• Nano-sensors detect pesticides on fruit

    The technique uses flame-sprayed nanoparticles made from silver to increase the signal of chemicals. “Reports show that up to half of all fruits sold in the EU contain pesticide residues that in larger quantities have been linked to human health problems,” said Georgios Sotiriou, the study’s corresponding author. “However, current techniques for detecting pesticides on single products before consumption are restricted in practice by the high cost and cumbersome manufacturing of its sensors. To overcome this, we developed inexpensive and reproducible nano-sensors that could be used to monitor traces of fruit pesticides at, for example, the store.” The new nano-sensors employ a 1970s discovery known as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), a powerful sensing technique that can increase…

  • Apple presents new MacBook Air powered by M2 chip, plus iOS updates and more

    The new MacBook Air features a strikingly thin design - its all-aluminium unibody enclosure is a mere 11.3mm in thickness - and is powered by Apple's own next-generation M2 chip. The consumer-oriented laptop now has a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, a four-speaker sound system and claims to have up to 18 hours of battery life. The MagSafe power cable connection also returns to the Air. Four different colours for the Air will be available, including two new options in Midnight and Starlight. Its more professional-oriented sibling, the MacBook Pro 13”, previously announced by Apple, has also now been upgraded to the new M2 chip and retains its Retina display, FaceTime HD camera, "studio-quality mics" and up to 20 hours of battery life. With the latest upgrades…

  • Biden takes emergency route to boost US solar energy production

    The United States is committed to becoming a solar energy superpower as its president, Joe Biden, looks at ways to jumpstart progress toward his climate change-fighting goals. In order to boost the country's renewable energy production, Biden has announced his intention to use his executive powers to accelerate the domestic manufacturing of solar panels and issue a 24-month tariff exemption on imports of the products from several Asian countries. Advancements in the manufacturing of this technology froze last March, after the Commerce Department launched an inquiry into possible trade violations involving Chinese products. The investigation halted the flow of solar panels that make up more than half of US supplies and 80 per cent of imports. The Commerce Department is still scrutinising…

  • Beam-steering antenna enables 6G speeds on 5G equipment

    Experimental results show the device can provide continuous ‘wide-angle’ beam steering, allowing it to track a moving mobile phone user in the same way that a satellite dish turns to track a moving object, but with significantly enhanced speeds.  Devised by University of Birmingham researchers, the technology has demonstrated vast improvements in data transmission efficiency at frequencies ranging across the millimetre wave spectrum, specifically those identified for 5G (mmWave) and 6G, where high efficiency is currently only achievable using slow, mechanically steered antenna solutions.   For 5G mmWave applications, prototypes of the beam-steering antenna at 26GHz are said to have shown unprecedented data transmission efficiency.   The device is fully compatible with existing 5G specifications…

  • Autonomous Mayflower robot boat reaches North America

    In 1620, a ship known as the Mayflower carried a group of English families from England to Plymouth, Massachusetts, leading to the establishment of the first permanent New England colony and the beginning of the history of colonial America. Four centuries later, an autonomous robotic boat has replicated the journey. The sleek autonomous trimaran docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sunday, after more than five weeks crossing the Atlantic. The 50-feet Mayflower Autonomous Ship was built by ocean research non-profit ProMare and IBM and did not carry any humans on board. Instead, the ship was piloted by an innovative artificial intelligence technology. Autonomous Mayflower robot boat reaches North America/ ProMare and IBM Image credit: IBM “The technology that makes…

  • Nuclear waste energy could power the US for a century, scientist says

    Scientists have long known the potential of nuclear fast reactors, which turn nuclear waste into energy. However, although the technology was proven in a US government pilot that took place between the 1960s and 1990s, it was never deemed profitable enough to be commercialised, until now. According to Jess C. Gehin - an associate laboratory director at Idaho National Laboratory, one of the government’s premier energy research labs - current levels of nuclear waste in the US could produce enough energy to power the entire country for 100 years. The technology would not only help alleviate the current energy crisis , but also solve the difficult challenge of managing nuclear waste. The 2015 Paris Agreement, coupled with the recent rapid rise in energy costs, are driving the development of…

