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‘Artificial leaf’ used to create carbon-neutral fuel for vehicles

The process uses photosynthesis to convert CO2, water and sunlight into multicarbon fuels – ethanol and propanol – in a single step. As the process sequesters carbon from the atmosphere, the fuel is carbon neutral and does not divert any agricultural land away from food production, unlike biofuels. While the technology is still at laboratory scale, the researchers say their ‘artificial leaves’ are an important step in the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy. Bioethanol is touted as a cleaner alternative to petrol, since it is made from plants instead of fossil fuels. Most cars and trucks on the road today run on petrol containing up to 10 per cent ethanol (E10 fuel). “Biofuels like ethanol are a controversial technology, not least because they take up agricultural land that…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Land could be a major constraint in Europe’s green transition, research finds

Land availability could be one of the limiting factors in expanding Europe's renewable energy resources, which the continent needs if it is to reach its ambition to become climate neutral by 2050. According to research by McKinsey & Company, more than 90 per cent of the targeted additional capacity will need to be supplied by wind and solar - two sources of energy which require large tracts of usable land. In addition, land will also need to serve as a source of biogenic CO 2 (easily replenished sources of carbon, such as wood and other biofuels) for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and the production of e-fuels. This poses a significant challenge, since a large percentage of land in European nations is protected by strict environmental regulations, particularly those that regulate…

E+T Magazine in Renewable Energy
Teardown: HTC Vive XR Elite

When you are expecting people to shell out a ton of money, your marketing should include a lot of reassurance. That at least is becoming the case for virtual reality. Following on from last month’s look at Sony’s latest VR2 headset and the earlier visit with the Meta Quest Pro , here is the HTC Vive XR Elite. It, too, has been launched alongside an online teardown, with a strong focus on wearability and repairability. First, let’s talk price. A UK consumer will pay £1,299.99 for the XR Elite, including VAT. Excluding VAT, that works out at £1,083.33. By contrast, a US consumer will pay $1,099.99 before tax. At the current exchange rate of about £1=$1.23, that is a sterling equivalent of £894.30 – roughly a £200 mark-up for Brits. The higher prices UK customers are often charged for consumer…

E+T Magazine in Computing
What can we do about the consequences of our current energy challenge?

There is no doubt that ongoing issues surrounding energy have created significant challenges for global industry. However, the varied nature of global industry means it can be difficult to see the big picture. That’s why we at ABB conducted a survey of 2,300 leaders across key global markets: US and Brazil, Germany, the UK, Sweden and Italy, China and India, and Australia. Our research reveals that businesses face several serious challenges. The first is business competitiveness: the majority of leaders – 92 per cent of those who took part in the research – report that the energy crisis poses a threat to their organisation’s profitability and competitiveness. One in three leaders say they plan to cut the budget for R&D, infrastructure and technology, or marketing. Three in five plan to…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
Review: Monolith at Outernet London

The installation was created by artist-technician Jack Dartford to share his own experience of anxiety. Dartford, who is on the autistic spectrum and who had severe anxiety as a child and young man, explains: “It came from the idea that I can’t really explain my emotions very well verbally, so doing it visually is, I guess, the way I communicate.” Dartford originally envisioned the installation as a physical monolith: a freestanding LED wall. Moving the concept into the unique space of Outernet London’s Now Building forced him to redesign it while dealing with a volley of technical challenges, but also offered the opportunity to create something immersive and vast in scale. For Londoners – Outernet London’s Now Building is the one with the gigantic LED screens outside Tottenham Court Road…

E+T Magazine in Computing
ChatGPT’s CEO calls for AI regulation

The head of OpenAI has testified before a US Senate committee about the possibilities and dangers of the new technology that powers ChatGPT. “As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too,” Altman said. The tech executive has called on US lawmakers to impose stricter restrictions on artificial intelligence tools, including the creation of a US or global agency that would provide licences for companies that aim to develop AI tools, and take them away should they refuse to company with safety standards. "I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong... we want to be vocal about that," Altman said. "We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening." During the hearing, Altman also…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Plastic pollution could be cut by 80 per cent by 2040 with policy shift, UN says

