• Financial Conduct Authority to be given powers to bolster access to cash

    A report from Merchant Machine last year found that if the current trend of declining cash usage in the UK continues, the country could become entirely cashless in just five years. But with more than two million Brits still thought to be almost entirely reliant on cash in their daily lives, particularly the elderly, vulnerable and those in rural communities, the government has been forced to take action to maintain its availability. New measures will be legislated for in the upcoming Financial Services and Markets Bill that will give the FCA powers to allow it to address cash access issues at both a national and local level. The government has said it will soon set out its expectations for a reasonable distance for people to travel when depositing and withdrawing cash. Economic secretary…

  • Electric flying boat aims to transform Norweigan commute

    Forget flying taxis and electric cars. Norway is instead betting on flying boats. The seaplane - currently being tested in the towing tank at SINTEF, a Norweigan independent research organisation - is expected to be able to take off from Norway's Trondheim Fjord or Flesland Airport in Bergen and land in the Geiranger Fjord one hour later. The plane has been designed by Norwegian startup Elfly, whose vision is to make electric flight available for passenger traffic as soon as possible. The project is a collaboration between Elfly, SINTEF, NTNU, Norwegian, OSM Aviation and Norsk Titan. It has also received financial support from the Research Council of Norway, with a view to getting a full-scale prototype in the air within the next three years. “This will be a kind of battery-powered flying…

  • Sea Rocket: the SP80 boat aiming to break the world sailing speed record

    The SP80 craft has been built for the record books, designed for a top speed of 80 knots (about 90mph, 150km/h) with only the wind as its source of power. Switzerland-based SP80 described the boat as a ‘sea rocket’, and says it plans to officially launch it at the end of this year. The project is sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille. Under construction since the summer of 2021 at Italian shipyard Persico Marine, the SP80 has been designed by a team of engineers and students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne who have combined sailing, kitesurfing and engineering principles. The boat will be bigger than the initial concept – ten metres long and seven metres wide – but will still be towed across the waves by a giant kite. The cockpit will have room for two pilots…

  • ‘Let’s design products with their demise in mind’

    “Whatever they are doing, whatever they are buying, I want consumers to ask one question,” says Joe Macleod: “I want them to ask how this ends.” For the organisations manufacturing and marketing the products we consume, the question is slightly different: “I want them to ask how should this end?” These two questions, which form the thematic bedrock of Macleod’s latest title, ‘Endineering’, focus on “how we can improve what we are making, and how we can go about reclaiming the materials and have better brand equity relationships so that we can get over the massive and wasteful problems we have in consumerism today”. While he is specifically talking about the consumer lifecycle of digital devices, these questions could apply to almost any consumer experience, says Macleod. He’s identified a…

  • View from India: Customised solutions can unfold opportunities in 5G

    India’s increasing internet penetration, combined with the digital economy envisioned by the government, has left consumers eagerly awaiting 5G technology. Touted as the fifth-generation technology, 5G has an important role to play in the upcoming rollout of wireless devices, remote healthcare, contactless services, connected systems, Internet of Things devices, smart cities and autonomous vehicles. A wide range of industries are on the cusp of a new revolution to be ushered in by 5G devices, chipsets and service providers. “5G technologies would mostly be lapped up by factories, offices and enterprises. Testing is critical for ensuring the resiliency of network operations; 5G testing can be deployed at the time of configuration,” said Mohmedsaeed Mombasawala, general manager of Keysight Technologies…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Amputees able to move robotic arm with their mind

    Current commercial prosthetic limbs often use a sensor or a cable to pick up on muscle movements in a patient’s existing limb. However, these methods tend to be cumbersome, unintuitive and typically take months of practice for amputees to adapt to. A team of r esearchers at the University of Minnesota have created a more accurate, less invasive alternative, based on the premise of allowing an amputee to move their prosthetic with their mind. The new technology consists of a small, implantable device that attaches to the peripheral nerve in a person’s arm. When combined with an artificial intelligence computer and a robotic arm, the device can read and interpret brain signals, allowing upper limb amputees to control the arm using only their thoughts. “It’s a lot more intuitive than any…

