• Testing facility for lower carbon rocket engines opens in Scotland

    The state-of-the-art facility, which is the largest of its kind in the UK, represents another step forward for the UK’s burgeoning space sector. The government currently hopes to grow the UK’s share of the global space market to 10 per cent by 2030. It aims to build multiple spaceports in the UK, with a view to seeing commercial sub-orbital spaceflight and space tourism from UK spaceports. In October, Skyrora signed a deal with a spaceport based on the Shetland islands that could see rocket launches take place in the UK this year at the earliest. It said its new Midlothian facility would have a lower carbon footprint compared to having to transport engines and equipment to third-party facilities. It will also harness its natural surroundings and use rainfall from the Scottish Lowlands…

  • The Pantheon: still the world’s largest reinforced concrete dome

    If there Was a competition to find the most durable and beautiful concrete structure ever built, the Pantheon in Rome would most surely win the prize. It also stands as a monument to the genius of Roman concrete. Commissioned by Hadrian (who was emperor 117-138 CE) as a temple to all the gods, the Pantheon replaced Agrippa’s earlier temple following a fire. It is still the most visited site in Italy, having weathered centuries of tourists, floods, wars and earthquakes. Its huge concrete dome – 43.4m in diameter and 21.75m high – was unrivalled in size until the building of Florence Cathedral in the 1400s, and is still the largest ever made with unsupported concrete. “The mastery of building something so daring and having the structure resist essentially without any structural support…

  • Insulation simple solution to slash energy bills, as government considers more coal

    An Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) assessment has found that six million homes had been upgraded to energy performance certificate band C from 2009 to 2019 courtesy of relatively simple home-improvement measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation. Upgrading a home from band D to band C cuts gas demand by 20 per cent per home, saving each one around £194 per year from April 2022 – and potentially even more if energy bills climb further, as is expected in the face of ballooning gas prices due to reduced supply, increased demand and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The energy efficiency measures installed in the decade to 2019 will save bill-payers an estimated £1.15bn this year, the organisation said. As debate rages on how to tackle surging energy bills, green campaigners…

  • Ukraine to receive 500 generators from UK in efforts to keep electricity flowing

    The donation follows direct requests from President Zelenskyy in recent discussions with the UK's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. The UK government has created a dedicated taskforce, including distribution network operators and the Energy Networks Association, to source and send the generators to Ukraine, which could provide enough to power around 20,000 homes or equivalent buildings. Some of Ukraine’s key facilities including hospitals, shelters and water treatment plants have lost power during the ongoing Russian invasion. Russian forces have attacked some key infrastructure during the invasion, including a high-voltage power line that links to the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Ukraine recently told the UN nuclear watchdog that staff operating radioactive…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Stricter rules for online purchases come into force today

    A new set of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements are being implemented that will change how people confirm their identity when making online purchases. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that customers will now be asked to prove their identity when making a purchase, by confirming their identify through two of the following three ‘factors’: Something they are – like a fingerprint or facial ID Something they know – like a passcode or password Something they have – like a mobile phone The SCA rules have already been applied to a small number of transactions for some time, but the proportion of transactions which need to adhere to the new requirements has been steadily increasing since the start of this year as merchants prepared themselves to meet the enforcement…

  • Microscopic ocean predator exhibits taste for carbon capture

    Scientists at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have discovered a new species that has the potential to sequester carbon naturally, even as oceans warm and become more acidic. The microbe, abundant around the world, photosynthesises and releases a carbon-rich exopolymer that attracts and immobilises other microbes. It then eats some of the entrapped prey before abandoning its exopolymer 'mucosphere'. Having trapped other microbes, the exopolymer is made heavier and sinks, forming part of the ocean’s natural biological carbon pump. Marine biologist Dr Michaela Larsson led the research, published in the journal Nature Communications, and said the study is the first to demonstrate this behaviour. Marine microbes govern oceanic biogeochemistry through a range of processes including…

