Thursday 24 March 2016  Jack Loughran, news reporter Airlander 10, world’s largest aircraft, ready to take to the skies The big, bum-shaped Airlander 10 has finally been finished and promises to be far more eco-friendly than other types of aircraft. The blimp is the world’s largest airborne vehicle and harks back to the simple pleasures of the pre-Hindenburg days when everyone was floating around in huge hydrogen-filled balloons as if they weren’t a major explosive hazard. Hybrid Air Vehicles, who make the aircraft, say that the Airlander’s helium composition will prevent major incidents like the Hindenburg crash from reoccurring, so … Continue reading E&T news weekly #87 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Friday 18 March 2016  Vitali Vitaliev, features editor Urine fuel cell gets more power with new design Using human waste as an energy source is not entirely new, and I get a reminder of that simple fact every time I visit the IET’s newly refurbished London offices in Savoy Place, off The Strand. While walking down Carting Lane towards the Thames, one cannot help noticing a somewhat weird-looking Victorian lantern which seems to be always on; be it night, evening or broad daylight. This is London’s last remaining sewage lamp, a late 19th century creation of Birmingham inventor Joseph Webb, … Continue reading E&T news weekly #86 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Friday 11 March 2016  Jack Loughran, news reporter Tomatoes, peas and rye successfully grown in Mars soil Simulated Mars soil has been shown to successfully cultivate ten different crops; could this be an important stepping stone to human colonisation of the Red Planet? Maybe. The soil itself is packed full of nasty elements like mercury and arsenic that could be absorbed by the plants and their fruits and would make a human very sick indeed. But the whole experiment really leads to the wider question of whether we want to colonise Mars at all. During the night, the planet gets … Continue reading E&T news weekly #85 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week

Friday 4 March 2016  Lorna Sharpe, sub-editor Google admits responsibility for self-driving car crash Google has acknowledged some responsibility for a low-speed accident involving a bus and one of its self-driving cars. That’s significant, because all the Google Car’s previous prangs have been blamed on mistakes by the human drivers of the other vehicles involved. In this case it seems the car’s software misjudged what the bus driver would do, which just goes to show that computers are still some way off understanding real people. Stretchable electronics could pave the way for smart clothing Researchers in Switzerland have demonstrated a … Continue reading E&T news weekly #84 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the week