• India restricts laptop, tablet and PC imports to boost domestic production

    The Indian government has restricted imports of personal computers, laptops, palmtops, automatic data processing machines, processors and mainframe computers with immediate effect. In a notice issued on Thursday, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said that companies would, with immediate effect, need a “restricted imports” licence to ship such devices into India. “Import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, and ultra small form factor computers and servers falling under HSN 8741 shall be ‘restricted’,” the notice said.  The rule is similar to one issued by the Indian government in 2020, which regulated inbound TV shipments. The restriction will not apply to visitors carrying these devices in their baggage. In addition, imports up to 20 items per consignment for…

  • US bids goodbye to the incandescent light bulb

    The ban on ‘normal’ light bulbs has come into force in the US 16 years after it was initially announced.  The new rules forbid the manufacture and sale of incandescent bulbs, with companies that violate the ban facing a maximum penalty of $542 (£427) per bulb.  However, an update to the law made last year allows consumers to continue to use the incandescent bulbs they already own. The manufacture of i ncandescent appliance lamps, black lights, bug lamps, holiday lights, plant lights, flood lights and traffic signals will also continue to be allowed. The incandescent light bulb was patented by Thomas Edison in the 1800s and was used for almost 150 years until a ban on the technology was issued in 2007 during the George Bush administration. The measure was rolled back by President Donald…

    E+T Magazine
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  • Businesses that integrate robots see profits fall in the short term, study finds

    The team studied industry data from the UK and 24 other European countries between 1995 and 2017 and found that, at low levels of adoption, robots have a negative effect on profit margins. However, at higher levels of adoption, robots can help to increase profits. This U-shaped phenomenon is due to the relationship between cost reduction, development of new processes and innovation of new products, the study suggests. While many companies first adopt robotic technologies to decrease costs, this process can be easily copied by competitors. However, as levels of adoption increase and robots are fully integrated into a company’s processes, the technologies can be used to increase revenue by innovating new products. Firms using robots are likely to focus initially on streamlining their processes…

  • Nigeria cuts Niger’s electricity supply following coup

    The move could be part of the sanctions that Ecowas – the West African trade bloc – agreed to impose on Niger following the military coup that ousted the elected president Mohamed Bazoum a week ago.   “Since yesterday, Nigeria has disconnected the high-voltage line transporting electricity to Niger,” a source at Nigerian Electricity Company ( Nigelec) told AFP. In addition to a one-week ultimatum to restore constitutional order and the suspension of financial transactions with Niger, Ecowas decreed the freezing of “all service transactions, including energy transactions”. “The sanctions will hurt our country very much,” Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou said on Sunday on the French TV channel France24. Niger depends on Nigeria for 70 per cent of its power, buying it from the Nigerian…

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  • China approves more than 50GW of coal power in 2023 despite climate concerns

    The charity reviewed project approval documents, finding that 20.45GW of new coal was approved in the first quarter of 2023, which more than doubled to 50.4GW by the end of the second quarter. This is despite the 2020 announcement from Chinese President Xi Jinping that his country aims to reach net zero carbon by 2060 and peak CO2 emissions by 2030. The coal power and steel sectors are China’s two largest emitters of CO2, and there is no sign of investment in coal-based capacity being scaled back yet. Permitting new coal power projects was essentially frozen in 2021, as the Chinese leadership emphasised strictly controlling high-emissions projects. However, reflecting shifting political signals, new coal power projects restarted in 2022 as gas prices spiked in the wake of the Ukraine…

  • China proposes time limits on children’s smartphone use

    Under the proposal, users aged 16-18 would be allowed to use their smartphones for two hours a day, children aged eight-16 would get one hour and children under eight would be allowed just eight minutes. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) also said it wanted providers of smart devices to introduce a “minor mode”, which would bar users under the age of 18 from accessing the internet on their mobiles from 10pm-6am. The proposal would impact companies running some of China’s biggest mobile apps, such as TikTok owner ByteDance, and it has already caused shares in Chinese technology and social media companies to fall. Shares of Alibaba closed more than 3 per cent lower in Hong Kong on Wednesday, while those of Bilibili tumbled by close to 7 per cent in the country. The measures come…

