What's News - previous edition

Fuel from forests: the largest biomass electricity plant in the world is being built to provide green power for a vast area of Wales in the UK. After construction, the Port Talbot facility will use wood chips to produce 70 per cent of Wales' 2010 renewable electricity target. This should cut CO2 emissions by 3.5m tonnes a year.
Picture by: Prenergy Power

World's Biggest Biomass Power Plant For The UK
By Richard Maino, London Press Service, 2008-2-24
THE largest, clean electricity plant on Earth is being constructed to provide green power for a huge area, helping the successful expansion of the United Kingdom's renewable energy policy to reduce carbon emissions.
The plan for a 350-megawatt power plant - fuelled by renewable wood chips - was announced by Energy Secretary John Hutton who said: "This will be the biggest biomass plant in the world, generating enough clean electricity to power half of the homes in Wales.
"It joins eight major renewables projects already given the green light in the past 12 months and is another important step towards the low-carbon economy envisaged by the Prime Minister," added Mr Hutton who is Secretary of State of the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR).
The 400 million pounds facility will be built on disused harbour land in Port Talbot, South Wales, and will be able to produce baseload electricity - 24/7, all-year-round power - over its expected 25 years of life.
When completed, the facility will produce about 70 per cent of Wales' 2010 renewable electricity target. Prenergy says it believes the power plant will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5m tonnes a year.
Prenergy Power - Web: www.PrenergyPower.com
Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) - Web: www.berr.gov.uk/

Safety hat: this Ribcap beanie hat is fitted with d3o, a slim and light protection technology that instantly hardens on impact, shielding against moderate limb, joint and head injury. Seconds later, the UK-invented d3o material returns to its former flexible state. It is changing clothing protection across the globe.
Picture by: Ribcap sports clothing

Pow! Amazing Pain-Protecting Pad Is A Smash Hit
By Richard Maino, London Press Service, 2008-3-1
WEARING clothes fitted with thin sheets of a new, light rubbery material can turn you - almost - into a Superhero, preventing serious injury during accidents or assaults. The invention is called d3o and when the wearer moves, the hundreds of flexible cells of d3o in padding in the clothing stay supple. But when d3o lining is hit by a heavy object or during a hard fall, it tenses up and the force of the blow is absorbed by the material, with the wearer feeling hardly any contact. Seconds later, the unique material made of "intelligent molecules" returns to its original pliable state. It could save lives as well as change entire industries globally. Engineer Richard Palmer decided to create d3o in his UK workshop after "suffering one snowboarding accident too many". Recently, Palmer received the O2 X Entrepreneur of the Year award in a ceremony in London. After much rejection, he finally got seed finance from the British Business Angels Association, the national trade association for the UK's Business Angel Networks and the early-stage investment market. It is backed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform.
d3o lab - Web: www.d3o.com
British Business Angels Association - Web: www.bbaa.org.uk

Shining future: this microscopic diatom has a shell that displays vivid colours at certain angles. If mass-produced, the shells could be mixed into paints, cosmetics and clothing to create stunning colour-changing effects.
Picture by: Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council

Nature Lights Way To New Paints & Cosmetics
By Ray Cooling, London Press Service, 2008-2-16
A PLANT-LIKE micro-organism mostly found in oceans could make the manufacture of products such as iridescent cosmetics, paints and fabrics, and credit-card holograms much cheaper and greener. The tiny single-celled diatom has a hard silica shell that is iridescent - in other words, the shell displays vivid colours that change depending on the angle at which it is observed. Scientists in the United Kingdom have now found an extremely effective way of growing diatoms in controlled laboratory conditions, with potential for scale-up to industrial level. This would enable diatom shells to be mass-produced, harvested and mixed into paints, cosmetics and clothing to create stunning colour-changing effects, or embedded into polymers to produce difficult-to-forge holograms.
Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - Web: www.epsrc.ac.uk

Close-ups of stars: astronomer Dr Craig Mackay (pictured) and colleagues at Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy can take the most detailed images of planets ever produced, using a ground camera. The technique could greatly improve the results obtained with surveillance cameras.
Picture by: Craig Mackay

