• View from Brussels: R&D’s EU penny-pinching problem

    Budget season has begun in Brussels as the European Commission this week proposed its draft plan for 2024’s finances. As things stand, the bloc’s coffers will be provided with €189.3bn to fund its various policies and programmes. Where research and development is concerned, the Commission has allocated €13.6bn for R&D, with €12.8bn of that due to fuel the flagship Horizon Europe scheme. It marks a €400m increase on 2023 but a couple of caveats undermine that rise in fortunes. Firstly, inflation means that any real-world increase is severely reduced with some in the European Parliament, which will propose its own financing plan, saying it is actually a cut masquerading as an increase. Secondly, interest rate hikes mean that the EU will have to allocate more cash for repayments on its …

  • The tech helping debunk long-held archaeological beliefs

    In recent years, airborne laser scanning technology lidar, which can penetrate thick foliage and vegetation, has led to the dramatic discovery of a vast, 2,000-year-old Mayan settlement hidden beneath a Central American rainforest, as well as medieval cities beneath Cambodian jungles, for example. After more than three decades of application, ancient DNA has helped rewrite human history and unlocked secrets of the evolution of language, migration, and even the origins of the Black Death. Rather than physically dismantling mummified remains, Egyptologists use close X-ray scanning to digitally unwrap artefacts, leaving them intact. Techniques such as mass spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence allow them to look at the composition without disturbing ancient objects. And to identify mysterious…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Sunak and Biden promise action on AI, data sharing, defence and green subsidies

    The agreement is far from a trade deal. Instead, the US President and the United Kingdom's Prime Minister have focused on a series of targeted pledges covering artificial intelligence, critical minerals, clean energy and security concerns. Sunak described the agreement as a “new economic partnership for a new age". When asked whether the Declaration was an "acknowledgement of the failure" to strike a broader trade deal, he said it "responds to particular challenges and opportunities we face right now". The Atlantic Declaration could be seen as an effort to lessen the impact of the US'   Inflation Reduction Act (IRA),   which includes tax credits worth $3,750 (£3,000) for each EV manufactured in the US, or that uses components mined, processed or manufactured in the country. The text of…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Pinpointing lost treasures already in museums

    ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ has its fair share of iconic cinematic moments, including Indiana Jones outrunning a giant rolling rock to escape a booby-trapped Peruvian temple with a golden idol, not to mention the special effects of spirits escaping from the opened Ark of the Covenant that were probably responsible for many children’s nightmares in the 1980s. But it is the final scene of the film that is perhaps the most thought-provoking, as the Ark – a “source of unspeakable power” – is sealed shut in a wooden crate and moved to a mysterious and expansive warehouse for ‘top men’ to study. The film finishes with a single figure wheeling the anonymised top-secret crate through row upon row of near-identical boxes, leaving us to imagine the other treasures stashed inside. The dusty shelves…

  • Engineering should be made more visible in schools, poll of academics concludes

    NMITE and the EPC worked together to conduct the survey of the nation’s engineering academics in advance of the EPC’s ‘Engineering Academics Network Annual Congress’, which NMITE is hosting in Hereford from 12 June. This three-day event will see engineering academics from universities across the UK come together to explore issues in education and engineering. Academics from 85 UK higher education institutions were involved in the survey, which was conducted over the course of the last month, drawing on the EPC's database of members. When asked what should be done to elevate the status of engineering, almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of respondents felt that engineering should be made more visible in schools, with one academic commenting: “Help to educate parents about what a fantastic career…

  • Letters to the editor: volume 18, issue 6

    Infrastructure isn’t the only problem with EV charging A news story in the June 2023 issue of E&T, ‘Demand for electric vehicles slows as public chargers remain elusive’ , touches on the slow-down in demand for EVs in the UK due to lack of infrastructure. Having recently bought a Nissan Leaf, which I am pleased with, I have set about experimenting with my local charging network, with mixed results. Quite often you have to download an app, then get it to work. If you are desperate enough you can telephone a help line, where you will be greeted by some music and a voice telling you where you are in a queue. Success from this point onwards is still hit and miss. Supermarkets incentivise shopping by offering charging facilities in their car parks. A word of caution though: parking restrictions…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • View from India: Triple train collision the worst in several decades

