Shiny Shiny news round up: Kia introduces IONITY bolt-on for high-speed charging
Kia UK Limited has introduced a new IONITY bolt-on to its Kia Charge service, which it claims opens the door to low-cost, high-power charging for Kia EV owners. Kia Charge (www.kiacharge.com) provides comprehensive access to the UK public charging network, with around 17,000 connectors accessible from a single account. The new bolt-on enables Kia EV owners to access IONITY’s high-speed 350kW charging points across the UK and Europe. Available to Kia Charge users, the bolt-on costs £11.25 per month. Thanks to Kia’s partnership with IONITY, this allows Kia Charge users to enjoy heavily discounted rapid charging on the IONITY network. The bolt-on reduces the standard charging rate from £0.70 per kWh by 64 per cent, to £0.25 per kWh. It also eliminates the £0.49 session fee. Tech Digest
Life-threatening coronary heart disease could be diagnosed and treated five times faster with the help of new 3D technology. The technology turns a CT scan of the heart into a 3D image, which allows doctors to diagnose the problem in just 20 minutes, NHS England said. Previously, diagnoses would require a more invasive and time-consuming angiogram in hospital. Some 100,000 people will be able to use the new technology – called HeartFlow – over the next three years and it could mean they are seen, diagnosed and treated around five times faster. Treatment includes surgery, medication, or having a stent fitted, while those with less serious conditions can get lifestyle advice or medication to lower cholesterol. Sky News
Any scheme which uses digital certificates to prove a person’s coronavirus status would only be a success if the public is able to “trust” the way their data is used, the Information Commissioner will say on Wednesday. The Government has said it is “considering” using the official NHS app as a digital route to allow holidaymakers to show they have been vaccinated and unlock overseas travel. Speaking at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Data Protection Practitioners’ annual conference, Elizabeth Denham is expected to say such a system can only work if the public is able to trust that their personal data was being used responsibly and their privacy protected. “The success of any Covid-status scheme will rely on people trusting them, and that means people having confidence in how the scheme would use their personal information,” the Information Commissioner will say. Yahoo!
Scientists have unearthed a billion-year-old fossil in the Scottish Highlands which suggests multicellular lifeforms evolved nearly 400 million years before the biological trait emerged in the first animals. According to the study, published in Current Biology, the microfossil could be the “missing link” in the evolution of complex, multicellular animals from single-celled life forms. The researchers, including those from Boston College in the US, noted that the fossil was exquisitely preserved in mineral deposits at Loch Torridon in the Scottish Highlands, and contained two distinct cell types. They believe the fossilised organism, now named Bicellum brasieri, could be the earliest example of complex multicellularity ever recorded, representing a life form that lies somewhere between single cell and multicellular animals, or metazoa. Independent
The blustery weather over the bank holiday might not have been great for those hoping to enjoy the great outdoors. It was however a fantastic 24 hours for the nation’s wind farms. According to figures published by National Grid ESO onshore and offshore wind turbines generated more than 17.6GW of electricity at 3:30pm on Monday afternoon. This beats the previous record of 17.5GW which was set in February. It isn’t however the highest percentage of British electricity ever generated by wind. That figure was 60 per cent which was set on Wednesday 26 August 2020. Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive of Renewable UK, said the figures underlined that wind was now a core source of energy for the nation. “The fact that wind is generating nearly half the country’s electricity shows how central it has become in our modern energy system.” Transition Earth
