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Reducing atmospheric carbon with direct air capture will cost double previous estimates

The cost of removing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere could be double previous estimates. Researchers from the university ETH Zurich also warn that the technology should not be treated as a substitute for carbon reduction policies. Carbon removal is considered a possible solution to the problem of limiting global warming to within 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It could be particularly useful for sectors such as aviation and agriculture, which are particularly hard to abate using current technologies. The researchers compared the potential costs of three direct air capture (DAC) technologies already in use. These included the method used by ETH spinoff Climeworks, as well as carbon capture using aqueous solutions and calcium oxide. They estimate that the cost of removing…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
New satellite will use data combined with AI to map methane leaks worldwide

The MethaneSAT satellite, developed by the Environmental Defense Fund in partnership with Google, has launched onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the aim of putting the biggest methane-emitting culprits on the map. Methane leaks cause plumes of potent greenhouse gas to escape into our atmosphere, sometimes for days on end. Slashing it, therefore, is imperative to limit global warming. While methane has 80 times the warming power of CO2 in the first 20 years after reaching the atmosphere, unlike CO2 it does not remain in our atmosphere for as long. This means that reducing methane emissions will have a significant impact in lowering global temperatures. Tracking methane leaks will help identify the sources of these emissions, produced from oil and gas, landfill, agriculture and other…

E+T Magazine in Space
Apple receives €1.8bn EU fine for promoting its music streaming service over rivals

The EU has levied a €1.8bn (£1.5bn) fine against Apple for making it difficult for European users to find out pricing information for alternative music streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube Music. The tech giant has its own Apple Music service that it promotes heavily to iPhone users. But the European Commission (EC) found that it applied restrictions on app developers that prevented them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules. An investigation found that Apple bans music streaming app developers from fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app and from providing any instructions about how to subscribe…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
AI should be human-focused rather than tech-driven, experts warn

With AI increasingly set to permeate all areas of our lives, a soon-to-be-published book focuses on how to make AI more human-centred in a range of sectors and industries. We are constantly bombarded with news about how AI is going to transform our lives. Technology companies are making huge strides in developing technology-driven AI, and it gives the impression that, as humans, we have to give way to this technology and adapt our lives to fit with it. However, global experts warn AI should instead fit with what humans need. In a new book – Human-Centered AI: A multidisciplinary perspective for policy-makers, auditors, and users – 50 experts from a variety of backgrounds, sectors, disciplines and countries contribute to an exploration of human-centred AI. It looks at why and how AI should…

E+T Magazine
Norway’s offshore carbon storage plans – safe solution or environmental risk?

Plans to inject carbon under the seabed are growing at an unprecedented rate. Norway’s Longship project aims to create large-scale offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities, but critics claim that “despite the fanfare around CCS, it is a costly and risky endeavour”. In CCS, CO2 emissions from various industries are captured, and stored indefinitely deep underground. Many industries, particularly oil and gas, claim that CCS is an effective tool in reducing atmospheric carbon emissions. According to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a Washington-based non-profit, by mid-2023 more than 50 new offshore CCS projects had been announced globally. In a report published towards the end of last year – Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Budget 2024: mobile networks call for taxpayer help to close £25bn investment gap

UK mobile network operators have said the sector may not keep up with expanding usage and data consumption without government support. According to industry body Mobile UK, which represents O2, Vodafone, Three and EE, the mobile industry is facing several pressing challenges, including rising costs due to inflation following a decade of flat or declining revenues. The industry must also accommodate rising demands for data – which will require major investments in network capacity infrastructure – and demands from the government such as social tariffs for people who can’t afford data plans. Mobile UK said that “it cannot be overstated how important it is that we have a positive investment environment” if the sector is to expand both 5G coverage and capacity across the country. A series…

E+T Magazine in Telecommunications
IET and WISE join forces to accelerate gender equality in STEM