    The crash, which took place on 2 June, involved two passenger trains and a stationary goods train. The Coromandel Shalimar Express, heading to Chennai, derailed. It was running at full speed and collided with a goods train on an adjacent track. Given its speed, many of its coaches flipped over on to a third track. Three of the coaches collided with the oncoming Bangalore Howrah Superfast Express on the third track. Over 288 people are feared dead and over 1,000 have been left injured as a result of the train tragedy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the railway accident site and the hospital where the injured underwent treatment. Modi has assured the public that no stone will be left unturned to provide all possible medical help to those injured. He said that the government stands…

  • UK will host global summit on AI safety, Sunak reveals

    During a visit to Washington DC, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that Britain will host the first major global summit on AI safety this autumn.  The conference will aim to provide a space for " key countries, leading tech companies and researchers" to  consider the risks of AI systems and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action, the British government said in a statement. “AI has an incredible potential to transform our lives for the better," Sunak said. "But we need to make sure it is developed and used in a way that is safe and secure. “Time and time again throughout history we have invented paradigm-shifting new technologies and we have harnessed them for the good of humanity. That is what we must do again." The Prime Minister claimed…

  • Local councils unprepared for climate change, report finds

    The Local Government Association (LGA) said that over 300 councils have declared a climate emergency, and many are assessing risks and developing plans. In particular, risks to residents' health from heatwaves is considered one of the greatest climate concerns for councils following record-breaking heatwaves last summer that led to thousands of excess deaths across the country. The LGA called on the government to enable urgent acceleration of local adaptation action as part of its forthcoming National Adaptation Programme (NAP). The NAP sets out the actions that government and others will take to adapt to the challenges of climate change in England over a five-year period. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are currently working on the third iteration of the…

  • Children spend more time online than in the real world

    The IET polled 1,000 parents whose children belong to Generation Alpha (children born after 2010), finding that 57 per cent of them spend the majority of their free time on online platforms, equating to one whole day (23 hours) every week.  This figure is even higher when looking at 12 and 13-year-olds, of which 67 and 66 per cent spend most of their recreational time online.  The research also highlighted the increasing amount of time that Generation Alpha children spend exploring virtual reality (VR) technology. According to the parents, two-thirds (66 per cent) of children have now used VR and a quarter (25 per cent) do so every week. These percentages show a rise in the popularity of the technology, with kids’ engagement with VR growing by 320 per cent in the past year alone, from…

  • Smoke from Canadian wildfires forecast to reach Norway

    Scientists with the Norwegian Climate and Environmental Research Institute (NILU) used a forecast model to predict how the smoke will travel through the atmosphere. The smoke has already moved over Greenland and Iceland since 1 June and observations in southern Norway have recorded increasing concentrations of aerosolised particles, the independent research institution said. “We may be able to see some haze or smell smoke,” Nikolaos Evangeliou, a senior NILU researcher, said. “However, we do not believe that the number of particles in the air here in Norway will be large enough to be harmful to our health.” The US east coast has experienced hazardous levels of pollution from the wildfires burning in Canada. The smoke has affected millions of people, held up flights at major airports…

  • NHS adopts lens technology for smartphone skin cancer assessments

    The lens, which is about the size of a 50p piece, is known as a dermatoscope and will enable specialist dermatologists to double the number of patients they can review in a day. Currently used in about 15 per cent of trusts offering dermatology services, teledermatology is set to be rolled out to all areas of England by July this year. The use of dermatoscopes to take photos is also being expanded across GP practices, which can support people living in more in rural communities to get a faster diagnosis without having to travel for a specialist appointment. More than 600,000 people have been referred for skin cancer checks in the last year – almost one tenth (9 per cent) higher than in the previous year and double the number sent for checks almost a decade ago. Over 56,000 patients with…

