• Microsoft retires Internet Explorer browser after 27 years

    Almost 27 after the first version of Internet Explorer greeted users’ screens, Microsoft has disabled the web browser. Released in 1995, Internet Explorer was once the dominant internet browser, achieving a 95 per cent share of the market in 2004. However, since then, its usage has shrivelled, having been overtaken by other browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox, which adapted better to the mobile world. Microsoft first announced its intention to retire the browser in August 2021, when it first revealed that Internet Explorer 11 was no longer supported in Windows 10 and Microsoft 365. In a submission sent to an Australian competition regulator, Microsoft said its decision to retire Internet Explorer was largely due to the fact web developers were less likely…

  • Sponsored: Consider the anti-glare angles for outdoor displays

    The characteristics of TFT displays mean they have become a common feature in our everyday lives. The displays are low in energy consumption and slim, making them convenient and versatile for a wide variety of applications. In the course of a single day, it is usual to come into contact with several as we use our mobile phone, our desktop computer, buy lunch using a supermarket’s automatic checkout and when watching TV at the end of the day. The technology is also popular because it delivers a sharp image with good contrast and clarity of image. However, all of the TFT displays examples mentioned above are indoors. There are many examples where a slim, high resolution display is required to be in an outdoor setting, for example transport information and ticket kiosks. Large TFT displays are…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from Brussels: JUPITER ascending

    Brussels continues to try and up its tech game so that it can compete with Asia and the United States, whether that be through big investments in quantum computing research or sweet tax perks aimed at luring big microchip producers to Europe. This week, the EU’s high-performance computing division announced that sites have been chosen for the next generation of supercomputers. The jewel in the crown will be an exascale-level device known as JUPITER, which will be built at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in north-west Germany. Once up and running in 2023, JUPITER will be capable of performing more than 1 quintillion arithmetic calculations every second, which will place it third in the global ranking, ahead of LUMI, a pre-exascale unit in Finland that is currently Europe’s most powerful…

  • Thermoelectric ink paves way to battery-free IoT devices

    Thermoelectricity is the direct conversion of heat to electricity. It’s possible to capture the heat that a device generates and convert to power that can be used by the same device, or another device.  Researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm report that they have developed a promising blend of thermoelectric coating for devices that generate heat.  When one end of a thermoelectric material is heated up, charge carriers (electrons and holes) move away from the hot end towards the cold end, resulting in an electric current.   Researcher Muhammet Toprak said his team focused on the design and development of hybrid thermoelectric materials for room-temperature operations, which integrates solid-state semiconductors with flexible materials such as polymers, to formulate…

  • Malaysia considers Korean-built maglev for city transport

    In an official statement posted on Facebook, Dr Wee Ka Siong said he had been given a presentation on the plan during a recent courtesy visit from senior representatives of several major South Korean businesses, including Hyundai Corporation and train-maker Hyundai Rotem, electrical equipment manufacturer EP Korea and Maglev MKC. Dr Wee was accompanied by the CEO of Malaysia’s principal railway operator, KTMB, and the transport ministry’s rail director. He said the briefing on plans for a maglev system for the Putrajaya area was given by EP Korea’s railway senior MD Yoo Jai Tark. South Korea has practical experience of the technology, as Incheon International Airport is served by a 6km maglev line that opened to the public in 2016, using ‘Ecobee’ trains built by Hyundai Rotem. Development…

  • Technology versus the waste mafia

    “Our goal for waste crime is very simple: stop it. That’s an audacious ambition, about which we are totally unapologetic,” said a determined Sir James Bevan in a stirring speech to the waste industry earlier this year. Bevan, who is chief executive of the Environment Agency (EA), noted that waste crime costs the economy around £1bn each year and attracts organised criminals, who invest their ill-gotten proceeds into cycles of violence. This is because rewards are high – often greater than robbery, drug dealing or contract killing – and the chances of being caught “have always been relatively low, and the penalties if you are caught traditionally light”, he said. The EA is talking tough. Yet the concern is that six years ago Bevan made a similar speech, in which he famously likened waste…

