The Engineer articles from January 2006

The Engineer archives from January 2006

COMMENT: A celebration of innovation.
January 16, 2006... Happy new year, and welcome to January 1976. Let's take a quick look at what's making the news in The Engineer this week. The electronics industry is increasingly excited by the prospects for the video disc - 'a gramophone-type visual...

Honda to take hydrogen car into production.
January 16, 2006... The Japanese car manufacturer advances its plans for alternative power systems US Honda will commence production of its FCX hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in three to four years, the company announced at the North American...

You've gotta hand it to Philips.
January 16, 2006... Among the myriad products on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, was Philips' Entertaible. Currently a working prototype, this is a tabletop gaming platform that combines multi- player board and computer games. It...

Catching falling stardust.
January 16, 2006... NASA's capsule containing dust from Comet Wild 2 was scheduled to return to Earth yesterday, landing in the Utah Desert near Salt Lake City. The capsule's landing would mark the return of NASA's Stardust mission which has been on a three...

IN BRIEF: Lack of skills blights British industry, say bosses.
January 16, 2006... Up to 92 per cent of employers in construction and engineering see skills shortages as a greater threat to business performance than rising oil prices, according to a new poll. The research, commissioned by the Department for Education and...

IN BRIEF: Robot with basic instinct.
January 16, 2006... The 2005 Fourth British Computer Society's annual prize for Progress towards Machine Intelligence has been won by IFOMIND. The machine intelligence system was designed and programmed by a team led by Prof David Bell from Queens...

IN BRIEF: Alarming news for thieves.
January 16, 2006... Siemens has developed Senstec Bimorph, a sensor that registers break-in attempts at safes, ATMs and public phones and then sounds an alarm. It recognises forced entries by registering material oscillations in the devices, analysing and...

Tsunami detectives.
January 16, 2006... First element of deep-sea early-warning tsunami detection system up and running A year on from the disaster of Boxing Day 2004 and the first elements of an advanced tsunami detection system are in place in south-east Asia. With...

Green marks for black stuff.
January 16, 2006... UK system aims to fuel 'no-burn' coal-powered stations using chemically released energy content A method of generating energy from coal without actually burning it could form the basis of power stations whose carbon emissions can be...

Sniffing out emissions.
January 16, 2006... Power plant sensing technology is adapted to detect gases and odours on landfill sites A new system that uses a sensing technology more commonly found inside power plants is to monitor bad odours and methane gas escaping from landfill...

Channeling resources towards better oil exploration.
January 16, 2006... UK-developed monitoring techniques could save the oil and gas industry hundreds of millions of pounds a year in its continued search for untapped resources. Working with #1m worth of funding from a consortium of the world's leading oil...

Making light work.
January 16, 2006... Groundbreaking technique uses photonics for faster detection of genetic mutations A system that uses light to diagnose mutated DNA sequences could dramatically speed up the time it takes to diagnose potential problems in the treatment of...

Water jets for finer surgical cuts.
January 16, 2006... Tools powerful enough to sever cables in the North Sea are being redesigned to replace surgical saws in operating theatres, offering greater speed and accuracy than current instruments. Prof Joe McGeough of the School of Engineering and...

Display of speed.
January 16, 2006... UK team researches technique to produce fast-switching semiconductors for flat screens Surrey University researchers claim to have made the first low-cost amorphous semiconductors with negative resistance. This could meet the increasing...

Moths provide an eye opener on reflection.
January 16, 2006... Copying the properties of moths' eyes could improve the efficiency of solar cells, thanks to a collaboration between the University of Southampton and Philips in the Netherlands. Working to specifications from the university's Nanoscale...

Composed performance.
January 16, 2006... US develops lightweight high-strength alloy that could replace titanium aircraft components A high-strength aluminium alloy prepared by researchers in the US could significantly improve the performance of next-generation fighter...

