Month: June 2016

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E&T news weekly #99 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the past week

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Friday 17 June 2016  Rebecca Northfield, assistant features editor Pepper the humanoid robot joins hospital staff in Belgium You’re desperate for the loo, but everything is in Japanese. You’ve run around the whole place like a madman, squeezing your bladder tight so you don’t pee yourself. You can’t find any signs and you think that this is the worst place in the world and needs to be burned to the ground because you’re dying from pee fever. And you scorn yourself because you were too lazy to learn Japanese. You miraculously find the reception, and you’ve pressed the bell. You … Continue reading E&T news weekly #99 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the past week

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New issue of E&T magazine now online – the #Frankenstein issue

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Mary Shelley started writing her classic novel ‘Frankenstein’ 200 years ago. The novel still speaks to us today because, like all great stories, it contains some universal truths. People have long feared science – partly because they fear its consequences. The public today is more concerned about the impact of technological development than it has ever been. Scientists, engineers and technologists, on the other hand, are more willing to talk about the risks of their work, discussing the unintended side effects or the dangers of misapplication so they can be addressed. E&T magazine looks at the challenges of cutting-edge science … Continue reading New issue of E&T magazine now online – the #Frankenstein issue

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Book review: Super Extra Grande – Yoss, translated by David Frye

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By Jade Fell  Get ready to enter the world of the fantastic, phenomenal and downright freaky. If you like huge space monsters, faster-than-light travel, erotic six-breasted aliens with strange reproductive habits, atomic blasts, gastrointestinal diseases and interplanetary warfare, then this is the book for you. In the not-too-distant future, Latin Americans have pioneered faster-than-light space travel, as have six other ‘intelligent’ races – unfortunately – and the galaxy is awash is interesting interplanetary relations. Enter our protagonist, Dr Jan Amos Sangan Dongo, a colossal man with a face like an ogre, who prides himself in being the veterinarian of the … Continue reading Book review: Super Extra Grande – Yoss, translated by David Frye

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Book Review: Frankenstein – Mary Shelley, with an introduction by Francine Prose

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By Jade Fell In June 1816 on a rainy evening by Lake Geneva a young girl created a story about an enthusiastic young science student who developed a technique to bring life to non-living matter, with devastating consequences. The resulting novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, went on to become one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. This year, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s fateful trip to Geneva, Restless Books has released a brand new edition of the acclaimed novel, with a new introduction by Francine Prose and stunning original artwork by acclaimed Mexican artist … Continue reading Book Review: Frankenstein – Mary Shelley, with an introduction by Francine Prose

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E&T news weekly #98 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the past week

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Friday 10 June 2016  Jonathan Wilson, online managing editor Virgin Trains launches onboard entertainment streaming service On a recent plane flight back to the UK from the USA, I appreciated how other passengers were using their own iPads and such like to stream the in-flight movies to their personal device’s superior quality screen, as opposed to desperately trying to identify the millimetre-specific sweet spot for the airplane’s own small, smeary, blurry back-of-seat screen, an experience not unlike watching a film with a pair of tights over your face while someone randomly shakes the screen in front of you. Now rail … Continue reading E&T news weekly #98 – we choose our favourite engineering and technology news stories from the past week

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US Navy’s high-tech, Scrabble-tile-name, $4.4bn destroyer ship, the USS Zumwalt – an annotated infographic

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The US Navy is to take ownership of the Zumwalt, its largest and most technologically sophisticated destroyer. The $4.4-billion ship features an angular shape that makes it 50 times more difficult to detect and new guns designed to deliver devastatingly accurate firepower hundreds of kilometres away. Cool. Or, grotesque and largely unnecessary use of public funds. You decide. Click on the graphic for an expanded view. Continue reading US Navy’s high-tech, Scrabble-tile-name, $4.4bn destroyer ship, the USS Zumwalt – an annotated infographic

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Win! Book bundle giveaway: A Very Short Introduction

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This competition has now ended. How can you turn down a book that offers to teach you the basics of a subject in just over 100 pages? We can’t, and that’s why we’re big fans of Oxford University Press’ (OUP) Very Short Introduction series of books over at E&T. This month we’re teaming up our pals over at OUP to give a few lucky readers the opportunity to sink their teeth into some new reading material from the huge range of engineering and technology-specific subjects available throughout the series. Enter our giveaway for your chance to win a fabulous bundle … Continue reading Win! Book bundle giveaway: A Very Short Introduction

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New F-Pace launched @Jaguar – performance SUV crossover – an annotated infographic

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Packed with state-of-the-art technology and advanced driving aids, Jaguar’s new F-Pace performance SUV is expected to become the British brand’s top selling model once it arrives in showrooms. Jaguar has cast aside tradition and decided to make a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), which is currently being rolled out around the world. Jaguar joins Porsche, Maserati and even Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini and Maybach, famous sporty and luxury upmarket brands forced to admit that to survive and make money they must grit their collective teeth and make what the public wants; utility vehicles that can go anywhere, albeit quickly and in … Continue reading New F-Pace launched @Jaguar – performance SUV crossover – an annotated infographic

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North Korea still rubbish at launching missiles – an annotated infographic

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Try as they might – and Lord above knows they will keep trying – the North Korean army does seem to mightily suck at launching missiles. The latest abject failure was the launch of an intermediate-range Musudan missile, the latest in a string of high-profile disappointments. North Korea attempted three test launches of the Musudan in April, all of which failed, US and South Korean officials have said. The rest of the pleasingly sane, non-homicidal, sensibly coiffured world can continue to breathe easy, hoping that the bumbling, ineffectual performance of the North Korean army continues for many years to come, … Continue reading North Korea still rubbish at launching missiles – an annotated infographic