are robotic pets with synthetic fur and programmed movements and sounds. The robots are able to recreate the feeling of holding live animals while also avoiding their unpredictability.  “Our protocol had questions like: Would you like to scratch the dog behind…

  • High Court net zero ruling shows government numbers ‘don’t stack up’, Labour says

    Speaking in the Commons, shadow climate change minister Kerry McCarthy laid into the Conservative government for the Court’s findings , which will force the government to make revisions and show how key emissions reduction targets will be met. The legal challenge was brought by various environmental campaigners sceptical of the government’s efforts towards combatting climate change. The High Court ruling states that Greg Hands, the minister for business, energy and industrial strategy, who was responsible for signing off the government’s Net Zero Strategy, didn’t have the legally required information on how carbon budgets would be met, even though he approved the strategy. “Let’s be clear, we are here because the High Court have ruled that the government’s Net Zero Strategy is unlawful…

  • Ford trials robot charging station to assist disabled drivers

    For most of us, filling a car with fuel or charging an electric vehicle is a simple task. However, for disabled drivers, people with reduced mobility and older people it can be a significant challenge. Ford's prototype technology could enable disabled drivers to stay in the car while charging or leave the car entirely while the robot does all the work. Disabled drivers have already identified ease of charging as a key purchase consideration for electric vehicles. A recent survey in the UK showed that 61 per cent of disabled drivers would consider buying an electric vehicle only if charging was made more accessible. Ford is testing its robot charging station as part of a research project to develop hands-free charging solutions for electric vehicles and fully automatic charging for autonomous…

  • Sponsored: Evolving your ADAS and AV tests with emulation capability

    Creating safe and robust autonomous driving (AD) systems is a complex task. Automakers must overcome immediate challenges to realize the future of autonomous mobility. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have hundreds of sensors, all of which need to work with one another inside the car and with other smart vehicles. The software algorithms enabling autonomous driving features will ultimately need to synthesize all the information collected from these sensors to ensure that the vehicle responds appropriately. These algorithms require testing against millions of complex scenes covering various driving scenarios. Automakers need to be able to sign off on new advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and AV functionality confidently. Click here to view the white paper registration page . This white…

  • Detrimental effect of wind turbines on bats revealed by ultrasonic detection

    As more and more wind turbines are installed in the course of the energy transition and distance regulations to human settlements are tightened, suitable locations are becoming increasingly difficult to find. As a result, wind turbines are increasingly being erected in forests, to the detriment of forest specialists among bats.   In a new study, a team of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) demonstrated that forest specialists among bats, which forage below the treetop and thus do not have an increased risk of colliding with turbines, avoid the vicinity of wind turbines. Forest sites should therefore either not be used at all for wind turbines or only in exceptional cases with mandated compensatory measures to protect forest bats, the team…

  • UK bets on green hydrogen with new funding round

    Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng met on Thursday with industry leaders to reaffirm the government's commitment to unlocking £9bn of investment towards kickstarting a major roll-out of new clean super-fuel and transforming the UK into a hydrogen-based economy.   As part of this hydrogen push, the UK government launched the world’s first national clean-hydrogen subsidy scheme, which will help finance an initial 1GW of green hydrogen projects by 2025 – enough hydrogen to fuel up to 45,000 buses per year. The funding for electrolytic (‘green’) hydrogen projects − a method which uses an electrical current to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water − will come from both the Net Zero Hydrogen Fund and the Hydrogen Business Model.  "The UK’s hydrogen sector is open for business. With the right…

  • UK and US seek out privacy-enhancing innovations

    The PETs challenges were first announced at the Summit for Democracy last year and will see innovators from academia, industry, and the broader public find new solutions in up to two separate tracks: tackling financial crime and forecasting public health emergencies. Such challenges are based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to examine large and potentially sensitive datasets – the challenges themselves will use synthetic financial and medical data. There will also be options for participants to design one generalised solution that works for both scenarios for broader applicability, according to the organisers of the challenges. It comes amid concerns China is outpacing Western countries with its AI research – which some experts believe is at least, in part, hindered in…

  • Brits cut back on summer energy usage for the first time, poll reveals

    Using a smart meter’s in-home display to see usage in near-real time, in pounds and pence, has shown to be a motivating factor when making small changes to households' energy habits. The survey by Smart Energy GB also found that those with smart meters were 23 per cent more likely to have adjusted their energy habits. Energy-saving tactics include turning off unused lights (49 per cent), turning devices off at the socket (39 per cent) and disconnecting phone chargers at the mains (37 per cent). Whether these methods are effective at saving money is questionable, as the devices mentioned typically consume only small amounts of power. The poll revealed that bill payers are now thinking about their energy usage up to twice a day, whereas previously it wasn’t being considered at all during…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Sizewell C nuclear power station project receives government go-ahead

    The UK is going ahead with the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant, expected to generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes and create thousands of jobs. The new plant would be built next to the existing Sizewell B, which is still generating electricity, and Sizewell A, which has been decommissioned, according to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.  The project is expected to cost around £20bn and will mainly be funded by the French energy company EDF. However,  Kwarteng confirmed the government will make all future planning decisions on the two-reactor plant, as it is deemed a nationally significant infrastructure project. “Sizewell C will be one of the UK’s largest-ever green energy projects, and this decision significantly strengthens the pipeline…

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