  • Modular construction technique slashes carbon emissions from new buildings

    The system was developed by academics from the University of Cambridge and Edinburgh Napier University. It has been used in a study for two developments delivered by Tide Construction, with the modular system used to construct a total of 879 homes. The study calculated that around 28,000 tonnes of embodied carbon emissions were saved from construction across both schemes combined – well ahead of the industry’s current targets. The researchers believe their approach has the potential to radically reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector and could aid the government’s ambition to build 300,000 better-quality homes. Embodied carbon - the CO2 produced during the design, construction and decommissioning phases of a development - is dramatically lower when modular systems are…

  • Woman receives ‘revolutionary’ transplant of 3D-printed ear

    A 20-year-old woman has become the first-ever recipient of an ear created using 3D-printing technology. Alexa was born with a congenital disorder called microtia, which caused her to have a small and misshapen right ear. In order to provide her with a new ear, Dr Arturo Bonilla, a paediatric ear reconstructive surgeon in San Antonio removed half a gram of cartilage from the patient’s ear remnant and sent it to a laboratory along with a 3D scan of her healthy ear. The result was a brand new ear created from the patient’s cells. The printing process took less than 10 minutes. Cornell-founded start-up 3DBio Therapeutics was the New York-based company behind the “revolutionary” transplant. I ndependent experts said that the procedure, which was part of the first clinical trial of a successful…

  • Clothes sanitisation technology could cut waste from fashion industry

    In trials conducted by the University team, it has been demonstrated that a state-of the-art ‘sanitisation chamber’ effectively kills a vast range of germs and viruses, such as E. coli, S. aureus and coronavirus, which can otherwise linger on clothing and fashion accessories. The sanitisation chamber is now being trialled on PPE, making it safe to reuse, which could significantly reduce environmental waste from PPE products. Researcher Dr Mohammed Yaseen said: “This revolutionary technology has real potential to disrupt the fashion and textile industry and offers huge environmental benefits, which could see a significant reduction in landfill waste from clothing.” Currently, about 40 per cent of clothing purchased online is returned, with less than half of it being resold and the remainder…

  • View from Brussels: Lithuania, hero of the European Union

    The EU has grappled with the issue of curbing Russian energy purchases in recent weeks, as leaders try to find a way to stop funding the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine that does not hammer their voters with unaffordable utility bills. Last week, prime ministers and presidents met in Brussels to try and broker an agreement on another round of Russia sanctions, most notably an oil embargo. But it did not all go to plan. Hungary vetoed any chance of a full ban on imports, so pipeline oil will remain available for purchase. It means that the EU will cut around 90 per cent of trade instead of the full embargo that most leaders were seeking. This fudge took weeks to cook up and makes the prospect of a gas ban even more implausible. Big players like Germany and Italy will not take that hit and…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Cutting air pollution will improve yields of common crops, study finds

    The analysis used satellite images to reveal for the first time how nitrogen oxides affect crop productivity. The researchers believe the findings have important implications for increasing agricultural output and analysing climate change mitigation costs and benefits around the world. “Nitrogen oxides are invisible to humans, but new satellites have been able to map them with incredibly high precision. Since we can also measure crop production from space, this opened up the chance to rapidly improve our knowledge of how these gases affect agriculture in different regions,” said study lead author David Lobell. Nitrogen oxides, or NOx, are among the most widely emitted pollutants in the world. These gases can directly damage crop cells and indirectly affect them through their role as precursors…

  • Doctors successfully transplant liver that spent three days outside a body

    Cooled livers can usually only stay alive 12 hours after being removed from a human body. However, a team of Zurich scientists have been able to successfully transplant a liver that lived three days inside a machine. The machine allowed scientists to stretch the viability of the organ for three days and it may even be able to expand it for as long as 10 days, the Swiss team told the journal Nature Biotechnology . The feat involved a collaboration between the University Hospital Zurich (UHZ), ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich. “Our therapy shows that by treating livers in the perfusion machine, it is possible to alleviate the lack of functioning human organs and save lives,” said Professor Pierre-Alain Clavien from the UHZ. The team was able to transform a liver that was originally…

