• Teardown – Samsung Galaxy Ring

    This diminutive device tracks vital health signs and physical activity, but does its environmental impact override the technological advance? Samsung’s Galaxy Ring arguably represents one of the first devices in a new product category, albeit one with a relatively niche audience. Released in July, the £399 smart ring is kitted out with sensors enabling biometric health monitoring and is aimed squarely at fitness fanatics or those who want to keep a close eye on their vital bodily signs. It is packed with a range of features including an optical heart rate sensor, blood oxygen monitor, skin temperature sensor and an accelerometer to track physical activity throughout the day. Additionally, the ring tracks sleep and the menstrual cycle, as well as snore detection and stress monitoring.…

  • Australian-led project plans to grow seedlings on the Moon by 2026

    A project studying whether plants can survive on the lunar surface has booked a ride on Intuitive Machines’ third mission, scheduled for take-off next year. In July 2023, the Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH) project received $3.6m as part of the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars Initiative. The project is led by Australian start-up Lunaria One working in collaboration with a number of universities, non-profits and industry partners. The aim is to take a payload into space that contains seeds and plants, and eventually grow plants that astronauts can eat when on the Moon and Mars. This is more challenging than it sounds as the plants and seeds have a lot to endure before they even get to the lunar surface, including lengthy storage at the launch pad, intense…

  • Mentor - Skills Gap? What skills gap?

    Graham Melroy argues that universities and SMEs are not communicating, which is helping neither graduates nor the industry. One of my pet hates is the persistent claim that there is a skills gap in the UK. As someone who has worked in the engineering sector for almost two decades, I can assure you this is far from the truth. As a small and growing engineering business in the UK, we face a daunting challenge: universities seem to be shielding graduates from the real-world skills and opportunities they and we desperately need. Every day, we search for fresh talent to invigorate our projects, yet finding graduates prepared to dive into practical work is increasingly difficult. This is not because the talent does not exist – more so the lack of accessibility to it. Recent interactions with…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Editor's comment: Great British Energy promises a greener future but faces high stakes

    What do we expect from Great British Energy, the new company that was one of Labour’s flagship policies in the last UK election? Those who feared or welcomed a nationalisation of the UK’s energy industry – caught up in the momentum behind talks of re-nationalisation of the rail and water industries perhaps – can put these fears or hopes on ice, as the existing industry will continue unscathed. Instead GB Energy is merely a new kid on the block, designed to accelerate development in a greener direction. This is why I believe the policy is full of both danger and hope. The hope clearly comes from improved investment in renewable electricity generation capacity. But as Len Williams outlines in his article (see p22), it is as much about progress in newer technologies. There has been a feeling…

  • Burning issues in a stressful career

    Occupational burnout is flaring up across disciplines, and at-risk engineers need to balance professional drive with personal wellbeing. Once cast as an occupational hazard for rarefied high-status/high-pressure jobs, burnout has become a primary health issue of the post-pandemic workplace. Across professions and sectors, reported incidence of employee burnout has continued to rise, some four years on from the Covid-19-era stresses seen as its breakout trigger. A February 2023 survey of 10,250 global employees by Future Forum found that 42% declared themselves as experiencing burnout – a two percentage point rise on the previous quarter poll, and its highest figure since the think tank began to track the strain in May 2021. Around 52% of employees polled (in January 2024) by the US…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Going, going, gone… Paul Allen’s tech collection under the hammer

    Welcome to the greatest retro tech show on earth! As Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s stunning collection of retro technology, historical engineering artefacts, scientific documents and artworks goes up for sale at Christie’s in New York, E+T takes a look at some of the highlights. Unless otherwise stated, all images are courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd, 2024. To the world of engineering and technology, Paul Allen is one of the great names of the twentieth century. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the help of childhood friend Bill Gates, he detonated the microcomputer revolution, without which our day-to-day lives would be unrecognisable. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation and amassed a personal wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. As a philanthropist, when he died six years ago he left…

  • UK’s first battery-powered intercity train trial achieves up to 50% fuel savings