"Lucky Imaging" Hits Space-Shot Jackpot
By David Welsh, London Press Service, 2008-2-10
AMAZING pictures of the stars - sharper than anything produced by the Hubble space telescope - have been taken by a team of astronomers led by Cambridge University and at a tiny fraction (50 thousandths) of the cost. The researchers from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy and the California Institute of Technology used a technique called "lucky imaging" to take the most detailed pictures of stars and nebulae ever produced, by using a camera based on the ground. The system could also offer important potential benefits in greatly improving the results obtained with security surveillance cameras.
Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge - Web: www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/Lucky_Web_Site

Ice works: in these huge, -30C walk-in freezers, Dr Jemma Wadham (pictured) and other scientists simulate conditions in glaciers and other icy environments to determine climate-change impacts or possible life on cold planets. This is the Low Temperature Experimental Facility (Lowtex) at Bristol University, UK, one of the world's newest labs examining such events.
Picture by: Brian Bell

Ice Lab Searches For Life On Mars Or In The Arctic
By Brian Bell, London Press Service, 2008-1-26
THE search for life on other planets and research into climate change is the focus for many top scientists and glaciologists. And the International Polar Year 2007-08, for example, has brought together 50,000 researchers from some 60 countries in an effort to learn more about our polar regions. Alarming discoveries about reduced sea ice have recently been reported, with scientists stating that large areas of Arctic sea ice are now only one metre deep. The ice thickness has halved since 2001. Meanwhile, desertification is a worldwide problem that poses a severe challenge to more than 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries. One of the world's newest facilities examining such events is an "ice lab" project at the University of Bristol, England. Called the Low Temperature Experimental Facility (Lowtex), it is the only laboratory of its kind in the UK.
University of Bristol - Web: www.bristol.ac.uk

Boosting quality: as a result of a 2.3 billion pounds investment in a major European automotive base at Sunderland, England, Nissan has become the UK's largest, single car producer and vehicle exporter. Six out of every 10 Nissans sold in Europe are built in Sunderland where output averages 90 cars an hour. Picture shows a Primera saloon receiving its power plant.
Picture by: Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK)

Cars That Are Driven With Confidence
By John Webb, London Press Service, 2008-2-2
THE cars that are proving to be the most reliable are built in the United Kingdom, according to a new international survey just carried out. Six of the top 10 most dependable models were made in the UK, including the winner that had a 97 per cent reliability record with only three faults for every 100 cars. The survey analysed data from 26 manufacturers located across the globe, included 133 models and involved more than 35,000 vehicles ranging from new to 13 years old, with an average age of five years. The success is a tribute to the UK workforces of Japan's automotive giants such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan that have invested many billions of pounds in establishing European production bases. The quality of the UK expertise is such that its products are even exported to Japan. UK car production, generally, has soared and could exceed the forecast output of 1.5 million vehicles.
Society of Motor Manufacturers & Trader - Web: www.smmt.co.uk
Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) - Web: www.nissan.co.uk

Building the future: Ramsden Business Park is the first piece of a huge jigsaw of commercial, leisure and residential developments that will fit together to form the Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness masterplan in north-west England. The main scheme includes a 650-home marina village, hotel, water sports and other leisure facilities and cruise-ship terminal.
Picture by: Cumbria Vision

Landmark Business Park Starts £200m Masterplan
By Richard Maino, London Press Service, 2008-2-10
A FAR-SIGHTED scheme investing 200 million pounds to restore life to redundant dockland and create thousands of jobs is making good progress after the start of work on a landmark business park, just part of a massive "masterplan" for a much larger waterfront initiative. The Ramsden Business Park is the first piece of a vast imaginative jigsaw of business, leisure and residential developments that will fit together to form the Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness masterplan in north-west England. Although only recently started, the Ramsden project has helped to boost the local economy by millions of pounds and created dozens of jobs. The scheme includes the Waterfront Business Park, a 650-home marina village, hotel, leisure facilities, a 400-berth marina, water sports centre and a cruise-ship terminal. Assessing progress recently, Ramsden's project manager said that the Ramsden business park is already having "a positive impact" on the area's economy and people.
Northwest Regional Development Agency - Web: www.nwda.co.uk/
Cumbria Vision Limited - Web: www.cumbriavision.co.uk

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