• Plastics, proteins and plants key to reaching net-zero emissions

    Electricity, transport, and heating together account for 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, and are the priority for governments and businesses working to cut carbon emissions in line with their Paris Agreement obligations. However, reaching net-zero emissions also requires efforts directed at the remaining emissions. The 'Final 25 per cent' of emissions refers to the remaining 20 per cent of emissions contributed by sectors such as agriculture, cement, waste, and plastics, in addition to the extraction of at least 5 per cent equivalent from the atmosphere to account for unavoidable emissions. These emitters come from a wide range of greenhouse gas emitters, making them trickier targets than, for instance, large centralised power stations. Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the…

  • More than 75,000 green jobs lost in past five years, Labour says

    The Labour leader called for “rapid green investment” during his two-day tour of Scotland. “Tackling the climate crisis must be at the heart of everything we do. We are at a critical moment. In less than 100 days, COP26 will be over and our chance to keep the planet’s warming below 1.5°C will have either been grasped or abandoned,” said Starmer. “The UK must rise to this moment and lead by example. That means rapid action to create good, green jobs across the country. And it means a proper strategy to buy, make, and sell more in Britain, to create good, unionised jobs in clean energy and through supply chains. “Nobody here in the UK can afford for this issue to be yet another example of Boris Johnson bluster. We need real action, now. It is time for a Green New Deal.” Figures from the…

  • Rolls-Royce confirms return to profit as aviation sector faces long Covid recovery

    Alongside much of its sector, Rolls-Royce fell into the red last year as the number of passengers willing to take flights fell dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Heathrow, the UK’s largest airport, said its passenger numbers were down 72.2 per cent in 2020 compared to the year before. However, the firm's bottom-line profits picked up to £393m for the first six months of 2021, a significant improvement over the £5.4bn losses of one year ago. Part of the recovery relied on stringent cost-cutting measures, including shedding over 9,000 jobs, two-thirds of which will affect the UK. It confirmed that around 8,000 jobs have already been scrapped under the proposals. The firm also plans to raise at least £2bn from selling off some parts of the business. This came just days after it announced…

  • Book review: ‘World Brain’ by HG Wells

    The surest sign of a writer’s fame is when they themselves become a literary hero. This is certainly the case with HG Wells - polymath, prophet, legendary fantasist and one of the 20th century’s most prolific authors - who features as a character and/or a protagonist in a number of works of contemporary fiction. Ronald Wright’s ‘A Scientific Romance’ and Robert Masello’s ‘The Haunting of HG Wells’ are just two. Wells’ widely known literary and technological predictions range from the time machine, which has not (yet) come true, to the atomic bomb, which regrettably has. His less well-known techno prophecy is that of the 'World Brain'; a pre-digital, freely available ‘World Encyclopaedia’ accumulating the bulk of all human knowledge. This, he believed, would lead to an ideal, perennially peaceful…

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  • UK automotive sector faced weakest July sales in decades

    A combination of supply chain shortages and the ‘pingdemic’ have frustrated attempts to boost sales with industry estimates for the year being revised down to 1.82 million units. A total of 123,296 new cars were registered in the UK last month, representing a 29.5 per cent decline from July 2020. But purchases of plug-in vehicle have bucked the trend, accelerating to 17.1 per cent of market with 21,039 units registered in July. Electric vehicles are now expected to account for more than one in six new cars acquired in 2021, a necessary uptick ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol cars from 2030 . The SMMT said that Britain’s most popular types of cars remained superminis (32.9 per cent of registrations), lower medium (28.0 per cent) and dual purpose (27.3 per cent). While the UK’s…

  • ‘Cough-In-A-Box’ smartphone test for Covid-19 undergoing trials

    A partnership between Fujitsu, Formwize, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Cloudsoft, a Scottish software and service provider, the ‘Cough-In-A-Box’ diagnostic test - based on research released in October 2020 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - has been shown to correctly identify 98.5 per cent of positive cases, including 100 per cent of asymptomatic cases. The application uses artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose Covid-19 through audio recordings of a user coughing directly into their smartphone’s microphone. Analysing more than 70,000 recordings submitted by volunteers, which included around 2,500 from people confirmed to have Covid-19, the researchers from MIT were able to train the AI model to correctly identify positive cases. Since December 2020…

