IET EngX

Grid

List

Navigating the ethical minefield of genome editing

It’s been a little over four years since a five-minute video brought the scientific community to a standstill. In the clip, Chinese scientist Dr He Jiankui claimed he’d created the world’s first genome-edited babies – twin girls called Luna and Nala. He is said to have recruited couples whose husbands were living with HIV. He offered to edit the genomes of their embryos to not only prevent inheritable transmission but prevent them and all future generations ever catching the disease. After initial praise, his methods and motivations were called into question. In the time since, He has been sent to prison for his part in the research, and subsequently released. The researchers behind the technology used by He received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and the first gene-edited tomato has gone…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Largest explosion ever seen spotted by astronomers

In comparison to most supernovae, which are only visible for a few months, the AT2021lwx explosion has already lasted for over three years, making it the largest ever witnessed. The explosion took place nearly eight billion light years away, when the universe was around six billion years old, and is still being detected by a network of telescopes. AT2021lwx was first detected in 2020 by the Zwicky Transient Facility in California and subsequently picked up by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) based in Hawaii. Until now, the scale of the explosion had been unknown. “We came upon this by chance, as it was flagged by our search algorithm when we were searching for a type of supernova," said Dr Philip Wiseman, research fellow at the University of Southampton. …

E+T Magazine in Space
Poorer households stuck with slower broadband speeds, study suggests

According to the Local Government Association (LGA), households in the most deprived parts of England are less likely to be able to get fixed broadband which supports the fastest possible speeds. Access is 15 percentage points lower in the most deprived areas than in the least deprived, despite them using nearly 50 per cent more data than wealthier areas. The LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, has called for the appointment of a dedicated Digital Exclusion minister, who would be given direct government responsibility for a new strategy to close the gap between areas. Last year, it emerged that the average UK home broadband download had hit nearly 60Mbit/s but the gap between UK households seeing the fastest and slowest speeds was widening as many customers upgraded to…

E+T Magazine
Elon Musk finds new Twitter CEO

Elon Musk has announced he has found a new chief executive to take over the running of social media platform Twitter. The billionaire did not provide a name, but he did indicate in a tweet that it would be a woman who would be stepping into the role and that she would join the company in about six weeks. News outlets such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have pointed towards Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s global head of advertising, as the possible mystery CEO. Yaccarino has worked at NBCUniversal, the entertainment conglomerate behind the NBC TV network and the Universal film studio, for almost 12 years and would now reportedly be in negotiations to join Elon Musk's firm. Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6…

E+T Magazine in Business Planning
Climate justice could be paid with wealth taxes and fossil fuel levies, charity says

A new report from the charity Christian Aid has suggested ways in which the UK can contribute 3.5 per cent to the recently agreed 'Loss and Damage Fund', created at last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference. The Fund is an agreement to provide funding to countries who are most vulnerable and affected by climate change. Factoring in the UK’s historic emissions and its relative wealth, Christian Aid previously calculated the UK’s contribution of the $100bn (approximately £80bn) climate finance commitment at 3.5 per cent. The report suggests implementing a wealth tax at a rate of 0.5 per cent levied on wealth in excess of £1m which would raise an estimated £15bn. This also has the advantage of being targeted towards those who are likely to be disproportionately high polluters in…

E+T Magazine in Climate Change
The LNG dilemma – fuelling global imbalance

It might not have felt like it looking at your bills, but Europe dodged an even bigger energy crunch last winter as Russia curtailed or stopped supplies of gas, coal and oil. But even that was more down to luck and brute force than judgement. There were consequences elsewhere and many persist. They point to potentially severe outcomes for climate change goals and regional stability, particularly in the Global South. Europe avoided recurring power cuts thanks to the combination of a milder-than-expected winter, consumers cutting down on consumption, reduced demand from China, accelerated renewables installations and the continent’s financial muscle. That last factor was most obvious to the public in the shape of mechanisms like the UK’s Energy Price Guarantee. On the world stage, however…