  • Sponsored: The Future of Sustainable Building will require Partnership

    Professional partnerships are the key to promoting innovation, meeting evolving customer demands, spurring greater sustainability, and fostering superior business efficiency. Collaborative ecosystems promote partner competitiveness and boost the capability to quickly scale up to confront disruptive changes, tap into new expertise and respond to new market opportunities. The ability to facilitate a more sustainable, efficient, and resilient future rests on three core concepts: Simplified, Open, and Digital. These tools are readily available to those who wish to digitalise design practices and increase operational efficiency from design through execution. The AEC (architectural,  engineering , and construction) sector is confronting a period of unprecedented challenges – but also one of opportunity…

  • View from India: Infrastructure projects key to growth as trade flows face new threats

    “The gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected at 7.8 per cent for the next fiscal, with risks like Fed-rate tilting to the downside. The risk factor associated with Covid-19 has now shifted to geopolitics, crude oil and interest rate hikes in the US.” That’s the view of Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist at analyist firm CRISIL Ltd. However, “government-initiated infrastructure-investment-led growth is expected to lift the lid off risks to an extent,” he told media at CRISIL’s recent India Outlook webinar.   Infrastructure-investment-led growth could gradually filter to smaller companies and lower income categories and, consequently, have a mild positive impact on private consumption in the near term. The forex (foreign exchange) cover seems to provide some sort of buffer for some…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • The First Den in the Moon

    The first humans to live on the Moon and Mars will make their home in life-sustaining modules built on Earth. But there is no question of continually filling rockets with food, cement, and other consumables to support new human colonies. Living on other worlds hinges on our ability to live off those lands. “The initial habitat should be built on Earth; it is way more expensive, but it is safer,” says Dr Christiane Heinicke, who leads a team designing a pre-fabricated Moon and Mars base at the University of Bremen. “In the long term, if we send more people there and really want to have a permanent presence there, I think it makes much more sense to use local materials to construct the habitat. [...] On the surface of the Moon and Mars you have this regolith and you have so much of it you can…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • ‘Embedded finance comes with monumental challenges’: Ozan Özerk, founder of OpenPayd

    In the post-pandemic world every organisation will be a fintech company, says Ozan Özerk. With the buy-now-pay-later trend firmly behind us, “the next disruptor will be embedded finance”, states the founder of the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) software platform OpenPayd, which through its single integration approach to a portfolio of transaction types is “helping innovative fintechs get to market quickly and access cross-border services”. Özerk stresses that embedded finance comes with “monumental challenges. But cyber security isn’t one of them: because we’ve fixed that. The big issue is simply keeping pace with technology in the booming financial services sector.” Another factor identified by Özerk is the lack of end-user knowledge of what embedded finance is. “If you take a normal black…

  • Autonomous vehicles will no longer require steering wheels in the US

    Previously, autonomous vehicles needed to come equipped with a steering wheel and pedals so that human drivers could take control if needed. Carmakers have had to grapple with safety standards written decades before the concept of automated vehicles was even a realistic endeavour. “Through the 2020s, an important part of the US Department of Transportation’s safety mission will be to ensure safety standards keep pace with the development of automated driving and driver assistance systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, US transportation secretary. “This new rule is an important step, establishing robust safety standards for ADS-equipped vehicles.” The rule updates the standards to clarify what is required of manufacturers when applying the standards to automated vehicles without traditional manual…

  • Supertanker with Russian oil due in UK today despite ban

    The environmental group has launched a beta version of its 'Russian Tanker Tracker' on Twitter - @RUTankerTracker - which uses shipping data to monitor supertankers delivering fossil fuels from the country. The fully automated Twitter tracker has been created by Greenpeace and aims to track the large oil and ga tankers (deadweight tonnage equal to or over 50,000 tonnes) that have left a list of Russian oil and gas terminals since Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24. Using MarineTraffic API data services, the cloud-based solution pulls data about vessel position from transceivers on board (AIS), as well as port calls data for a variety of events including departures, destination, change of destination and arrivals. Twitter posts then are generated from the data using pre-defined templates…

  • Government promises £84m to improve unreliable train services in the North-West

