• Scottish nuclear plant Hunterston B shuts down after 46 years in operation

    The station, which cost around £143m to build, first came online in 1976 and is located six miles south of Largs on Scotland’s west coast. The French-state owned EDF Energy, which runs the plant, announced last summer that defueling the station would begin no later than today as the first step in the nuclear decommissioning process. In 2012, EDF estimated that the plant could technically and economically operate until 2023, but it hastened its closure by a year with the defueling announcement. It has faced a series of technical faults over its lifespan, with the first incident occurring in 1977, just 18 months after it first started generating. In that incident it was reported that seawater had entered the reactor through a modification of the secondary cooling system which was designed…

  • E3 2022 to be held virtually amid Covid-19 surge in US

    E3 is still months away, usually taking place at California’s Los Angeles Convention Centre in June and attracting more than 50,000 industry and public delegates. It is, of course, impossible to predict the state of the pandemic at that time given the many factors affecting the spread and severity of the novel coronavirus. However, as rapid spread of the Omicron variant pushes the rolling seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the US above 500,000 this week, accompanied by a surge in hospitalisations, event organisers are practicing caution and making early calls to scale down, postpone, or digitise upcoming events. The latest announcement adds to a list of tentpole events being disrupted by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Organisers of the Grammy Awards and the Sundance Film…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Money & Markets: Taper Tightening and Tantrums

    In normal times it is still the case that industry cannot survive without a never-ending supply of debt from which to borrow. With the pandemic, the only way economies could survive pandemic countermeasures was for governments to artificially create great quantities of new money, forcing it into the financial system to bail everyone out. There is hardly an engineering company in the world that would survive the freezing of the debt markets because without the ability to roll the bonds and loans all large companies carry, they would become insolvent and fall into bankruptcy. This is why when central banks speak, everyone listens, because they control the levers of that system and even small changes have big impacts. As I write it is not proven but it is definitely hoped that the Omicron variant…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • France fines Google €150m over cookie failures

    Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) found that google.fr and youtube.com did not make refusing cookies as easy as accepting them as stipulated in the French Data Protection Act. Facebook was also fined €60m for similar breaches and both firms have been given three months to comply with the rules. If they fail to do so, the companies will have to pay a penalty of €100,000 per day of delay. Following an investigation, CNIL found that while they offer a button allowing the user to immediately accept cookies, they do not provide an equivalent solution enabling the user to easily refuse them. Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, against a single one to accept them which influences users in favour of consent. A deadline was set for the end of March last…

  • Windows switch seasonally between heating and cooling homes

    Domestic heating is a significant contributor to carbon emissions, with maintaining of indoor temperatures accounting for 20 to 40 per cent of national energy budgets in wealthy countries. The type of window in a house is a major factor to heating and cooling efficiency, with smart windows which adapt between heating and cooling effects being proposed as a tool to help improve energy efficiency. This new smart window design is a step above previous iterations, harvesting the Sun’s energy in the winter to warm the house while reflecting it in the summer to keep it cool. “The major innovation is that these windows can change according to seasonal needs,” explained Professor Nathan Youngblood, an electrical and computing engineering expert at Pittsburgh and first author of the study. “They…

  • Tech firms could be fined up to £18bn if they fail to protect users

    Dorries outlined the possible scale of the punishments available as part of the forthcoming Online Safety Bill after concerns over the behaviour of some tech firms were raised in the House of Commons. The legislation is expected to force the biggest operators, such as Meta – formerly Facebook – and Google, to abide by a duty of care to users. All activity seen on these platforms will be overseen by Ofcom as the new regulator for the sector. Conservative MP Saqib Bhatti (Meriden) said: “Last year, I wrote to five of the major social media companies with 50 of my colleagues, calling for meaningful change, asking them to recognise their moral duty to make this change. “Only three of the five social media companies even bothered to reply to that piece of correspondence, which concerns me…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Sony’s EV Vision unveiled at CES 2022

