Titan’s magic island is not an island. So what is it? June 23, 2014 While flying by Titan, Saturn's largest moon, Nasa's Cassani spacecraft spotted a strange dark splodge on its surface, which has since been described as its “mystery island”. But that was last July, and three fly-bys since then have failed to spot this island again, leaving scientists baffled as to what the strange sighting could have [...]
SMEs lose £7.5bn a year by not accepting credit or debit cards June 18, 2014 The majority of the UK's small and medium enterprises do not allow customers to pay with credit or debit card, which is resulting in significant revenue losses, according to a report by Barclaycard. While just 42% of SMEs accept card, almost three quarters of all retail transactions in the UK are now carried out using [...]
How laboratories on 2mm chips will revolutionise healthcare June 18, 2014 “Think of test tubes being carried around, Bunsen Burners being lit and chemical experiments being performed, but on a miniature chip without the need for any human input.” This is how Professor Philip Brisk invites us to imagine Lab-On-a-Chip, a miniaturised, automated laboratory that he and his team have been working on at the University [...]
Middle East sets sights on UK real estate June 17, 2014 It is estimated that investors from the Middle East will spend $180bn on commercial real estate abroad in the coming decade, and that nearly half of that will be directed at the UK. The research, conducted by CBRE, predicts that $85 will flow into the UK and a further $60bn to continental Europe: in total [...]
Is there life on other planets? Hunt for extraterrestrial life gets a methane boost June 17, 2014 It is the simplest organic molecule on Earth, yet it fuels our boilers, drives our turbines and even sends rockets into space. What would we do without methane? And now we can add alien-hunting to the list of this chemical’s capabilities. A group of researchers at UCL has developed a technique for finding life outside [...]
Cash remains king in midst of Middle East’s e-commerce boom June 11, 2014 The Middle East has the fastest growing e-commerce sector in the world, providing opportunities for foreign investors, according to a report by Payfort. In 2004, 20m people in the Arab world were connected to the internet. Over the past ten years this has increased over seven-fold to 140m. As people go online, they have [...]
Airbus loses $16bn Emirates order, Rolls Royce share price drops June 11, 2014 Dubai-based Emirates Airlines has cancelled a $16bn order for 70 A350 passenger jets from Airbus, amounting to nine per cent of the plane maker's A350 order book. The order, which was placed seven years ago, was due for completion in 2019. Airbus said that Emirates had recently "reiterated its confidence in Airbus products, particularly by [...]
UK now No1 destination for European investment June 10, 2014 Inward investment to the UK rose by 15 per cent last year, making it Europe's favourite among global investors, according to a survey by Ernst & Young. While the overall European market grew by four per cent, the UK secured a fifth of all the new projects: 799 in total. This has extended its lead [...]
Autism lags in research investment, new report claims June 10, 2014 A report by the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics has shown that autism costs the government £32bn each year, but research investment amounts to £4m, or £124 for every £1m. When compared to other costly diseases, the amount spent on research is a very small percentage of the overall spend. Cancer and heart disease receive £590m and [...]
How fast is the UK’s population ageing? Not as fast as China’s June 10, 2014 We've known for years that a combination of increased life expectancies and declining birth rates is causing the global population to age, but a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) reveals that the trend may be levelling out in the UK. According to data form the US Census Bureau, ageing is taking place [...]