  • Teardown: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

    Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, has the muscle to justify its £1,149 price. The engine room is the latest 4nm in-house Exynos 2200 processor (replaced by the equally powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 outside Europe and Africa). The chip’s eight-core configuration combines one 2.80GHz core based on the ARM Cortex-X2, three 2.50GHz Cortex-A710s and four 1.80GHz Cortex-A510s. Most notably, the S22 Ultra leverages this for photography and the display. The rear four-camera array combines a massive 108MP main wide-angle unit with a 12MP ultra-wide-angle one, and two 10MP telephoto cameras with respectively 3x and 10x optical zoom. Further AI enhancements help bring the zoom potential up to 100x. Samsung has made further hardware and software improvements, packaged…

  • Pollution killed nine million people in 2019, study says

    Nine million people died in 2019 because of pollution, a  new study  has revealed, surpassing the annual global tolls for war, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs and alcohol. The research – published as an update to the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health – has identified pollution as the largest environmental risk factor for disease and premature death, responsible for 16 per cent of all deaths globally. Overall, air, chemical and water pollution accounted for one in six deaths worldwide. Despite the well-documented effects of pollution on mortality rates, little has been done to address this public health crisis, with public attention and funding only seeing a minimal increase in the last four years. Since the commission’s last analysis in 2015, the number of deaths from pollution…

  • Starliner capsule poised for fresh test launch to the ISS

    The uncrewed test flight of Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation-100 Starliner spacecraft comes after a series of delays, including a failed launch in 2019 when the capsule was not able to reach the International Space Station (ISS). In November 2019, the Starliner astronaut capsule underwent its first flight test , as Boeing tested its ability to abort in the event of an emergency. Nasa’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 – carrying no astronauts and only a test dummy – is another step on the path to regular human spaceflight to the ISS, Nasa has said. It will test the changes and improvements made to Starliner and prove the system is ready to fly astronauts. If successful, and following subsequent data reviews, Nasa and Boeing will set a target launch date for the Crew Flight Test with astronauts…

  • E-commerce jumps a decade in two months

    Has ‘the new normal’ become the most overused phrase in the English language thanks to Covid-19? It has competition: ‘doomscrolling’, ‘you’re on mute’ and, more recently, ‘work event’ should all be in with a shout, but our first nominee has that little bit extra. Those other three can all actually refer to something: respectively, social media, teleconferences and cake-led ambushes. ‘New normal’ is sometimes so completely void of meaning yet at others so packed as to be beyond comprehension. This is not just linguistic snark. This problem of definition is already having an economic and technological impact, particularly when it comes to advances in and the adoption of techniques around data science and artificial intelligence. Determining what exactly the new normal means is increasingly…

  • Pandemic science hub established to develop drugs for lung infections

    The hub at the University of Edinburgh will use translational genomics – following clues from the human genome to identify and rapidly test new treatments – along with experimental medicine methods to quickly evaluate and develop drugs for lung inflammation and injury caused by infection. Independent investment partnership Baillie Gifford is supporting the launch with a philanthropic gift of £14.7m, with the university aiming to secure £100m worth of investment in total. As well as accelerating discoveries of treatments for Covid-19 and other human lung diseases, the Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub aims to help prepare for future pandemics. It will build on the success of 'GenOMICC' and 'STOPCOVID', two experimental medicine projects led by Professors Kenneth Baillie and Kev Dhaliwal…

  • Renewables transition could create 9,000 Scottish energy-sector jobs by 2030

    The study from Robert Gordon University estimated that the workforce could increase to a total of 54,000 by the end of the decade compared to approximately 45,000 today if it becomes established as a 'Global Energy Hub' for offshore wind. The government’s Energy Security Strategy currently targets 50GW of offshore wind, 10GW of hydrogen and up to 30 million tonnes of carbon capture and storage for the UK as a whole by 2030. But the report warns that falling short on that goal could see the regional offshore energy workforce decline by up to 40 per cent over the same time frame to as low as approximately 28,000 jobs. It finds that over £17bn in new regional investments between 2022 and 2030 will be needed to meet the targets in manufacturing and operational capabilities for the renewables…