Women into Science and Engineering (WISE) Campaign, a non-profit organisation focused on gender parity for women in STEM from classroom to boardroom, is now under the ownership of the IET. It is a well known fact that women only fill a proportionately small percentage of STEM roles in the UK. According to recent government statistics, women make up 29% of the STEM workforce. Much has been made about how to tackle this gender inequality. While the number of women in STEM occupations has certainly grown over past decades, there’s still a long way to go. IET and WISE Campaign have each worked on various campaigns and initiatives focused on increasing diversity in the sector and attracting young women to pursue a STEM career. Now, having joined forces, they feel that together they can increase…

E+T Magazine in Women in Engineering
Siemens to build £100m R&D centre for the UK’s next-gen rail technology

Siemens Mobility has announced a £100m R&D centre in the UK while the Chancellor has promised a £360m package to boost British manufacturing in a series of pre-Budget announcements. The Siemens facility will employ around 800 workers to build next-generation signalling and control systems for Britain’s rail systems. It will replace the firm’s existing factory in Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 2026 and all its staff will be transferred. The firm has long been a major contractor for building UK trains. In recent years, this has included trains for the London Underground as well as the Great Northern franchise. The company’s existing Chippenham factory has been producing equipment for rail infrastructure since the 19th century. Rob Morris, joint CEO of Siemens Mobility UK & Ireland, said: …

E+T Magazine in Railways
Odysseus spacecraft loses power one week after landing on the moon

The first US spacecraft to land on the surface of the Moon for over 50 years has sent a “farewell transmission” and gone quiet. On Thursday 15 February, Houston-based Intuitive Machines launched its robotic lunar lander mounted on a SpaceX rocket. The 1,908kg Nova-C lander – known as Odysseus or ‘Odie’ - was heading for the crater Malapert A, 300km from the Moon’s south pole. Intuitive Machines’ mission, IM-1, was tasked with delivering six Nasa instruments to the lunar surface as part of Nasa’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme, with the contract reportedly worth $118m. These instruments were intended to collect data to help develop Nasa’s Artemis programme – which aims to establish a crewed base near the lunar south pole, where subsurface water ice is likely to be abundant,…

E+T Magazine in Space
UK tax policy encourages polluting SUVs on British roads, green campaigners say

The UK tax system is failing to address the cost of the emissions, air pollution and safety concerns of large luxury cars, which is causing their proliferation on British roads, green campaigners Transport & Environment (T&E) have found. The body said that current legislation could see the UK become “a tax haven” for car manufacturers keen to sell larger cars. Previous T&E research found that cars in the UK are getting so big for British roads that many now exceed the 180cm minimum for on-street parking. On average, cars were widening by 1cm every two years. An analysis of the tax systems of countries across the EU and the UK found that the gap in tax paid in the UK between battery electric SUVs and petrol SUVs ranks 24th out of 31 European countries. This is largely down to the UK…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Global carbon emissions rose less sharply in 2023 due to clean energy surge, reports IEA

New data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) reveals that global energy-related carbon emissions slowed down in 2023 because of the continued expansion of renewables, nuclear power and electric vehicles. In 2023, global energy-related carbon emissions reached a record level of 37.4 billion tonnes. However, according to the IEA’s latest report, 2023’s rise of 410 million tonnes, or 1.1%, is lower than 2022’s rise of 490 million tonnes. The reason why emissions grew more weakly is down to the continued growth of clean energy technologies, such as solar PV, wind power, nuclear power and electric cars. According to the IEA, without these technologies, the global increase in CO2 emissions in the last five years would have been three times larger. The overall rise in energy-related emissions…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
US State Department fines Boeing $51m for leaking defence tech in China

Boeing has been fined $51m by the US State Department for a number of export violations, including technical US military data being downloaded by Chinese employees in China. An “extensive” compliance review into the company found that Boeing was responsible for 199 violations of the Arms Export Control Act. This included the period 2013-17, which saw three Chinese employees at Boeing-run facilities in China downloading technical data related to the F-18, F-15 and F-22 fighter jets, the E-3 airborne warning and control system, the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the AGM-84E cruise missile. It also emerged that “an indeterminate number” of international employees and contractors at Boeing sites across countries, including Russia, downloaded technical data 80 times over five years. …

