Buzz feed – bringing renewables to the power grid

As the ways we obtain energy change power grids need to evolve to keep up with the new demands.

Renewable energy is on the rise in Europe as the economy develops away from the use of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, but an ageing electricity grid is struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of developments. Originally designed to obtain and distribute energy from a few large sources, Europe’s power grid … Read more

Sherlock Drones – automated investigators tackle toxic crime scenes

Using drones to gather information and samples from a hazardous scene can help incident commanders make critical decisions.

Crimes that involve chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) materials pose a deadly threat not just to the target of the attack but to innocent bystanders and police investigators. Often, these crimes may involve unusual circumstances or they are terrorist-related incidents, such as an assassination attempt or the sending of poisons through the mail. In the … Read more

Putting people at the heart of big data

Big data could not only benefit large companies, but also provide knowledge about a society’s health, for example. Image credit - Pxhere/876718, licensed under CC0

Big data has given scientists – and companies – a treasure trove of new information for analysing, understanding and predicting human behaviour, but it’s also thrown up a raft of questions about privacy and ownership. Our smartphone societies are inundated with new services, which sees us donating data in ways we seldom consider, with privacy … Read more

Robots and workers of the world, unite!

Robots in the workforce will give rise to new jobs for humans, including safety engineers, robot specialists and augmented reality experts, according to researchers.

Robots are already changing the way we work – particularly in factories – but worries that they will steal our jobs are only part of the picture, as new technologies are also opening up workplace opportunities for workers and are likely to create new jobs in the future. Last year, the BBC reported that 800 million global … Read more