  • Hands-on review: JLab Talk Pro USB microphone

    In 2002, a London-based duo released an album under the eponymous title '1 Giant Leap'. Issued as a DVD documenting its creation, most of the musical and vocal performances included in the final release were recorded during a six-month globetrotting journey, taking in such far-flung places as Senegal, Ghana, India, Nepal, Australia, New Zealand and the US. Featured musicians included Neneh Cherry, Robbie Williams, Michael Stipe, Baaba Maal and Maxi Priest, with spoken word contributions from Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. All these performances were captured in the moment, on the hoof and often in remote locations, frequently without a recording studio – sometimes without a building of any kind – in sight. No audio interface. No mixing desk. Not even a microphone in some cases – just…

  • View from Brussels: Keeping the lights on at the neighbours

    Ukraine is the largest country that is wholly in Europe. An aspiring member of the EU and Nato, it is still largely reliant on fossil fuels but can also boast a relatively high level of energy self-sufficiency. Despite sharing borders with four EU member countries – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania – Ukraine’s power grid is not integrated with those networks, meaning that electricity cannot be traded or exchanged. Ukraine has to rely on Russia to balance its grid as it lacks the proper infrastructure to achieve the feat itself. This creates a dependency on Moscow that Kyiv is understandably uncomfortable with, given the frosty ties that exist between the two neighbours. By 2023, Ukraine intends to decouple its grid from Russia’s and link it to the EU’s, which should in theory unlock…

  • World’s densest air quality sensor network to be rolled out in Camden

    With installations taking place this summer by project leaders AirLabs, Camden Council hopes it will provide at least 100 times more data points and refresh 60 times more regularly than existing air quality reference stations. The network of AirNode sensors will be able to show a street by street picture of air quality in the area in real time. The data will contribute to local decision making in trying to improve air quality in the borough, particularly around schools, offices, hospitals, retail and hospitality businesses. In May, it emerged that some Camden residents were being exposed to illegal concentrations of toxic pollution. Council data revealed four places in the borough where concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were above the legal limit in 2020 despite the sizeable…

  • Hands-on review: Trust Taxon webcam

    This affordable 2K webcam upgrade promises to improve the quality of your video calls and also offers you the option of a two-camera set-up. I opened the small box and did what everyone does: I plugged it into my computer’s USB port and disregarded the instructions. Would my Windows 10 PC automatically see it and set it up? That’s the smooth tech experience we all seek… and we all know that it doesn’t always work out. The Taxon is small and lightweight, with a 1.8m cable that’s far too long for most users. The majority of people will want to perch the cam on top of their laptop screen, so 60cm would be plenty. You’re left with a zigzag of excess cable. But set-up worked. I plugged it in and, before I had time to faff around with the camera positioning, ‘Setting up a device’ popped up…

  • Beyond Asimov’s three laws: the case for an International AI Agency

    Earlier this year, the European Union proposed a draft regulation to protect the fundamental rights of its citizens from certain applications of artificial intelligence. In the USA last month, the Biden administration launched a taskforce seeking to spur AI innovation. On the same day, China adopted its new Data Security Law, asserting a stronger role for the state in controlling the data that fuels AI. These three approaches - rights, markets, sovereignty - highlight the competing priorities as governments grapple with how to reap the benefits of AI while minimising harm. A cornucopia of proposals offers to fill the policy void. For the most part, however, the underlying problem is misconceived as being either too hard or too easy. Too hard, in that great effort has gone into generating…

  • Computational models challenge assumption about limits of carbon capture

    The researchers, who are based at Imperial College’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Centre for Environmental Policy, used computational models to demonstrate that post-combustion carbon capture using amine absorption could capture up to 99 per cent of carbon at the source while remaining cost effective. There has been a long-held assumption that 90 per cent carbon capture is the upper limit for carbon capture technologies, becoming ubiquitous across literature and leading to doubts around the feasibility of capturing more. “In recent years, this 90 per cent assumption is being challenged as we begin or transition towards net-zero emissions,” the researchers explained. “Our findings show that there are no technical or economic barriers in capturing 99 per cent of CO2 from both power…