FOCUS: Going to town.
January 16, 2006... Wi-Fi gets urban from March with four million people in city 'hotspots' able to connect wirelessly to the internet via laptops, PDAs and Wi-Fi enabled phones. Niall Firth reports The UK seems to be entering a golden age of mobile...

BUSINESS: ReEnergy raises #6.5m on AIM.
January 16, 2006... UK waste conversion specialist buys into advanced treatment technologies waste management, sustainable energy and water treatment group ReEnergy, which converts waste into fuel for power stations, has raised #6.5m after joining the...

BUSINESS: Cash injection is set to boost ZBD's production.
January 16, 2006... ZBD Displays, the Malvern-based company that pioneered the 'zero power' LCD screen, has raised half a million pounds to boost its global production capabilities and technological development. Prelude, the investment trust that specialises...

VIEWPOINT: Big screen romance.
January 16, 2006... This month's Consumer Electronics Show showcased the public's continuing love affair with the latest devices. But along with popularity go responsibilities and global realities, says Gary Shapiro The Consumer Electronics Show represents...

LETTER: So what else is new?(Letter to the Editor)
January 16, 2006... I find myself reluctantly agreeing with much of Andrew Lee's editorial (Comment, 28 November 2005) regarding the re-opened debate on nuclear power. However Tony Blair's revelation that nuclear energy is seen as a serious option for...

LETTER: Sky damage the limit.(Letter to the Editor)
January 16, 2006... With reference to your editorial 'Eastern promise a boon for UK aerospace' (Comment 12 December, 2005), I am sad there is no reference to the damage all this additional flying, which burns a lot of kerosene/hydrocarbon, will do to the upper...

COOLING THE TUBE: Turning down the heat.
January 16, 2006... London's Tube is the oldest in the world, and in terms of how hot it gets underground in summer it shows. Jon Excell reports on how London Underground is spearheading an initiative aimed at cooling the system As we shiver our way through...

INTERVIEW: Letting fly.
January 16, 2006... Commuting to work by aeroplane may not be a mere flight of fancy, according to Lynne Wenberg, Boeing's head of R&D into Personal Transport Systems. Niall Firth reports To rise above the smog and traffic and soar into work in a personal...

DESIGN ENGINEERING: Cold water treatment.
January 16, 2006... Maintaining traditional ceramic heatshields is a costly and time- consuming business, but water-cooled alloy could create a cheaper re- usable alternative. Stuart Nathan reports Water-cooling could be the key to the safe re-entry of the...

DESIGN ENGINEERING: Good impression.
January 16, 2006... Technique adapted from biotechnology research cuts testing of mechanical properties in materials from weeks to hours. Stuart Nathan reports Miniaturisation is a continuing trend in many areas of technology, but researchers at the...

DESIGN ENGINEERING: Structural change.
January 16, 2006... Groundbreaking technique will allow components to be custom-made, and could reduce the weight and improve fuel economy in aircraft and cars. Stuart Nathan explains Metal components with the strength of a solid block but a structure...

DESIGN ENGINEERING: In-spired thinking.
January 16, 2006... Spain's Sagrada Familia - which is still unfinished after 123 years - is at last being completed with the help of state-of-the-art software technology. Charles Clarke reports For most engineers Barcelona is synonymous with Antoni Gaudi,...

DESIGN ENGINEERING: Another fine mesh.
January 16, 2006... In environments such as shipping and utilities, where higher ratios and greater torque are required, a planetary gearhead system seems to provide the answer, says Mark Venables Selecting the correct gearhead for a specific purpose means...

SPECIAL REPORT: Fast talk.
January 16, 2006... The message from next month's shows at the NEC is that the drive towards quicker and easier communication between intelligent components is on in earnest. Colin Carter reports TWENTY YEARS AGO engineers checked individual fixtures by...

COMMENT: Channelling our skills is no bad thing.
January 30, 2006... One interesting feature of the remodelled Conservative Party is how Europe - the issue that has hopelessly divided the Tories for decades - has been almost entirely absent from the new leadership's public agenda. This is no doubt a canny...