  • Severed internet cables and malicious drones enter national list of risks to UK

    Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden today unveiled the latest National Risk Register (NRR), which outlines 89 threats that would have a significant impact on the UK’s safety, security or critical systems at a national level. As well as malicious drone use and threats to the communication network, disruption to energy supplies has been included on the list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The National Risk Register (NRR) has been released every few years since 2008 and divides risks into four main categories: natural hazards, major accidents, societal risks and malicious attacks. It evaluates a number of risks under each category and discusses the measures currently in place to deal with them. The chance of a new “catastrophic” pandemic is now believed to be between 5…

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  • Catalina Aircraft to build new versions of famous WWII seaplane

    Catalina Aircraft will resurrect the famous Second World War seaplane, as well as create an all-new ‘Catalina II’ model, the Florida-based company has revealed. The Consolidated Model 28, also known as PBY Catalina, w as built in the 1930s and operated by all major Allied military powers during the Second World War. It served as a far-flying maritime patrol plane, long-range torpedo and land attack bomber, mine layer, submarine hunter, search-and-rescue plane, special operations transport and cargo-hauler. More than 4,000 were built in the US, the Soviet Union and Canada. Only 14 to 17 are said to still remain, with at least seven more being restored to a flyable condition.  In an interview with Popular Mechanics , Catalina Aircraft stated that the company already has a lead customer…

  • Breast cancer-detecting AI is 20 per cent more effective than radiologists

    The AI tool is considered to be a safe alternative to conventional double reading by radiologists and can reduce heavy workloads for doctors. In a randomised controlled trial led by researchers from Lund University in Sweden, 80,033 women were randomly allocated into two groups: 40,003 women in the intervention group that underwent AI-supported screening and 40,030 in the control group that underwent standard double reading without AI support. “In our trial, we used AI to identify screening examinations with a high risk of breast cancer, which underwent double reading by radiologists. The remaining examinations were classified as low risk and were read only by one radiologist. In the screen reading, radiologists used AI as detection support, in which it highlighted suspicious findings on…

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    E+T Magazine

  • Infrastructure investment to see supermarket trucks fuelled by hydrogen

    Hydrogen is expected to become more popular in medium- to heavy-duty vehicles; unlike their electric counterparts, the refuelling process represents a similar time commitment and experience to existing petrol and diesel vehicles. Although the technology is vastly different, hydrogen refuelling stations can operate in a similar way to the status quo, delivering equivalent refuelling times and ranges. There will be a market for smaller passenger vehicles, but heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and larger passenger vehicles currently offer a greater opportunity for hydrogen. One project led by ULEMCo, which is receiving a share of the new funding, will develop hydrogen-powered airport ground-based support vehicles, such as tow trucks for aeroplanes and sweepers to clean runways. This will be based…

  • Kenya suspends Worldcoin over privacy concerns

    Kenya has become the first country to fully suspend Worldcoin, the new cryptocurrency project launched by OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman.  Worldcoin is based on the creation of a World ID, which the company describes as a “digital passport” to prove that its holder is a real human. To get a World ID, a customer signs up for an in-person eye scan using Worldcoin's “orb”, which is intended to check that the user is not a bot.  This technology has raised privacy concerns among several public administrations, but Kenya has been the first country to take action on the matter.   Kithure Kindiki, the Kenyan interior minister, said the government was troubled by the company’s collection of private data. Kenya has therefore decided to suspend the company's activities until it can be investigated by f…

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  • Product safety law overhaul to protect smart device users

    According to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the plans will also cut business costs and reduce “unnecessary red tape” to spur investment. A consultation will assess how the UK can better regulate modern innovations such as internet-connected devices, including smart watches and speakers, as well as AI. The DBT also said that an e-labelling scheme will help businesses to save time and money by allowing product information to be easily and regularly updated. Further reforms related to furniture and fire safety regulations have been designed to protect consumers, which include a reduction in the use of harmful chemicals. Some of the UK’s product safety laws are more than 30 years old and underpinned by rules originally created by the EU. Nevertheless, the government announced…

