• AI tool can see into the brain of moving mice

    A new AI system makes it possible to find precisely where and when mouse brain cells are activated during movement, learning and memory. The data gathered from these experiments, conducted at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, could someday allow scientists to understand how the human brain functions and is affected by diseases. An article published in Nature Communications explains how the researchers were able to develop this new algorithm. “When a mouse’s head is restrained for imaging, its brain activity may not truly represent its neurological function,” said Dr Xingde Li, leader of the research group. “To map brain circuits that control daily functions in mammals, we need to see precisely what is happening among individual brain cells and their connections, while the animal…

  • Scientists uncover the mystery of fast magnetic explosions

    In just minutes, a flare on the Sun can release enough energy to power the whole world for 20,000 years. An explosive process called magnetic reconnection triggers these solar flares. However, scientists have struggled for over 60 years to understand how this happens. Now, a research team within Nasa’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) think they’ve figured it out. The MMS team has developed a theory that explains how the most explosive type of magnetic reconnection – called fast reconnection – occurs. The new theory uses a common magnetic effect present in household devices, such as sensors that time vehicle anti-lock braking systems and know when a cell phone flip cover is closed. “We finally understand what makes this type of magnetic reconnection so fast,” said lead researcher…

  • BP and VW announce roll-out of EV fast-charging network across Europe

    The plan will use VW’s 150kW Flexpole charging units, which each feature two charge points and have an integrated battery storage system. The battery allows the fast chargers to quickly top up EVs without the need for a high-powered grid connection. As the Flexpole units can be directly connected to a low-voltage grid, they do not require a dedicated substation, which comes with costly construction work and lengthy installation times. BP said they were capable of delivering enough energy in as little as 10 minutes to drive up to 160km, depending on the model of electric vehicle. The first phase of the roll-out will see up to an additional 4,000 charge points at BP’s Aral retail sites in Germany and BP retail sites in the UK over the next 24 months. By the end 2024, up to 8,000 charge…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • James Webb Space Telescope in full focus after completing alignment

    Initial tests of the Telescope’s instruments showed it is capable of capturing crisp, well-focused images with each of its four onboard science instruments. It is now ready to move forward into its next and final series of preparations, known as science instrument commissioning. This process will take about two months and will allow scientific operations to begin. “These remarkable test images from a successfully aligned telescope demonstrate what people across countries and continents can achieve when there is a bold scientific vision to explore the universe,” said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The engineering team said the optical performance of the telescope is superior to its most optimistic predictions. The image quality…

  • Railway engineering works threaten bank holiday getaways

    TransPennine Express (TPE), which operates across northern England and into Scotland, urged passengers not to travel on Saturday or Sunday due to a walkout by conductors who are members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union. TPE has said it will only run “a very small number of services” on those days. The industrial action is part of a long-running dispute over pay and rosters. The RMT has said the strike aims to achieve “pay justice for hard-working staff”. TPE customer experience director Kathryn O’Brien said: “With further action by RMT taking place this weekend, we are urging customers once again to avoid travel on our services and travel either side of the weekend instead. “We are saddened and disappointed that this disruption will mean we are unable to get our customers…

  • How Malawi is using drones to detect malaria hotspots

    Africa is turning to drone technology to fill in the gaps in often overburdened and under-resourced healthcare systems, starting with drones. In Kasungu (Malawi), researchers at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW) are using drone footage and GPS coordinates of water bodies rich in mosquito larvae to pinpoint malaria hotspots, sample the water and suggest ways to control the spread of the disease. Modifying larval habitat, also known as larval source management (LSM), is one of the most effective methods of disease control. However, this approach is often considered impractical, due to the perceived difficulties in identifying target areas. High-resolution drone-mapping could be the solution to this challenge. The MLW research team programmed drones to monitor mosquito breeding grounds…

