• Fungus leather substitute offers greener alternative material

    Fungus leather substitute offers greener alternative material

    Traditional leather, typically made from animal hides such as cow and goat, brings ethical issues as well as the deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock farming. Treating animal hide to turn it into leather, known as tanning, often uses hazardous chemicals that can leach into the environment. Leather alternatives, such as those made from plastic, are vegan in that they don’t use animal hides. However, traditional synthetic leather is made using the polymers polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which, like most other plastics, are made from fossil fuels and are not biodegradable. In a new review paper, researchers at the University of Vienna, Imperial College London and RMIT University in Australia argue that leather made from fungi has “considerable…

  • The race is on for the fastest charger

    The race is on for the fastest charger

    The charger market is seeing a unification trend for improved user experience. With USB's compatible charging protocol, value-adding features such as ease-of-use, fast charging, and data transfer will upgrade chargers and optimize power management across multiple peripherals. USB-PD (power delivery) is the right technology to solve these market pains. To ensure that engineers are able to meet their design targets, Infineon – the leader in power - offers a comprehensive semiconductor portfolio of low RDS(on) high-voltage and low-voltage power MOSFETs that accommodate excellent power density while appropriately addressing thermal management and potential EMI issues. In this webinar session, several solutions will be presented. Furthermore, you will learn about the matching high-voltage and…

  • 3D-printed device boosts carbon capture efficiency

    3D-printed device boosts carbon capture efficiency

    While governments are primarily focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement and mitigate climate change, there is also interest in carbon capture and storage solutions. Carbon capture technologies could be installed at significant sources of carbon – such as power plants and factories – to mitigate their environmental impact, as part of holistic decarbonisation efforts. The device designed by the Department of Energy researchers is focused on improving the process of carbon absorption, which in a flue-gas stream from smokestacks is placed in contact with a solvent which reacts with the gas. This process typically produces heat when carbon dioxide interacts with the solvent, in turn diminishing the capability of the solvent to react…

  • View from India: The evolving workforce, workplace and workload

    View from India: The evolving workforce, workplace and workload

    Every crisis unveils a new dimension for opportunities. Adversity drives change as the future unfolds. The long-term transformation is to get rid of micro-macro inefficiencies. Kunal Kaul is on the supply side of the value chain and responds to client needs. “The pandemic took us by surprise and no one had anticipated its sheer magnitude. No one could predict the scale at which it has happened,” said Kaul, director enterprise business, Cisco India & SAARC, speaking at an online event discussing business continuity. At the behest of the chief information officer an online solution was designed for 100,000 users to access from home. “That was when we realised that the problem was real,” Kaul said in a matter-of-fact manner. Users have been provided with collaboration tools to connect with their…

  • Climate experts call for ban on adverts for polluting SUVs

    Climate experts call for ban on adverts for polluting SUVs

    The 'Badvertising' campaign from the New Weather Institute think tank and the climate charity Possible showed in its report that SUVs now make up more than 4 in 10 new cars sold in UK. Last year, the International Energy Agency said that SUVs are the second-biggest cause of the rise in global carbon dioxide emissions during the past decade with only the power sector being a bigger contributor. On average, even the most fuel-efficient SUVs average around 20-25mpg, while less fuel-hungry sedans get anywhere from 30-40mpg. The New Weather Institute said that over 150,000 new cars being sold in the UK in 2019 were too big to even fit in a standard parking space and blamed the trend towards ever-larger, more fuel-hungry vehicles on the “corporate marketing strategies of big car brands”. …

  • 3D printing in space: astronaut Sabrina Kerber returns from ‘Mars’

    3D printing in space: astronaut Sabrina Kerber returns from ‘Mars’

    In December 2019, I embarked on a simulated astronaut mission in Hawaii. The EMMIHS-II mission is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) funded Euro Moon Mars Initiative (EMM), the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG) and the International Moon Base Alliance (IMA). It took place at the renowned Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) habitat. For two weeks, our international crew of astronauts lived, worked and researched in this habitat just like astronauts on the Moon. In addition to being completely 'isolated' from Earth, the simulation included eating food made from freeze-dried ingredients; leaving the habitat only on approved extravehicular activities (EVA) while wearing spacesuits with integrated life support systems, and being restricted…