  • Proper reuse and recycling of electronics could create half a million UK jobs

    Green Alliance urged the government to drive economic growth by expanding the circular economy which sees products and resources kept in use for as long as possible through reuse, recovery, remanufacturing and recycling. The UK’s current approach is unsustainable, the report found, with too many products and materials cast aside without a structure in place to reclaim them or prolong their use. Indeed, a study from last year found that Britons produce the second largest amount of e-waste per person in Europe, producing around 55kg of e-waste each. The report claims that a reused iPhone retains around 48 per cent of its original value compared to just 0.24 per cent when recycled. “Just a few new policies focused on improving the use of valuable resources, led by the Treasury, would help…

  • Stinkweed could make for greener renewable jet fuel

    Pennycress, often referred to as stinkweed, is a common weed throughout Eurasia and North America. In the past 20 years, there has been some interest in harnessing it as a potential renewable fuel crop rather than just treating it as a weed, as the high erucic acid content of its seeds could make it suitable as a jet fuel. “Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from air travel will mean not just incremental changes, but a fundamental change in how we have been producing fuel and where that fuel comes from,” said Professor Ajay Shah, senior author of the Ohio State University study. “And what we found is that pennycress might make a very good alternative fuel, especially when you consider the environmental costs of producing it.” Growing pennycress as a crop requires less fertiliser and fewer…

  • Starliner’s launch to the ISS called off due to last-minute glitch

    Mission teams are now examining the cause of indications on Starliner’s propulsion system of an “unexpected valve position”. The reusable crew capsule, in development for over a decade, has been designed to transport crew to the ISS and other low-Earth-orbit destinations. Alongside Nasa teams, Boeing worked through several steps to try and troubleshoot the problem, but was ultimately forced to call off the launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Engineering teams have already ruled out a number of potential causes, including software, but additional time is needed to complete the assessment, Nasa said. The teams plan to take whatever time is necessary to ensure Starliner is ready for its uncrewed flight test to the space station and will look for the next available…

  • Book review: ‘Ten Days in Physics That Shook the World’ by Brian Clegg

    To begin with, I’d like to take issue with the title of this book, nicely written and highly illuminating as it is. Brian Clegg’s pun on John Reed’s iconic chronicle of the 1917 Russian revolution, ‘Ten Days That Shook the World’, is misleading in that the title of Reed’s courageous and eye-opening reportage was tongue-in-cheek. His diary-style account of the revolution, with all its chaos, poverty, violence and corruption has a negative connotation. In Reed’s view, those ten days changed the world not for the better, but for the worse. If they shook the world, it was to a point at which it nearly collapsed – the direct opposite of what Clegg ascribes to what he considers the ten most important discoveries in the world of physics, all of which have contributed hugely to improving our lives…

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    IET EngX

  • View from India: Destination: Tamil Nadu

    The Stalin-led DMK government aims to make Tamil Nadu (TN) a preferred destination for investments in South Asia. A fully digitised single window 2.0 portal with over 100 services has been created to attract investors. The portal, as per media reports, will be equipped with features like parallel processing of clearances and   will also give scope for virtual meetings with departments. An artificial-intelligence-based chatbot facility and deemed approval for select clearances are expected to be its other highlights. Some updates:   The state aims to attract investments to the tune of Rs 17,141 crore through a suite of new partnerships and collaborations. Thirty-five new Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed which   are expected to generate employment for 55,000 individuals…

  • Machine-learning robot completes 5km run in record time

    'Cassie' achieved the feat in just over 53 minutes, which may be unimpressive in human terms - particularly during the Tokyo Olympics 2020 - but it is significantly faster than other ML bipedal robots. Cassie was developed under the direction of robotics professor Jonathan Hurst with a 16-month, $1m (£700K) grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It was the first bipedal robot to use machine learning to control a running gait on outdoor terrain and completed the 5K run on Oregon State’s campus untethered and powered by a single battery charge. “The Dynamic Robotics Laboratory students in the OSU College of Engineering combined expertise from biomechanics and existing robot control approaches with new machine learning tools,” said Hurst. “This type of holistic…