  • Vodafone switches on ‘self-powering’ mobile mast in Welsh countryside

    The mast - located in Pembrokeshire, Wales - also incorporates a wind turbine, solar panels and on-site battery storage so that it can operate in remote areas without a good electricity supply. It will provide 4G coverage to the community of Eglwyswrw and is one of the initiatives that Vodafone is taking to meet its target of net zero UK operations by 2027. The specially designed mast will improve connectivity in ‘not-spots’ in the UK’s most remote and inaccessible locations and could help the industry achieve its stated goal of 95 per cent coverage of the UK landmass by 2025. Vodafone also said that every area of its business in the UK – including its network, data centres, retail stores and offices – is now 100 per cent powered by electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, solar…

  • Scientists study use volcanic ash to develop cement and concrete

    A research team based at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), has found that  volcanic ashes are sufficiently reactive to be applied in the manufacture of several types of cement. The samples were taken from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, on the island of La Palma, which erupted in September 2021 for 85 days, after lying dormant for over 50 years.  The ashes produced by each volcano are distinctively different, according to researchers, and the relative youth of the samples from La Palma could make the ashes have characteristics that could be leveraged by the construction sector to support its decarbonisation efforts.  "To date, we have carried out physical, chemical, mineralogical and mechanical tests, and the results show that these volcanic ashes meet the regulatory requirements…

  • Shape-shifting drone both flies and dives to study aquatic environments

    The ‘dual robot’ drone – developed at Imperial College London and tested at Empa and the aquatic research institute Eawag in Switzerland – has successfully measured water in lakes for signs of microorganisms and algal blooms, which can pose hazards to human health. The drone could be used in future to monitor climate clues such as temperature changes in Arctic seas. The researchers developed the drone to boost the ability to quickly deploy monitoring drones to aquatic environments. The unique design, called 'Multi-Environment Dual robot for Underwater Sample Acquisition' (Medusa), could also help monitor and maintain offshore infrastructure such as underwater energy pipelines and floating wind turbines. Professor Mirko Kovac, principal investigator on the project and director of the Aerial…

  • China’s lander finds water on the Moon

    Chang'e-5 , the lunar lander designed by China, has found water at its landing site using spectral reflectance measurements of soil and rocks. The lunar unit landed near Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon's near side in 2020, where it collected and tested over 60oz (approximately 1.7kg) of lunar samples from a core about three feet deep. The findings were validated through the analysis of samples the lander returned to Earth in 2021. Now, the Chang'e-5 team has published the conclusions of the experiment in the journal Nature Communications . Although it was India's  Chandrayaan-1 mission that first detected the presence of water on the Moon from orbit, using NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, no mission has been able to confirm these findings on-site. "For the first time in the world…

  • Offshore electric boat charging system cuts emissions from turbine maintenance

    Developed by MJR Power, the offshore wind vessel charging system uses energy generated by the turbines themselves to power the electrified marine transport vehicles. The cables and foundations that support turbines and carry power from wind farms back to the mainland need constant monitoring and maintenance. Conducting this work on offshore wind turbines usually requires energy companies to send out large vessels that use vast quantities of fuel, with very high operating costs, and are often crewed by up to 60 people from engineers and submersible pilots to cooks and cleaners. But the new project to install offshore charge points will enable all electric crew transfer vessels and other offshore support vessels to connect in the field to a green energy source. It has secured funding…

  • Racing against the microplastics tide

    Complex tides and constantly shifting weather make circumnavigating Britain a tough job. It needs good navigation skills as well as experience of coastal sea conditions. If you are rowing against the clock in a non-stop race in which competitors won’t set foot on dry land until it is over, you need to back up this expertise with the strength, stamina and determination that go with being an elite athlete. This is the GB Row Challenge, the prestigious Annual Around Great Britain Rowing Race. This year, three teams - Albatross, All Systems Row and Sea Legs - will form up at the start/finish line on 12 June at London’s Tower Bridge on the Thames. As well as competing against each other, they will be aiming to beat the Guinness World Record race time of 26 days, set in 2013 by a four-man crew…

