• ‘Science superpower’ ambition takes backseat in budget

    The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly emphasised his desire to make post-Brexit Britain a “science superpower” with strength in areas such as AI, quantum computing and biotechnology. At the heart of this ambition was the pledge to raise annual R&D funding to £22bn; a pillar of Sunak’s first budget . This would make the UK’s R&D spending higher as a percentage of GDP than the US, China, Japan and France. However, that pledge has been put on hold by two years, as other - likely more political - matters take priority in the budget. The research spending pledge has now been pushed back two years to 2026-27. The government says it remains committed to the overall target. “We need to do what the people of this country have always done: invent, discover and create the ideas and technologies…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • CD-sized discs that hold 500TB of data made possible with laser writing method

    Developed by University of Southampton researchers, the lasers etch tiny structures in the discs that can be used for long-term “five-dimensional (5D)” optical data storage that is more than 10,000 times denser than Blu-Ray optical disc storage technology. The new method for writing data encompasses two optical dimensions plus three spatial dimensions.  “Individuals and organisations are generating ever-larger data sets, creating the desperate need for more efficient forms of data storage with a high capacity, low energy consumption and long lifetime,” said doctoral researcher Yuhao Lei.  “While cloud-based systems are designed more for temporary data, we believe that 5D data storage in glass could be useful for longer-term data storage for national archives, museums, libraries or private…

  • Economic losses from weather extremes shown to amplify around the world

    As human-induced climate change progresses, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is likely to increase, leading to a high probability of increasing direct production losses and consequently to higher consumption losses. Disruption caused by extreme weather events typically impacts a country's health sector, as well as the economy through disturbances to income, employment, economic growth, energy supply and food security. In the aftermath of an extreme weather event, regions tend to react in a variety of ways. Some might not manage to recover in between subsequent events, while others might even profit from disasters when the economy is built back to be more resilient or efficient after a shock. On an inter-regional level, local production shocks induced by extreme events…

  • Australian engineers patent energy-storage blocks

    Professor Erich Kisi, one of the inventors of the block and now CEO of MGA Thermal, said his term were working on thermionic converters, which produce an electric power input from heat when they hit upon the idea to shift their work to energy storage. “The [most important] ingredients for the bricks are the aluminium particles which provide the latent heat, that melting energy that we’re talking about,” Kisi told Reuters. “They will melt and solidify many thousands of times during the life of the block, but remain in position. They are held in position by graphite, in this case. We have other systems, but graphite is the main body.” The inventors compared the process to heating a chocolate chip muffin in a microwave. The matrix is the cake component (holding the shape when heated and rapidly…

  • Affordable decarbonisation ‘possible with carbon takeback scheme’

    The CTBO is a supply-side mitigation policy that would require fossil fuel extractors and importers to dispose safely and permanently of the CO 2 the fuel generates, starting with a low fraction and rising to 100 per cent by the year of net-zero CO 2 . This could provide a path to net-zero emissions by targeting a single industry, if enforced consistently and to include emissions generated by products sold. “Despite the perceived high cost of carbon dioxide capture and storage, we show that the cost to the world economy of a CBTO, even if entirely passed on to fossil fuel consumers, is no higher than the cost of mitigation in conventional scenarios meeting similar goals driven by a global carbon price,” said Stuart Jenkins, Oxford graduate student and lead author of the Joule study . The…

  • Climate commitments could force airlines out of business in just ‘three to five years’

    The Centre for Aviation (CAPA) report indicates steep cost increases for airlines as emission reduction measures are introduced or strengthened, including higher carbon pricing and mandated blending of sustainable aviation fuels. The report found that multiple airlines could fail in just the next three to five years if they do not have the financial strength to invest in decarbonisation or misjudge the need to accelerate their climate mitigation plans. This is because carbon offsets for airlines will likely become increasingly uneconomic or unavailable, with offset prices rising with broader demand for decarbonisation and tighter criteria for legitimate offsets. It also predicts that corporate customers and investors will increasingly demand more reliable data on decarbonisation and proof…