THE BIG PICTURE: Sailing into new territory.
January 30, 2006... Royal Navy poised to launch first of new 'modular' destroyer fleet HMS Daring, the first of eight new Royal Navy Type 45 class anti-air warfare destroyers, will be launched this week (1 February) from the BAE Systems shipyard at...

THE BIG PICTURE: Siemens gets to the heart of the matter.
January 30, 2006... Scientists at Siemens Medical Solutions have developed the world's first Dual Source Computed Tomography system. The new CT-system, named Somatom Definition, uses two X-ray sources and two detectors at the same time, and takes images of full...

THE BIG PICTURE: Russian miners over the Moon.
January 30, 2006... Russia has announced plans to mine a rare fuel on the Moon by 2020, and to establish a permanent base and a heavy-cargo transport link. 'We are planning to build a permanent base on the Moon by 2015 and by 2020 we can begin the...

IN BRIEF: Getting to grips with female drivers' vital statistics.
January 30, 2006... The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) is determining the dynamic characteristics of an average woman. These will be used in developing the first crash test dummy that is based on an average woman (existing dummies are...

IN BRIEF: Live and learn with robots.
January 30, 2006... The University of Hertfordshire has taken the robot out of the lab to have it living in a house nearby as part of Cogniron, a European project that aims to develop cognitive robot companions. Computer scientists and psychologists want to...

IN BRIEF: Close to the heart of patients.
January 30, 2006... Prospects for patients facing open-heart surgery will improve with the development of bioabsorbable materials to repair the breastbone, which is cut to reach the heart. The EU's Sternum Suture project has demonstrated the repair in animals,...

NEWS: Sound move.
January 30, 2006... Aerospace giant to use shape memory alloys to reduce jet engine noise Rolls-Royce researchers aim to reduce jet engine noise, while maintaining fuel efficiency, by using shape-memory alloys. Prototype designs could be in the air as early...

NEWS: Ground breaking.
January 30, 2006... UK project works on biomimetic robot that locates earthquake survivors by burrowing through rubble A robot that will dig like a mole to locate survivors under rubble in urban disaster zones, such as in the aftermath of an earthquake or...

NEWS: DTI award to help NPL develop emission detection expertise.
January 30, 2006... The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has secured DTI funding which will enable it to develop its expertise in emission detection and monitoring, and expand into evolving markets where increased legislation has led to the need for extra...

NEWS: Muscling in on the real thing.
January 30, 2006... UK researchers unveils synthetic technology that mimics natural muscle flexing Polymer chemists from Sheffield University claim they have created a system which mimics the flexing of natural muscle. Based around a self-assembled...

NEWS: Light scanning could speed up cancer diagnosis.
January 30, 2006... Award winning technology similar to ultrasound scanning, but using light rather than sound waves, could remove the need for biopsies in cervical cancer diagnosis, as well as improving the effectiveness of lung cancer surgery. The...

NEWS: Saving your breath.
January 30, 2006... Explosives detection technology could be adapted to identify lung diseases Sensing devices originally developed to find explosives and chemical weapons could hold the key to detecting lung disease. In a project at Manchester...

NEWS: Reducing pier pressure.
January 30, 2006... A US engineer claims to have developed a design for an earthquake-proof bridge that can also withstand the impact of a terrorist bomb strike. Prof Michel Bruneau, an earthquake engineering expert at New York State's University, Buffalo,...

NEWS: Square eyes.
January 30, 2006... A formation of thousands of antennae over 3,000km2 will form the largest-ever telescope UK universities are leading the design study for what will become the world's biggest telescope. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which received...

NEWS: Sights unseen.
January 30, 2006... The world's most powerful microscope is to be built at the Technical University of Denmark. The Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope will be five times more powerful than any existing microscope, and will open up new avenues of...