    At CES 2020, Sony announced 'Vision-S', an initiative aimed at "contributing to the evolution of mobility", exhibiting a prototype vehicle at its booth. In December of that year, Sony began public road testing in Europe and started verification tests of the safety and user experience of the imaging and sensing technology installed inside and outside the vehicle, and the human-machine interface (HMI) system. In April 2021, Sony began 5G driving tests, bringing its own cutting-edge technologies to bear in order to provide new experiences in the realm of mobility, as it undergoes a shift to electric vehicles (EV). Now, at CES 2022, Sony has presented a new SUV-type prototype vehicle that "accommodates diverse values and lifestyles". The company said that Vision-S continues its aim of evolving…

  • AI camera can sort and separate 12 types of plastic

    The plastics that pervade the world today are combinations of many materials (polymers) with varying chemical compounds and additives, such as pigments or fibres, depending on its application. This makes it extremely difficult to tell the difference between types of plastic, making it hard to separate and recycle them. Consequently, the vast majority of plastics (more than 90 per cent) have not been recycled. The new technology – developed by researchers from the department of biological and chemical engineering at Aarhus University, in collaboration with Vestforbænding, Dansk Affaldsminimering ApS, and Plastix – allows for differentiation between 12 different types of plastic which constitute the vast majority of household plastic types. The plastics are: PE, PP, PET, PS, PVC, PVDF, POM…

  • Sustainable batteries made with cellulose offer promising performance

    Batteries have two electrodes and a separator, with an electrolyte between them which carries the charge. There are several problems associated with using lithium for these batteries, including build-up of the metal inside the devices which can lead to short circuits and overheating. Alternatives to lithium, such as sodium and potassium batteries, have not historically performed as well because they can only be recharged a limited number of times. This inferior performance is due to the larger sizes of sodium and potassium ions, and their ability to move through the porous carbon electrodes in the batteries.  They are also difficult to dispose of once they are at the end of their useful lifespan which creates an environmental problem because they use unsustainable materials. Lithium…

  • Volvo to launch self-driving feature in California

    The Sweden-based manufacturer is planning to deploy the technology, which will allow the car to take over driving tasks in some limited situations, in a forthcoming all-electric SUV that the company expects to announce later this year. Volvo plans to offer the self-driving feature as a subscription upgrade to customers after vehicles have already hit the road. Alexander Petrofski, vice president of strategy and business ownership, said the cars will go on sale in 2023, but Volvo has not set a date for when Ride Pilot will be available. Instead, Volvo has said Ride Pilot will not be turned on for customers until it has undergone a “rigorous verification and testing protocol”. The companies said they want to test Ride Pilot later on pre-production vehicles this year in California, pending…

  • Robot voices emote, even with minimal training data

    In addition to improving smartphones, smart home devices, and navigation systems, the method could help improve voiceovers in animated films, automatic translation of speech in multiple languages, and more applications. It could also help to create personalised speech interfaces that provide a digital voice for people who have lost the ability to speak, such as the computer speech interface used by the late Stephen Hawking. “We have been working in this area for a fairly long period of time,” said PhD candidate Shehzeen Hussain, who is based at the university’s School of Engineering. “We wanted to look at the challenge of not just synthesising speech but of adding expression meaning to that speech.” According to the researchers, existing methods fall short in two major ways. Some systems…

  • Covid plastic waste could be cut with sterilisation process to reuse N95 respirators

    Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts institute of Technology (MIT) reprocessed respirators using vaporised hydrogen peroxide (VHP), a standard decontamination approach, and found that the devices maintained their function and effectiveness on human subjects with up to 25 cycles of re-use. Using such techniques could help cut down on the vast amount of Covid-19 related plastic waste that has been leaking into the world’s oceans. N95 respirators are commonly used in hospitals worldwide to protect healthcare personnel from infectious pathogens. During the pandemic, healthcare facilities experienced shortages of the respirators, forcing personnel to reuse them or resort to less protective alternatives like face masks. “The findings from our study expand…