A new report, released ahead of a second round of negotiations in Paris on a global agreement to beat plastic pollution, suggests eliminating unnecessary plastics to reduce the size of the problem prior to significant market shifts based on products using reused and recycled materials. Reuse options including refillable bottles, bulk dispensers, deposit-return-schemes and packaging take-back schemes that could cut up to 30 per cent of plastic pollution by 2040. A further 20 per cent reduction in plastic pollution could be achieved if recycling becomes a more stable and profitable venture. To do this, the report recommends removing fossil fuels subsidies, enforcing design guidelines to enhance recyclability, and other measures to increase the share of economically recyclable plastics from…

E+T Magazine in Waste Management
Self-driving cars will cause ‘moral panic’, says transport minister

Jesse Norman told MPs that a “horrendous” part of the development of the technology will be “scare stories, particularly in the early stages”. Last month, the UK became the first European country to allow drivers to take their hands off car steering wheels on public roads, after the Department for Transport gave car manufacturer Ford permission to activate its BlueCruise system on motorways . The system controls functions such as steering, acceleration, braking and lane positioning in suitably equipped Ford vehicles. Fully self-driving cars remain banned on public roads in the UK apart from during government-approved trials. Legislation to approve the technology could be introduced as early as 2025. Asked about the safety of self-driving vehicles by the Commons’ Transport Select Committee…

E+T Magazine in Road transport systems
Is your car safe from a cyber attack?

In January 2022, 19-year-old David Colombo from Dinkelsbühl, Germany, announced via Twitter that he had been able to hack at least 25 Tesla vehicles in 13 countries and partially take them over. “So, I now have full remote control of over 25 Teslas in 13 countries and there seems to be no way to find the owners and report it to them,” he tweeted. Luckily, Colombo’s intentions were good. As the founder of cyber-security firm Colombo Technology, he used his actions simply to demonstrate the security flaw of the third-party software that Tesla was using, and to warn automakers the world over about the danger of malicious attacks. Colombo isn’t alone in his mission. Cyber-security firm McAfee demonstrated how it could trick autonomous vehicles (AVs) into speeding over 50mph above the speed…

E+T Magazine in Cybersecurity
Brexit deal poses ‘existential threat’ to UK car manufacturing, industry warns

The prime minister Rishi Sunak is facing pressure from the car manufacturing industry to renegotiate the ' Trade and Co-operation Agreement' (TCA) with the European Union (EU). Stellantis, the parent company of Vauxhall, Citroen, Peugeot and Fiat, has stated it will not be able to meet its commitment to making electric vehicles at its Ellesmere Port and Luton plants once Brexit tariffs begin to be enforced. "If the cost of electric vehicle manufacturing in the UK becomes uncompetitive and unsustainable, operations will close," Stellantis said in a submission to a House of Commons committee. "Manufacturers will not continue to invest and [instead will] relocate manufacturing operations outside of UK, as seen with previously established UK manufacturers such as Ford and Mini." In the document…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
Trading cryptocurrency should be classed as gambling, MPs say

In a new report, the cross-party Committee of MPs said that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have “no intrinsic value and serve no useful social purpose”, while consuming large amounts of energy and being used by criminals in scams, fraud and money laundering. Researchers estimated that that in 2020, Bitcoin mining used 75.4 terawatt hours of electricity (TWh) – higher electricity usage than Austria (69.9TWh) or Portugal (48.4TWh) in the same year. The Committee also said that cryptocurrencies pose “significant risks to consumers” given their price volatility and the potential for major losses. Considering this, retail trading more closely resembles gambling than a financial service, the report said. In February, the government published a set of proposals designed to protect consumers…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Vodafone cuts 11,000 jobs as new boss says group ‘must change’

Margherita Della Valle, recently appointed Vodafone’s group chief executive, said the cull comes as part of a plan to simplify the business. It will impact the group’s UK headquarters in Newbury, Berkshire, as well as markets worldwide. Della Valle said: “Our performance has not been good enough. To consistently deliver, Vodafone must change.” “We will simplify our organisation, cutting out complexity to regain our competitiveness”. The announcement comes as Vodafone reported a 1.3 per cent drop in full-year earnings to a lower-than-expected €14.7bn (£12.8bn) and forecast little or no growth in earnings over the current financial year. Vodafone's former boss Nick Read, who was ousted abruptly in December 2022 due to concerns over the group’s performance, had unveiled his own plans…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
‘Drones are better for the planet than traditional means of transport’: Alex Landowski, Medical Logistics

