• Alternative methane model identifies shortfalls in current modelling

    The amount of methane entering the atmosphere is a point of contention and there is no universal, standardised way of measuring it. Tracking the emission of this greenhouse gas in the US is the responsibility of the EPA. The EPA uses models which take a “bottom-up” approach; their inventory is found by counting the well heads, storage tanks, pipeline and other sources of methane, calculating an average annual release for each source and summing them up. Other organisations taking a top-down approach, using satellite imaging or atmospheric measurement to calculate the total methane emissions, have results which contradict the EPA models and say that these are underestimating the amount of methane by as much as half. “Top-down approaches were finding total emissions double the EPA’s emissions…

  • Sponsored: New Study – Seamless Connectivity Fuels Industrial Innovation

    For many manufacturers, operational processes have historically been designed with the assumption that staff will be on-site all the time. The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the evolution of advanced network connectivity and connected assets and technologies, have accelerated long overdue modernisation and digitisation efforts across the manufacturing industry. Today and tomorrow´s manufacturing leaders are tossing aside processes designed to ossify cost control, efficiency, and predictability, and replacing them with those that emphasise flexibility, innovation, and resilience. Forrester Consulting, on behalf on Analog Devices, evaluated the state of industrial modernisation, including the efforts to improve network reliability. 312 senior manufacturing leaders responsible…

  • ‘Chain-mail fabric’ stiffens on demand

    The soft, lightweight fabric is 2D printed from nylon plastic polymers and is comprised of hollow, interlocking octahedrons. It is normally as flexible as any other cloth, but when wrapped within a flexible plastic envelope and vacuum-packed, it turns into a rigid structure 25 times stiffer than when in its 'relaxed' state. Known as “wearable structured fabric”, its inventors hope it could lead to the creation of new smart fabrics which can harden to protect the wearer against an impact (such as in bulletproof vests or kits for high-impact sports) or to provide support when additional load-bearing capacity is needed (such as on construction sites or in configurable medical support). “With an engineered fabric that is lightweight and tuneable, easily changeable from soft to rigid, we can…

  • Robotic fish tail could pave way for next-gen underwater drone design

    Underwater vehicles are typically designed to have a single cruise speed, and they’re often inefficient at other speeds. The technology is rudimentary compared to the way fish swim, but researchers believe they have discovered a way of making underwater vehicles travel fast through miles of ocean, then slow down to map a narrow coral reef, or speed to the site of an oil spill then throttle back to take careful measurements. Researchers at the University of Virginia’s (UVA) School of Engineering & Applied Science have developed a strategy for enabling these kinds of multispeed missions. They have shown a simple way to implement this strategy in robots that they believe could inform the design of future underwater vehicles. When designing swimming robots, a question that keeps coming up is…

  • Book review: ‘How to Talk to a Science Denier’ by Lee McIntyre

    Last month, American rock star Gene Simmons, frontman of Kiss, warned his cohort of devoted fans that they would not be welcome at his band’s ‘End of the Road Tour’ gigs unless they were vaccinated against Covid-19. Suspecting that there were ‘science deniers’ among his hardcore fanbase, to emphasise his point, Simmons added: “I don’t care if you think the Earth is flat.” While it’s easy to empathise with the singer’s position, pronouncements like this raise the question of how best to communicate with people whose minds are closed to irrefutable, undisputable, incontrovertible scientific fact. While the ever-popular Simmons will no doubt have got his point across, what can those of us who are not metal gods do? Help is at hand in the form of Lee McIntyre’s superb ‘How to Talk to a Science…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • UK failing to fund its climate change commitments, WWF report finds

    A Budget tagging tool designed to track UK spending on green policies found that an amount equivalent to just 0.01 per cent of the country’s GDP was allocated for green measures. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) estimates that investment of approximately 1 per cent of GDP per year from the public and private sectors will be needed to deliver the transition to net zero carbon. WWF also warned that the government is well below target if it wants to meet its policy of cutting emissions by 78 per cent by 2035. Around £145m was allocated towards measures designed to tackle climate change, while policies that will drive up emissions, like the fuel duty freeze, equate to over £40bn. WWF’s findings come just days after the publication of the latest IPCC report, which suggests the target to…

