• Hands-on gadget review: Aqua Optima Aurora

    Working from home is great. I’ve been doing it for more than 20 years, not just since Covid. But one of the things I still miss is ‘water cooler moments’. Not just to chat with co-workers, but to grab a drink instantly. At the touch of a button, the Aqua Optima Aurora dispenses refreshing cold water and also near-instant steaming hot water for cuppas. Both are filtered. It’s like a worktop version of the boiling/chilled water taps you can have installed at the kitchen sink. And there are pros and cons to this alternative. The cons are that it takes up worktop space: it’s about the size of a coffee machine (336mm x 221mm x404mm HxWxD). And you need to refill its reservoir regularly, whereas boiling water taps are plumbed into the mains. The pros are that it’s cheaper than a boiling…

  • Apple cuts iPhone 13 manufacturing targets due to slowing demand

    Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the news organisation said that Apple had told its suppliers not to expect a surge in demand early next year, and that it may not reach the kind of “blockbuster” sales targets originally envisioned. Apple had already been forced to cut production on the iPhone 13 , which was revealed in September, due to the global chip shortage. It reportedly reduced the number of devices it planned to manufacture by 10 million, down from an original target of 90 million. The chip shortage is expected to create a bottleneck for manufacturers lasting through at least 2022 and possibly beyond. As well as consumer technology, it has also impacted automakers like Toyota, which was forced to slash vehicle production by 40 per cent in September . Even with supplies…

  • Letters to the editor: volume 16, issue 12

    Climate challenge is too urgent to ignore hydrogen The main objective to have emerged from the recent COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow is to ensure that global temperature rise is limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. The temperature is already 1.1°C above and we see disastrous floods, droughts, fires, ice-melts in polar regions, disappearing permafrosts and immensely powerful storms. So at 1.5°C all these effects will be increased – a frightening prospect. Although some countries have made promises to reduce coal extraction, burning methane and deforesting by 2030, they have generally been quiet about oil extraction. It is so urgent that fossil fuels are left in the ground. Hot and sunny countries like Saudi Arabia and India should surely be producing…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Neolithic settlement opens virtually to public via digital model

    The digital model of Skara Brae was created through a process of laser scanning, using ultra-fast, high-resolution laser scanners which capture 3D spatial data in the form of a point cloud. To capture a photorealistic model, hundreds of overlapping images of the site were combined with the spatial data (photogrammetry). The model - which is available now for anyone to view on Sketchfab - allows visitors to explore the Neolithic site, including the opportunity to gain virtual access to 'House Seven', the best-preserved house at Skara Brae and one not normally accessible to the public. Skara Brae is over 5,000 years old. It was first uncovered by a storm in 1850. It is the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe, with preserved details including furniture inside the houses.…

  • 2021 has been a record year for renewable energy growth, IEA report finds

    Despite rising costs for key materials used to make solar panels and wind turbines, new renewable power capacity is forecast to rise to 290 gigawatts (GW) this year, surpassing the previous all-time high set last year. By 2026, global renewable electricity capacity is forecast to rise more than 60 per cent from 2020 levels to over 4,800GW – equivalent to the current total global power capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear combined. Furthermore, the IEA anticipates that renewables will account for almost 95 per cent of the increase in global power capacity through to 2026, with solar PV alone providing more than half. The amount of renewable capacity added over the period of 2021 to 2026 is expected to be 50 per cent higher than from 2015 to 2020, largely driven by stronger support from…

  • Book review: ‘Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change’

    As I write these lines, one of the main news items in the British media is the spate of forest fires in Yakutia, also known as the Republic of Sakha. Ironically, this vast ‘autonomous’ territory in the far east of Russia is home to one of the world’s coldest permanently inhabited human settlements – the town of Oymyakon, where in winter temperatures routinely plunge below -60°C. Alas, this kind of sad irony is typical of many things Russian. In mid-August 2021, when I was reading an advance review copy of 'Klimat…', the fires had already torn through more than 4.2 million hectares of forest in Yakutia, sending enormous plumes of smoke as far as the North Pole and producing a record amount of carbon emissions, according to the European Union's Copernicus satellite monitoring unit. The Guardian…