  • Spaceship electronics could be protected from radiation by carbon nanotubes

    Space missions, such as Nasa’s Orion that will take astronauts to Mars, are pushing the limits of human exploration and will require electronic circuitry to maintain operation for years at a time. But the continuous stream of damaging cosmic radiation can harm or even destroy onboard electronics. MIT researchers believe the risk to future missions could be reduced with carbon nanotubes that are configured to maintain their electrical properties and memory after being bombarded by high amounts of radiation. The lifetime and distance of deep space missions are currently limited by the energy efficiency and robustness of the technology driving them. As well as radiation protection, carbon nanotubes, which are just one atom thick, are expected to make transistors more energy efficient compared…

  • Autonomous vehicles need ethics so they can break road rules, report finds

    In a report, 'Ethics of Automated Vehicles: Breaking Traffic Rules for Road Safety', the group warns that strictly forbidding AVs from breaking existing traffic rules may hamper road safety. “While they promise to minimise road safety risk, AVs like hybrid AI systems can still create collision risk due to technological and human-system interaction issues, the complexity of traffic, interaction with other road users and vulnerable road users,” said UK transport consultant professor Nick Reed, from Reed Mobility. “Ethical goal functions for AVs would enable developers to optimise driving behaviours for safety under conditions of uncertainty while allowing for differentiation of products according to brand values.” The European Commission recently suggested that AVs may have to break strict…

  • UN warns of ‘climate catastrophe’ under latest plans

    The UNEP said that even with new and updated plans and pledges from countries for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade, the world faces global warming of at least 2.7°C by the end of the century. The latest climate plans and pledges brought forward by countries to tackle emissions in the medium term are likely to reduce emissions by just 7.5 per cent by 2030 compared to their previous commitments, it said. This falls far short of the 55 per cent required to meet the ambition of the Paris Agreement, keeping warming with within 1.5°C of pre-industrial levels. Beyond these levels, warming will pose an existential threat to island nations. The national plans (nationally determined contributions, or NDCs) previously put forward fell far short of the 1.5°C goal, prompting the submission…

  • Covid test based on carbon nanotubes gives results in minutes

    The new sensor is based on technology that could be quickly adapted to generate rapid and accurate diagnostics for future pandemics as well, the researchers said. “A rapid test means that you can open up travel much earlier in a future pandemic. You can screen people getting off of an airplane and determine whether they should quarantine or not. You could similarly screen people entering their workplace and so forth,” said Michael Strano, senior author of the study. “We do not yet have technology that can develop and deploy such sensors fast enough to prevent economic loss.” The diagnostic is based on carbon nanotube sensor technology that Strano’s lab has previously developed. Once the researchers began working on a Covid-19 sensor, it took them just 10 days to identify a modified…

  • US State Department to form cyber bureau

    Hackers, often backed by other nation states and their resources, have repeatedly struck US companies this year, with particular concerns about a surge of ransomware attacks. In May, a ransomware attack targeting pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline led to a temporary disruption to the fuel supply on the East Coast. This month, the US Treasury Department said that suspected ransomware payments amounting to $590m had been made in the first half of 2021. A Wall Street Journal report said the new bureau would have three divisions. The first will be focused on international cyber-security issues such as policy development, deterrence and negotiations with allies and adversaries. The second will be focused on digital policy, such as supporting the development of secure telecommunications infrastructure…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Australia announces net-zero 2050 goal; no legislation to follow

    Morrison has been under international pressure, having long refused to join other national leaders in pledging to reach net-zero emissions by the 2050 deadline ahead of COP26 in accordance with the aims of the Paris Agreement. Australia is one of the world’s biggest CO2 emitters on a per capita basis. Morrison has been in a quandary over climate policy, reluctant to upset rural voters opposing the phase-out of polluting industries ahead of next year’s election. The Australian Liberal Party also faces resistance within government; its coalition partner, the National Party, has a core voter base centred on agriculture and mining. In announcing the target, Morrison downplayed the potential for economic disruption and job losses: “Australians want action on climate change,” he told media in…

