• Rail freight growth explored to cut UK carbon emissions from goods transport

    The Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT), which is a public body, is calling for a broad range of views on how to expand rail freight. It is estimated rail freight currently accounts for just 10 per cent of surface freight although it generates about 76 per cent less carbon emissions compared to HGVs per tonne of goods transported. GBRTT has called for a freight growth target to boost investment in the sector by setting a clear government ambition for growth. It said such a target would help the UK meet its legally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets. If rail freight volumes treble by 2050, as modelling indicates could be required to meet the net-zero targets, then there would be about 14 million fewer road lorry movements a year than today. Rail minister Wendy Morton…

  • Large Hadron Collider project discovers three new exotic particles

    The international LHCb collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has observed three never-before-seen particles: a new kind of 'pentaquark' and the first-ever pair of 'tetraquarks', which includes a new type of tetraquark. The findings, presented today (July 5) at a CERN seminar, add three new exotic members to the growing list of new hadrons found at the LHC. They will help physicists better understand how quarks bind together into these composite particles. Exotic particles, such as those now discovered, had only been theorised but not observed until recently. These exotic particles are built out of quarks. Quarks are elementary particles and come in six flavours: up, down, charm, strange, top and bottom. They usually combine together in groups of twos and threes to form hadrons…

  • NHS to trial drone delivery of chemotherapy drugs

    The NHS has revealed it is planning to trial the use of drone technology to enable doctors to make “same-day delivery” orders for drugs and medical equipment from anywhere in the country. The trial will see a drone deliver chemotherapy drugs from the pharmacy at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. The journey is expected to take 30 minutes, eliminating the need for patients to travel three to four hours by car, ferry or hovercraft to collect life-saving medication. If successful, the technology might be used for similar drops elsewhere in the nation.  The trial was presented by Amanda Pritchard, NHS England’s chief executive, as part of the celebrations of the 74th anniversary of the health service’s creation by the postwar Labour government…

  • View from India: Dark Sky Reserve, tourism with a difference

    The Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the Ladakh Union Territory Administration and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council have entered into a tripartite agreement for setting up a Dark Sky Reserve at Hanle. The Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) will come under the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary, which is part of the Hindu Kush Himalaya, nature’s bounty. The altitude of the sanctuary varies from 4,300m to 5,800m (14,000ft to 19,000ft). Light pollution can alter the natural light levels of the outdoors, so a dark sky reserve is an area devoid of light pollution. Its starry nights are protected and preserved for scientific studies; the only environmental resource is the galaxy of stars. Barring that, there is a natural darkness which makes it worthwhile for astro research or even just viewing…

  • Energy dense batteries developed that operate at extreme temperatures

    The researchers say the key to their battery is a newly developed electrolyte that is more versatile and robust than traditional materials throughout a wide temperature range. It is also compatible with a high-energy anode and cathode. Such batteries could allow electric vehicles in cold climates to travel farther on a single charge and they could also reduce the need for cooling systems to keep the vehicles’ battery packs from overheating in hot climates. Zheng Chen, senior author of the study, said: “You need high temperature operation in areas where the ambient temperature can reach the triple digits [i.e. above 100°F] and the roads get even hotter. “In electric vehicles, the battery packs are typically under the floor, close to these hot roads. Also, batteries warm up just from having…

  • Thermal drones seek survivors of Italian Alps glacier collapse

    Recuers are using any means at their disposal – including thermal drones – to search for over a dozen climbers that may have become trapped under the ice after a glacier gave way on Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Italian Dolomites. Authories said they do not know how many people were victim to the avalanche, which has already claimed at least six lives and injured eight people. "We found bodies torn apart, in a shapeless tide of ice and debris stretching over 1,000 metres (3,280 feet)," Gino Comelli from the Alpine Rescue Service told the Corriere della Sera daily. The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10°C was recorded at the glacier's summit. Emergency services spokeswoman Michela Canova told AFP an "avalanche of snow, ice and rock" hit an access path…