  • Hands-on review: Proscenic P11 cordless vacuum cleaner

    With the vacuum cleaner now such a generic household object, manufacturers need to identify a new niche for their latest contribution towards the endless pursuit of domestic cleanliness. These days we have vacuum cleaners with air purifiers, vacuum cleaners with special 'anti-hair-wrap technology' (Shark, we're looking at you), ones with uniquely powerful proprietary motors and suction styles, others with whisper-quiet operation. In recent years, cordless vacuum cleaners have become quite the thing. It's a logical, welcome progression. No more snagging the machine's power cord on the door frame and sofa legs, or tripping unsuspecting home companions. No need to estimate the best choice of wall socket for optimum reach and coverage, when you almost always have to unplug and replug elsewhere…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Global cap on plastic pollution required to tackle waste problem, scientists say

    In March, the UK signed a legally binding UN treaty alongside other member states designed to ultimately end plastic pollution. In a letter to the journal Science, an international group of scientists said the issue should be tackled at its source by regulating, capping and ultimately phasing out the production of new plastics. “Even if we recycled better and tried to manage the waste as much as we can, we would still release more than 17 million tons of plastic per year into nature,” said Melanie Bergmann of the German Alfred-Wegener-Institute, the initiator of the letter. “If production just keeps growing and growing, we will be faced with a truly Sisyphean task.” A research project from 2020 found that plastic emissions can only be cut by 79 per cent over the next 20 years if all solutions…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Ofcom will regulate streaming platforms to ‘protect audiences’ from ‘harmful material’

    The UK Government will give the country’s media watchdog, Ofcom, the power to draft and enforce a new video-on-demand code. The code will aim to set standards for “larger TV-like services” such as Netflix, ITV Hub and Now TV to level the rules with traditional broadcasters. Under the rules, Ofcom will be given a “strengthened duty” to protect audiences from “harmful material,” the proposal explains, citing challenged health claims and documentaries that have been labelled 'pseudoscience'. With these measures, the Government continues to strive to make tech firms accountable for the content hosted on their platforms, building on the provisions of the Online Safety Bill.  The regulator will be able to make decisions regarding age ratings and viewer guidance and impose fines of up to £250…

  • Book review: ‘Out of Touch’ by Michelle Drouin

    How do we survive an ‘intimacy famine’? This is Michelle Drouin’s central question in ‘Out of Touch’ https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/out-touch (MIT Press, £22.50, ISBN 9780262046671), a short, intensely readable book that spans topics such as marriage, pandemic isolation, and ageing. The ground it covers is well worn and, though it showcases interesting elements of the psychology of intimacy, it provides few new insights for a reader familiar with technology. Across seven chapters, Drouin draws the reader into a conversation with her engaging tone. She is especially strong when discussing psychology and psychological research, making dense subject matter easily digestible. And there is plenty to keep us engaged: thought experiments, questions, self-reflection exercises. It is clear that…

  • Satellite data used to create 3D images of Earth, detecting natural disasters

    The Planetscope satellite constellation, operated by the satellite data company Planet collects weekly and sometimes even daily images of the entire globe. Its fleet of Cubesats, or miniature satellites, has about 1,700 images of every location on Earth. The data the constellation captures has been used to monitor the spread of wildfires, detect changes in crop health and survey areas of deforestation. A group of researchers have found a way to utilise this data to detect significant natural disasters in remote regions of the globe soon after they happen, giving first responders accurate information about the needs of the region affected.  This kind of global coverage is unprecedented, said associate professor Rongjun Qin: “There are a lot of great benefits in terms of having satellites…

  • E-scooter accidents rocketed from 2020 to 2021 – NHS Ambulance Trust figures

    Major Trauma Group (MTG) submitted a mass Freedom of Information request to the Trusts which showed that 713 e-scooter related accidents were attended by NHS ambulance vehicles during 2021 – a sizeable leap from the previous year’s figure of 392. The data also revealed that the number of e-scooter accident patients being referred to A&E has increased by 40 per cent between 2020 and 2021, with 173 patients treated at the scene of an accident after being taken to their local A&E facility during 2021 compared with just 124 during 2020. MTG said the figures show that greater steps need to be taken to improve the safety e-scooter users on the roads, especially considering the government recently extended approved e-scooter trials to 30 November 2022 to support a ‘green’ restart of local travel…

