• Book review: ‘Clean Living Under Difficult Circumstances’ by Owen Hatherley

    Ever since I was asked to review his book ‘Landscapes of Communism’ in 2015, Owen Hatherley has been one of my favourite authors. I have read most of his books – from ‘Militant Modernism’ (described by The Guardian as an "intelligent and passionately argued attempt to excavate Utopia”) to ‘Red Metropolis’ and the less well known ‘Across the Plaza: The Public Voids of the Soviet City’. ‘Trans-Europe Express’, his comprehensive and witty guide to European architecture, has been my faithful travel companion on a number of trips. These days, as I find myself in the middle of researching a book on the Utopian settlements of Britain, some of Hatherley’s works are proving helpful, eye-opening and simply indispensable and are likely to be among my own book’s most quoted sources. The scope of Hatherley…

  • Hands-on review: Geomag Mechanics Gravity – Loops and Turns

    Good STEM toys tick the boxes marked challenging, interesting, satisfying and inspiring - but they also need to be fun. A decision to play with something is always going to have more worth if it is the child’s choice rather than that of the parents. Will the latest offering from Geomag get that 'new toy thrill' thumbs up from children? The kit under review is the 'Geomag Mechanics Gravity – Loops and Turns'. What’s in the box? There are around 120 small pieces of plastic (made of 74 per cent recycled plastic), ten-ball bearings and an instruction booklet. Straightaway, there is the first realisation that this is not the Geomag of old, where ball bearings and magnetised rods could be assembled in infinite combinations – the imagination was the limit, as they say. This kit is aimed at those…

  • VW unveils autonomous version of its electric camper van, the ID.Buzz

    The vehicle was first unveiled in 2017 as a modernised, fully-electric update of the classic VW camper van. The latest prototypes include a self-driving system developed by AI firm Argo, which comprises a suite of sensors (including cameras, radar and lidar), software and the computer platforms to provide a 360-degree awareness of the vehicle’s environment. The system allows it to predict the actions of pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles, directing the engine, braking and steering systems in response. Image credit: vw VW said the current models can detect objects from a distance of more than 400m and its patented “Geiger-mode” technology is capable of detecting the smallest particles of light (a single photon), so that even objects with low reflectivity, like…

  • View from Washington: Theranos – Silicon Valley on trial

    It feels like something from another time and the wheels of US justice have ground not just slow, but Covid-slow. Nevertheless, more than three years after the two most senior executives at Silicon Valley blood-test venture Theranos were indicted in a $700m fraud, the first trial has begun. Jury selection in the case against founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes took place last week and hearings are set to begin after today’s Labor Day holiday. It promises to be one of the most intensely analysed tech court actions in many years, and not just because of the egregiousness of the scandal itself. Two controversial aspects of Valley culture will, based on initial filings, form key planks in Holmes’s defence. First will be the acceptability of start-ups using the ‘Fake it till you make it’ strategy…

  • Stretchy wormlike robots offer new possibilities for movement

    A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow say the 'roboworms' can stretch up to nine times their own length and are capable of a form of proprioception – the method by which biological organisms like worms perceive their position in space. This allows the robot worms to squeeze into tight spots that rigid robots cannot reach. The researchers hope that the invention could lead to a new generation of robots capable of autonomously exploring difficult-to-reach places, which could be used in areas such as mining and construction or disaster relief to search for survivors trapped in rubble. The technology could also be used to develop more lifelike prosthetics or equip robots with the ability to wrap around and lift irregularly-shaped heavy objects. The way the robots move was inspired…

  • Broadband complaints hit three-year high during lockdown; Virgin Media rated worst