Traffic is the problem, says Alex Landowski. The co-founder and managing director of Medical Logistics isn’t just talking about the day-to-day frustrations of getting across town by car for anything as routine as a business meeting. He’s discussing the main obstacle to the reliable delivery of urgent medical supplies such as blood. You can dispatch couriers on bicycles and motorbikes – and Landowski has plenty of first-hand experience of this as a former rider – but increasingly, as London’s arterial routes become ever more congealed with road vehicles, his thoughts have turned to harnessing uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone technology. Medical Logistics has been instrumental in the first UAV flight-corridor trial in the UK for delivering time-critical medical cargo to an NHS hospital…

E+T Magazine
Hands-on review: Dyson Zone

Do you remember when Google launched its now-discontinued Glass wearable computer? The entire world acted like mean schoolkids, rounding on early adopters of the tech and calling them Glassholes. The response was predictable, awful, hilarious. Well, Dyson’s new wearable is technologically impressive but equally Marmitey and puts you at risk of playground insults. Will wearers have Zoned out? Dyson Zone is the company’s first audio product and first wearable. It combines high-end headphones with personal air filtration. As the former, Zone just looks like big headphones but as the latter, with a metallic visor in front of your mouth, it looks full-on. My teenagers thought I looked like Bane from Batman. I was thinking more Daft Punk or MF Doom. Either way, it’s a strong look. Dyson started…

E+T Magazine in Air Pollution
SNSF Scientific Image Competition 2023 winners

The winning entry, ‘Searching for a good father’ by Francesca Angiolani-Larrea, is an image of the Hyalinobatrachium valerioi, a type of glass frog with a transparent belly. Angiolani-Larrea studies the interactions between parents and offspring in the glass frogs, a species in which the father stays with the young after the mother has produced the eggs. Image credit: SNSF ‘Maize root microbiome’, by Lisa Thönen, shows the ensemble of microorganisms living in or on the maize root and how they process secondary metabolites of the plant. The jury said the photograph “acts as a poetic window into a new world awaiting discovery: the microbe communities living under our feet”. ...

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
View from India: GST collection surges ahead

For the first time, the gross collection of GST has crossed ₹1.75 lakh crore mark (1.75tn rupees, £17bn), to reach ₹1,87,035 crore. This is ₹19,495 above the April 2022 figure of ₹1,67,540. The total number of e-waybills (electronic bills) generated in the month of March 2023 was 9.0 crore [1 crore = 10 million], which is 11 per cent higher than 8.1 crore e-way bills generated in February 2023. GST is of three types i.e. CGST or Central Goods and Services Tax, SGST or State Goods and Services Tax and IGST or Integrated Goods and Services Tax. Of the latest figure, CGST is ₹38,440 crore. CGST is levied by the central government for intrastate movement of goods and services. SGST stood at ₹47,412 crore. SGST means intrastate supplies of goods and services by the state government where the…

E+T Magazine
Robots programmed to help dementia patients track down lost items

Engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have discovered a new way to program robots to assist specific groups of people depending on their needs. The technology could someday be used by anyone who has searched high and low for something they’ve misplaced. “The long-term impact of this is really exciting,” said Dr Ali Ayub, a post-doctoral fellow in electrical and computer engineering. “A user can be involved not just with a companion robot but a personalised companion robot that can give them more independence.” There is a rapidly rising number of people coping with dementia, a condition that restricts brain function, causing confusion, memory loss and disability. Last month, the Office for National Statistics revealed that dementia and Alzheimer’s disease were the leading cause…

E+T Magazine in Robotics
View from Brussels: Departure is bad timing for R&D

Mariya Gabriel has served as both a member of the European Parliament and a member of the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch. After two years as head of digital policy in the previous administration, Gabriel was put in charge of research, innovation, education, culture and youth policies by the current head of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Over the past four years she has overseen parts of the EU’s pandemic response, by coordinating efforts to fund vaccine research and establish a new health emergency authority. Gabriel has also not shied away from playing politics with science-based policies, whether it was keeping the United Kingdom at arm’s length from the Horizon Europe research programme because of Brexit-related concerns or cutting Russia off from funding. …