  • UN climate plan sets tough standards for members to eradicate fossil fuels

    The global Race To Zero campaign currently represents a coalition of 1,049 cities, 67 regions, 5,235 businesses, 441 of the biggest investors, and 1,039 higher education institutions. The new rules mean corporations and investors must restrict the development, financing, and facilitation of new fossil fuel assets, which includes no new coal projects. The exact pathways and timelines differ across regions and sectors. It also makes explicit a pre-existing requirement to publicly disclose a Transition Plan within 12 months of joining Race to Zero. Nigel Topping and Mahmoud Mohieldin, high-level climate champions for COP26 & COP27, said: “The clarity these criteria provide, together with strengthened data transparency, will help us identify the progress made and gaps remaining. “They will…

  • Rising sea levels put 200,000 English homes at risk

    The predicted rise of sea levels might have placed a third of the English coast at risk. A study published in the journal Oceans And Coastal Management has compared the rising risk of coastal flooding with existing policies for managing the floods, concluding that nearly 2 00,000 homes and businesses in England are currently at risk of being lost forever to the seas. According to the research, these properties would have to be abandoned due to the high costs of putting protections such as seawalls and coastal defences . Some of the areas most at risk include North Somerset, Sedgemoor, Wyre and Swale. The figure does not include the 30,000 to 35,000 properties which already have a policy in place to realign the coast. "It just won't be possible to hold the line all around the coast," said…

  • Slow down and speed up for satellites

    Small Finnish company Aurora Propulsion Technologies is testing a radical new satellite de-orbiting technology this summer. The plasma brake technology was invented by astrophysicist Pekka Janhunen, one of the company founders. The plasma brake is compact, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive. About the size of an old-style cassette tape, it can be installed on a satellite before launch, although in the future it may be possible to retrofit them to satellites of up to 600kg using a robotic arm mounted on another space vehicle. De-orbiting satellites safely is critical to mitigate the generation of space junk by collisions between orbiting objects. A plasma brake unit that can safely de-orbit satellites from orbits up to 1,000km in altitude would weigh only 2kg and cost a fraction of…

  • Hands-on gadget review: Arlo Go 2 security camera

    A smart security camera with a couple of differences. Most models rely on your home Wi-Fi network. They’re ‘wireless’ but often need mains power too; so while they’re affordable you won’t exactly be living the wire-free dream. Enter the Arlo Go 2, with a SIM card slot for optional mobile data, and SD card slot for optional extra storage and – crucially – a battery that should last months, not days. It’s not cheap, but it’s arguably good value because it can secure anything anywhere. The weatherproof security camera can livestream 1080p HD video via a 4G SIM (or Wi-Fi if it has a signal). It’s perfect for a caravan, boat, garage, even keeping an eye on a building site during refurbishment. Being a freelance journalist, I don’t own a yacht... but I do have an allotment, so I set up the…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from Washington: AI is neither sentient... nor regulated

    The controversy around Google engineer Blake Lemoine’s belief that the company’s LaMDA AI has become sentient is gradually moving from the distant and unhelpful Skynet topic to the more pressing one of how we interact with these systems as they become ever better at mimicking human discourse. That trend is also once more highlighting issues around regulation. An especially striking thing about Lemoine’s claims is that they come from a Google engineer with seven years of experience. Much is being made of Lemoine’s personal interest in spirituality. He styles himself as a priest. This may have made him more susceptible when it came to how he has interpreted LaMDA’s responses. But he does appear to have a solid understanding of how AI and pattern matching work. He helped in the development…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • ‘Robots can make engineering activities safer, quicker and cheaper’

