This white paper examines the current challenges for clean energy infrastructure and identifies solutions that industrial clusters, transport and logistics industries, and the wider clean energy value chain can jointly explore in order to accelerate its deployment. Thirteen new industrial clusters from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, …
Engineers from the University of Surrey, UK, have created an intelligent robot that accomplishes hazardous feats like cleaning up contaminated wastes in nuclear reactors. The robot has been developed by integrating virtual reality (VR) soft - ware with robotics. An operator wears a special VR headset and the robot mimics …
Scientists in the optics and laser technology department of British Aerospace's Sowerby Research Centre at Filton in South UK are planning to develop 'smart' aircraft wings that look after themselves. The new wings have miniature sensors manufactured from optical fibres that change colour when they experience stress or temperature changes. …
A RECENT government decision which will -force power companies in the UK to bring down emissions of sulphur dioxide drastically,- could help large areas of land affected by acid rain to make a recovery. The two main electric power stations, National Power and PowerGen, have been asked to, bring down …
On-line recycling The World Resource Foundation, a British charity organisation, has started PRISM, an on-line service exclusively pertaining to recycling of waste products. The site offers an excellent range of recycling information, a broad database and an opportunity for enthusiasts to initiate and continue a discussion or a debate. The …
ARE science and religion at loggerheads? It seems they are, at least in this case. A professor of bio-ethics and veterinary science at the Birmingham University, David Morton, recently defended his controversial statement that persons in a persistent vegetative state ("s), could replace animals in scientific experiments. Speaking at the …
SCIENTISTS from the Natural Environment Resource Council (NERC'S), Institute of Terrestrial Ecology at Banchory, and the department of zoology at the University of Aberdeen - both in Scotland - have embarked on a novel method to study population ecology. The programme called Molecular Genetics in Ecology (MGE) Initiative, Uses DNA …
POPULATION control has just got its first big success in permanent contraception for men - an injection full of the male hormone, testosterone. This contraceptive, after worldwide trials on 399 couples for a two-and-a-half -year period is proving to be as reliable as birth control pills for women, said scientists …
INSPITE of recent advances in forensic, science, such as the development Of DNA profiling technique, the conventional fingerprint tests continue to remain an important aid to identify an individual suspect at the scene of crime. Now researchers from the University of Wales, in Swansea, UK, have developed a new technique …
MILLIONS of pounds will be spent in the UK over the next three years on a new generation of high-speed radio networks that will provide super- highway services directly in offices and homes. The systems mean that consumers and businesspeople can have access to the Internet and use high-speed digital …
PROVIDING yourself with an insurance cover may not be all that easy in the near future. Insurance companies are now looking at the prospect of genetic testing to weed out high risk people or else insisting on their payment of higher premiums. This will then allow insurance companies to compensate …
IT TOOK a total of 10 deaths for the British government to finally acknowledge the seriousness of a threat which was literally being shouted from the rooftops for years. What is being referred to here is the suspected link between the Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), - …
THE almost month-long European hysteria over British beef being infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or what is now popularly called the Mad Cow Disease, has global implications far too profound and as scary as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Never before in history has one disease raised so many issues …
DO ECO-MARKS and green logos endorsed on products really help the consumer to make an environment-friendly choice? May be not. A recent survey by the National Consumer Council in UK has found that green claims on products had the consumers baffled. Sample a few: Dishwasher liquid: "Easy on the environment"- …
Designers at the Building Research Establishment of Hertfordshire in the UK have carried the notion of environment consciousness right down to the foundations of buildings. Crushed concrete is being used in the construction of the Energy Efficient Office of the Future in Hertfordshire. The remains of the demolition of a …
XENOTRANSPLANTS - animal to human transplants - have won ethical approval after the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, set up to debate medical morality, gave its go-ahead. However, while xenotransplants are in principle an ethical way of dealing with the shortage of human organs for transplant, one "should proceed with caution, …
It turned out to be a battle between grapes and coal and the latter lost. Peabody Resources, a branch of Britain's Hanson group had to abandon its plans to develop a US $10,156 miflion coal mine in Australia's Hunter Valley, following a recent order given by the New South Wales …
Trouble seems to be brewing yet again between Argentina and UK. The thorny issue this time involves fishing in the waters around South Georgia, some 1,287 km south-east of the disputed Falkland islands. An Argentine vessel had to reportedly pay a license fee to the 'British authorities to fish for …
IT TOOK a simple laboratory dish to create one of the most awesome break- throughs in science - hundreds of genetically identical sheep. The feat was recently performed by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and their colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. The process itself does not seem too complex …
IT HAS come a full circle. Humans, who were responsible for the debacle in the first place, are now being asked to act as saviours too. The world's depleting fish stocks could get a boost if a new initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (wwF) and Unilever Plc, …
THE disused Brent Spar oil storage platform, whose possible disposal at sea caused a major storm last summer, has yet to find a resting place. Shell, its owner, has now come up with a plan which includes several options to dismantle the rig at sea before being completely broken up …