    Ofcom's latest league tables on the number of complaints it received about the UK’s major home phone, broadband, mobile and pay-TV firms took place during the third UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown, when millions of people were heavily reliant on their telecoms services. While complaints about mobile services remained broadly stable, broadband and home phone complaints hit a three-year high, while complaints about pay-TV services also increased. This was largely driven by Virgin Media, which was the most complained-about broadband, home phone and pay-TV provider. The main reason customers complained to Ofcom about Virgin Media was to do with how the company handled their complaints. Joint second on the list of the most complaints were TalkTalk and Vodafone, with 24 complaints per 100,000 each…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Anomaly detection: a game changing approach to predictive maintenance

    The purpose of preventative maintenance is to avoid the costly impact of unscheduled downtime should machine components fail. In many cases the components replaced may still be within specification, but we replace them anyway rather than take the risk – especially where the equipment is critical to output. An accusation regularly levelled at this approach is that it can lead to excessive maintenance. Operators would much prefer to know when a machine part is going to fail, so they can avoid carrying out the work until it is absolutely necessary. Ideally, this would be the exact remaining lifetime of the component, but predictive maintenance technology is some way off achieving that level of precision. What we tend to see happening currently, when it comes to critical machinery, is a condition…

  • View from India: Software as a living organism

    Co-WIN is a vaccine registration platform that has been operational since January 2021. The platform has created a digital ecosystem of national significance, becoming a trendsetter as it has illustrated that software can be scalable and inexpensive. “The scalable digital system happens through an open API (application programming interface). It’s the openness combined with a minimalist system that has made it work. A monolithic approach would never have worked here,” said Dr RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of India). He was speaking to an online audience at the Nasscom Cloud Summit 2021. The vaccine registration itself is a digital exercise, which documents the registration and details the type of vaccine along with the dose…

  • Stellar nurseries take form in 3D-printed spheres

    Stellar nurseries are vast clouds of gas and dust in which new stars can form under the gravitational influence of denser areas known as “clumps”. Although false-colour photographs and concept art of stellar nurseries are familiar images in popular science, Professor Nia Imara was interested in creating stellar nursery models which captured the complex structural detail of these formations. Imara made the models using data from simulations of star-forming clouds and a sophisticated 3D printing process in which the fine-scale densities and gradients of the clouds are embedded within a transparent resin. The resulting models are smooth, polished spheres around 8cm in diameter, in which the clouds appear as delicate, swirling clumps and filaments. “We wanted an interactive object to help us…

  • ‘No way’ to solve climate crisis without China, Kerry says

    The virtual meeting was held ahead of the critical COP26 conference, due to be held in Glasgow in November, at which world leaders will seek to secure accelerated action to keep average global warming to within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This target is still possible, but will require immediate and drastic decarbonisation action, a landmark IPCC report concluded . China and the US are the world's first and second-largest carbon emitters, respectively. China alone is responsible for an estimated 27 per cent of global greenhouse gases. The US has, by far, the world’s largest share of emissions per capita. Kerry has implored Chinese leaders to expand efforts to reduce carbon emissions as part of the global effort to keep back the rise in temperatures. Kerry is currently in the eastern…

  • UK public backs limits on ‘legal but harmful’ content online

    The research involved Hope not Hate, Demos and the Antisemitism Policy Trust, among other groups. The study involved more than 1,500 people weighed to be representative of the UK public. It identified online abuse as a key issue among the public, with 73 per cent stating that they are worried about the quantity of this content on social media. A large majority (74 per cent) of respondents said they do not trust social media companies alone to decide what is extreme content or disinformation when it appears on their platforms. There is strong public support for stronger regulations forcing these companies to take action against harmful content, with 71 per cent agreeing they should be held legally responsible for user-generated content on their platforms and 73 per cent agreeing they should…

  • Faster digitalisation helps firms improve operations and diversify revenues

    Engineering, procurement and construction firms are doing all they can to rebound rapidly amid the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic. But while many EPCs view cost savings as an effective short-term response, longer-term adverse trends demand a more strategic view and the acceleration of digitalisation. Even before Covid-19 emerged, companies faced the commoditisation of their services, regular cost and schedule overruns, risk-laden lump-sum projects and net margins of less than two per cent on average. Digitalisation can not only help EPCs overcome these long-term challenges, but can also lay the groundwork for improved profitability and new sources of revenue. Fortunately, there are already signs that digitalisation will pick up speed. Two-thirds of construction industry respondents…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Money & Markets: The latest technology to invest in – gene editing