    The money will go towards works that will deliver trackside upgrades, platform extensions for longer trains and bigger depots across the region. According to a survey of 5086 passengers from Transport Focus last month, West Midlands Railway was found to have the lowest customer satisfaction rating in the country. Works are already under way to upgrade trackside equipment between Manchester and Liverpool and platform extensions on the Cumbrian route. This will support the introduction of longer trains with extra seats and an upcoming timetable change across the region with hopes that reliability will be improved. The government has been criticised in the past by peers and MPs for not focusing enough resources on Northern infrastructure and instead favouring rail services in other part…

  • US start-up unveils next-gen space rover

    The company, Venturi Astrolab Inc, released photos and video showing its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) vehicle riding over the rugged California desert near Death Valley National Park during a five-day field test in December 2021. Astrolab executives said they have designed the four-wheeled, car-sized FLEX rover for Nasa’s Artemis programme, aimed at returning humans to the Moon as early as 2025 and establishing a long-term lunar colony as a precursor to sending astronauts to Mars. “For humanity to live and operate in a sustained way off Earth, there needs to exist an efficient network all the way from the launchpad to the ultimate outpost,” Astrolab founder and CEO Jaret Matthews said in a statement announcing the rover’s development. Unlike the 1970s Apollo-era Moon buggies…

  • After All: Ukraine’s industrial capital made a new Stalingrad by invaders

    After a weak anaesthetic of fitful sleep, the nightmare returns every morning at the press of a DAB radio button. Something deep inside me resists, for it is probably better not to be aware of the dreadful reality that appeared entirely impossible only a couple weeks ago. But not knowing would mean guessing and wondering who else of my friends could have been killed, what other relic of my past had been bombed out of existence, what other blood-oozing morsels had been torn out of Ukraine’s tired heart? And of my own heart too. “Kharkiv is no more,” an old friend muttered into her phone, having peeped one morning out of the basement where she had been hiding with her husband for over a week. And my exhausted brain immediately made a terrifying connection: “Kharkiv, no more – my birthplace…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Iconic concrete structures around the world

    The world is full of wonderful engineering feats that push the boundaries in creativity. But most of these fascinating structures would not exist were it not for the use of one of the most ubiquitous and versatile building materials. Concrete forms a big part of our surrounding landscapes, whether it be in road surfaces, dams or buildings. Even the architects and builders of the most impressive structures across the globe aren’t shy about its use. Image credit: Dreamstime Christ The Redeemer Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Construction: 4 April 1922 - 12 October 1931 If you look up at the narrow summit of Mount Corcovado, you’ll see the imposing statue of Christ the Redeemer. The statue, which represents Jesus Christ, is made of reinforced concrete clad in…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Gadgets: Bissell Pet Stain Eraser, Hexclad high-tech pans, Nokia G21 and more

    Bissell Pet Stain Eraser Cordless and clever, this is designed for removing small stains from carpets and soft furnishing. You spray the stain then a power brush lifts it. It’s Bissell’s first mini cleaner for pet stains and at 2kg it’s half the weight of its previous cordless handhelds. £129.99 bisselldirect.co.uk Read Caramel’s full hands-on review. Hexclad pans High-tech pans with Gordon Ramsay’s seal of approval. The laser-etched hexagon pattern is the secret to its hybrid technology. The peaks are stainless steel, the valleys are non-stick. As a result, you can fry and sear without sticking but clean with a scourer. You can even use metal utensils. from £79 hexclad.co.uk Nokia G21 ...