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Removing excess water vapour from the stratosphere could help cool our planet

A research team at the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) is exploring the possibility of removing excess water vapour from the Earth’s atmosphere to combat climate change. While human-caused CO2 emissions are by far the most important driver of climate change, water vapour is actually the most abundant greenhouse gas. It is responsible for about half of the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect that helps to keep our planet habitable. Scientists at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory are now exploring whether, instead of removing excess heat-trapping CO2 from the atmosphere, we look to removing excess water vapour. They have called their concept intentional stratospheric dehydration (ISD). It involves dispersing small ice particles into high altitude regions of the atmosphere…

E+T Magazine in Space
Systems Engineering at BAE Systems

When you provide some of the world's most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions you need creative, innovative and diverse teams to deliver them. We employ a skilled workforce of 93,100 people in around 40 countries across the world. Working with customers and local partners, we develop, engineer, manufacture, and support products and systems to deliver military capability, protect national security and people, and keep critical information and infrastructure secure. We trust and empower our people to thrive, no matter what their background or experience. Our engineers are redefining global defence and as a systems engineer at BAE Systems, you’ll be part of a team integrating leading edge technologies to provide our military services with competitive advantage…

E+T Magazine
Robotic jellyfish to explore areas of the ocean where no human has gone before

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have augmented jellyfish with cyborg technology to gather data about how our oceans are affected by climate change. An interesting fact about jellyfish is that they don’t have a brain. Another is that they have been roaming the ocean for at least 600 million years. It is this last fact that piqued the interest of researchers at Caltech. As jellyfish are able to journey to depths humans can’t, the researchers considered using them to collect information about the ocean’s temperature, salinity and oxygen levels – particularly how they are affected by climate change. Led by John Dabiri, centennial professor of aeronautics and mechanical engineering at Caltech, the research team created biohybrid robotic jellyfish. These ocean…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
Narendra Modi lays foundation stone on India’s first spaceport in over 50 years

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the country’s second spaceport yesterday, as the country ramps up its space ambitions. The spaceport will be located at Kulasekharapatnam, a coastal village in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district, which has been designed to support smaller rocket launches. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, the site was chosen because it offers “strategic advantages” for firms wanting to launch from the site, particularly through enhancing payload capability with its direct southward launch trajectory for small launch vehicles. While the spaceport is not yet ready for private launches, at the inauguration event, a Rohini Sounding Rocket ‘RH-200’ was launched from a mobile launchpad and reached a peak altitude of 75km that…

E+T Magazine in Space
Zero-emission Energy Observer nears the end of its voyage after seven years

Built as a floating laboratory for renewable energy technologies, the 100-foot Energy Observer has logged 63,040 nautical miles without burning any fossil fuels. The shipping industry is a major culprit when it comes to releasing carbon emissions into our atmosphere. According to the European Commission, in 2018 global shipping emissions represented 1,076m tonnes of CO2 and were responsible for around 2.9% of global emissions caused by human activities. In a bid to reduce the climate change impact of shipping activities, in 2013 French-based Energy Observer set itself a mission to create the first self-sufficient vessel capable of drawing energy only from zero-emission technologies. Four years later in 2017, the Energy Observer catamaran was launched. It set sail with an onboard energy…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Australia’s abandoned mines could solve renewable energy storage problem, study finds

Researchers have identified 37 former mining sites in Australia that present the ideal conditions for installing pumped hydro facilities as a way to store renewable energy. Pumped-storage hydroelectricity is effectively a way of storing energy in the form of gravitational potential energy of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher elevation. Low-cost surplus off-peak electric power is typically used to run the pumps. During periods of high electrical demand, the stored water is released through turbines to produce electric power. Due to Australia’s sizeable mining industry, there are a significant number of mining pits that could be transformed into reservoirs to make mass energy storage a reality, according to a team of researchers from the Australian National University…

E+T Magazine in Power Conversion
Spot the bot: social media users struggle to tell humans from bots