  • Tech firms must protect women better online, Ofcom demands

    The head of media regulator Ofcom says tech firms must do more to protect women online, after a report revealed that women are more affected by discriminatory, hateful or trolling content than men.  The findings were part of Ofcom’s 'Online Nation' report, which looked into the online lives of people in the UK. Only 42 per cent of the women that participated in its survey said they felt comfortable about speaking freely online. The report found women are more likely than men to face online abuse or see harmful content and are also more likely to be distressed by it. Distressful content often related to negative body image, excessive dieting or eating disorders, as well as misogynistic content and content relating to self-harm or suicide. In general,  women were less likely to agree that…

  • HS2 begins constructing the UK’s longest railway bridge

    The Colne Valley Viaduct, which is part of the HS2 project, is being built with the help of an enormous 700-tonne bridge-building machine. Known as a ‘launching girder’, the 160m long bridge-building machine is the only one of its kind in the UK and will be used to lift the giant concrete deck segments that form the viaduct’s arches into position. Once each section is complete, the machine will inch itself forward into position to build the next stage. A total of one thousand deck segments will be needed, with each one weighing up to 140 tonnes. To allow for the gentle curves of the viaduct as it crosses the valley, all the segments are slightly different shapes and made on site at a purpose-built temporary factory. Image credit: pa HS2 minister Andrew Stephenson…

  • Global chip shortage will ‘run deep into 2023’, say US officials

    The global semiconductor shortage shows no signs of slowing down soon, according to US officials. The chip shortage caused by Covid-related supply chain disruptions; the increase in demand that followed the move to remote working, and the ongoing trade war between the US and China is currently affecting many industries that rely on the technology. "I do not, unfortunately, see the chip shortage abating in any meaningful way any time in the next year," said Raimondo. The US Commerce Secretary has recently been on a trip to South Korea, where she convened a dozen CEOs, including leaders of chipmakers. The country is one of the leading producers of semiconductors. Although Taiwan, home to chip manufacturing giant TSMC, accounted for over 60 per cent of global foundry revenues in 2020, South…

  • Improve lorry drivers’ conditions or slap new tax on sector, say MPs

    The group of MPs said the sector needed to deliver sufficient drivers, workers and facilities, including high-quality services and welfare. While there is a shortage of lorry drivers across Europe, Brexit has considerably worsened the problem in the UK as many come from other parts of the EU. This was coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic which saw many UK-based foreign lorry drivers return to their home countries, with few of them coming back to the UK since. There have also been tax changes making it more expensive for drivers from elsewhere in Europe to work or be employed in the UK. If the sector does not improve within two years, MPs on the Commons Transport Select Committee said the government should implement a 'Supply Chain Levy' to assist in building facilities and training new…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Money &Markets: Just In Time is failing because of supply chain issues

    JIT (just in time) has become NIT (not in time), and supply chains are having a hard time resetting to the silken smoothness of the past. On the face of it, JIT is a brave strategy because it relies on the business world spinning in a super-efficient way with everyone not only competent but also cooperative and collegiate. A nervous type could easily see that for a manufacturer to push the responsibility of having a stock of parts onto their suppliers, it could easily become a recipe for disaster, because if an enterprise gives itself over to the care of its suppliers and if those parties fail, everything will grind to a halt for that trusting customer. A warehouse of stock is insurance against just that kind of expected outcome. JIT means, by definition, there is little to no slack in the…

  • Hands-on review: Zhiyun Crane M3 camera gimbal

    Like it's smartphone-specific sibling, the Smooth 5 ( which we reviewed previously ), the Crane M3 is also a Red Dot Award 2022 winner for its product design. Certainly, on looks alone the Crane M3 is an eye-catcher. Switching from the traditional/typical grey and black tones of pretty much every gimbal out there, with the M3 Zhiyun has gone all-out on white. Even the very useful bag that comes with the Combo Kit is white. While this might not be our #1 colour of choice for a backpack (although it is undeniably a very useful, well-designed bag for stashing your camera and lenses, plus the gimbal and its accessories), for the gimbal body itself the new colour is quite lovely. Mostly white on the handle, with a subtle red accent, contrasting with black on the metal camera clamps. It's a good…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Urban magnetic fields reveal clues about energy efficiency and pollution