  • Medical miracles from plant grown platinum

    Platinum is best known as a catalyst – and as the precious metal one rank better than gold. However, it is also has near-miraculous medical applications. Chemotherapy drugs like cisplatin and carboplatin harness platinum’s ability to inhibit DNA replication and cause cell death. Thanks to their superlative array of physiochemical properties, platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) could also be used in targeted drug delivery, photothermal therapy, radiotherapy, antimicrobial ointments, bioimaging, and biosensors. Their possibilities are tantalising, but PtNPs come with twin costs: monetary and environmental. PtNPs are created through physical and chemical processes. The former approach uses high pressures and temperatures to produce pure nanoparticles of uniform size and shape, with enormous cost…

  • Engineering greener beauty products

    The process of fermentation has been used to make alcohol for thousands of years. Now, thanks to developments in bioengineering, the same process – where a microbe such as yeast interacts with a sugar molecule – is being used to create large quantities of ingredients used in the beauty industry. This is important as rare natural ingredients can be squandered to make creams, while some ingredients damage the environment. For example, squalene, which is used in moisturiser, is traditionally collected from the livers of sharks, contributing to millions being killed every year. To solve this environmental problem, and many others, Californian company Amyris genetically engineers yeast and ferments, or feeds, it with sustainably sourced sugarcane, to produce natural, high-performance molecules…

  • Porous material captures harmful pollutants from the air

    The material is capable of capturing trace amounts of benzene, a toxic pollutant, from the air while using less energy than existing materials, the researchers said. Benzene is an air toxic typically emitted from gasoline service stations, motor vehicle exhaust and fuel evaporation, the burning of coal and oil, and various other sources. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including benzene are a class of toxic pollutants that cause severe environmental and health issues. Developing technologies to remove benzene from air at trace concentrations and doing it with a low energy footprint are both challenges that have not been overcome until now. Close-up of the material Image credit: UL/Bernal “A family of porous materials – like sponge – have been developed to…

  • London homes still have serious fire safety failings, says LFB chief

    Roe has described the fire safety failings as “extremely concerning”. The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire was one of the UK's worst modern disasters. The fire broke out in the kitchen of a fourth-floor flat at the 23-storey tower block, raced up the exterior of the building and then spread to all four sides, killing 72 people. As a result of a public inquiry into the causes of the Grenfell fire, Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced a new Fire Reform White Paper that will address the fire risks of current buildings in the UK capital, and around the country.  LFB Commissioner Andy Roe welcomed the new legislation, but said more needs to be done to tackle dangerous structures and ensure residents know how to escape in the event of a fire . He also warned rogue property owners that the brigade…

  • How the metal gurus hunt down a change of catalyst

    At the end of 2016 a crash in commodities prices saw one class of crime become a lot less profitable. Along with oil and common metals like copper and nickel, the price of the far more expensive industrially important metals palladium and platinum slumped. In the case of platinum, the spot price plummeted by half as the world seemingly decided it did not need most of these materials. And fewer criminals were keen on jacking up cars parked out of sight and unbolting or sawing off catalytic converters that each contain around 5 grams of platinum and palladium. According to figures obtained by London Liberal Democrats using a freedom-of-information request on Metropolitan Police records, there were just 173 thefts of the exhaust units in the city in 2017. However, by 2020, that number had surged…

  • Robotic Hive technology behind online grocery boom

    E&T: Could you start by telling us how and when the idea for this solution was conceived James Gralton (pictured below): Our founders always had the ambition to do online grocery differently and to use cutting-edge technology and automation through centralised fulfilment to deliver an amazing service to our customers. The tech that was available at the time wasn’t really appropriate; it was really designed for smal-basket shopping. We quite quickly realised that we were going to need to build it ourselves, and over the past 20 years or so we’ve continued to do that. Now we build and license that technology out to partners around the globe. E&T: Did you have set objectives? What was your starting point and what did you hope to achieve? JG: The guiding principle, obviously, was to offer…

  • Is your advertising reaching the people you think it is?