  • Single-use plastic bag sales down 95 per cent in UK

    Single-use plastic bag sales down 95 per cent in UK

    Data from the Environment Department (Defra) shows the main retailers sold 226 million single-use bags in the past financial year, 322 million fewer than in 2018/19. This is a drop of 59 per cent year on year, with the average shopper buying four bags compared to 10 last year and a whopping 140 in 2014. An estimated 7.6 billion bags a year were handed out by the leading supermarkets before the 5p charge was introduced in 2015. All retailers with more than 250 employees must apply the charge to their plastic bags, with many small businesses also reporting voluntarily. Combined, approximately 564 million bags were sold in the latest financial year, compared to 1.11 billion in 2018/19. The Government has consulted on extending the charge to all businesses and increasing the minimum charge…

  • Sainsbury’s to trial virtual queuing system for shoppers

    Sainsbury’s to trial virtual queuing system for shoppers

    Customers will be alerted to enter a store  from the comfort of their car, a nearby cafe or their home, for example, through a  smartphone app, eliminating the need to stand in a socially distanced line outside the store.  The system, which runs via the app ufirst, will be piloted at its stores in Uxbridge, Pimlico, Dome Roundabout in Watford, Leicester North and Newham Royal Wharf from today (27 July). Sainsbury’s said the initiative, which will run until mid-August, will test whether the technology will help customers stay safe, save time and shop conveniently in stores. “We’re always on the lookout for how we can make our customers’ lives easier using technology,” said  Nigel Blunt, director of e-commerce at Sainsbury’s.  “We’re trialling a virtual queuing system which enables shoppers…

  • Google misled users over data privacy issues, says Australian watchdog

    Google misled users over data privacy issues, says Australian watchdog

    The move, which is seeking a fine “in the millions” and aims to establish a precedent, comes as scrutiny grows worldwide over data privacy, with US and European lawmakers currently investigating how tech companies treat user data. In court documents, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) accused Google of not explicitly getting consent or properly informing consumers of a 2016 move to combine personal information in Google accounts with browsing activities on non-Google websites. “This change... was worth a lot of money to Google,” said commission chairman Rod Sims. “We allege they’ve achieved it through misleading behaviour.” The change allowed Google to link the browsing behaviour of millions of consumers with their names and identities, providing it with extreme…

  • High-tech cash machines could replace physical bank branches

    High-tech cash machines could replace physical bank branches

    While the use of cash has been rapidly declining in recent years due to the advent of new technologies such as contactless payments, a recent report estimated that some eight million Britons would struggle without cash. With concerns that Covid-19 could be passed on through physical money transactions, many shops (around one in ten according to consumer group Which?) are refusing non-contactless forms of payment. ATM makers Diebold Nixdorf expect that the crisis will see cash transactions plummet by 30 per cent over the whole of 2020 and drop by another 10 per cent in 2021. With the number of physical bank branches also declining, the company believes that ATMs could find a new role carrying out some of their functions. ATMs could, for example, be given deposit-taking abilities, along…

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    IET EngX
  • Cellular data could be used to implement localised Covid-19 lockdowns

    Cellular data could be used to implement localised Covid-19 lockdowns

    With the UK announcing its first local lockdown in Leicester today, such data could help governments going forward to pinpoint where such measures may be necessary to prevent broader spread of the virus. The method is able to identify the most crowded areas with hustle and bustle, such as a city centre, where asymptomatic carriers have a higher probability of coming into close contact with large numbers of healthy people. With mobile phone ownership nearly ubiquitous in developed countries, the technique allows tracking of large numbers of device users as they move and gather over time. The researchers from Colorado State University used what are known as handover and cell selection protocols - the cellular network technologies that allow us to move about freely with our mobile devices…

  • John Lewis to build biomethane gas filling station

    John Lewis to build biomethane gas filling station

    In March 2019, the employee-owned business, which is the parent company of high-end department store John Lewis and Waitrose supermarket, pledged to become net-zero carbon across its entire operations by 2050 at the latest and its 600 heavy goods vehicles to be switched to low-carbon biomethane by 2028.  Since last year, the Partnership has reduced its total operational carbon emissions by 6.6 per cent and emissions from its transport solutions have fallen by 6.9 per cent. “The evidence of climate change is all around us, so it’s important we act now using available technology rather than wait for unproven solutions to appear,” said Justin Laney, partner and general manager of central transport at the John Lewis Partnership. “We are working hard towards our new aim of removing all fossil…