E+T Magazine in Fossil Fuels
How AI Wi-Fi technology could peer inside our homes

As part of a wider pose-estimation programme called DensePose, Carnegie Mellon University engineers take advantage of the humble Wi-Fi chips found in, well, almost everything, and use them to figure out where in the room we are standing – and even the position or pose that we are making. Their system does this not by using any special sensors, but by taking the raw Wi-Fi signal data and applying some clever machine learning. And the researchers have now published their experiments in a paper, which shows the DensePose software accurately drawing a wireframe mesh identifying test subjects – and even correctly predicting the direction they are facing, and the position of their arms and legs. Research professor Fernando De La Torre, alongside his colleagues Jiaqi Geng and Dong Huang, believe…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Britain's first autonomous bus service launches in Scotland

The UK has celebrated the launch of its first driverless bus service, operated by Stagecoach. The start of the pilot programme was marked by a journey on the service between Ferry Toll near Inverkeithing, Fife, and Edinburgh Park. Scotland’s transport minister Kevin Stewart was one of the first to take his seat for the short journey. A fleet of five driverless buses is expected to operate on a trial basis until 2025. Each bus will carry two members of staff – a safety driver who can take control of the vehicle, and another ‘captain’ to sell tickets and provide customer service. One of the new buses crosses Forth Road Bridge in Scotland, during the launch of the UK's first autonomous bus / Andrew Milligan/PA Wireservice. Image credit: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire …

E+T Magazine in Automotive Engineering
After All: Herons - not drones - above the motorways

“The road is life” – Jack Kerouac. The devil is not as black as he is painted. Particularly if the ‘devil’ is French and is better known as ‘le diable’. We came close to cancelling this trip only days before it was due to start. France was being reportedly paralysed by protests against President Macron’s pension reform. According to some reports, the protests would often turn violent, with cars, and occasionally even campervans, overturned and set on fire. That last bit was a particular put off for us (my wife, myself and our dog Tashi), for that was exactly how we were planning to travel across the whole of France – in a converted ‘grey import’ Toyota Alphard, nicknamed Alphie, familiar to E&T readers from my previous After All columns. The aim of the journey was a brief reunion with my…

E+T Magazine
Microsoft to be powered partly by fusion energy from 2028

Bill Gates' Microsoft has become the first Big Tech company to sign a power purchase agreement with a nuclear fusion company. Fusion is based on the same physical reactions that power the sun and stars, which create energy by forcing atoms together. It is the opposite of standard nuclear reactors which rely on fission, breaking atoms apart, and it produces zero carbon. Fusion is hailed as a potential source of almost limitless clean energy, but is has proved very difficult to harness. However, a mid rising energy prices and a cost-of-living crisis, it could become a safe and clean alternative source of energy that might become available in the not-too-distant future - or so Microsoft believes. The company that will provide Microsoft with the clean electricity is Helion Energy…

E+T Magazine in Nuclear Power
EU lawmakers agree on toughening AI rules

Members of the European Parliament have voted to add a raft of amendments to the much-awaited 'EU AI Act', the world's first comprehensive legislation regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The law covers a wide range of AI applications, including controversial uses such as smart chatbots like ChatGPT, f acial recognition and biometric surveillance. Under the new draft, providers of foundational models will be required to apply safety checks, data governance measures and risk mitigations prior to putting their models on the market. The regulation would classify AI tools based on their perceived level of risk to health, safety, fundamental rights, the environment, and democracy and the rule of law. Those tools that employ "subliminal or purposefully manipulative…

E+T Magazine
Letters to the editor: volume 18, issue 5

Don’t expect widespread eVTOL travel any time soon I too am struggling to find some credibility in claims about the prospects of urban travel by electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft ( ‘eVTOL’s Overpromise on Green’ , April 2023). Flying at night, or in poor visibility, into a major city or airport would require some of the most demanding piloting imaginable. The act of safely piloting an eVTOL under these conditions, whilst relying upon an already very busy air-traffic control system to separate you from all the other eVTOLS and conventional aircraft, would require a very talented pilot and ATC officer. I fail to see how any aviation authority could expect to achieve a safe standard of operation by “shortening and simplifying” the certification to that required for a “powered…