  • Tesla pushed to raise safety standards of driverless function by US regulator

    In a letter to the automaker’s founder Elon Musk, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy questioned Musk's decision to allow drivers access to his firm’s “Full Self-Driving Beta technology” without having first rectified the problems with the system that have caused multiple fatal crashes in recent years. The NTSB is still investigating the most recent fatal accident, which occurred in April this year, and which killed both occupants of the vehicle. The driver's Tesla car reportedly crashed after losing control while trying to take a curve at high speed. Neither the driver nor his fellow passenger was at the wheel, ready to take control in the event of an incident, as is required under the terms of Tesla’s driverless software. However, Tesla's vehicles have no system in place to ensure that drivers…

  • Gambling adverts on social media ‘more appealing to children than adults’

    Disguised gambling marketing and adverts for betting on esports are especially alluring as they trigger positive emotions in under 25-year-olds, according to a study conducted at the University of Bristol. A poll of more than 650 children, young people and adults across the UK revealed that the vast majority of adults were wary or annoyed when faced with gambling adverts, while children mainly reacted positively. The report calls for tighter regulations for gambling content marketing and a ban on esports gambling advertising in order to prevent youngsters from becoming addicted to gambling. It adds that social media platforms should only allow gambling adverts on social media when users actively opt-in to receive them. The online survey involved 210 children aged 11 to 17 years; 222 young…

  • The low-code route to hitting green targets

    The UK has fallen behind on adapting to climate change. A recent Climate Change Committee report highlighted how the gap between the level of risk and mitigation efforts is widening at an alarming rate. Despite having capacity and the resources needed to respond to risks, the UK is failing to prepare for the inevitable, with the report going on to lay bare the urgency and scale of changes needed across the infrastructure if the country wants to reach its new 2050 net zero target. The utilities sector is pivotal to meeting that objective, as is the role of digital innovation across sectors. Some 90 per cent of utility sector leaders surveyed in a recent study said that their commitment to net zero has initiated or triggered a sea change in their organisation. Forty four per cent went further…

  • Whistleblower accuses Facebook of fuelling global unrest

    Whistleblower Frances Haugen (pictured) met with MPs for two hours yesterday where she was probed about the company’s inner workings. Haugen was a data engineer at Facebook and began secretly copying thousands of the firm’s documents before quitting the firm. She has said the firm’s own internal data has shown that its Instagram platform is more dangerous for teenagers than rivals such as Snapchat or Tiktok. “The events we’re seeing around the world, things like Myanmar and Ethiopia, those are the opening chapters because engagement-based ranking does two things: one, it prioritises and amplifies divisive and polarising extreme content and two it concentrates it,” Haugen said. But Facebook has rejected her claims with founder Mark Zuckerberg recently saying it was illogical for the social…

  • Sturgeon promises shift away from fossil fuels for Scotland

    Sturgeon pledged that the strategy will set out how Scotland can make the “fastest possible transition” away from oil and gas, based on the understanding that “unlimited extraction of fossil fuels, or maximum economic recovery in UK policy terms, is not consistent with our climate obligations”. The new energy strategy is due to be published next year. However, a preliminary “catch-up plan” will be laid out this week, setting out what actions it must take after having missed emissions reductions targets for three consecutive years. Sturgeon, speaking to students at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, said that Scotland has some of the strictest climate targets in the world. The Scottish Parliament has approved legislation committing the country to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions…

  • Climate ‘tipping points’ identified using millennia-old data

    University of Birmingham researchers found that the current understanding of tipping points is lacking because such an event has not occurred in recent times. Earth System models, routinely used for climate predictions, are taken from our understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes that work together to shape our planet’s environment. But these models do not provide a complete picture because they fail to simulate known climate events from the past. The new study finds that knowledge of climate reconstructions from thousands of years ago can be used to fine-tune Earth System models to provide a more accurate understanding of climate system thresholds. Senior author Dr Peter Hopcroft, said: “Climate modelling is the only way we have to predict future climate change…