A new study shows that people embroiled in political discussions on social media find it difficult to identify AI bots, increasing the risk of spreading misinformation. Social media platforms are increasingly used to engage in political discourse. However, with the rise in AI bots it is becoming increasingly difficult to decipher whether the user behind the account is human or not. AI bots are automated accounts programmed to interact in a very human-like manner. AI bots based on large language models (LLMs) – which enable them to understand language and generate text – were used by researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US, to engage with humans in a political discussion on the social networking platform Mastodon. These AI bots were customised with different personas…

E+T Magazine in Computing
Electric car carbon emissions more than twice those of train travel – Rail Delivery Group

Rail travel is almost two-and-a-half times less carbon intensive per mile than using an electric car, new figures from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) have shown. The body, which represents the rail industry, has been collecting detailed data on trains across the entire sector including engine type, fuel type, journey distance, occupancy and carriage layout. On average, across the top 100 business travel routes, taking the train for business travel produces nine times less carbon than going by diesel or petrol car, more than four times less carbon than using a plug-in hybrid electric car and almost two-and-a-half times less carbon than using a battery electric car. Some of the business travel journeys with the lowest carbon emissions per passenger (compared to one person travelling alone…

E+T Magazine in Railways
3D-printed prosthetic eyes prove ‘life-changing’ for patients

A research team in Germany has developed an AI-driven digital process for manufacturing ocular prostheses that yields higher-quality results more quickly than manual processes. Prosthetic eyes are used by patients who have suffered eye loss due to serious injuries or illness. According to Moorfields Eye Charity, in the UK 60,000 to 70,000 people and over eight million people worldwide wear a prosthetic eye. Ocular prostheses are not new. They date back to the 1950s when ocularists would custom-make them to match the patient’s eye socket shape. They would then painstakingly handpaint an iris to replicate the patient’s remaining eye. In 70 years these methods have not changed much. The process still requires highly skilled ocularists using manual processes. While digital design has somewhat…

E+T Magazine in Manufacturing
Tata Group confirms £4bn gigafactory will be built in Somerset

Tata Group has confirmed it will build a £4bn “gigafactory” that will produce batteries for electric vehicles (EV) in Somerset. Agratas, the subsidiary firm that will be overseeing the new project, said the factory will create up to 4,000 direct jobs and many more as part of the supply chain. MPs have previously called on the government to “urgently create” an attractive environment for EV battery production in the UK or risk falling behind competitors. A report from the cross-party Business and Trade Select Committee in November claimed that if the gap is not plugged, automotive production in the UK could decline, putting hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. Currently, China accounts for 78% of the world’s cathode production, and its dominance over large parts of the battery supply…

E+T Magazine
Delays at Hinkley Point C could lead to blackouts in 2028, says new report

Setbacks in bringing in new nuclear power means energy supply is not coming online fast enough, and could cause an energy security crunch point in 2028. According to a new independent report by Public First, Mind the gap: Exploring Britain’s energy crunch, commissioned by power generation business Drax Group, the next government will need to take action early on to ensure the nation’s lights remain on. The report predicts that the UK’s demand for power will exceed baseload capacity by 7.5GW at peak times by 2028 – a shortfall equivalent to the power used by more than seven million homes. A major factor is that Hinkley Point C is facing further delays. Originally set to open in 2023, the UK’s first new nuclear plant in a generation now has an estimated completion date of 2029. These…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Google to relaunch Gemini AI after coming under fire for ‘inaccuracies in historical’ depictions

Google has put its AI tool on pause due to inaccuracies in images it was producing, with a relaunch due in the coming weeks. Generative AI has received its fair share of attention in recent times. It can create content – such as audio, images, text, simulations and videos – in a matter of seconds without any human input. Much has been made of the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, launched by OpenAI in November 2022, and its ability to generate text. Powered by a large language model, ChatGPT generates content that looks as though a human has created it. The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT triggered other tech companies to join the fray. For instance, Meta unveiled a new series of AI chatbots for its Messenger service in October 2023 and Amazon announced its new Amazon bot, named Q, in November…

E+T Magazine

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