    Researchers from Germany and the US compared urban magnetic fields between two US cities: Berkeley, California, and the Brooklyn borough of New York City. They looked at what kinds of information can be extracted using data from magnetic field sensors to understand the working of cities. Magnetic field activity from various sources could provide insight into what is going on during a 24-hour period, the researchers said. “A city is viewed as a physical system akin to a distant astronomical object that can be studied using a variety of multispectral techniques,” said Vincent Dumont, from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “In short, our project was inspired by our desire to apply what we learned practising fundamental physics research to the study of cities.” Researchers collected…

  • BT and Ericsson partner to build 5G private networks

    British telecommunications company BT has joined forces with Swedish telecoms equipment manufacturer Ericsson to offer private 5G networks to UK organisations, aiming to enable them to deploy Internet of Things and next-generation technologies in a fast and secure way. The partnership agreement is the first of its kind to offer an out-of-the-box private network to companies, rather than a service tailored to each individual business. In contrast to public 5G, private 5G networks allow companies to limit connectivity to a group of devices in a dedicated space, where 5G's security and ultra-low latency can be fully utilised in additional services. These networks are also said to provide higher quality connections, offering fewer delays and glitches than conventional Wi-Fi networks. “This…

  • EU to ban 90 per cent of Russian oil imports by the end of the year

    The commercial war between Russia and the EU continues, as European officials approve a new set of sanctions against the Russian giant, in light of the continuing invasion of Ukraine.  The embargo covers Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline, which is expected to provide Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic with additional time to wean themselves off crude oil supplies from Russia. Russia currently supplies 27 per cent of the EU's imported oil and 40 per cent of its gas, with the bloc paying around €400bn (£341bn) a year in return. T hat is equivalent to around 2.4 million barrels per day, according to data from the International Energy Agency. For this reason, the sanctions - expected to be legally endorsed on Monday - will…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Bills could be halved by 2035 with investment in low carbon heating

    In a report, it found that the current heat-pump installation rate “languishes” at just 30,000 per year and hydrogen heating and heat networks are still nascent technologies. High upfront costs of around £10,000 are needed for the installation of heat pumps which means the government needs to provide “significant financial help” in the short term to reduce carbon emissions from heating in the long term. According to the report, this is compounded by the artificially high price of electricity relative to gas which is caused by government policy costs and unequal carbon pricing. “The good news is that innovators believe that with the right support they can bring down the upfront costs, permanently, to £5,000, or perhaps even to parity with boilers in time (roughly £2,500),” the report states…

  • Sub-£30 washing machine brightens laundry days for low-income families

    Eight Bristol engineering students are refining a hand-spun washing machine. The $35 (£28) product from the Washing Machine Project has been designed to save around 20 hours of hand-washing chores per week. 3,000 of the cheap but effective bare-bones washing machines will be delivered in 2022, mostly to refugee camps but also to low-income families in the UK. The Bristol firm is led by University of Bristol alumnus Navjot Sawhney - a former Dyson engineer - who dreamt up the idea during a sabbatical in India. Some six billion people around the world live without a washing machine. For many, the problem is a lack of funds, while others may not have consistent access to electricity - or simply no electricity at all. Sawhney saw the need for hand-spun washing machines while making cooking…

  • Laser-welding ‘robotic snake’ brings fusion power closer to reality

    The £2.7m project has taken seven years to develop as part of EUROfusion’s flagship DEMO programme, which is expected to be the successor to ITER – the experimental fusion reactor currently under construction in France. The snake will be deployed and operated remotely inside a hazardous environment without being touched by humans. It can also work effectively in pipes packed together, with little space for access. Tristan Tremethick, lead mechanical design engineer, UKAEA, said: “In fusion machines, pipework has to be connected and disconnected remotely because of the hazardous environment. “Pipework in DEMO is extra challenging because of the limited working space. We’ve been looking at different ways of tackling this and I’m delighted our new snake has passed its first set of trials…

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