  • Nasa hears Voyager 2 ‘heartbeat’ after accidentally severing contact

    Nasa’s Deep Space Network (DSN) has detected a carrier signal from Voyager 2, confirming that the spacecraft has not been lost in space and remains operational.  The space agency had lost all communications with Voyager 2 after accidentally sending a wrong command on July 21, which caused the spacecraft’s antenna to point two degrees away from Earth and lose contact with mission control.  The spacecraft’s antenna is expected to point towards Earth in mid-October, when communications with mission control will be able to resume. Until then, Nasa will attempt to send a command to Voyager 2 to correct the position of its antenna.  You might have heard... Voyager 2 is taking a break from sending data until October. In the meantime, I'm out here, almost 15 billion miles (24 billion km)…

  • Scientists look for micrometeorites on cathedral roofs

    University of Kent scientists a re roaming the roofs of cathedrals spread across the UK in search of dust particles that might have accumulated over the centuries.  Dr Penny Wozniakiewicz and Dr Matthias van Ginneken are hoping to find cosmic dust on the buildings and use it to understand how much material from space reaches Earth and becomes part of the planet or its atmosphere. Cosmic dust includes interplanetary dust particles (IDP) – particles from comets, asteroids and other bodies generally smaller than 0.1mm in diameter. IDPs are small and decelerate quickly enough when falling into Earth’s atmosphere. However, due to their inaccessibility, cathedral roofs might have held on to some of these particles.  “You want the site as undisturbed as possible,” said Wozniakiewicz told The…

  • Asteroid-hunting algorithm uncovers its first ‘potentially hazardous’ space rock

    Developed by a team at the University of Washington, the algorithm is designed to analyse data taken from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (pictured), which is still under construction in Chile. The observatory is set to undertake a 10-year survey of the night sky, during which the algorithm will be used extensively. Its first discovery is a roughly 180m-long asteroid, designated 2022 SF289, which was revealed during a test drive of the algorithm with the ATLAS survey in Hawaii. Finding 2022 SF289, which poses no risk to Earth for the foreseeable future, confirms that the next-generation algorithm, known as HelioLinc3D, can identify near-Earth asteroids with fewer and more dispersed observations than current methods require. “By demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software…

  • UK considers £160m fund to boost 5G and broadband coverage using satellites

    The plan would see £100m in grant funding for the UK’s space sector with an additional £60m from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) UK-backed Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme. In particular, the funds are being targeted at improving connectivity in remote and rural parts of the UK, which typically face considerably worse speeds than their urban counterparts. Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space is filling up with satellite constellations from the likes of Starlink and OneWeb that aim, when complete, to give total broadband internet coverage around the world. These constellations – which are more resilient and harder to disable than ground-based infrastructure – have already ensured reliable connectivity for Ukraine following the attempted invasion from Russia. …

  • Government taskforce aims to bridge nuclear skills gap

    The government is reacting to warnings that the UK lacks the skilled workers needed to deliver on the country’s target of building 24GW of new nuclear power-generating capacity by 2050. The new Nuclear Skills Taskforce will focus on developing a skills strategy to support the expansion expected in various roles within the nuclear industry. It will be chaired by Sir Simon Bollom, former CEO of Defence Equipment and Support. The jobs required to drive the nuclear sector range from technical scientific and engineering roles through to logistics, project management, commercial and finance – with a variety of apprentice and graduate opportunities, the government said.  “By developing nuclear skills, we are not just investing in the UK economy but our national security, ” said James Cartlidge…

  • Sponsored: Engineering Canada

    For the last decade or so there have been reports indicating that many engineers in Canada will be retiring in the early 2020’s, and there is a shortage of engineers with specialised experience. These are ideal conditions when deciding whether or not to move to another country for work. Engineers that are willing to move where the work is will find that there are many prospects available to them. Travelling with an eTA Canada offers many different types of valid work permits and has concise information on their main government page informing immigrants how they can become citizens. This is especially true of specialised and highly skilled workers. There are multiple ways in Canada to become a citizen or a resident, and from the beginning you can be easily informed on what kinds of visas or…