  • Sponsored: Technical guide, ensuring availability and reliability in electrical systems

    No matter the industry or type of facility, downtime presents a costly risk to business continuity. Identifying electrical system vulnerabilities to prevent potential issues, and planning effective resolutions when problems occur are key to helping ensure your operation is resilient. Key Learning Points This guide offers solutions to cover the four main areas of Power Availability and Reliability: Digital and power systems reference designs How selectivity enhances uptime Electrical asset management Fault localisation, root cause analysis, and power recovery Download free whitepaper

  • Scientists discover ‘revolutionary’ one-way superconductor

    The research team, led by associate professor Mazhar Ali, has found a way to enable one-way superconductivity without magnetic fields, something that was thought to be impossible ever since its discovery in 1911 – until today. The findings, published in Nature, make use of 2D quantum materials and pave the way towards superconducting computing, something that could make electronics hundreds of times faster, all with zero energy loss. “If the 20 th  century was the century of semi-conductors, the 21 st can become the century of the superconductor,” said Ali. Since superconductivity's discovery, many scientists, including Nobel Prize winners, have puzzled over the challenge of making superconducting electrons go in just one direction.  In superconductors, a current goes through a wire without…

  • AI assists early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s signs

    Alzheimer's disease is the main cause of dementia worldwide. Although there is no cure, early detection is considered crucial for being able to develop effective treatments that act before its progress is irreversible. Mild cognitive impairment is a phase that precedes the disease, but not everyone who suffers from it ends up developing Alzheimer's. A study led by scientists at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), published in the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics , has succeeded in precisely distinguishing between people whose deterioration is stable and those who will progress to having the disease. The new technique, which uses specific artificial intelligence methods to compare magnetic resonance images, is more effective than other methods currently in use. Alzheimer…

  • Cryptoassets used for criminality could be seized under new UK rules

    The Treasury Committee, which is formed from a cross-party group of MPs, said that swift seizure of cryptoassets from criminals could help to dampen further illegal activities as the proceeds of crime are increasingly held in cryptocurrency wallets. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Treasury submitted responses to the Committee’s Economic Crime report that was published earlier in the year. They said that cryptoasset firms could be made to register for anti-money-laundering purposes or face sanctions. “If, as we recommend, the government renews the Economic Crime Plan in 2022, it should consider instituting measures specifically to protect consumers from fraud and scams relating to cryptoassets,” the FCA said. The Treasury also said that greater efforts to tackle money laundering…

  • How transport and construction can collaborate to innovate

    As a leader of the industrial age, Britain has a long and rich history of invention and ingenuity. While we may no longer be a manufacturing nation, we still maintain a strong tradition in innovation, and the government is clear that it wants the UK to become a global research and development powerhouse. We need only look to the life sciences sector and the research that enabled the UK to produce one of the leading vaccines in the response to Covid-19 to see this in action. But, as we emerge from the pandemic, taking lessons from Covid-19, we need to invigorate markets like infrastructure to spearhead a green revolution and truly ‘build back better’. Government investment in research at universities is welcome. As is the creation of the new Advanced Research and Invention Agency, which…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Learning to find the right data

    It’s perhaps an indication of how much the pendulum has swung towards machine learning within the artificial-intelligence community that the concept of ' data-centric AI ' seems practically a tautology. Back in the dim distant past, otherwise known as the late 20 th century, a lot of the AI work being done then focused a lot more on building systems from scratch that could reason for themselves about the world. Then along came deep learning and, though there are people still working on the reasoning-heavy style of AI, most of the attention has gone into the approach of showing computers pictures or descriptions of stuff and expecting them to learn to identify the stuff. In 2012, Geoffrey Hinton, professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, and colleagues demonstrated a rapid…