  • UK firms plan further automation as staff shortages bite

    The UK is currently suffering from an acute shortage of staff for key positions following the reopening of the economy after the Covid pandemic and the impact of Brexit. The poll of 670 firms found that a record number of vacancies and a shrinking labour force has led some 40 per cent to say they feel negatively about their staffing numbers. A study from Arden University last week found that nearly a third of jobs in the UK could become redundant due to automation by 2030. In 2018, another study anticipated that just a fifth of jobs were threatened within the same time period. Fears have also been stoked that Brexit could hasten the automation of British jobs specifically or they could be moved offshore due to immigration curbs and more difficult trading environments. The HSBC study found…

  • NASA wants to use swimming robots to detect alien life

    NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have awarded Ethan Schaler a Phase II funding grant for a project that aims to build a swarm of small swimming robots that could be sent to places that humans and massive robots cannot reach, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus.  Packed inside a narrow ice-melting probe that would tunnel through the frozen crust, the tiny robots would be released underwater, swimming far from their mothercraft to look for signs of alien life.  “My idea is, where can we take miniaturised robotics and apply them in interesting new ways for exploring our solar system?” said Schaler, a robotics mechanical engineer at JPL and the leader of the project.  “With a swarm of small swimming robots, we are able to explore a much larger volume of ocean…

  • Nasa satellite heads towards Moon after breaking free from Earth orbit

    The planned course of action is the latest step in Nasa’s ambition to land astronauts on the lunar surface again. It has been an unusual journey already for the Capstone satellite. It was launched six days ago from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula by the company Rocket Lab in one of its small Electron rockets. It will take another four months for the satellite to reach the Moon, as it cruises along using minimal energy. Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck said it was hard to put his excitement into words: “It’s probably going to take a while to sink in. It’s been a project that has taken us two, two-and-a-half years and is just incredibly, incredibly difficult to execute. “To see it all come together tonight and see that spacecraft on its way to the Moon, it’s just absolutely epic.” Beck said…

  • 4G comes to rural Scotland as infrastructure plan marks halfway point

    The £28.75m 'Scottish 4G Infill' (S4GI) programme has been designed to improve digital connectivity from the Shetland Islands to the Borders. The programme has reached its milestone halfway point, building and activating 28 phone masts, with the remaining 27 on track to be connected by 2023. Residents and businesses in Bogton, in Turriff, Aberdeenshire, were the latest to benefit from the programme. Mobile network operator EE is providing 4G services across all bar one of the new sites, including the new Bogton mast, but all sites are capable of supporting multiple operators in the future. Scottish economy secretary Kate Forbes said: “The Scottish Government is helping more residents and workers get online and tackling some of Scotland’s longest-standing mobile phone signal black spots…

  • Environment Agency chief criticises greenwashing ‘deception’

    In one of her final speeches before leaving the leadership of the Environment Agency, Emma Howard Boyd is expected to warn about the need for more transparency regarding organisations' environmental policies. Speaking at the UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment Annual Forum at the Institution of Civil Engineers, Howard Boyd will warn that businesses are embedding liability by giving the false impression that infrastructure and buildings they own or are developing are resilient to climate change.  As a result, nearly £650bn of public and private infrastructure investment planned by 2030 is reportedly at considerable risk unless urgent action is taken.  The danger, she plans to say, is that people “won’t realise this deception until it is too late”. Her warning comes after the…

  • Fuel protesters bring M4 to standstill; other roads also affected

    Fuel campaigners focused on a stretch of motorway between Bristol and South Wales this morning, including the Prince of Wales Severn Bridge crossing, as part of action calling for a cut in fuel duty. The protests are understood to have been organised via social media under the banner 'Fuel Price Stand Against Tax'. The action comes as latest figures from Experian show the average price of petrol reached a new high of 191.5p per litre on Sunday. The average price of diesel was 199.0p per litre, with prices at many sites across the country exceeding the 200p mark for both types of fuel. Among those gathering at Magor services, near Caldicot, was Vicky Stamper, 41. The former HGV driver, from Cwmbran, said she and her partner Darren had to leave jobs in Bristol because they could not afford…