    Most people are aware that the dotcom boom was technology-based, but few realise that since the very start of stock markets in the 1700s, the whole shooting match has been driven by technological advancement. The history of the stock market is the history of funding and the speculation in technology: sail, navigation, canals, railways, radio, automobiles, electronic, computing, the internet and finally the internet applications like Facebook, Google and Amazon. So the way to invest is to catch new technology at a stage where it is exciting enough to be incorporated into listed enterprises, but not so late as to be a later entrant buying at increasingly lofty valuations. Some people call this investing, but it is in the end speculation, a less respectful way of typifying someone putting…

  • Database aims to help prevent mine-waste disasters

    The study forms the first global picture of the occurrence rates, behaviours and physical impacts of mine-waste disasters known as tailings flow. Tailings flows are rapid downstream movements of mine waste, following tailing dam failures. Catastrophic tailings flows have occurred approximately one every two to three years since 1965, causing death, long-term environmental contamination and severe infrastructure damage over distances that can span tens of kilometres. In the past few decades, hazardous weather and inadequate drainage have been the most frequent triggers for these events. “Despite the strict engineering requirements, tailings dams can fail, sometimes catastrophically, so our research raises awareness of the potential downstream effects for public safety purposes,” said PhD…

  • Virgin Galactic space flight investigated for deviation

    Billionaire businessman Sir Richard became the first owner-astronaut to take part in a mission when he took off on board the spaceship in July this year - beating fellow billionaire space rivals Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to the space punch - ultimately reaching the edge of space, which he hailed as the “experience of a lifetime”. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates all aspects of US civil aviation, has now revealed that an “investigation is ongoing” into the Unity 22 mission. According to an FAA spokesperson: “During its July 11, 2021 flight, the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicle deviated from its Air Traffic Control clearance as it returned to Spaceport America”. Virgin Galactic has acknowledged that the flight’s “ultimate trajectory deviated from our…

  • Drivers of autonomous vehicles tracked using AI camera tech

    While vehicles with limited autonomous functionality are already hitting roads in the US, the technology is not mature enough to completely do away with human drivers. Current rules mandate that a driver must be ready to take control of an semi-autonomous vehicle within a moment’s notice. While driver monitoring systems already exist, modern examples are typically limited to detecting driver fatigue and make minimal use of camera image data. “Our technology not only enables us to identify facial features but also the current poses of the driver and the passengers,” said Fraunhofer researcher Michael Voit. “We can then determine from these poses what the driver and passengers are currently doing.” The team developed machine-learning algorithms that can analyse the camera data in real time…

  • Green skills training programme for unemployed youth announced

    The initiative, created by non-profit Generation: You Employed, UK , in partnership with London-based finance group Macquarie, is the first of its kind to offer profession-specific training for unemployed young people to enter the green sector. The new 10-week programme, the first in a series, will equip learners with the technical and behavioural skills they need to thrive in jobs in retrofitting homes to improve their energy efficiency in the UK’s transition to net zero. According to the organisation, the training will be delivered by expert instructors and includes one-on-one mentorship for learners and active matchmaking and placement with employer partners upon completion. Michael Houlihan, CEO at Generation UK, said: “In tackling the climate crisis we have the potential to create…

  • 77-atom molecule key to brain-like computing architecture

    The discovery unlocked the creation of a new type of computing architecture, which the researchers hope will have major implications in sectors ranging from bioinformatics to fintech. The findings have been reported in Nature . In biological brains, the interconnections between neurons embed intricate logic structures which enables sophisticated decision-making far beyond anything that has been produced using electronics. Significantly, the network of neurons in a brain is constantly reconfiguring, providing flexibility and adaptability to different environments, unlike hard-wired logic circuits. The researchers created an improved electronic analogue using a new molecule with just 77 atoms. The molecule was discovered by experts in predictive materials design from the University of Limerick…