  • View from Brussels: Green, mean fighting machines

    Back in 2019, the EU agreed to a legally binding climate-neutrality target that will require greenhouse gas emissions to fall almost completely by 2050. The rules and regulations needed to achieve that have been on the drawing board ever since. When that ‘climate-neutrality’ target was first worked out, the main logic behind it was the EU’s obligations under the Paris Agreement, a 2015 international pact that commits almost every country in the world to do their fair bit to curb global warming. Getting rid of fossil fuels then embracing clean energy and all the health and economic benefits promised by those policies has been the EU’s mantra, but there has been a lack of urgency in actually getting it done. Then Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and changed the game. Russian energy exports…

  • ‘Vampire’ devices driving up UK energy bills by £147 a year, says British Gas

    These 'vampire' devices are typically those such as televisions, games consoles or microwaves that passively use electricity even when not in active use. In its research, British Gas claims that televisions are the most expensive item to leave on standby, costing around £24.61 annually, followed by set top boxes (£23.10 annually) and internet routers (£18.89 annually). Other devices such as washing machines, printers or mobile chargers were found to cost less than £5 on a yearly basis when left on standby. However, Twitter users have questioned some of British Gas’ calculations, especially following a 2013 ruling from the EU mandating that devices including TVs and microwaves use no more than 0.5 Watts or less per hour while in standby mode. I looked into these claims when they…

  • 3D-printed coral reefs aiming to help marine life recover

    The world's coral reefs are becoming extinct. Factors including global warming and accelerated urbanisation in coastal areas are placing tremendous stress on marine life and damaging coral ecosystems. 3D-printing could be one solution. In a paper published in Science of the Total Environment, researchers from four of Israel's leading universities – Bar-Ilan U., Technion, University of Haifa and Tel Aviv University – highlighted a 3D-printing method they developed to help preserve coral reefs. The research project is based on the natural structure of coral reefs off the southern coastal Israeli city of Eilat, but the model is adaptable to other marine environments and could help curb reef devastation plaguing coral ecosystems around the world. "The rapid decline of coral reefs has increased…

  • Plastic-eating enzyme developed with machine learning could solve waste crisis

    The discovery could help to solve the world’s escalating plastic waste crisis, which is filling up landfills and polluting oceans. The researchers said the new enzyme has the potential to “supercharge” recycling on a large scale that would allow major industries to reduce their environmental impact by recovering and reusing plastics at the molecular level. “The possibilities are endless across industries to leverage this leading-edge recycling process,” said Professor Hal Alper, a researcher at UT Austin. “Beyond the obvious waste management industry, this also provides corporations from every sector the opportunity to take a lead in recycling their products. Through these more sustainable enzyme approaches, we can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy.” The project focuses…

  • Solar preferable to nuclear for settlement sites on Mars, study suggests

    Many scientists and engineers who’ve thought about the logistics of living on the surface of the Red Planet have assumed that nuclear power is the best alternative, in large part because of its reliability and 24/7 operation. In the past decade, miniaturised kilopower nuclear fission reactors have advanced to the point where Nasa considers them to be a safe, efficient and plentiful source of energy and key to future robotic and human exploration. Solar power, on the other hand, must be stored for use at night, which on Mars lasts about the same length of time as on Earth. Solar panels' power production can also be reduced on Mars by the omnipresent red dust that covers everything. Nasa's nearly 15-year-old Opportunity rover, powered by solar panels, stopped working after a massive dust…

  • Sponsored: Guide to Environmental Sustainability Metrics for Data Centres

    Many companies are now reporting on sustainability as a supplement to financial reporting. They are communicating their commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) programs. The data centre industry has unique characteristics, such as high energy intensity, rapid growth, large power consumption and water usage that require specialised metrics. Standardising these metrics will help with adoption, improve benchmarking, and progress sustainability within the industry. Schneider Electric developed a holistic framework with standardised metrics to guide operators and the industry at large. Key Learning Points Will empower the data centre industry to take control of sustainability goals Act on the data to improve operations Remove the difficulty of selecting impactful metrics…

Community Rules & Guidelines