NEWS: Listening for pollution.
January 30, 2006... Scandinavian consortium claims world's first technology able to 'hear' carbon dioxide The world's first micro-sensor to measure air quality by 'listening' to the acoustic frequency of carbon dioxide has been developed by a Scandinavian...

NEWS: US and UK combine for easy-clean diesel filter.
January 30, 2006... US researchers working with Jaguar have developed a diesel filter that is easier to clean and far more energy efficient than existing filters, it is claimed. The technology is a result of a collaboration between Oak Ridge National...

FOCUS: Wider perspective.
January 30, 2006... From smart contact lenses that help diabetics monitor their glucose levels to labels that indicate if food is bad to pathogen detectors, the hologram has come of age. Christopher Sell reports Last week Visa announced a new card with...

BUSINESS: Qinetiq leads Operation Osprey.
January 30, 2006... Consortium from industry and academia wins #12m contract to develop next-generation of sub-sea sensor systems A Qinetiq-led consortium has won a three-year contract worth at least #12m to develop underwater sensing technology for the MoD....

BUSINESS: Triple purchase is measure of Metris ambition.
January 30, 2006... Metris, the 3D-inspection specialist, has acquired three companies in a move that the group claimed would help it stay at the leading edge of automotive and aerospace metrology. The three businesses - LK, 3D Scanners and Arc Second - will...

VIEWPOINT: Local authority.
January 30, 2006... Microgeneration technologies, or generation of power locally, could provide a significant contribution to the UK's energy supply, says Philip Sellwood The UK's energy mix has never been more in the spotlight. The decline in oil reserves,...

LETTER: Reviving memories.(Letter to the Editor)
January 30, 2006... Your leader about what was making the pages of the Engineer in January 1976 (Comment, 16 January) brought back a few memories for me, and it was interesting to note that even then India was being talked about as the new Japan. Perhaps...

LETTER: Bygone era.(Letter to the Editor)
January 30, 2006... It will be very interesting to read material from old editions of The Engineer throughout this year, your 150th anniversary (Comment, 16 January). I have often thought that back copies of magazines such as yours must contain a wealth of...

LETTER: Watch this space.(Letter to the Editor)
January 30, 2006... I read your leader 'A celebration of innovation' (Comment, 16 January) with some interest, but I was amused that you referred to Spitfire and Hurricane designers as 'aerospace engineers'. At that time, I think the Nazis had the only...

ROBOTIC EXOSKELETONS: Man machine.
January 30, 2006... After decades of research, exoskeletons, or wearable robotic limbs, are leaving the lab to be used by medics, the military and industry, reports Max Glaskin NICk PArk's image of Wallace being catapulted each morning into robotic trousers...

INTERVIEW: Stars in his eyes.(Company Profile)
January 30, 2006... SSTL may be small, but it is a leading player in the world of space science. As the company celebrates the launch of the first Galileo satellite, Jon Excell talks to its founder and chief executive, Prof Sir Martin Sweeting Cape Canaveral,...

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING: A matter of form.
January 30, 2006... Laser forming, based on a technique once used in shipyards, could be used to ensure complex aircraft assemblies fit together like an Airfix kit. Stuart Nathan explains An old technique from the shipyards could be making a hi-tech...

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING - MANUFACTURING: Finding the cure.
January 30, 2006... German engineers use computer simulation in an attempt to discover how to successfully cure UV-hardened paints. Stuart Nathan reports With ultraviolet-hardened paints becoming increasingly common in the car industry, curing the paint...

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING - PRODUCTION SOFTWARE: The hub of the matter.
January 30, 2006... To help integrate design and manufacturing data structures, a range of 'middleware' - sitting between the two extremes - is available. Charles Clarke reports production software can mean different things depending on where you work in...

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING - MEDICAL: Healthy innovation.
January 30, 2006... With the UK medical device market set to carry on growing, Sarah Houlton reports on how innovation can be fostered within the smaller companies contributing to the sector The UK medical device market - worth about #4bn - is set to continue...