  • Nasa probe analyses Sun’s satellite-disrupting solar storms

    The Parker Solar Probe (PSP) was launched in 2018 and will approach within four million miles (6.5 million kilometres) from the centre of the Sun during its mission. It has already become the closest-ever artificial object to the Sun. A report from the University of California Berkeley has said the probe detected streams of high-energy particles that match the “supergranulation flows within coronal holes”, which suggests that these are the regions where the so-called “fast” solar winds originate. Solar winds are streams of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun that can disrupt communications, navigation systems, satellites and even cause power outages. Fast solar winds typically originate from the coronal holes usually at the Sun’s poles during its quiet periods…

  • 675m people live without electricity worldwide

    The report has found that about 675 million people live without electricity worldwide, with 80 per cent of those without access to power — 567 million in 2021 — living in sub-Saharan Africa. The research was published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).  The investigation's findings concluded that the world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which aims to ensure access to clean, affordable energy for all by 2030.  Although global access to electricity increased from 84 per cent in 2010 to 91 per cent in 2021, from 2019 onwards the world has seen "a recent slowdown in the global pace of electrification…

  • Why employers need to support green career paths

    Green jobs are on the rise, as all areas of business take charge of sustainability in operations and decision-making like never before. Across industries, the mission to double down on sustainability is driving job growth and creating millions of new career paths in sectors ranging from clean energy, construction and manufacturing to low-emissions tech. Net employment prospects are clear: globally, the green transition could be the driving force behind 30 million freshly created jobs by 2030 . And businesses are all too aware that moving quickly could deliver big results, in terms of both the environment and business growth. Many are voting with their feet and showing real resolve to pivot at pace, but the reality is they need workforces equipped with the knowledge and skills to unleash the…

  • UK to ban China-made surveillance equipment from government departments

    Last year, government departments were told to stop installing cameras made in China in sensitive buildings. It has now announced plans to strengthen the Procurement Bill, which lays out the rules that central government departments use when selecting suppliers. This includes establishing a National Security Unit for Procurement which will investigate suppliers who may pose a risk to national security, and assess whether companies should be barred from public procurements. The Cabinet Office said it would publish a timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment produced by companies subject to China’s National Intelligence Law from sensitive central government sites. In the last year, it halted the installation of such equipment on sensitive government sites and asked departments…

  • Binance and Coinbase sued by SEC in cryptocurrency crackdown

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is cracking down against cryptocurrency operators, by suing two of the most important players in the sector: Binance and Coinbase.  On Tuesday 6 June, the SEC asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to freeze the US assets of cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The petition followed the regulator's launch of a suit against the platform the previous day.  In the filing, the SEC accused Binance and founder Changpeng Zhao of engaging in a "web of deception" and "calculated evasion of the law", that included mishandling customer funds, artificially inflating trading volume on the site and evading US regulation. The company and its founder have also been accused of diverting customer funds to companies controlled by Zhao. …

  • ‘Fundamental’ revamp of planning system needed for UK to meet net zero

    According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), at the current rate of development it would take 4,700 years for England to reach the onshore wind capacity called for by government advisers. Progress in England was stalled in 2015 when planning laws were changed to make it more difficult to gain permission for new onshore wind turbines – in what was effectively a ban . A report in December suggested that this decision might have added around £800m to bills this winter alone. The government subsequently launched a consultation into potentially lifting the ban. Nevertheless, only 17 new onshore wind farms have so far been approved since 2015, generating just 6.7 megawatts of power; 0.02 per cent of the on-shore total needed in England, based on National Grid estimates. The…