  • Busted: five myths that are blocking adoption of AI in manufacturing

    For all the promise of digital transformation and the role artificial intelligence will play in driving the factories of the future, its adoption is still relatively nascent when it comes to much of the manufacturing sector. There are a number of reasons for this, not least a lack of understanding of what AI actually is and the changes it will bring. Separating the facts from the (science) fiction can be a challenge. Confusion, coupled with uncertainty, breeds fears and misconceptions, whether that’s around security risks; job losses; losing control, and what the technology can and cannot do. Busting some of the most common myths can help set the record straight about AI and what it truly means for manufacturers. Myth 1: AI is the end goal There’s a common misconception that AI itself is…

  • View from India: Using satellite imagery to glean location intelligence

    People with problems and people with expertise in geospatial technology could come together to address societal issues. The Government of India (GoI) has paved the way for this with an announcement made earlier this year. GoI has announced liberalised guidelines for geo-spatial data. Drafted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) the guidelines bring sweeping changes to India’s mapping policy, specifically for Indian companies. It means that granular geospatial data and services, many of which were in the restricted zone, will be made available publicly. As the government-led 'Smart City Mission' rolls out, satellite imagery could throw light on urban analytics. This includes buildings, farmlands, regional boundaries and land use planning. In all likelihood, these parameters could…

  • Nasa details its Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s Moon Titan

    It will be the first mission to explore the surface of Titan, which is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere and liquid on the surface that could potentially harbour life. It even has a weather system like Earth’s, although its rains methane instead of water. Dragonfly’s goals include searching for chemical biosignatures, investigating the moon’s active methane cycle, and exploring the prebiotic chemistry currently taking place in Titan’s atmosphere and on its surface. “Titan represents an explorer’s utopia,” said Alex Hayes, a Dragonfly co-investigator. “The science questions we have for Titan are very broad because we don’t know much about what is actually going on at the surface yet. For every question we answered during the Cassini mission’s exploration of…

  • Book review: ‘The Distance Cure: A History of Teletherapy’ by Hannah Zeavin

    When I mentioned to a couple of friends that I was reviewing a book about teletherapy, their reaction was the same: “Ah, telepathy... When will they stop writing about this paranormal nonsense?” My learned friends could not be blamed for confusing ‘telepathy’ - communication from one mind to another by extrasensory means (according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary) with ‘teletherapy’ – a social and scientific phenomenon, the coherent definition of which is hard to come by. It remains conspicuous by its absence in the seemingly omniscient Wikipedia, which refers instead to ‘telehealth’, defined rather clumsily as “the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies.” The latter definition, to my mind, ignores one key…

  • $1tn infrastructure bill backed by US Senate

    The passing of the 'Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act' affirms President Joe Biden’s push for consensus building in the pandemic recovery. 19 Republicans, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, joined their Democratic colleagues to support the bill, which passed in a 69-30 vote. Speaking at the White House afterwards, Biden said: “Today, we proved that democracy can still work. We can still come together to do big things, important things, for the American people.” Moderate Republican Lisa Murkowski, one of the negotiators of the bill, said: “This infrastructure bill is not the perfect bill [but] it is better to get some of what our constituents want rather than none of it.” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer commented: “It's been quite a night. We still…

  • Drones trained to tackle obstacle course at high speeds using virtual racetrack

    The algorithm was developed using simulations of a drone flying through a virtual obstacle course alongside data taken from experiments of a real drone flying through the same course in a physical space. The researchers found that a drone trained with their algorithm flew through a simple obstacle course up to 20 per cent faster than a drone trained on conventional planning algorithms. The new algorithm did not always keep a drone ahead of its competitor throughout the course, as it sometimes opted to conserve energy by slowing down only to speed up and ultimately overtake its rival by the end. “At high speeds, there are intricate aerodynamics that are hard to simulate, so we use experiments in the real world to fill in those black holes to find, for instance, that it might be better…