  • ‘Pessimism’ surrounds opening day of CES as Covid concerns deplete its impact

    On a typical year, CES, which is now in its sixth decade, would be the world’s largest consumer technology show. But strict Covid measures that have been put in place to protect attendees and a reduction in length from its traditional four-day schedule due to the Omicron variant are threatening to reduce its relevance. Those attending the show in person must show proof of vaccination as well as test negative for Covid-19 less than 24 hours before entering a CES venue, with masks also required throughout the show. The head of the show Gary Shapiro said: “As the world’s most influential technology event, CES is steadfast in its pledge to be the gathering place to showcase products and discuss ideas that will ultimately make our lives better. “We are shortening the show to three days and…

  • 3D digital holograms could be coming to your phone

    Until now, 3D holograms based on phase-shifting holography could be captured only using a large specialised camera with a polarising filter. However, the new technology developed by scientists at KIST and Yonsei University allows holograms to be captured on portable devices, such as smartphones. This involved using 2D semiconductor materials to develop a photodiode that detects the polarisation of light in the near-infrared (NIR) region without additional polarisation filters. Photodiodes, which convert light into electrical signals, are essential components within the pixels of image sensors in all digital cameras. Introducing the ability to sense the polarisation of light on the image sensor of an ordinary camera provides a variety of new information, enabling the storage of 3D holograms…

  • Finger-clip device monitors blood pressure in seconds

    The device can also simultaneously measure four additional vital signs – heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, body temperature and respiratory rate. “Typically, calculating someone’s blood pressure at a hospital or clinic involves using an inflatable cuff wrapped around their arm, but there are three issues with that method – it can cause damage to someone’s arteries if done repeatedly within a short amount of time; people’s blood pressure can rise due to nervousness; and it can take up to 30 seconds to complete,” said Richard Byfield, lead author on the study. “Our device can record someone’s blood pressure within five seconds by using optical sensors placed on the fingertip that measure the amount of light reflected off the blood vessels underneath the surface of the skin.” …

  • James Webb Space Telescope unfurls giant sunshade

    The $10bn telescope was launched at Christmas . It is already more than halfway towards its destination approximately one million miles from Earth. The 6.1-tonne telescope is so large that its sunshield and now-iconic primary gold-plated mirror had to be folded for launch for opening up in space. Its sunshield protects the telescope’s IR sensing instrumentation from solar radiation with five thin, reflective layers of different shapes and sizes, keeping it below its maximum temperature of -233°C. It is necessary to keep the telescope this cool to prevent its instruments being overwhelmed by its own IR signal. The shield, designed by Northrop Grumman, is intended to transmit just 23mW of 300kW of incident solar radiation.  It is especially unwieldy, kite-shaped, and spans 21.1m by 14.6m…

  • View from India: Clean energy initiatives to de-carbonise the economy

    Organisations are chalking out newer technologies and innovative approaches to create a sustainable future. This could well contribute towards India’s vision of achieving net-zero emission by 2070. “The integration of science and engineering can help in ushering smart auto and smart cities. All this may strengthen the sustainability quotient. Our company has announced the establishment of four new Giga factories to generate renewable energy. We are working on a process that could capture carbon dioxide. This adsorbent could be cost effective as the technology also stores carbon dioxide,” said Ajit Sapre, group president R&T, Reliance Industries, at the DST-CII Technology Summit. Not just companies but even airports have unveiled a clean energy map. The Cochin International Airport Limited…

  • Tighter rules for foreign takeovers of firms with UK national security importance

    The National Security and Investment (NSI) Act will allow the government to be able to scrutinise and intervene in certain acquisitions made by anyone, including businesses and investors, that could compromise the UK’s national security. The government will also be able to impose certain conditions on an acquisition or, if necessary, unwind or block it. Despite the powers afforded by the Act, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said it expected that it would “rarely” have to use them and anticipated that the “vast majority” of deals will require no intervention. Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “The UK is world-renowned as an attractive place to invest but we have always been clear that we will not hesitate to step in where necessary to protect our national…