  • View from Brussels: Albania embraces a new energy dawn

    Most of Albania’s electricity is produced using hydropower generated by the network of dams along its mountainous rivers. The rest of the power comes from wind, solar and imported electrons. The statistics for overall energy are far less impressive though, as more than 60 per cent of demand is met by fossil fuels like oil and gas. But the current government has big plans to change that, partly prompted by ongoing price spikes and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Albania enjoys the most sunshine hours of any country in Europe, so is ideally placed to exploit the power of the sun. Last week, Prime Minister Edi Rama laid the foundation stone for a new 140 megawatt solar power plant. French firm Voltalia – which has installed more than 1 gigawatt of clean energy across 20 different countries, with…

  • Motorless sailplane design could take flight on Mars

    Inspired by the flight of the albatross, a team of researchers and space experts have designed the sailplane that could fly on Mars. The team aims to use the sailplane to analyse the Red Planet’s atmosphere and geology. "You have this really important, critical piece in this planetary boundary layer, like in the first few kilometres above the ground," said Alexandre Kling, a research scientist in Nasa's Mars Climate Modeling Centre. "This is where all the exchanges between the surface and atmosphere happen. This is where the dust is picked up and sent into the atmosphere, where trace gases are mixed, and where the modulation of large-scale winds by mountain-valley flows happens. And we just don't have very much data about it." At the moment, there are eight active spacecraft orbiting…

  • UK Infrastructure Bank has £5bn pipeline of investments one year after launch

    HM Treasury launched the bank in June 2021 to fund projects that will help tackle climate change and boost regional economic growth. In particular it has been asked to prioritise five sectors: clean energy, transport, digital, water and waste. Headed up by former HSBC chief executive John Flint, it was created partly in response to the UK’s exit from the European Investment Bank infrastructure following Brexit. It has been allocated £22bn in public funds for the first five years of its life for equity investments, loans, and guarantees to support infrastructure projects. The NAO found that the Treasury had “truncated some important elements of the usual process or deferred them until after launch” in order to set up the bank as quickly as possible. It is therefore relying on temporary staff…

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  • Money & Markets: The randomness of markets

    Markets are said to be random by regulators and theoreticians, but none of the practitioners agree. They laugh at the thought that markets are random, all the while ignoring the fact that markets like the huge equity options complex are based on equations with probabilistic distributions at their heart. With practitioner laughter ringing in your ears, you can go dig the data and what do you know, the time series are random. Now as most don’t know, there are many shapes of random and almost obviously market prices are bounded. While oil can go into negative values, it cannot go to a billion dollars a barrel. I wrote that with conviction then realised it wouldn’t take too much Weimar-style inflation for it to do just that, but even hyperinflation hits the buffers after a dozen or so zeros finally…

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  • Energy firms’ customer service plummets to record lows, Citizens Advice says

    With call waiting times rising and customers saying they can’t get hold of their supplier, the average score (2.8 stars) for the Citizens Advice’s ratings table is the lowest on record. Standards have plummeted since June 2021 when the energy market started to collapse, with millions of customers shifted to new suppliers as a result of their own provider failing. To prevent such a scenario occurring again, UK energy regulator Ofgem recently announced tough new measures to prevent waves of suppliers from failing during future periods of price volatility. Citizens Advice is warning the decline is happening at a time when people need good customer service the most. Between January and March 2022, the charity’s Consumer Service helpline saw more than 70,000 cases related to energy issues…

  • US Supreme Court restricts government's powers to regulate carbon emissions

    The administration of US President Joe Biden has suffered a significant blow, as the country's highest court has ruled that the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not have the authority to limit emissions that contribute to climate change across whole states. The court sided with 19 conservative states and fossil fuel companies in a case against the EPA brought by West Virginia. In its 6-3 ruling, the court said that only Congress, not the EPA, has the power to create a broad system of cap-and-trade regulations to limit emissions from existing power plants.   Biden called the ruling a "devastating decision" but said that it will not undermine his administration's efforts to curb climate change and reach the goal to completely cut all carbon emissions from power plants by…