    Many websites are financed by advertising revenue, and many businesses invest significant sums of money in ads in the hopes of improving profitability. Any effort to mislead online advertising systems for monetary advantage therefore has a negative effect on both businesses and websites. Online ads are heavily reliant on algorithmic exchanges to connect content with prospective clients. Ad fraud exploits these automated systems to impersonate actual users and profit from the broadcast of ads to non-existent clients. Bots are just one of a range of tactics used to deceive ad networks and advertisers into paying them. As a result, marketers are stuck paying for ads that are shown to fake visitors. On the other hand, publishers will see an unusual rise in payments. Marketers will eventually…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Tackling the ocean’s dead zones

    The rancid smell of rotten fish met New York City residents as they strolled along the Hudson River in December 2020. Walkers and environmental action groups reported hundreds of dead fish washing up on the river’s banks from Sleepy Hollow to Yonkers, or sightings of the sea life visibly suffocating in the city’s harbour. While there were multiple causes of the die-off, one significant factor is hypoxia – which is when the amount of oxygen dissolved in a body of water drops below a certain threshold. Without enough oxygen in the water, fish and many other forms of sea life may die en masse, leaving the surrounding area lifeless. Hypoxia (or anoxia, where there is no oxygen present in water at all) can happen naturally. There are certain areas of the ocean that contain low levels of oxygen…

  • Rocket emissions can change the atmosphere’s composition, research finds

    The space sector is on the rise, with companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic making large investments in commercial spaceflights, and organisations like Nasa continuing to power missions to space. However, the impact of such launches on the Earth’s atmosphere is still poorly understood. A team of researchers from the University of Nicosia in Cyprus set out to study the extent to which rockets' propulsion emissions can create significant heating and compositional changes in the atmosphere. To do so, the scientists investigated the heat and mass transfer and rapid mixing of the combustion byproducts for altitudes up to 67km into the atmosphere. The findings of the study, published in  Physics of Fluids , showed that rockets can have a significant impact on the Earth’s atmosphere…

  • Google faces lawsuit for misusing millions of people’s medical data

    Google is facing the class-action lawsuit in the UK for allegedly using confidential medical records belonging to 1.6 million individuals “without their consent or knowledge”. DeepMind, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) division, received the data in 2015 from the Royal Free NHS Trust in London for the purpose of testing a smartphone app called Streams, which aims to address the 25 per cent of deaths from acute kidney injuries that could be avoided through early detection. The app was subsequently used by the Trust on a discount basis. The Trust was sanctioned by the UK’s Information Commissioner's Office in 2017 after the data protection watchdog deemed the data-sharing deal illegal. At the time, Google avoided sanctions as the responsibility for the breach was placed upon the…

  • 120,000 images of Amazon wildlife captured by camera traps

    The Wildlife Conservation Society has contributed over 57,000 images of jaguar, puma, giant anteaters, tapirs, bears and hundreds of other species for a massive study on Amazon wildlife. The study, published in the journal  Ecology , consists of more than 120,000 images taken in eight countries, representing the largest photo database to date of the Amazon’s staggering array of wildlife. The images show 289 species taken from 2001-2020 from 143 field sites. The images will allow conservationists to document the effects of habitat loss, fragmentation and climate change on different species that live in the Amazon. Jaguar captured in camera trap/ WCS Ecuador Image credit: WCS Ecuador The WCS images from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru reveal playful…

  • Smart railways: on track to a digital future?

    The new breed of digital trains – not to be confused with the airport shuttles that we have been riding for years, or the Docklands Light railway in London which travels on a confined track – will share the tracks with conventional driver-operated trains, in a much more complex environment. Trains are already an efficient method of moving people and goods around but can be 15 per cent more energy efficient when driven by an AI, be more punctual, and can carry 30-50 per cent more passengers or freight, by reducing spacing between trains, all on existing infrastructure. Rural public transport economics can also be transformed by making lines less expensive to operate and enhancing existing safety levels. The last few months have seen a flurry of announcements that, at first sight, might appear…

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