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  • Royal Mail launches drone delivery service for remote Orkney residents

    Skyports Drone Services has been selected to operate the service with Brazilian drone manufacturer Speedbird Aero. The electric multirotor DLV-2 drone, which has a payload capacity of 6kg and a range of up to 16km, was selected as vehicle of choice for the Orkney I-Port project due to its large payload volume, which makes it well suited to carrying cargo such as Royal Mail parcels. The aircraft is also equipped with a parachute. The first drone deliveries were completed in July this year and will continue until at least October. The mail is first transported from Royal Mail’s Kirkwall delivery office to Stromness which are both on the Orkney Mainland. Once at Stromness, the drones are used to complete the final step of the journey to transport items over to delivery staff on the islands…

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  • Solar ‘umbrella’ could help slow down global warming

    István Szapudi, an astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy , has proposed building a solar “umbrella” that would shield the Earth from a fraction of the Sun’s light.  This is not the first time that scientists have proposed a “ solar shield ” approach to preventing climate change. However, the majority of proposals to date have been rejected due to the large amount of weight needed to make a shield large enough to balance gravitational forces and prevent solar radiation pressure from blowing it away.  Szapudi seems to have addressed this challenge by reducing the mass of the shield, while also using a captured asteroid as the counterweight. This would avoid the need to launch most of the device’s mass from Earth. “In Hawaiʻi, many use an umbrella to block the sunlight…

  • Machine learning algorithm trained in outer space

    Satellite data is increasingly useful for scientists, enabling aerial mapping and weather prediction, and monitoring deforestation. However, at present, most satellites can only collect this data passively, and transmit it to Earth for analysis.  But what if machine learning tools could work in outer space?  To overcome these restrictions, a group of researchers led by Vít Růžička, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, took on the challenge of training the first machine learning program in outer space . The team was able to partner with the Dashing Through The Stars mission, which had issued an open call for project proposals to be carried out on board the ION SCV004 satellite, launched in January 2022. During the autumn of that year, the team uplinked the code for the program to…

  • Supercapacitor made of concrete could provide renewable energy storage

    The inconsistency of renewable energy production is one reason why power grids are still reliant on fossil fuels. For example, solar panels cannot generate energy at night and wind turbines do not work when the air is still. But MIT researchers believe their energy storage device, which is a supercapacitor rather than a battery, could provide cheap storage of electrical energy that could help even out the ebb and flow of renewable energy generation. The technology could even be incorporated into the concrete foundation of a house, where it could store a full day’s worth of energy while adding little cost to the construction of the foundations while still providing the structural strength required. The researchers also envision a concrete roadway that could provide contactless recharging…

  • Lack of stock and species diversity hampering mass tree planting efforts

    The REPLANT Act, which was introduced in July 2020, provides money for the US Forest Service to plant more than a billion trees in the next nine years. The World Economic Forum also aims to help plant a trillion trees around the world by 2030 in an effort to soak up some of the excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. But a University of Vermont (UVM) study has found that US tree nurseries don’t grow nearly enough trees or have the species diversity needed to meet the ambitious plans. “Trees are this amazing natural solution to a lot of our challenges, including climate change. We urgently need to plant many millions of them,” said UVM scientist Tony D’Amato, who co-led the new research. “But what this paper points out is that we are woefully underserved by any kind of regional…

  • ‘Urgent need’ for long-term nuclear energy plan, MPs say

    In a new report, the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) said that current efforts are more of a “wish list” than the comprehensive strategy that is required to ensure such capacity is built. The government’s plan to install 24GW of nuclear capacity is almost double the highest installed capacity the UK has ever achieved. Efforts to meet it could involve new gigawatt-scale nuclear power, small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs), alongside further development of nuclear fusion, the committee said. But it would require “substantial” progress on technologies, financing, skills, regulation, decommissioning and waste management, it added. Nuclear industry witnesses who were interviewed for the report called for a clearer strategic plan than currently…

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