  • Spacesuit delay puts Nasa’s 2024 Moon mission on hold

    It said the suits were a “critical component” of achieving the goal of returning humans to our nearest celestial neighbour but is facing a 20-month delay in their delivery. Currently, for activities such as spacewalks, astronauts use suits designed 45 years ago for the Space Shuttle programme and rely on these refurbished and partially redesigned spacesuits for extravehicular activities on the International Space Station (ISS). A new generation of spacesuit that would be more manoeuvrable and have more advanced life support systems has been in development since 2008. In 2017, Nasa reported that despite spending nearly $200m (£145m) on their development over the previous nine-year period, it remained years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit to use on exploration missions. …

  • ‘Rise of the Machines’ report fingers disturbing number of ‘agentless’ devices

    In its 2021 report, ' Rise of the Machines 2021: State of Connected devices - IT, IoT, IoMT and OT ', Ordr addresses pandemic-related cyber-security challenges, including the growth of connected devices and the related increase of security risks from these devices as threat actors have taken advantage of unintended opportunities to launch attacks. The research incorporates security risk and trend analysis of anonymised data for 12 months (June 2020 to June 2021) across more than 500 of the company's deployments in the healthcare, life sciences, retail and manufacturing verticals. According to the report, 42 per cent of connected devices were 'agentless' or 'un-agentable' devices. This was up from 32 per cent of such devices in 2020. These devices include medical and manufacturing devices…

  • Chameleon-inspired robot mimics its surroundings

    The robot could be a precursor to next-generation wearable camouflage which rapidly adapts to its environment. Artificial camouflage – which has been continuously developed since the nineteenth century, largely for military purposes – is inspired by natural camouflage present in nature, such as in octopuses and chameleons. Natural camouflage normally relies on the mechanical action of muscle cells, while artificial camouflage can use a more diverse range of strategies to achieve colour changing. Camouflage devices must be capable of conveying a range of colours which can be controlled on demand; this is a complex challenge when working with high-resolution camouflage patterns (necessary for larger devices) at the complete device level. This requires not only consideration of colour but…

  • Letters to the editor: volume 16, issue 8

    Vehicle use data needs to be realistic The conclusions reported in the story  ‘Most UK cars only driven for one hour a day leaving ample time for EV charging’  on the E&T website are misleading, given that so many properties built in the 1950s, ’60s and even ’70s did not provide off-road parking. Many that did had garages separate from the main dwelling with no possibility of providing mains electricity, making it difficult to provide EV-charging facilities without considerable expense. This article would provide a more balanced view of the opportunities for EV parking if the percentage of time vehicles were parked could be modified to include off-road parking that has access to mains electricity. This would show how many vehicles could not have the option of being charged while parked…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

  • Gadgets: Trust Taxon webcam, Sony SRS-NB10, MyndPlay MyndBand and more

    Trust Taxon webcam Image credit: Trust A webcam with a 2K camera to improve the quality of your video calls. Its 80° wide-angle glass lens takes more in, while a sliding lens cover offers privacy. Twin noise-cancelling mics ensure sound is equally well handled. It’s designed to hook over the top of your screen or sit on the table at an adjustable angle; it works with a tripod, too. Read Caramel’s hands-on review £69.99 trust.com The Little Botanical Living Art Image credit: Little Botanical This stunning living wall is a picture frame-style planter, made from recycled plastic. Its built-in reservoir waters the plants for up...

  • Child-friendly changes coming to Google Search and YouTube

    Among the measures, videos uploaded to YouTube by users under the age of 18 will be set to private by default, meaning that they may only be viewed by themselves and users who receive a link. However, the uploader can still choose to adjust the settings, if they wish, to make the content available to the general public. YouTube will also switch existing settings to disable autoplay and provide young users with break and bedtime reminders to discourage compulsive binge-watching. Google is also planning to make changes to Google Search. New rules for Google Images will enable anyone under the age of 18 or their parent or guardian to request that their photo is removed from results. Regarding data protection, Google will switch off location history – without the option to turn it back on…

