Engineering Eye - January 2017

News, rumours and gossip from the world of engineering.

Bookies may have missed a trick on bets for a white Christmas. According to the power group Drax, Christmas Day 2016 was the greenest in UK records, with more than 40% of the electricity generated coming from renewable sources. This compares with 25% on Christmas Day in 2015 and 12% in 2012. This is great news for the renewable energy sector, but perhaps less so for the music industry… “I’m dreaming of a green Christmas” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham had a festive surprise when they realised that a formation of a platinum-encrusted nanoparticle looked strikingly similar to a snowman. At only five nanometres in size, the snowman was imaged with an electron microscope. It was formed unexpectedly from a self-assembled platinum-titanium nanoparticle which was oxidised in air, and is said to feature “eyes, nose and a mouth” formed of precious-metal platinum clusters embedded in a titanium dioxide “face”. Despite its appearance, the nano-snowman performs a serious function of catalysing the splitting of water to make green hydrogen for fuel cells.

Aerospace engineer and The Great British Bake Off finalist Andrew Smyth has announced a new career goal. Smyth hopes to popularise engineering and technology through TV, much in the way that Brian Cox has done for physics. While it appears that no TV deals are in place yet, we wish him the best of luck in his goal of bringing engineering to the masses.

If you have any rumours or gossip, email pe@caspianmedia.com