    “At the moment, the devices we are developing still have an operator in the loop,” says Jon Wakeling. “But if you were to talk to me in five-to-ten years’ time, we’d be discussing device automation and autonomy.” Wakeling, who is acting director at Openreach Research (part of British Telecom’s Applied Research division), is discussing robots currently under development in BT’s latest research facility at Adastral Park, where he leads “a small team performing technology and capability discovery, working with universities to take concepts through to early-stage prototypes”. In a utopian future, according to Wakeling, we will have robots at our disposal that dig under roads and across gardens to deploy cables, freeing up human engineering capacity. That is the long-term objective, he says, …

  • Scientists link stablecoin to electricity

    Through the combination of statistical mechanics and information theory, scientists have been able to design a class of stablecoin that is linked to electricity, known as the Electricity Stablecoin (E-Stablecoin). According to the research published in Cryptoeconomic Systems , the E-Stablecoin would be minted through the input of one kilowatt-hour of electricity, plus a fee.  This new blockchain concept would allow electricity to be transmitted between users who are spread around the world, without the need for interconnecting wires or a grid-based transmission system. E-Stablecoin could therefore be the first fully collateralised stablecoin, as its value would be pegged to a physical asset – electricity – that is dependent on its utility.  Due to its nature, this stablecoin could solve…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Teardown: Apple Self-Service Repair

    Apple launched its first self-repair scheme in the US in April, with Europe to follow later this year. However, unlike others recently launched by Samsung, Google, HTC and Microsoft, the company is maintaining complete control over its programme. Its rivals have partnered with independent repairs specialist and replacement-parts supplier iFixit. Leading electronics companies have gradually come around to addressing the demands of right-to-repair campaigners as politicians have become more open to introducing laws. France was the first country to do so in January 2021 and plans to extend the repairability scores it mandates across a range of electronic products to include durability. It is fair to say that most consumers will still prefer to have repairs carried out by an expert (though…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Electric car grant scheme axed by government sends ‘wrong message’

    Under the grant scheme, drivers were able to claim up to £1,500 towards the cost of a plug-in car costing below £32,000. The government has now said it wants to “refocus” its grant funding to encourage the take-up of other types of electric vehicle. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) criticised the decision saying that it sent the “wrong message” to consumers at a time when the UK is attempting to move towards net zero carbon emissions. “Whilst we welcome government’s continued support for new electric van, taxi and adapted vehicle buyers, we are now the only major European market to have zero upfront purchase incentives for EV car buyers yet the most ambitious plans for uptake,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. The DfT said the scheme would be ended because…

  • Google engineer claims AI system has developed feelings

    Google employee Lemoine had requested respect towards one of the firm’s artificial intelligence tools after reportedly finding that the system had the perception of, and the ability to express thoughts and feelings equivalent to, a human child. Google has denied all claims that Lamda AI has become sentient and has subsequently placed Lemoine on paid leave. The firm states that t he 'Language Model for Dialogue Applications' (Lamda) is a breakthrough technology that can engage in free-flowing conversations. Lemoine was working on the model, testing the AI’s ability to generate discriminatory language or hate speech. However, the tool’s impressive verbal skills led the scientist to believe it had developed a sentient mind. To support his claims, Lemoine shared a document with company executives…

  • Sponsored: Decarbonisation through energy management and renewable energy

    Register for this webinar to learn about: The types of related key standards Evaluate their corresponding usage and application Summarise how the mentioned standards can be used in buildings in a complementary manner Evaluate when and how to promote these standards for various applications Presented with live Q&A on 5th July 2022 at 9am BST - or watch afterwards on demand. This free webinar is available for IET members and non-members. Register for this free webinar

  • Nigeria to require social media platforms to open local offices

    The code of practice for "interactive computer service platforms/internet intermediaries" is intended to curb online abuse, including disinformation and misinformation, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) said in the regulations posted on its website. A statement from the agency's spokesperson, dated 13 June, said the regulations had been developed with input from Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google and TikTok, among others. As in most countries, these platforms are very popular in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with more than 200 million people. NIDTA said the platforms will be required to provide relevant information to users or authorised government agencies, including for the purpose of preserving security and public order. The code of…

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