The pandemic has thrown open fresh challenges and unknown opportunities. Jobs of the future will never be the same. The lockdown has unlocked new unchartered avenues for the e-commerce industry, which has become India’s fastest-growing digital business with players like Amazon India’s Flex Delivery programme expanding to 35 cities. This initiative has opened up part-time job … Read more
Sixty-eight projects in the UK will receive a multi-million pound boost from the government for green jobs and nature recovery. The funding is to create over 300 hectares of woodlands, restore hedgerows and plant trees in cities as the UK government aims to deliver on its pledge to “build back greener” from the coronavirus pandemic. … Read more
People who spend time video games have been shown to have improved wellbeing according to a new study from Oxford University. With many people forced to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, gaming firms have enjoyed a record year, with more people playing than ever before, coupled with the recent launch of new … Read more
Researchers at Osaka University have developed a label-free method for identifying respiratory viruses, based on dips in electrical current as they pass through silicon nanopores. The method could form the basis of a rapid new Covid-19 test. Efforts to restrict the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic have emphasised rapid, widespread … Read more
The data centre business has received strong tailwinds over the past six months – from an unlikely source – the Covid-19 pandemic. Even as the pandemic and associated restrictions threw life and business out of gear, stalling growth in most sectors, it became a massive catalyst for digital adoption. The Government of India (GoI) had … Read more
A cotton face mask that uses a special fabric that can kill 99.99 per cent of bacteria and viruses within 60 minutes of daylight exposure has been developed by Californian researchers. While face masks made of various cloth materials have been shown to filter nanoscale aerosol particles such as those released by a cough or … Read more
When revolutions take place, things happen quickly. The year of Covid-19 is likely to be an example of how sudden pressure can lead to massive changes, and not necessarily all for the worse once all the consequences are taken into account. The pandemic and associated lockdowns have provided a wake-up call for the world in … Read more
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has defended the UK from more than 700 cyber attacks in the last year alone, according to figures given in its annual review. The UK has been beset by cyber attacks since the outbreak of Covid-19 in March and the NCSC has been focusing its resources on the pandemic response. The … Read more
The engineering profession needs to do more to explain to the public how its work is related to science and the part played by ‘unknown unknowns’. Risk is in the news more than ever at the moment. Our collective behaviour depends on understanding it, but public debate reveals confusion that I believe needs to be … Read more
MIT researchers have developed a model which can distinguish people with asymptomatic Covid-19 from healthy people, using the sound of their coughs. These differences are impossible to detect with the human ear. Previously, researchers have trained algorithms to detect conditions such as pneumonia and asthma based on basic phone recordings of coughs. The MIT team, … Read more