E+T Magazine
‘The poison plastic’: why calls are growing for a ban on PVC

Dramatic images of the Ohio train derailment and its aftermath gripped the world’s attention in February: a huge plume of thick, black smoke towering into the atmosphere; the blackened carcasses of railcars on their sides, scattered in an unnatural formation; a land scorched and scarred from 50 rail cars, many carrying toxic chemicals, coming off the tracks. Scientists have told E&T that it could be decades before long-term health impacts of the accident are fully understood. They are concerned about the release of carcinogenic chemicals into the atmosphere, as well as into the soil and potentially, the food chain. However, the Ohio derailment was more than a one-off environmental disaster. The accident has lifted the lid on policies around hazardous chemicals, as well as corporate responsibility…

E+T Magazine
TransPennine Express to be nationalised over ‘continuous cancellations’

The government has decided not to renew the TransPennine contract from 28 May, after a quarter of the operator's services were cancelled in January and February and one in six trains did not run in March 2023. The constant cancellations and delays have resulted in a considerable decline in confidence for passengers who rely on the trains to get to work, visit family and friends and go about their daily lives. The government's 'operator of last resort' (OLR) will now run the service, which covers Manchester and Liverpool in the North of England and runs to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. Although passengers will not see changes in timetables and ticket prices, the government's goal is to improve its performance, officials have said. The decision was announced by Transport Secretary…

E+T Magazine in Railways
South of England facing ‘severe water stress’ by 2030, analysis finds

According to home improvement company Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, the West Midlands, London, parts of the South West, the East Midlands, the East of England and the South East are all regions expected to be severely impacted, unless there are developments in water resilience in the near future. Regions in the South of England are expected to be the worst affected. By comparison, the North West, the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber will be less vulnerable to severe water stress. Despite government targets to reduce water usage in the home, consumption has risen by 2 per cent since 2017/18. According to a survey of 3,000 UK adults, Brits were found to “significantly underestimate” how much water they use per day, estimating that they use just 57 litres, compared to the…

E+T Magazine in Water Supply
Safety warning issued after live cabling found in wheelie bin

UK Power Network (UKPN) said last year, between April 2022 and March 2023, more than 1,000 instances of interference were recorded across London, the East and South-East of England. That is triple the number recorded the previous year. Power workers are now finding unsafe sites on a regular basis, the distributor said. In one recent case, live cabling was found dumped in a wheelie bin, where it could kill someone. Other examples include finding live cabling hanging from a fence or tacked onto a piece of wood. The company has warned builders, demolition workers and homeowners to take care and call their network distributor if they want cables moved and a site survey will then be undertaken. UKPN electricity surveyor Chris Slattery attends properties where customers have requested alterations…

E+T Magazine
Emirates announces $200m fund to cut fossil fuel usage in aviation

The funds will be disbursed over three years and will see the airline identify partnerships with organisations working on solutions in advanced fuel and energy technologies. In January, Emirates flew a Boeing 777 with one of its engines powered entirely with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for the first time. SAFs are typically derived by combining jet fuel with alternatives such as biofuels or recycled oils from industrial food facilities. Currently, SAF is approved for use in all aircraft, but only in blends of up to 50 per cent with conventional jet fuel. Following the successful trial on one engine, Emirates said it wanted to continue to develop the initiative with engine airframe manufacturers. However, bio-based SAF, currently the only type of commercially available SAF, is extremely…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
New electric ‘Slant’ on getting the shopping home given funding boost

A team of innovation master’s students at the University of Bristol have developed a tap-to-rent electric trailer that can be attached to a bike or e-scooter. The e-trailer could help cut the estimated 4.5 billion car journeys made to and from supermarkets in England each year, as well as assisting the millions of car-less shoppers who must either use taxis or buses or walk home carrying heavy bags. Shoppers would merely unlock the trailer with a debit or credit card – much like renting a shared bicycle or e-scooter – before bringing their shopping home and leaving the trailer outside, whereafter a Slant (the name given to the e-trailer concept) employee would retrieve it and return it to the supermarket. The team behind Slant say the trailers would be “weightless” due to their electric…

E+T Magazine in Research and Innovation
Alps and Arctic microbes able to digest plastic at low temperatures