  • Facebook to allow users to switch off political ads

    Facebook to allow users to switch off political ads

    Social media companies have been under intense pressure from campaigners, academics and lawmakers to take action against actors using dishonest techniques on their platforms to sway the results of elections. The 2016 US presidential election was heavily targeted by a Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign, with similar state-backed campaigns targeting other democratic events since. Last year, Google announced that it would ban microtargeting by political advertisers , while Twitter went further in announcing an almost total ban on political advertising . Facebook has been singled out as passive in the face of dishonest political advertising, upholding the right of politicians to lie in adverts (with no fact-checking by Facebook) even as fellow social media companies imposed restrictions on…

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    IET EngX
  • Online scam ads targeted for takedown by ASA with new reporting tool

    Online scam ads targeted for takedown by ASA with new reporting tool

    The 'UK Scam Ad Alert' system has already been successfully trialled for three months during which time various scams, particularly those involving crypto investment such as Bitcoin, were taken down. Many scam ads of this type use false stories or doctored images of celebrities, misleadingly implying the celebrities have endorsed the service in question. Such adverts can have a significant financial effect on consumers that fall for them. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Action Fraud warned that in 2018/19 victims of crypto and forex investment scams had lost over £27m in total. Consumers can now easily report scam ads appearing in paid-for space online. The ASA said it would then “promptly” alert participating platforms with key details of the scam ad, as well as alerting publishers…

  • UK Government downplays importance of contact-tracing app

    UK Government downplays importance of contact-tracing app

    Speaking at the daily Downing Street press briefing yesterday (11 June), the health secretary said the delayed contact-tracing app would only be brought in  “when it’s right to do so”. Hancock said: “As we launched 'NHS Test and Trace', we were clear we want to embed this system and get confidence that people are following the advice that’s given by human beings before introducing the technological element”.  The Government has rowed back on claims made when the app was first announced in mid-April, when it insisted the app would be central to its test, track and trace strategy. Originally, the app was due to be ready for a full countrywide rollout by late May. Developed by NHSX, the technology arm of the NHS, the app is intended to send a notification warning to the smartphone's owner…

  • Is it time to make touchscreens contactless?

    Is it time to make touchscreens contactless?

    Contactless technology is proving invaluable during the current coronavirus pandemic by eliminating the need to exchange cash or press buttons on a chip-and-pin machine. However, for many businesses, such as fast-food restaurants, the only option for taking a customer’s initial order without face-to-face contact is a touchscreen - and that actually risks spreading infection more widely. Antibacterial touchscreens exist, but this misses an important factor. As well as being genuinely hygienic, kiosks have to be perceived to be safe by customers. An anti-Covid coating isn’t likely to cut it for the general public: many people won't trust it, no matter how good it is. Even before the current health crisis, there were reports of gut and faecal bacteria being found on every fast-food touchscreen…

  • Book review: ‘Land of Wondrous Cold’ by Gillen D’Arcy Wood

    Book review: ‘Land of Wondrous Cold’ by Gillen D’Arcy Wood

    If ever there was a geographical region that unites humanity’s twin obsessions with terrestrial exploration and the advancement of science, it is the continent of Antarctica. And if ever there was a book on precisely that relationship it is ‘Land of Wondrous Cold’ (Princeton University Press, £22, ISBN 9780691172200), in which Gillen D’Arcy Wood  describes the unfolding drama of the White Continent’s role in plate tectonics, climate change and species evolution, stretching back into deep-time history. Of course, we came to know of these phenomena largely due to the early exertions of human exploration, most notably in the 19th century, when the likes of James Ross, Dumont D’Urville and Charles Wilkes were simultaneously pushing back the frontiers of both geographical exploration and scientific…

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    IET EngX
  • Amazon analysis: Can the winner take it all?

    Amazon analysis: Can the winner take it all?

