Asma Capital has paid $147 million for a “significant minority stake” in Utico, the United Arab Emirates’ only private utility, reports Reuters.

Agilent Technologies presents Thought Leader Award to Dr. Shane Snyder, influential water-quality researcher

Before President Obama hands over to Donald Trump on January 20th, the chief science adviser to the president, John Holdren, will produce a report on Chinese investment in the US semiconductor industry, reports the Wall Street Journal. The report is thought to be a guideline for the incoming president about protecting the US chip industry …

Read full article: Obama preparing semiconductor industry protection report for Donald Trump

Cree has upped the power of its 5x5mm leds as it introduces the XHP50.2 range with up to 7% more lumens and 10% higher efficacy (see table below) compared with first generation XHP50. 2,500 lm is available from the 6mm (equiv dia) light emitting surface. “XHP50.2 LED has LM-80 data available immediately, reducing the time …

Read full article: Cree hits 2,500 lm from 5×5 leds

The technology for autonomous cars needs to progress before they become a practical reality, so let’s start with the countless sensors along with other technologies as V2X communications that autonomous vehicles will rely on to navigate safely, writes Davide Santo. Plenty of countries have now provided testing grounds for autonomous cars, from entire custom-built towns …

Read full article: CES: Autonomous cars and the sensors to make them safe

5G mobile technology groups – Small Cell Forum (SCF) and 5G Americas – have worked together on tech papers to support the deployment of small cells. The reports, Small Cell Siting: Regulatory and Deployment Considerations and Multi-Operator and Neutral Host Small Cells: Drivers, Architectures, Planning and Regulation, are hoped to simplify the planning and regulatory issues associated with the dense Heterogeneous …

Read full article: CES: Small cell deployment on the agenda

The Seasteading Institute backed by the US President-Elect’s new friend, Peter Thiel, the eccentric billionaire co-founder of PayPal and early-stage Facebook investor, is said to be extending the Seasteading project to Tahiti. Thiel, the model for the wacko billionaire Richard Gregory in the US TV series Silicon Valley, was one of the first backers of …

Read full article: Billionaires’ Utopia

The Queen’s New Year Honours list for 2017 has been announced, and bio-technology is a dominant theme among technology-related achievements (genetic profiling, bioinformatics, DNA sequencing). Leading the way is Sir Alec John Jeffreys, Emeritus Professor at Leicester University, who has been made Companion Of Honour (CH). A founding father of genetic profiling, he developed the …

Read full article: Bioinformatics figures among Queen’s New Year Honours list

Two-bit Gray-coded rotary switches (aka quarature encoders) are quite rightly widely available for setting values and controlling things. And I have seen small pcb-mount hexadecimal switches for pre-setting values. But are there proper chunky hexadecimal rotary switches for control purposes – for frequent changes rather than once-in-a-blue-moon adjustments? It transpires that they do exist, and …

Read full article: Hexadecimal control switches exist, and they are made in the UK

Intel has bought a 15% stake and the right to a supervisory board seat in HERE the mapping company which makes 3D digital maps of roads to centimetre-scale precision. Many technologists believe that this precision will be required to enable self-driving cars. Intel has agreements with BMW, Mobileye and Delphi to develop driverless technology and …

Read full article: Intel buys 15% stake in HERE