  • ‘Fundamental’ changes needed to lower UK electricity carbon footprint, think-tank says

    The study from Tony Blair’s think-tank Institute for Global Change anticipates a “hugely expanded” role for the electricity sector in the coming years as it becomes the energy source for much of our transport and heating – replacing fossil fuels such as diesel and natural gas. However, the current electricity market is “not well placed to deliver these changes”, the study says, as it has been designed around fossil-fuel technologies. Current attempts to integrate new technologies involve “shoehorning” them into a market that is not designed for them. The report - Powering Ahead: The Need to Reform UK Energy Markets, authored by industry experts Tim Lord and Phil McNally - recommends more incentives for consumers to invest in decarbonisation or alter their energy usage patterns to fit the…

  • VR project set to simulate impact of explosions on structures

    The project, funded by the US Army Corps, will show military decision-makers how bombs, bullets and rockets impact structures, so they can reinforce buildings or build sturdier structures to withstand combat operations and protect people. As part of the study, Colorado State University engineer Dr Hussam Mahmoud will first visualise them falling apart. He will then work alongside the Army Corps of Engineers to simulate these impacts in VR, with the aim to present these findings to army officials and those within the construction industry. “Understanding the material properties, how these buildings were built and the type of load they can take without collapsing, is really important to develop good strategies for combat operations,” said Mahmoud, an associate professor in the Department…

  • Sponsored: Putting “energy efficiency first” into practice

    In September 2021, the European Commission published new guidance aimed at moving its “energy efficiency first” concept from principle into practice. An immediate possibility is to use variable speed drives (VSDs) to control industrial electric motors. In typical applications this can cut energy consumption by 25%. Furthermore, if the drives feature the latest ultra-low harmonic (ULH) technology they can improve power factor for further gains in energy efficiency. Things gets even better when drives are paired with one of the latest IE5 (ultra-premium efficiency rated) synchronous reluctance (SynRM) motors. Equipment using electric motors consumes around 45% of the world’s electricity, and accounts for about 70% of industry’s consumption, so the opportunity for positive change is huge. Far…

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  • Green Homes Grant scheme a ‘slam dunk fail’, MPs say

    The scheme aimed to support jobs during the heights of the Covid-19 crisis in the UK while helping reduce carbon emissions associated with home heating, providing grants towards energy-efficiency upgrades. It was given a 12-week timescale for implementation, and was implemented despite the department for business, energy, and industrial strategy (BEIS)’s own Projects and Investment Committee rejecting its business case. The PAC concluded in its report that the scheme had an unrealistic timeline, “poor design”, and “troubled implementation”. The scheme upgraded 47,500 of the 600,000 homes originally envisaged and accounted for £314m of its £1.5bn budget, of which £50m was administration costs (more than £1,000 per home upgraded). By August 2021, 52 per cent of homeowners’ voucher applications…

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  • Twitter is more resistant to fake news than other social media sites, study finds

    Social media platforms have become a major platform for propagating conspiracy theories, fake news and hoaxes in recent years. A researcher from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), who worked with 19 other universities, examined the role that social media plays in the dissemination of false information, and the relationship between how these platforms are used and their users’ belief in this type of misinformation. “The particular operating features and characteristics of Twitter, a social network that is more focused on news consumption, increase the social pressure on what is published on it, which could in turn perhaps reduce the circulation of unverified or alternative information compared to other social media, such as Facebook and YouTube, which have characteristics that favour…

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  • AI helps to detect signs of anxiety

    The research conducted by a team at Simon Fraser University in Canada and the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi in Pakistan suggests that AI shows strong potential in future applications for addressing mental health and wellbeing. “In the two years since the onset of Covid-19, and one climate disaster after another, more and more people are experiencing anxiety,” said visiting professor and social psychologist Gulnaz Anjum. “Our research appears to show that AI could provide a highly reliable measurement for recognising the signs that someone is anxious.” Anjum and collaborators Nida Saddaf Khan and Sayeed Ghani from IBA Karachi collected an extensive range of data from adult participants for their Human Activity Recognition (HAR) study. Participants performed a series…