  • Hyundai and Kia sued for making their cars too easy to steal

    The US city stated the automakers failed to install anti-theft devices called immobilisers on most of their cars for over ten years - between 2011 and 2022 - making their vehicles more likely to be stolen.  New York has joined several other major cities that have sued Hyundai and Kia over the thefts, including Baltimore, Cleveland, Milwaukee, San Diego and Seattle. The lawsuits have been prompted by the rise in popularity of a TikTok challenge in 2021 that prompted teens to steal vehicles off the street by hot wiring them using a USB cable.  The prompt resulted in an 800 per cent rise in year-on-year car thefts in the city of Chicago, and an 85 per cent increase in these crimes in Los Angeles, according to CNBC.  In New York, officials referred to a "virtual explosion of thefts" of cars…

  • Ofgem welcomes new net-zero mandate

    The watchdog said that, for the first time, its objectives will directly align the interests of consumers across the country with the UK’s plan to get to net zero by 2050. The change comes in an amendment to the current government’s energy bill. Until now, Ofgem has been tasked with protecting the interests of existing and future gas and electricity consumers. It has also been told to protect these customers’ interests by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the supply of gas and electricity. Now, it will also be tasked with protecting future consumers’ interests by supporting the government to reach its 2050 net-zero target. Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem's chief executive, said: “Our fundamental objective will always be to protect the interests of existing and future consumers. It is at the…

  • Atmospheric CO2 levels now 50 per cent higher than pre-industrial era

    According to measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CO2 levels peaked at 424 parts per million in May this year, an increase of 3.0ppm over the same period the year before. The measurements were recorded at Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, located on the Mauna Loa volcanic island in Hawaii. The station, which has been operating since 1958, was built there because it is 3,397 metres above sea level and located far from any continent. These factors ensure that air samples collected there represent a good average for the central Pacific. The contamination from local volcanic sources is sometimes detected at the observatory, then removed from background data. The carbon dioxide data on Mauna Loa constitutes the longest record of direct measurements…

  • BBC, Boots, British Airways among victims of mass cyber attack

    The hackers exploited a flaw in the MOVEit Transfer application, used by companies such as payroll provider Zellis to transfer documents. Zellis has said eight of its client firms have been affected by the breach. Although no official attribution has been made, Microsoft said it believed the criminals responsible are linked to the notorious Cl0p ransomware group, thought to be based in Russia. The company said the hackers responsible have used similar techniques in the past to steal data and extort victims. The victims of the hack include private companies such as the BBC, Boots, British Airways and Aer Lingus, as well as public bodies such as the government of Nova Scotia, in Canada.  Companies affected were warned that their staff's personal data - including ID numbers, dates of birth…

  • AI advances could put human lives at risk, Prime Minister’s adviser warns

    Clifford, a member of the UK's AI taskforce, has stressed the need for regulations that prevent AI tools from becoming  “very powerful” systems that humans could struggle to control. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's adviser commented on the technology's rapid development in an interview with TalkTV, where he stated that even the short-term risks that come with AI were “pretty scary”.  “You can use AI today to create new recipes for bio weapons or to launch large-scale cyber attacks," he said. "These are bad things." Since the interview was published, Clifford has stated headlines based on the TalkTV interview – which quoted him stating that AI could kill many humans within two years' time – do not reflect his views. 1/3 Quick thread on AI risk: there’s a story in The Times today headlined…

  • AR app to help blind passengers navigate stations receives share of £2m funding

    The Department for Transport has announced a £1.96m fund to improve accessibility in the UK’s transport systems. Makesense Technology is receiving part of the fund to create an app that uses augmented reality to create bespoke walking routes to help visually impaired travellers get around railway stations. Other projects include a system that uses large kites to tow ships at the same speed as a traditionally powered craft, which could help reduce the use of polluting engines and decarbonise shipping. Start-up IONA Logistics will explore how autonomous drones based out of small delivery hubs can be used to deliver small packages faster and cheaper to hard-to-reach rural areas Port of Tyne is exploring the viability of using remotely controlled, and in some instances automated, electric…

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