Friday November 27 2015  Rebecca Northfield, assistant features editor Australian coast drones protect surfers from sharks Aerial drones have another job to do – protect surfers in New South Wales, Australia from dastardly sharks. The NSW government are paying out £8m for the project, which will also bring smart drum lines, unmanned aquatic traps and baited hooks into the anti-shark scheme. The drones have already begun surveillance. The idea is that they will feed images to their operator in real time, letting them see whether there are any pesky sharks around. It’s still at trial stages, but if all goes … Continue reading E&T news weekly #72 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Friday November 20 2015  Lorna Sharpe, sub-editor UK pledges to end coal use by 2025 Working for the IET, I’ve perhaps paid more attention to government energy policy over the last 15 years than most people have, and it’s not very edifying. Ministers and governments come and go, and policy seems to be swayed by the most vociferous lobby groups at any given time, when what’s really needed is a bit of consistency, based on what’s actually achievable. We’ve known for a long time that our coal-fired power stations would have to be replaced with something else but there’s been … Continue reading E&T news weekly #71 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Is tinkering with technology the new DIY? Can it represent a form of protest, or be subtly subversive, political or even trying to make a better world in a very practical, direct way? That’s the question we pose in the new issue of E&T, in our ‘rise of the maker culture‘ edition – available online now. DIY repairers suspect companies of, at best, paying no attention to repairability in product design or, at worst, deliberately making repairs difficult while building in obsolescence. Are those who dare to tinker the new revolutionaries of consumer electronics, bringing power back to the people?   Continue reading New issue of E&T now available online – the #DIY edition – empower yourself and reboot your technology

Friday November 13 2015  Vitali Vitaliev, features editor Russian TV ‘accidentally’ leaks secret nuclear weapons plans “Accidentally? Only kittens get born accidentally!” Major Popov, my secondary school’s military instructor shouted when I – “accidentally”, as I hastened to explain – aimed the barrel of my loaded Kalashnikov at him. The incident happened during shooting practice in military summer camp – part of the annual ‘academic’ routine for all senior male school kids in the Soviet Union. The Major’s vodka-bloated face was ready to burst with rage – and on that particular occasion I couldn’t blame him for over-reacting. He was … Continue reading E&T news weekly #70 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Friday November 6 2015  Lorna Sharpe, sub-editor Airlander blimp takes to the air for the first time The idea of an airship might conjure up visions of the 1930s, but for the last few years work has been going on to build one at the historic Cardington hangar in Bedfordshire. The team members at Hybrid Air Vehicles are hoping that it will be the first of a new generation of quiet, green long-endurance transporters serving remote areas where conventional aircraft couldn’t land. I saw the Airlander when its hull was first inflated (with air, not helium, back then), so I … Continue reading E&T news weekly #69 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week