  • Biotech should not be used to bolster unethical farming practices, bioethicists say

    The council said that while biotech may be able to offer “marginal benefits” in cutting greenhouse gases and tackling other environmental impacts of livestock farming, it will not make a substantial difference in the absence of wider changes to food and farming systems, and probably a reduction in meat and dairy demand. At present, genome editing – which allows for precise engineering of the genetic makeup of organisms – remains at the research stage for livestock animals such as chickens, pigs, and cattle. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics listed potential benefits such as reducing disease in livestock populations, marking male chicks so they can be disposed of as eggs rather than killed as chicks, or producing hornless cattle that do not need to be “dehorned” for safety reasons. However…

  • ‘Centre for Sociodigital Futures’ to examine how tech shapes society

    Technology has always driven societal change, and digital technologies are transforming everyday life faster than ever before. Bold claims are being made about how autonomous vehicles, blockchain, embedded AI, and the “metaverse” will shape the future, with every tech giant and its CEO seeking to shape the conversation. The Centre for Sociodigital Futures will unite experts from around the world to investigate how these various claims about digital futures shape our lives today, and generate new approaches to build fairer, more sustainable societies. The centre is led by the University of Bristol and funded to the tune of £9.8m from UKRI’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), over five years. Professor Susan Halford, director of the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures, said: “We…

  • National Grid and Scottish Power fined £158m over delays to subsea cable project

    The two-year delay made it difficult at times for renewable energy generators in Scotland to export clean electricity to England and Wales, Ofgem said. Both National Grid and SPT have been jointly blamed for the late delivery of the Western Link Project and the £158m fine will be used to lower household bills. £15m will be paid into Ofgem’s Redress Fund which is operated on its behalf by the Energy Saving Trust and allows companies to pay a sum of money to appropriate charities, trusts, organisations or consumers as a result of breaches of licence conditions. The remainder of fine will be returned via reduced system charges that are ultimately paid for by consumers as part of their overall electricity bills. Western Link is a transmission project worth around £1.2bn, providing a major…

  • Eight worst wildfire weather years on record happened in last decade

    The world’s eight most extreme wildfire weather years have occurred in the last decade, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Alberta, Canada. The study suggests that extreme fire weather is being driven by a decrease in atmospheric humidity coupled with rising temperatures. “Extreme conditions drive the world’s fire activity,” said Michael Flannigan, a former University of Alberta wildfire expert, who conducted the research with study lead Piyush Jain, a research scientist with Natural Resources Canada, and Sean Coogan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences. Flannigan continued: “For example, in Canada, just three per cent of fires are responsible for 97 per cent of the area burned.” For the study, the team examined…

  • Simple quantum computer uses commercially available components

    Quantum computers are complex to build, difficult to scale up and harder yet to operate and maintain, requiring temperatures near absolute zero. These challenges have led researchers to explore the possibility of building photonic quantum computers: room-temperature quantum computers that use particles of light to carry information. While scientists have successfully created individual quantum logic gates for photons, it is challenging to construct larger numbers of gates with reliable connections; this is necessary to perform useful calculations. The Stanford University team’s design uses a laser to manipulate a single atom that, in turn, can modify the state of the photons via quantum teleportation. The atom can be 'reset' and reused for many quantum gates, eliminating the need for many…

  • Microrobots made of crystals able to propel themselves through water

    The tiny devices, which mimic the abilities of some living organisms, were created with a form of a microcrystal that utilises self-continuous reciprocating motion for propulsion. Historically, there have been two major challenges to achieving this kind of movement. The first is to make a molecular robot that can reciprocally deform; the second is converting this deformation into propulsion of the molecular robot. The research team built on their previous study that had solved the first challenge: the creation of molecular robots that can reciprocally deform. However, tiny objects cannot typically convert their reciprocal motion into progressive motion. The scientists managed to achieve self-propulsion of the molecular robot in an experimental system where motion was confined to two dimensions…