  • Book review: ‘The New Fire’ by Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie

    Dissatisfied with the widespread cliché comparing the importance and potential ubiquity of artificial intelligence with electricity, Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie have set out to find a better metaphor. The problem with the electricity analogy, they contend, is that after a couple of centuries working out what it is and what it does, we’ve harnessed it in such a way that it has become a potent force for universal good, safely and cheaply working its magic behind the scenes to deliver our modern world on demand and in a reliable way. The same can’t be said for artificial intelligence, say the pair, who having completed ‘The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI’ (The MIT Press, $29.95, ISBN 0262046541) now hold senior posts in the United States government: Buchanan as assistant…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from India: Think nano, get big results

    Logically, anything which is of the size of a nanometer will have gone unnoticed; but in the nano world almost everything seems different. “The properties of the nanometre are far too fascinating and intriguing for researchers and scientists to ignore. Nano-engineering enables professionals to exploit the physical-chemical properties of the nanometer. It has found applications in diverse verticals ranging from the semiconductor chip to transistors,” said Professor Srinivasan Raghavan of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), at the Bengaluru India Nano 2022. Broadly, nanotechnology finds applications in medicine, energy and industrial verticals, and may gain mainstream relevance if it is positioned as a low-cost technology for the healthcare of the…

  • The quest for smarter, and greener, cement

    This is because there is no real alternative to the material that underpins everything from Hadrian’s Wall to the Burj Khalifa. Concrete – and the cement that plays a critical role in its performance – is here to stay. Long experience with cement and concrete, however, has led to constant improvement. This, coupled with a natural industry conservatism, makes technology advances hard to come by. “Portland cement is an amazing material,” says Theo Hanein, a researcher in cement materials at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Sheffield University. “There’s no reason to move away from it, other than its effect on the planet.” Cement’s lack of sustainability is well known. When producing clinker – a precursor to cement – the calcining process converts calcium carbonate…

  • How to meet the challenges of concrete’s carbon footprint

    Even the Covid pandemic put barely a dent in the production of concrete. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 2020 saw just a 4 per cent fall in cement and steel production, though the crackdown on speculative construction in China might arrest the rampant growth of concrete jungles across that country, which now has an estimated 90 million empty apartments. In 1980, Europe and North America accounted for 40 per cent of global cement production of 900 million tonnes. By 2017, that share had dropped to less than 7 per cent, according to US environmental charity ClimateWorks Foundation. By that time, China and India accounted for more than 60 per cent of cement production, churning out some 2.6 billion tonnes annually. Analysts expect China’s status as number-​one consumer will…

  • Huge funding gaps in UK’s energy efficiency plans, climate advisors warn

    The body, which independently advises the government on climate change, praised the 'Heat and Buildings Strategy' which includes proposals such as phasing out gas and oil boilers, new long-term policies for low-carbon heat and new funding for heat networks, public buildings and the fuel poor. However, the CCC said that while the government has committed some funds towards the goals, it will likely need to invest much more, especially in light of the rising number of households in fuel poverty caused by the rocketing wholesale price of gas over the last few months, further exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine. The funding allocated up to 2025 for public sector buildings such as schools and hospitals is only a third of what is needed to achieve its goals for cutting emissions from those…

  • Relocating farmland worldwide could drastically reduce carbon emissions

    The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large new farming areas for many major crops both around the cornbelt in the mid-western US and below the Sahara desert. Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat. The redesign – assuming high-input, mechanised farming – would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71 per cent, by allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is the equivalent of capturing 20 years’ worth of our current net CO 2 emissions. Trees capture carbon as they grow and also enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when crops are grown in it. In this optimised scenario, the impact of crop production on the world’s biodiversity would be reduced by 87 per cent. This would drastically reduce the extinction…

  • Keyboard warriors join Ukrainian resistance

    Ukrainian cyber-security expert Dyma Budorin hasn’t slept much since he relocated his Kyiv-based company a fortnight before the Russian invasion. He saw the writing on the wall and hastily moved with most of his staff to Barcelona, where his wife anxiously checks on her parents in Mariupol. Bleary but resolute, he details plans hatched in a Spanish village to unleash mayhem upon Russian targets. Aided by an underground band of volunteers – part of an ‘IT army’ galvanised by a direct appeal from the Ukrainian government – his cybersecurity company Hacken has managed to adapt a tool originally designed to stress-test company systems and protect against fraud. Volunteers rewrote code in record time to allow disBalancer to work across all platforms, beyond Windows. “They did in three days what…

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