The microbes have been found in regions with near-polar temperatures, such as the Alps and the Arctic. Scientists were previously aware of other types of microorganisms that are able to digest plastic. However, when the enzymes that make this possible were applied at an industrial scale, they typically only work at temperatures above 30°C. The higher temperatures meant that money and energy would need to be spent heating the organisms, which is costly and carbon-intensive. In contrast, the newly-discovered microbes can digest plastic in temperatures as low as 15ºC. “Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15°C,” said researcher Dr Joel Rüthi. “These organisms could help to reduce…

E+T Magazine in Sustainable Development
Book review: ‘Nuts and Bolts’ by Roma Agrawal

The idea that small and simple things can be big and complex things in disguise is one that’s fascinated novelists for centuries. In Jane Austen’s world, for example, the merest of imagined slights can have the most far-reaching and dramatic of outcomes, leaving us wondering just how crucial the minutiae of manners can be in constructing a wider social context. It is this notion that forms the core of Roma Agrawal’s non-fictional examination of the engineering fundamentals behind the physical world we live in today. In ‘Nuts and Bolts’ (Hachette, £22, ISBN 9781529340075), Agrawal’s Seven Wonders of the Ancient World aren’t grand constructions, but the humble nail, wheel, spring, magnet, lens, string and pump. Perhaps not so humble after all. As frameworks for expressing the central ubiquity…

E+T Magazine
Gadgets: Dyson Zone, Alexa Swan kettle, Reskube and more

Dyson Zone Image credit: Dyson Dyson’s first audio product and first wearable. These are high-end, wireless, noise-cancelling headphones with a difference. A contact-free visor attaches to the front, delivering purified air to your nose and mouth. A cleaner commute with a love-it-or-loathe-it Daft Punk look. From £749.99 dyson.co.uk Read Caramel's full hands-on review. The Alexa Swan Kettle Image credit: Swan Use voice control to request a brew thanks to this, the first ever kettle with Alexa built in out of the box. You can tell the 1.5-litre 1800W kettle to boil, pick a temperature, ask it to keep warm, even set routines...

E+T Magazine
National Grid hints Demand Flexibility Service could take on expanded role

According to National Grid ESO, this would be enough to power nearly 10 million homes for an hour across Great Britain. In total, 1.6 million households and businesses signed up to participate in 22 service events across the winter, covering both live events to balance the electricity network and monthly test events to deliver savings for consumers and demonstrate how effective the system could be. In November, Ofgem approved the introduction of the DFS, which pays businesses and the public for reducing or moving their electricity use outside of peak hours. It ran until 31 March 2023, and meant that a typical household could save approximately £100 through the scheme while industrial and commercial businesses with larger energy usage could save multiples of this. Households participating…

E+T Magazine in Power Equipment
FBI disrupts hacking network used by Russian spies

The FBI has used a court order to cut off hackers' access to a network of US computers used to infiltrate diplomatic and military agencies of 50 Nato countries and allies for over 20 years. The FBI operation and US public advisories said it would now be “difficult or/and untenable” for Russia's domestic intelligence service (FSB) to effectively use it again. The news is the latest on a series of actions taken by US authorities to crack down on foreign spying and criminal rings using custom-built FBI tools. "We assess this as being their premier espionage tool," one of the US officials told journalists. He said Washington hoped the operation would "eradicate it from the virtual battlefield." The malware, known as Snake, was said to have been designed by a notorious hacking group tracked…

E+T Magazine in Cybersecurity
Dated IT infrastructure leaves government department open to cyber risks

The parliamentary group said the department has one of the “most significant” legacy IT challenges across government as it still uses a raft of outdated applications. “While Defra is making good progress in tackling its most urgent legacy systems it does not have a long-term strategy for its much-needed wider digital transformation,” the PAC warned. Defra systems are used by a wide range of customers and are critical to the country’s trade, disease prevention, flood protection, and air quality monitoring. But its customers are often forced to rely on paper forms or documents and IT systems that feel outdated and difficult to use. Defra and its organisations handle around 14 million transactions per year that still involve paper forms, which makes them inefficient and expensive. Furthermore…

E+T Magazine in Cybersecurity

Community Rules & Guidelines