    Battery power could cut intercity train fuel costs by 35-50%, according to the UK’s first trial of the technology. The trains, developed by Hitachi Rail, are designed to run on 100% battery power for up to 100km. At this range, the battery technology could be deployed to cover the final non-electrified sections of the UK’s intercity routes in the coming years. In the latest test, a 700kW battery managed to power the train to speeds greater than 75mph (120km/h), which means it can enter and exit stations in zero-emission battery mode to improve air quality and reduce noise pollution. The battery is roughly the weight of a diesel engine and is installed in the same undercarriage space. Hitachi Rail said this ensured the track underneath would not degrade faster than that under diesel trains…

  • Is AI the over-hyped bubble that is about to burst

    Is AI’s meteoric rise about to be tempered by some practicalities? Many have predicted that AI’s energy consumption is unsustainable, but that may be just the tip of the iceberg. The computing industry loves a trend. Even better if it’s one that’s exponential. But those trends remain true for only so long before they suddenly stop dead or even go into reverse. As long as two decades ago, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore sounded the alarm on the trends that underpinned his eponymous law. “No exponential is forever,” he reminded engineers at a chip industry conference in 2003. Within a year, one major driver of silicon scaling – improvements in power efficiency as transistors grew smaller – had run into the sand. And microprocessor clock speeds have remained pegged at a few gigahertz ever since…

  • Electrifying Britain - The Great Grid Upgrade

    Electrification is seen as the way towards a decarbonised future, so plans are afoot to bring the UK network up to the task. A light breeze is all it takes to turn a giant wind turbine, each blade longer than a football field with tip speeds reaching 321km/h (200mph). When the wind blows, the electricity generated by a single rotation of a turbine can power a home for two days. Off the north-east coast of England and deep into the North Sea’s Dogger Bank, where the world’s largest offshore wind farm is being built, vast turbines are harnessing the blustery winds day and night. Scotland, to the north, with its abundance of natural power, has more electricity than it can consume. “There’s more power coming down than current links can cope with,” says Manu Haddad, professor in high voltage…

  • STEM politicians - from labs to legislators

    How a recent injection of STEM expertise among MPs could shape Britain’s science sector. Only one UK prime minister has held a science degree – chemistry graduate Margaret Thatcher. And while there have been historians and classicists aplenty among the UK’s former leaders, there’s not a single engineer. Only one mention of engineering was made in all the parties’ manifestos ahead of July’s election – by Labour in reference to green energy. And yet thorny policy challenges – net zero, regulating AI, boosting productivity, building new energy infrastructure, maintaining an international research profile and tackling the UK’s skills gap – have a strong science, technology and engineering (STEM) element. Industry figures believe these can, in part, be tackled by leveraging the UK’s prowess…

  • Sandvik introduces 14-week paid parental leave for all employees

    Sandvik is rolling out a new gender-neutral parental leave program that enables employees around the world to take 14 weeks of paid leave. Sandvik’s new parental leave program provides 90% of the base salary to all employees in countries where no equivalent or better benefit already exists. While most Sandvik employees work in countries where predominantly women benefit from parental leave, this new Sandvik program will benefit all new parents, regardless of gender, location or family structure. Stefan Widing, president and CEO at Sandvik, who is based at the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, said: “One of our strategic objectives is to be the employer of choice. We believe that it is crucial for us to be successful as a company; to be able to attract, retain and develop our employees…

  • Wasted heat from London sewers and underground to warm buildings in £1bn scheme

    Buildings in Westminster including the Houses of Parliament are to be warmed by low-carbon heat generated by the River Thames, London Underground and the sewers. Initiated by the government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the £1bn heat network scheme will enable around 1,000 London buildings, including listed and World Heritage Site buildings, to switch to low-carbon heating. Heat networks work by supplying heat from a central source and delivering it to a number of buildings via a network of underground pipes. Known as the South Westminster Area Network (SWAN), the scheme has reached a significant milestone with the announcement that it will be developed as a joint venture between heat network developers Hemiko and Vital Energi. Infrastructure consulting firm…