  • Google’s first custom smartphone chip to debut in Pixel 6

    The new chips present another challenge to market dominators Qualcomm, whose chips power over 40 per cent of Android phones. Google said the processor, called Tensor, will help it to overcome issues around running competent AI on smartphones, a limitation that it has faced in the past. “We set about building a technology platform built for mobile that enabled us to bring our most innovative AI and machine learning (ML) to our Pixel users. We set out to make our own SoC to power Pixel 6. And now, years later, it’s almost here,” the search firm said in a blog post. “Tensor was built for how people use their phones today and how people will use them in the future. As more and more features are powered by AI and ML it’s not simply about adding more computing resources, it’s about using that…

  • Attempts to slow ‘pingdemic’ with app changes draw mixed response

    The Department urged the public to continue using the app, but said that changes made at the beginning of this week will result in fewer contacts being advised to self-isolate following a close contact with a positive case. Currently, for people who input a positive test but are asymptomatic, the app looks for close contacts five days prior to the positive test. This will be updated based on public health advice to look back at contacts two days prior to a positive test. The change will mean fewer contacts that took place when the positive case was unlikely to be at the peak of their infectiousness are advised to self-isolate, reducing the overall number of notifications sent by the app. The changes have not received a positive response from the opposition Labour party. In early July…

  • Chinese threat actors compromising telecoms, report warns

    Cybereason has revealed its discovery of several previously unidentified cyber-attack campaigns infiltrating major telecommunications providers across Southeast Asia. In the report, titled ' DeadRinger: Exposing Chinese Threat Actors Targeting Major Telcos ', multiple clusters of attack activity were identified and are assessed to be the work of several prominent 'Advanced Persistent Threat' (APT) groups aligned with the interests of the Chinese government. Similar to the recent 'SolarWinds' and 'Kaseya' attacks, the threat actors first compromised third-party service providers, but instead of using them to deliver malware through a supply chain attack, the intent was to leverage them to conduct surveillance of their customers' confidential communications. The report found that the attackers…

  • Royal Mail unveils Industrial Revolution stamp set

    The stamp collection will feature Watt’s rotative steam engine; the Penydarren locomotive; Spinning Jenny; Lombe’s silk mill, and Portland cement. Royal Mail is also releasing a miniature sheet of stamps that depict advances of the 'Electric Revolution' and the harnessing of electricity. Among them include the transatlantic cable and the Deptford power station. Image credit: Royal Mail/PA “The advances made in the Industrial and Electric Revolutions significantly transformed industrial practices across the globe,” said David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at Royal Mail. Gold added that the collection of stamps pay tribute to “some of the innovative and ground-breaking ideas and inventions that originated in Great Britain and changed the world”…

  • Smart necklace tracks detailed facial expressions

    NeckFace, one of the first necklace-type wearable sensing technologies, was developed by researchers at Cornell University. The team, led by Cheng Zhang, assistant professor of information science in the Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, said the technology can continuously track full facial expressions by using infrared cameras to capture images of the chin and face from beneath the neck. NeckFace is the next generation of Zhang’s previous work, which resulted in C-Face, a similar device but in a headset format. According to Zhang, NeckFace provides significant improvement in performance and privacy, and gives the wearer the option of a less-obtrusive neck-mounted device.  Besides potential emotion-tracking, Zhang sees many applications for this technology. These…

  • Book review: ‘A Biography of the Pixel’ by Alvy Ray Smith

    “We are now all aswim in an ocean of pixels,” says American computer scientist Alvy Ray Smith. “I carry billions of them on my person, and I suspect you do too.” Indeed, we have all been exposed to all kinds of digital imagery made up of pixels, from scrolling through social media platforms on our smartphones to the animated films we know and love. And this was sparked by the 'Great Digital Convergence' of 2000, whereby a single new digital medium replaced nearly all analogue media such as oil on canvas and ink on paper. ‘ A Biography of the Pixel ’ (MIT Press, £32, ISBN 9780262542456), written by Smith himself, points to that significant millennial event by celebrating ‘Digital Light’ – the vast realm that includes any pictures for any purpose, made from pixels. Smith is the ideal person…

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