    It came as a shock to Emily Cunningham and her colleague Maren Costa when they were fired on Good Friday. The two former Amazon user-experience designers had warned of the health risks for warehouse workers during the Covid-19 crisis and, in a petition to the CEO in late March, had demanded improved safety protocols, enhanced benefits and facility shut-downs during the pandemic. Their efforts were celebrated on social media but Costa wrote that they’d just been “fighting for our colleagues’ safety in the time of Covid”. The case is atypical because protest usually comes from lower-paid warehouse workers. Cunningham and Costa inspired Timothy Bray , senior principal engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS), to “quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistle-blowers who were making noise about warehouse…

  • Volunteers create more than 20,000 face shields for NHS staff

    Volunteers create more than 20,000 face shields for NHS staff

    As part of an initiative started by engineering enthusiasts, the Shield Force project in Edinburgh has been designing and making personal protective equipment (PPE) to donate to hospitals during the coronavirus crisis. What started with a handful of product design professionals using their 3D printers to help fight Covid-19 has now led to a pop-up factory with more than 200 people lending a helping hand. Based at Summerhall, the project has raised more than £33,000 to help produce the kit, with help from University of Edinburgh students, academics and other volunteers. “We thought about what we could realistically do – ventilators were too complex to produce,” said Costa Talalaev, director of prototyping company Maker-Bee. Because of this, the volunteers decided to make face shields and…

  • 3D-printed concrete piles could anchor floating wind turbines to seabed

    3D-printed concrete piles could anchor floating wind turbines to seabed

    Winds off the coasts of the US could be used to generate more than double the combined electricity capacity of all the nation's electric power plants, according to estimates. However, building wind turbines offshore is expensive, requiring parts to be shipped at least 30 miles away from a coast. Engineers at Purdue University have been conducting research on a way to make wind turbine parts out of 3D-printed concrete – a less expensive material that would also allow parts to float to a site from an onshore plant. "One of the current materials used to manufacture anchors for floating wind turbines is steel," said Pablo Zavattieri, a professor in Purdue's Lyles School of Civil Engineering. "However, finished steel structures are much more expensive than concrete." Conventional concrete…

  • Facebook stops advertisers targeting ‘pseudoscience’ enthusiasts

    Facebook stops advertisers targeting ‘pseudoscience’ enthusiasts

    Other categories such as 'conspiracy theory' have also been removed while Facebook evaluates the list in light of recent claims relating to coronavirus on the platform. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media network would clamp down on coronavirus misinformation posts at the beginning of March although it has continued to allow advertisers to target people using various dubious terms in the six weeks since the pledge. According to The Markup, Facebook’s ad platform showed that 78 million Facebook users were interested in pseudoscience although it was not clear how many advertisers had actually paid for content using the keyword. While Facebook does offer a publicly accessible library of ads run on its platform, it does not display which groups are targeted by each ad. Recent theories…

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    IET EngX

  • London Fashion Week sashays over to digital platform

    Fashion shows due to take place in Paris and Milan have been cancelled or postponed – along with every other major event for the next few months – due to the coronavirus pandemic. These cancellations and postponements are a further blow for the beleaguered fashion sector, which has been hit hard by Covid-19 with retail locations and non-essential manufacturing all put on hold across the globe. British high-street fashion retailers have been particularly badly affected, with Debenhams, Oasis and Warehouse all forced into administration. The fashion world has been waiting for a decision on London Fashion Week, which traditionally takes place twice a year: the menswear event in June and the womenswear event in September. Today, the British Fashion Council announced that the two events would…

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    IET EngX

  • Driverless taxis repurposed for online deliveries to cope with lockdown surge

    The cars are loaded up with goods from e-commerce platform Yamibuy and hand-delivered to customers by the safety driver, as current rules prevent driverless vehicles from being allowed on the roads without a human operator on board. Around 90 per cent of shoppers in the US are staying at home due to the pandemic, leading to surging demand for home deliveries. Pony.ai, which has backing from Japanese automaker Toyota, was valued at over $3bn in February, having first deployed its robo-taxi fleet in November 2019. Prior to the lockdown the fleet was taking around 150 rides per day in Irvine, which has a population of approximately 200,000 people. James Peng, cofounder of Pony.ai, said in an interview that the pandemic could help to accelerate driverless technologies. “As autonomous…

  • Fast fashion has ‘detrimental’ environment cost, scientists warn

    The fashion industry is one of the world’s largest industrial polluters, and yet it continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion. British people buy more clothes per person than any other European nation, with only a limited amount of used clothing being reused or recycled; less than one per cent of material used to produce clothing is recycled into new clothing. The environmental impact of the fashion industry – particularly the fast fashion industry, which is based on a rapid cycle of cheap, mass-manufactured, disposable garments often made from artificial fibres – has been brought to mainstream attention in recent years. However, the fast fashion industry continues to grow and accelerate, largely driven by the popularity of budget online fashion retailers such as Asos, Boohoo…

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