Search Results for: articles

Drax to pilot more pioneering new carbon capture technology

Stuart Mitchell

Renewable energy giant Drax is collaborating with the University of Nottingham and Promethean Particles on an innovative new carbon capture technology that could shape the future of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Trial is part of Drax’s bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) innovation programme and could see the technology deployed in future BECCS plants. The new process uses a type of solid sorbent called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which Promethean Particles are a global pioneer in the development and deployment of, to capture the CO2 released when sustainable biomass…

The Big Issue fast-tracks financial inclusion as 1,000 sellers now accept cashless payments

Stuart Mitchell

The Big Issue Group (TBIG) has hit a breakthrough of equipping 1,000 of its vendors with contactless technology via the Zettle by PayPal card reader, up by 68% since this time last year1. In addition, it is quickly fast-tracking to its goal of enabling all 1,500 vendors to become cashless by the end of the year with the adoption of Tap to Pay from Zettle by PayPal. With every pound of profit being invaluable for The Big Issue vendors, the new solution from Zettle by PayPal, launching today, enables sellers…

Virtual assistants talk back – Beauty brand LUX hacks virtual assistants to outwit casual sexism

Stuart Mitchell

LUX is standing up for virtual voice assistants to highlight the contagious nature of sexist attitudes in a new initiative launched today called ‘Shut up Sexism’ – created in collaboration with creative agency Wunderman Thompson Singapore. Almost 3 billion people are currently using voice automated software. Research by Brookings[1], a leading non-profit organisation, states that 92.4% of smartphone assistants have traditionally featured female-sounding voices. Furthermore, according to Gartner,[2] people will have more conversations with voice assistants than with their spouses. This form of AI is increasingly a part of our…

Misinformation slows the vaccination campaign according to a study by the Politecnico di Milano published in Nature Scientific Reports

Stuart Mitchell

Online misinformation has negatively impacted the US COVID-19 vaccination campaign. This emerges from a study by Francesco Pierri, researcher at the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with Indiana University as part of the H2020 Periscope project, published in Nature Scientific Reports. The objective of this study is to demonstrate whether or not there are statistically significant associations between the quality of information consumed online and the “anti-vax” sentiment of the US population, with consequent repercussions on the vaccination campaign. The study confirmed a statistically significant association between the amount of…

Sustainable fashion search engine, Ethical Clothing, launches in the US & Canada with thousands of searchable, ethically produced clothes

Stuart Mitchell

An uptick in the importance of brand values and consumer consciousness has resulted in not only large high street brands taking sustainable fashion seriously, but also a significant increase in new smaller brands that have sustainability baked into their DNA. Studies in the US show that more than two thirds of Americans are willing to pay more for sustainable products, but most (74%) don’t know how to identify them. The launch of Ethical Clothing’s sustainable fashion search engine in North America aims to resolve this problem. The sustainable clothing search…