  • Qatar World Cup will use semi-automated offside technology, Fifa announces

    The system will provide an automated offside alert to the on-field officials to help them make faster, more accurate and more consistent offside decisions. Video assistant referee (VAR) technology was first introduced at the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia and Fifa has spent the last few years improving the system. The new technology uses 12 dedicated tracking cameras mounted underneath the roof of the stadium to track the ball and up to 29 data points of each individual player, 50 times per second, calculating their exact position on the pitch. The 29 collected data points include all limbs and extremities that are relevant for making offside calls. The official match ball for the tournament, ' Al Rihila ', will also provide further data as it includes an inertial measurement unit (IMU…

  • EU agrees rules to rein in the ‘Wild West’ of crypto assets

    After hours of negotiations, the European Commission, EU lawmakers and member states have reached an agreement on a groundbreaking set of rules to guard against abuse and manipulation in the cryptocurrency market. The new regulations, known as the Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) law, will require cryptocurrency companies to obtain a licence and meet struct capital and consumer protection rules in order to be allowed to operate in the EU. Companies issuing or trading crypto assets such as stablecoins will be forced to provide customers with detailed information on the risks, costs and charges that they face by obtaining these assets. Under the new rules, stablecoins like T ether  and Circle’s  USDC  will be required to maintain ample reserves to meet redemption requests in the event of mass…

  • View from India: Bosch India inaugurates its first smart campus in the country

    Bosch India, which set up its first sales agency in Kolkata in 1922, has grown and established itself with its automotive technology, industrial technology, and consumer goods and building technology. Its India presence is the largest development centre outside Germany for end-to-end engineering and technology solutions. “Bosch has been part of the transformation in India for the last 100 years, and during this era we have revolutionised the mobility and the ‘beyond mobility’ ecosystem. With our new Spark.NXT campus, the company continues to invest in smart and sustainable solutions that are ‘Invented for Life’ and supports the government’s vision for an Atmanirbhar Bharat [Self-Reliant India],” said Soumitra Bhattacharya, managing director of Bosch Limited and president of the Bosch Group…

  • Jet fuel produced by common soil bacteria

    “In chemistry, everything that requires energy to make will release energy when it’s broken,” said lead author Pablo Cruz-Morales from the Technical University of Denmark. When petroleum jet fuel is ignited, it releases a tremendous amount of energy in order to give planes enough lift to escape gravity. The researchers recreated a molecule called Jawsamycin - named after the movie Jaws because of its bite-like indentations - by using the common bacteria streptomyces. “The recipe already exists in nature,” Cruz-Morales said. The jagged molecule is produced by native metabolism of the bacteria as they munch away on glucose. Image credit: Pablo Morales Cruz “As they eat sugar or amino acids, they break them down and convert them into building blocks for carbon…

  • Acoustic levitation system can assemble objects with no physical contact

    The research team has presented 'LeviPrint', a new system that uses acoustic manipulation for assembling objects without physical contact. LeviPrint is a "levitator", designed alongside a robotic arm and a liquid dispenser that allows the device to "manufacture complex objects without contact", explained Asier Marzo, lead researcher and member of the UPNA/NUP’s Smart Cities Institute (ISC).  The research was carried out by scientists at the PNA/NUP-Public University of Navarre, in collaboration with researchers at Ultraleap Ltd, UK, and the University of São Paulo, Brazil. The team's conclusions are due to be presented in August in Vancouver, Canada, at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics and interactive techniques conference.  “We generate acoustic fields that trap small particles, glue…

  • Government fails to rule out EV tax as new regulations come into force

    However, the government failed to rule out introducing a new tax as a way of replacing almost £30bn of revenue it stands to lose in fossil fuel taxes as petrol and diesel cars are replaced by electric models. Under The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021, that come into force today, all newly fitted EV charge points must have smart functionality. This will allow for the potential of 'electricity rationing' by deciding when EVs can be charged, helping to avoid overloading the National Grid at peak times. It will also enable EV charger usage to be billed at higher electricity prices than domestic electricity by operating with a dedicated smart meter. Currently, petrol and diesel drivers pay fuel duty at 52.95 pence per litre, which brought in £28bn for the government…

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