  • Endless regression: hardware goes virtual on the cloud

    In the summer of 2018, professors John Hennessy and David Patterson declared a glorious future for custom hardware. The pair had picked up the Association for Computing Machinery’s Turing Award for 2017 for their roles in the development of the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architectural style in the 1980s.   Towards the end of their acceptance speech, Patterson pointed to the availability of hardware in the cloud as one reason why development of custom chips and the boards they would be soldered onto is getting more accessible. Cloud servers can be used to simulate designs on-demand and, if you have enough dollars to spend, you can simulate a lot of them in parallel to run different tests. If the simulation does not run quickly enough, you can move some or all of the design into…

  • Motorola faces competition investigation over its emergency services network

    The Airwave Network was first introduced in 2000 as a way to allow emergency services to communicate during major incidents without interruption. All of Great Britain’s emergency services and over 300 public safety organisations communicate using the network and its coverage is actually superior to any of the publicly available networks, with 99 per cent coverage across the country. The CMA has launched a market investigation, following a consultation earlier this year, which set out concerns about the impact of the dual role of Motorola as the owner of the company providing the current mobile radio network (Airwave Solutions) and as a key supplier in the roll-out of the planned new Emergency Services Network (ESN). The ESN is superior to the Airwave network because it runs on 4G technology…

  • London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone expands 18-fold to cut air pollution

    The new ‘inner London’ zone is 18 times the size of the current central London zone and is designed to tackle air pollution in some of London’s most densely populated areas. The £12.50 daily charge is on top of the £15 Congestion Charge, which is designed to lower overall traffic in central London and mostly covers diesel cars that are more than six years old and petrol cars that are more than 15 years old. Around 87 per cent of vehicles currently travelling in the zone already meet ULEZ standards and will therefore be exempt from the new charge, up from 39 per cent in February 2017 when plans for expansion were first announced. ULEZ has now been expanded from central London, covering the same area as the Congestion Charge, up to - but not including - the North Circular and South Circular…

  • Sponsored: Collaborating for a fairer world

    The potential of engineering to transform and protect lives was thrown into sharp focus by the pandemic. In the initial stages, supply chains struggled to cope with demand for essential products. PPE shortages made the headlines: but with 40% of pre-pandemic PPE production based in China, this was inevitable. Concerns over how long it would take to develop an effective vaccine and issues over distribution and matching supply with demand also emerged. It was clear that our existing models of manufacture - based on proprietary technologies, restrictive IP practices and just-in-time supply chains - were not fit for purpose in the face of a rapidly evolving global crisis. As outlined in a Wilson Center report , the situation not only prompted a remarkable response from the engineering community…

  • Escape Rooms arrive at National Museum of Computing

    Participants must band together with their teammates to crack the problems against the pressures of a ticking clock – and rival teams – in a race to reach the finish line and escape TNMOC. The escape room challenges are rooted in the museum’s unique collection. In order to collect and decipher clues and escape the museum, participants must grapple with historic and retro computing technology (including paper tape, punch cards and floppy disks) and solve programming and cryptography challenges. “After a difficult 18 months of limited access to the museum, we are delighted to be able to host fun days out like our Escape Room packages,” said Jacqui Garrad, director, TNMOC. “We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from those who have trialled them and are thrilled to be opening…

  • How tech can help sport boost its green credentials

    With COP26 fast approaching, one thing is for certain: in every industry, a focus on 'ESG' –shorthand for using environmental, social and governance factors to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies and countries – is top of the agenda. The world of sport is no exception. This year, we have already seen the Tokyo Olympics prioritise recycled and recyclable materials; Tottenham Hotspur play ‘the world’s first carbon-zero football match’, and the Williams F1 team be the first to pledge to be climate positive by 2030. These are all big steps forward and like measures to increase diversity in sport - such as the MCC’s recent appointment of its first-ever female president - they should be celebrated. There is still a long way to go. The sports industry’s huge environmental and social…

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