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Carbon budgets of listed companies would see 2.7°C global warming

In its latest ‘Net-Zero Tracker’, investment data provider MSCI said that 35 per cent of listed companies have disclosed at least some of their Scope 3 emissions - up 4 percentage points from seven months earlier. Scope 3 emissions are those not directly created by the company, but for which they are still indirectly responsible. An example of this is when consumers buy, use and dispose of products from suppliers. The tracker also showed that 44 per cent of listed companies have set a decarbonisation target, up 8 percentage points from seven months earlier. Only 17 per cent of listed companies have published a climate target that, if achieved, would align carbon emissions across the company’s total value chain with the ambitious 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. However, this is still…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
75 per cent of Irish data watchdog’s GDPR decisions overruled

The report indicates that 75 per cent of the Data Protection Commission’s (DPC's) decisions in cross-border investigations over a five-year period were subsequently overruled by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which felt the Irish watchdog's decisions were not sufficiently stringent. The EDPB had demanded tougher enforcement action in these cases, the report by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said, with only one other country in one other case overruled in such a manner. The figures include final decisions from January 2023 that are not yet included in the EDPB register of final decisions, from which the figures are based. If these three cases are not included, the figure is 88 per cent of DPC decisions overruled. The report said that the DPC tends to use its discretion…

E+T Magazine in Ethical Aspects
Dogs play lead role in university project for student wellbeing

The University of Edinburgh has launched its 'Paws on Campus' programme, which is designed to provide a new style of support for students suffering stress and anxiety, and combines clinical psychology with veterinary science through a series of structured activity sessions. Professor Jo Williams, one of the programme’s creators, said that interacting with dogs can “have a range of benefits for students from reducing stress to increasing positive mood” “Each session has a key focus, based on psychological research, to enhance wellbeing and provide each participant with skills that they can use to support their mental health,” she said. “Interacting with the dogs is an essential part of the programme and students are also learning about canine welfare and compassion to self and others.…

E+T Magazine in STEM Education and Skills
Book interview: Flying green ‘will put pressure on ticket prices’

Being able to commute vast distances around the planet in a matter of mere hours is a recent gift to humankind. Until the 20th century, we had depended on horses, trains and increasingly the internal combustion engine that propels the automobile. But as our thirst for getting from city to city, country to country, continent to continent multiplied, we came to rely on a self-propelled, heavier-than-air technology that only got off the ground in 1903 when Orville Wright piloted the gasoline-powered Flyer for 12 seconds over a distance of 120 feet. As Christopher de Bellaigue says early in his superb ‘Flying Green’, this was the great moment of freedom. And yet a century on we now recognise that this liberty has come at a great cost. “We’ve learned a lot since then,” says de Bellaigue, “about…

E+T Magazine in Aerospace
UK energy independence under threat from falling North Sea production

According to a report by The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), under current conditions, gas import dependence has the potential to grow by 60 per cent by 2035. This is anticipated to have “major financial implications”, including a profound negative impact on the UK’s balance of trade and household finances. Between 2024 and 2035, a household using typical amounts of gas would have paid £5,700 to overseas gas producers. However, a net zero home would have paid just a quarter of that cost, £1,400, the report said. With wholesale gas prices potentially sitting at three times their pre-crisis levels for several years, current policies could leave the UK’s annual wholesale gas bill above £35bn most of the way to 2035, at least three times the pre-crisis level. The vast majority…

E+T Magazine in Security in the Modern World
Le Mans: 100 years of motorsport at its limit

When the big event starts on 10 June 2023 it will literally be the race of the century. The annual endurance motor race that’s officially called 24 Hours of Le Mans – but usually goes by the simpler nickname of ‘Le Mans’ – will be celebrating 100 years since its inaugural outing, during which time there have been 93 meetings. The anomaly here is explained by the race being suspended during and immediately after the Second World War. A century ago it was called the Grand Prix d’Endurance de 24 Heures, but the principle has remained the same. The world’s longest-running motor-racing event is won by the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours. Not only a showcase for the drivers, it has always been a chance for car designers and engineers to advertise their skills in keeping a car…

E+T Magazine in History of Engineering

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