  • Emissions from private jets soar almost 50% in four years, research finds

    Private aviation is making a growing contribution to climate change, with many being used as ‘taxis’ for distances less than 50km, according to a study. In the study – led by Stefan Gossling, a professor at Linnaeus University in Sweden – the researchers aimed to quantify the contribution private aviation makes on climate change. To do this they analysed the flight tracker data of more than 18.6 million private flights, which were flown by 25,993 registered business jet-type private aircraft over a four-year period from 2019 to 2023. Analysing the CO2 emissions of each of these flights, they concluded that they cumulatively produced approximately 15.6 million tonnes of CO2 in direct emissions in 2023. This equates to approximately 3.6 tonnes of CO2 emitted on average per flight. The…

  • Nissan to cut 9,000 jobs after posting 2024 financial results

    Nissan has said it will cut global production capacity by 20% and reduce its workforce by 9,000 after failing to meet financial targets. In its first half 2024 results, the firm’s net revenue decreased by 79.1bn yen (£400m) to 5.98tn yen, with profit margins falling to just 0.5%. Global sales volumes decreased year-on-year to 1.6 million units, while higher selling expenses and inventory optimisation efforts, particularly in the US, also impacted its profitability. “Facing a severe situation, Nissan is taking urgent measures to turn around its performance and create a leaner, more resilient business capable of swiftly adapting to changes in the market,” the firm said. “To achieve healthy growth in the future, the company will implement a structure to secure sustainable profitability and…

  • UK to create 'early warning system' to diagnose diseases and monitor future pandemics

    The UK will create the world’s first real-time surveillance system to monitor the threat of infectious diseases and rapidly diagnose cancer, the government has announced. A new partnership has been formed between the UK government, Genomics England, UK Biobank, NHS England and life sciences company Oxford Nanopore, which was founded in 2005 as a spinout from Oxford University. Oxford Nanopore uses long-read sequencing technology to analyse genes and pathogens to rapidly diagnose a range of cancers, along with rare and infectious diseases. The technology can sequence long strands of DNA or RNA in one go, without breaking it up into smaller fragments. The aim is for Oxford Nanopore’s technology to help create an early warning system for future pandemics and potential biological threats…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • This year ‘virtually certain’ to be hottest on record, finds EU’s climate monitor

    Data from the European Commission’s climate monitor Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has revealed that 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the hottest on record, with warming above 1.5°C. Just two weeks after the UN warned that current climate policies risk a catastrophic 3.1°C global temperature rise, the C3S has released new data revealing how the world is passing a “new milestone” of temperature records. This year has seen our environment ravaged by extreme weather conditions, from flooding to droughts and wild fires to hurricanes. Scientists argue that these extreme weather events are made even more likely as the result of human-driven climate change. Each month often surpasses temperatures for that month the year previous. For October 2024, CS3 data reveals that the month was…

  • Amazon launches same-day drone delivery for household essentials in Arizona

    Amazon has started a same-day drone delivery service in Arizona, US, that will give customers access to “over 50,000 everyday essentials”. The firm said the available products include household and beauty items as well as office and tech supplies, and customers who live near the warehouse can purchase an eligible item weighing 2.2kg or less for drone delivery in under an hour. “Safety is our top priority,” Amazon said in an attempt to address concerns consumers might have with the service. “Our new drone, the MK30, has received FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] approval to begin operations to customers. “Our approval includes the ability to fly beyond visual line of sight, using our sophisticated on-board detect-and-avoid system. This is an historic, first-of-its-kind approval for…

  • Trump’s return to the US presidency and its implications for the engineering and tech sectors

    Donald Trump promises to bring about massive change – hiking import tariffs, boosting oil production and rolling back climate regulations – with the ramifications going far beyond US borders. Trump has been elected the 47th US president, marking his second time in office, and at 78 he is the oldest person ever to be elected. He was declared the victor on Wednesday morning (6 November) having secured more than the 270 electoral votes needed to take the presidency. Addressing supporters in Florida, he said: “It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before – nothing like this”. The race between the Republican Trump and the Democrat Kamala Harris looked extraordinarily close until the very end. It was only in the early hours of Wednesday morning that it became apparent that…