  • Banks rapidly adopting AI to detect and counter money laundering

    The study by SAS, KPMG and the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), surveyed more than 850 ACAMS members worldwide about their use of technology to detect money laundering, which amounts to around 2 to 5 per cent of global GDP – or $800bn to $2tr – annually. 57 per cent of respondents said they had already deployed either AI or ML into their anti-money laundering compliance processes or are piloting solutions that they plan to implement in the next 12-18 months. “As regulators across the world increasingly judge financial institutions’ compliance efforts based on the effectiveness of the intelligence they provide to law enforcement, it’s no surprise 66 per cent of respondents believe regulators want their institutions to leverage AI and machine learning,”…

  • Barnacle-inspired medical glue halts bleeding

    The paste was inspired by barnacles, which use their cement glands to adhere to rocks, ships and larger animals and remain stubbornly in place despite being affixed to often contaminated, wet conditions and variable surfaces. They are able to do this due to the production of a type of oil matrix which cleans the surface and repels moisture, which is followed by production of a protein which cross-links them with the molecules of the surface. This two-step process was replicated in the quick-acting medical glue, which functions well in challenging sites covered with blood or other bodily fluids. Surgeons historically use a type of material to speed up coagulation and form a clot to halt bleeding, which takes several minutes at best. However, this paste can halt bleeding in as little as 15…

  • SpaceX buys tiny satellite firm in first public acquisition

    The purchase was revealed in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US. SpaceX has reportedly scooped up Swarm’s 30 employees alongside its network of 120 tiny satellites. The satellites are functioning as a wireless network providing continuous coverage across the planet for IoT devices, particularly in remote areas in industries such as agriculture and maritime. The service is somewhat analogous to SpaceX’s Starlink service, which has been designed to provide broadband internet using its own constellation of satellites. Starlink currently has 1,740 satellites in orbit, but more are planned before the rollout of its full commercial service, which has faced delays . The merger agreement, in which Swarm will become a direct and wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX…

  • Magnetic ‘millirobots’ climb and swim to deliver drugs to neural tissue

    The study investigated how the robots – 'Magnetically Aligned Nanorods In Alginate CapsuleS' (aka ‘Maniacs’) – could perform as drug delivery vehicles inside the body. It found that, when controlled using a magnetic field, the robots can move against fluid flow, climb slopes and move through neural tissue, such as the spinal cord, to deposit substances at precise locations. Disease in the central nervous system can be very difficult to treat. Lamar Mair of Weinberg Medical Physics, which partnered with the academics on the study, explained: “Delivering drugs orally or intravenously, for example, to target cancers or neurologic diseases, may affect regions of the body and nervous system that are unrelated to the disease. Targeted drug delivery may lead to improved efficacy and reduced side…

  • 2020 reduction in business carbon emissions offset by extra home energy usage

    Personal energy usage was found to have increased by around 37 per cent, largely balancing out business savings of 6 per cent on electricity and 1 per cent on gas, on average in 2020. Hospitality saw the largest fall in business consumption while manufacturing experienced just a 5 per cent reduction. The research found that many businesses may have unknowingly experienced an increase in total net energy consumption, when accounting for a remote workforce. Gazprom Energy is wholly owned by Russian oil producers Gazprom, the third largest carbon emitting firm in the world, according to a study from 2019. The business energy supplier said it wanted organisations to educate themselves on their true total consumption by taking employees’ working-from-home consumption into account, and has…

  • Where will the games industry find the 4D engineers it needs?

    Engineering provides fantastic possibilities, allowing us to create everything from infrastructure, roads and bridges, to bridges into entirely virtual worlds – and almost anything in between that we can imagine and make technically feasible. Too often, however, the world of engineers is siloed. Our educational path, intellectual curiosity and analytical rigour may be similar, but different fields of technology and engineering operate in separate disciplinary silos that could learn a lot from one another when it comes to tackling challenges facing the wider profession. Within engineering and computer science, the creation and development of online games remains a popular choice for graduates. Those of us in the video game industry have seen the past year supercharged by demand from consumers…

    IET EngX
    IET EngX

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