  • Supercomputers used in arms race with antibiotic resistance

    Antibiotic resistance emerges when bacteria develop the ability to overcome the drugs designed to kill them, threatening many medical procedures dependent on the ability to treat infections with antibiotics, such as organ transplants. Every year, approximately 700,000 people are estimated to die due to infection by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with this number expected to rise into the millions in coming years. Without effective antibiotics, life expectancy could drop by 20 years, prompting urgent efforts to develop new antibiotics faster than microbes can mutate and form new defences. A team of researchers from around the world, co-led by the University of Portsmouth’s Dr Gerhard Koenig, are using supercomputers to fight the threat. The scientists are redesigning existing antibiotics…

  • HS2 should be using more British steel, Unite says

    As one of the largest construction projects in Europe, HS2 requires millions of tonnes of steel to be built. However, in a recent series of parliamentary questions, the Department for Transport (DfT) admitted that is has not placed mandates on using domestically produced steel. The lack of proactive government action is “alarming”, Unite said, which has also led to “growing uncertainty” about the long-term wellbeing of the UK steel industry. The union represents thousands of steel workers in a domestic sector which has faced tough competition from China and other markets in recent years. In 2020, British Steel was bought by Chinese firm Jingye Group in a last-ditch effort to secure the jobs of around 3,200 of its employees. Just before its collapse, the head of trade association UK…

  • Government considers intervention to slash carbon prices

    Officials are concerned that prices have been so high for the past four months that they may need to make a call on whether to intervene and make changes by 18 January. Companies covered by the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) must purchase one “allowance” per tonne of CO2 emitted. This is intended to disincentivise use of the most polluting fuels, such as coal, closing the cost gap between these fuels and lower-carbon and zero-carbon alternatives. For the second time in two months, officials have triggered the “cost containment mechanism”, which occurs when the carbon price is consistently above expectations. Carbon prices have remained high in recent months for a variety of reasons, such as the spike in natural gas prices making it relatively cheaper to burn coal even when accounting…

  • China to order cybersecurity reviews for firms seeking overseas listings

    According to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the new rules come into effect on 15 February and will require platform companies with data on over one million users to undergo a security review before listing their shares overseas. “With stock market listings there is a risk that key information infrastructure, core data, important data or a large amount of personal information could be impacted, controlled or maliciously used by foreign governments,” said the CAC in a statement, reiterating a concern flagged in July 2021, when the changes were first proposed. In a separate statement, the CAC said it would also implement new rules on 1 March on the use of algorithm recommendation technology to increase oversight of news providers that use the technology to disseminate information…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Wearable device measures pH of sweat to determine muscle fatigue

    The device uses ultrathin nanomaterials, known as MXenes, that monitor a person’s well-being by analysing their perspiration. MXenes share a similar two-dimensional nature to graphene and are composed of non-toxic metals, such as titanium, in combination with carbon or nitrogen atoms. With naturally high conductivity and strong surface charges, MXenes are attractive candidates for biosensors that can detect small changes to chemical concentrations. The researchers developed a MXene composite electrode, which they enclosed in a wearable armband sensor. The device, which had a modular design that used MXene inserts loaded with appropriate enzymes, could absorb perspiration and detect several analytes in human sweat, including glucose and lactic acid. MXene sheets were combined with hydrogels…

  • Egyptian mummy digitally unwrapped with 3D imaging tech

    While all the royal mummies found in the 19th and 20th centuries have long since been opened for study, Amenhotep I (pictured in the statue above) is the exception because it is so immaculately wrapped – decorated with flower garlands, and with a face and neck that is covered by a lifelike facemask inset with colourful stones. But researchers at the Egyptian Mummy Project have now finally peered inside the mummy for the first time in three millennia. The previous time was in the 11th century BCE, more than four centuries after his original mummification and burial. Hieroglyphics have described how during the later 21st dynasty, priests restored and reburied royal mummies from more ancient dynasties, to repair the damage done by grave robbers. The pharaoh's mummy, showing…

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