  • Longest vacuum capsule journey completed on scaled-down hyperloop system

    Scientists have completed the longest-ever vacuum capsule journey in Europe’s first operational hyperloop test facility, albeit using a scaled-down version one-twelfth the size of a system capable of carrying passengers. The original idea for a hyperloop was first put forward by Elon Musk in a 2013 white paper. It is a form of high-speed mass transit in which capsules travel on magnetic rails in a low-pressure environment that could theoretically cut the time taken to travel between New York and Washington to just 30 minutes – twice as fast as a commercial jet flight and four times faster than a high-speed train. Interest in the technology has been waning since the Hyperloop One ceased operations at the end of 2023. The Los Angeles-based firm completed the world’s first passenger ride on…

  • BP further scales back renewables ambitions with shelving of 18 hydrogen projects

    Oil giant BP has announced that as part of its cost-saving ambitions it has “focused its portfolio”, which includes killing off 18 early-stage hydrogen projects. BP has released its Q3 2024 financial results, which was delivered during a video presentation and published in a 32-page report. Murray Auchincloss, BP’s CEO, who took on the role earlier this year, started off by highlighting how its operations are doing, which he said are running well “supporting delivery of an underlying profit of $2.3bn in the quarter”. However, this profit is down from last quarter ($2.8bn to $2.3bn), and to help drive improvements he said that the company will “reshape [its] portfolio to set up BP to grow value and returns”. This reshaping of the portfolio includes the killing off of 18 early-stage hydrogen…

  • Comment: Biotechnology’s potential in the fight against climate change

    Tim Dafforn is professor of biotechnology at the University of Birmingham, IET vice-president and chair of the IET Policy Oversight Committee. They say that when one plans for the future, one should look at certainties and construct your plan around them. Paying tax, the law of physics and – in my opinion – the failures of the England cricket team are all certainties in our world, but global climate change represents perhaps one of the most certain certainties of the new millennium. Given the requirement that we plan to avert this truly existential crisis, it is clear that our technological foundation must move away from its petrochemical base. One clear option is offered by the emerging biotech sector. Biotech is truly one of the only technological platforms that can replace hydrocarbons…

  • Plastic on beaches identified from space using satellite imaging tool

    A satellite imagery tool that is able to spot plastic pollution building up on beaches 600km below could be used to help tackle the world’s ocean waste problem. According to US environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy, 11 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every year. This is in addition to the estimated 200 million metric tons that are already there. Satellite technology is already used to track the massive amounts of plastic floating around our oceans – from relatively small drifts containing thousands of plastic bottles, bags and fishing nets to gigantic floating trash islands like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is three times the size of France. Now researchers from Australia’s RMIT University have used satellite imagery to pick up on differences in how…

  • Labour’s 2030 grid decarbonisation plans at the ‘limit of what is feasible’

    Labour’s aim to decarbonise the UK’s electricity grid by 2030 is a “huge challenge” but achievable with the right policy incentives, the newly-formed National Energy System Operator (NESO) has said. The state-owned body, which operates both the electricity and gas distribution systems, said the goal was at the “limit of what is feasible” but could be done if a variety of measures were quickly implemented. In October, NESO was acquired by the government from National Grid in a £630m deal that gave it greater powers to align future strategy for the energy grid. In its manifesto, Labour set itself a lofty goal of entirely decarbonising the UK’s energy grid by 2030 – bringing forward the already-ambitious 2035 target. But for this to be achieved, green energy infrastructure needs to be installed…

  • Vodafone-Three merger could get go-ahead, says UK’s competition watchdog

    Following an 18-month investigation, the UK’s competition watchdog says the proposed £15bn merger between Vodafone and Three could get the green light if concerns are addressed. In 2023, Vodafone and Three announced they were set to merge. The £15bn tie-up would reduce the number of mobile network operators from the ‘big four’ to three, with the other two being O2 and EE. The merger would create the largest mobile operator in the UK, with more than 27 million customers. In March 2024, UK watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) referred the Vodafone-Three deal to an in-depth probe. It said the deal risked leaving consumers worse off, with concerns that the merger would result in higher prices for consumers and businesses and lower investment. The proposed deal also sparked…

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