  • Rapid and highly accurate test detects viruses such as Covid-19

    The UCF researchers developed a device that detects viruses in the body as fast as - and more accurately than - the current commonly used rapid detection tests. The optical sensor uses nanotechnology to accurately identify viruses from blood samples in seconds. The researchers say the device can tell with 95 per cent accuracy if someone has a virus, a significant improvement over existing rapid tests, which experts have warned can suffer from low accuracy. Testing for viruses is important for early treatment and to help stop their spread. The researchers tested the device using samples of Dengue virus, a mosquito transmitted pathogen that causes Dengue fever and is a threat to people in the tropics. However, the technology can also easily be adapted to detect other viruses, such as Covid…

  • Optimising truss structures could lower construction’s carbon footprint

    Buildings are a major contributor to global warming, not just in terms of their ongoing operation but also in the materials used in their construction. Truss structures — the criss-cross arrays of diagonal struts used throughout modern construction, in everything from antenna towers to support beams for large buildings — are typically made of steel or wood, or a combination of both. Little quantitative research has been done on how to select the right materials to minimise the contribution to global warming of these structures. The 'embodied carbon' in a construction material includes the fuel used in the material’s production (for mining and smelting steel, for example, or for felling and processing trees) and in transporting the materials to a site. It also includes the equipment used for…

  • Nasa calls off ISS spacewalk due to space debris threat

    Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron were due to scale the outside of the space station today in order to mend a faulty antenna. The faulty S-band radio communications antenna assembly, now more than 20 years old, was to be replaced with a new spare stowed outside the space station. However, Nasa issued a debris notification on Monday evening and the mission was called off. “Due to the lack of opportunity to properly assess the risk it could pose to the astronauts, teams have decided to delay the spacewalk until more information is available,” the agency said. “The space station schedule and operations are able to easily accommodate the delay of the spacewalk.” It was not made clear how close debris had come to the ISS, which orbits approximately 402km above the Earth. Debris…

  • Scientists build self-replicating living robots

    The robots are the brainchild of a collaborative team at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, the same team that built the first living robots: 'Xenobots' - assembled from frog cells – reported in 2020. According to the researchers, these computer-designed and hand-assembled organisms can swim out into their tiny dish, find single cells, gather hundreds of them together, and assemble 'baby' Xenobots inside their Pac-Man-shaped “mouth”. A few days later, these babies become new Xenobots that look and move just like themselves. And then these new Xenobots can go out, find cells, and build copies of themselves, and this process repeats. “With the right design – they will spontaneously self-replicate…

  • Firm foundations are vital for large-scale AI-enabled projects

    The clamour of anticipation around new applications for artificial intelligence is as fevered as ever. The problem for me is that expectations are not informed by a robust appreciation of the practical requirements for innovating with AI. As an adviser to businesses on bringing such innovation to market, my advice is simple: to scale rapidly, large-scale AI-enabled projects must be built on firm foundations to allow multidisciplinary development teams to thrive. Chief among the reasons is that, in engineering terms, developing AI is a complex, non-linear process. Frankly, you can expend a great deal of time and effort with very little progress to show for it. It is the antithesis of agile approaches that deliver incremental advances. Even if you do make solid progress, rapid acceleration…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Toyota ‘Human Support Robot’ completes first UK home trial

    Toyota’s Human Support Robot (HSR) can fetch objects, perform basic human interactions, open doors and entertain through song and dance. A HSR was provided for the home of Anthony Walsh, who had motor neurone disease (MND), through the company’s partnership with the MND Association. Walsh passed away shortly after the trial; his family have agreed to release details of the trial and a short film about the experience to raise awareness about MND and the MND Association. Walsh lived in Southgate, north London, with his wife and two young children. He received his diagnosis in May and quickly went from being an active football-playing father to a wheelchair user, due to the rapid onset of the incurable disease. Although it was difficult to move around his home, he disliked having to ask his…

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