  • IET launches competition for young sustainable minds

    In celebration of the IET’s 150th anniversary this year, the new ‘ My Sustainable Community ’ aims to help young people discover how engineering and technology can be key in providing solutions to some of the planet’s biggest challenges, all while having fun. For the competition, the task is for young people, between the ages of 7-14, to take on the role of an engineer and design a sustainable neighbourhood of 150 homes using their local area as inspiration. The challenge outlines: “You need your community to be sustainable; that means considering the environment and everything that lives in it. From providing shelter and water to heating, food sources and your economy, the challenge is yours.” Launching the competition, IET president Danielle George said: “Our communities have evolved…

  • BMW to use recycled materials in its cars as part of carbon-cutting drive

    The automaker said it was committed to supporting the 1.5°C target limit for global warming as laid out in the Paris Agreement and that by 2030 the CO2 emissions per vehicle and kilometre driven will be “at least halved” from 2019 levels. “The decisive factor in the fight against global warming is how strongly we can improve the carbon footprint of vehicles over their entire life span. This is why we are setting ourselves transparent and ambitious goals for the substantial reduction of CO2 emissions. These are validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative and will deliver an effective and measurable contribution,” said Oliver Zipse, BMW board chairman. BMW said it was the first German carmaker to pledge to meet carbon targets that limit global warming to 1.5°C and that it is committed…

  • Age Appropriate Design Code comes into force in UK

    The Age Appropriate Design Code requires data protection to be made a primary consideration when designing online services, from the point of inception. It sets out 15 standards that companies are expected to incorporate into services used by children, including apps, connected toys, games, and even educational websites. The code was drafted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and published in a “clarified and simplified” form last year , following initial publication of a draft in 2019. The ICO will also be responsible for enforcing the rules. The measures cover transparency, default setting and data minimisation. The code states that privacy settings should be set to high by default and nudges (indirect suggestions) should not be used to encourage children to weaken their settings…

  • Weather, climate disasters ‘stronger and more frequent than in the 1970s’

    The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) of the United Nations said its 'Atlas' is the most comprehensive review of mortality and economic losses from weather, water and climate extremes ever produced. It surveyed some 11,000 disasters occurring between 1979-2019, including major catastrophes such as Ethiopia’s 1983 drought, which was the single most fatal event with 300,000 deaths, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 that was the most costly, with losses of $163.6bn (£118.9bn). The report showed an accelerating trend, with the number of disasters increasing nearly fivefold from the 1970s to the most recent decade, adding to signs that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent because of global warming. The WMO attributed the growing frequency to both climate change and improved disaster…

  • Deepfake exploitation promps reconsideration of performers’ rights

    AI technologies are increasingly being used to generate realistic videos or sound recordings that imitate the likeness of a person’s face, voice or performance , based on authentic footage. Current intellectual property laws were created long before deepfake technology existed and therefore do not take its possibilities into account. Performers are legally entitled to control the records made of their work, but this doesn’t apply to digital impersonation. A study by Dr Mathilde Pavis, from the University of Exeter Law School, suggests that performers should be given copyright over their work to prevent abuse of their personal likeness. “The regime of performers’ rights could be replaced with a regime of performers’ copyright,” Pavis said. “This small, yet important, change in legal regimes…

  • View from India: Building digital platforms for scale and success

    Already many citizen-centric services have gone digital. To date, India has around 20 digital service platforms. The government services are available on platforms that help in mass outreach. People with location challenges may opt for services from these platforms. “Bus terminals, railway platforms, international airports and sea ports have a national appeal. Their digital presence has unified siloed operations. Consequently, people can avail transport services through the click of a button regardless of location,” said Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India (GoI), addressing an online audience at the Nasscom Cloud Summit 2021. The value derived from these platforms is phenomenal. “Looking back, when Aadhaar was…

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