Fine Cut Blog

Scientists have created what could be the world's smallest portrait of the Queen by engraving an image on a diamond, BBC News reports.

A gift entirely fit for a queen on such an occasion, the engraving has been produced to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee and it is hoped the gemstone might actually be presented to the monarch. It is the first time that such a portrait has been created, guardian.co.uk reports.

The precision engraving was made by Dr Michael Fay, Dr Christopher Parmenter and Professor Martyn Poliakoff from the University of Nottingham, forming part of their campaign to promote chemistry. Beams of charged gallium ions were used to engrave the portrait and the whole process was captured on video, which can be viewed on YouTube.

"We basically blasted bits of the diamond out by firing heaving bits of atoms at the carbon of the diamond," explained Dr Fay. "We can do this very accurately and produce a very small image."

The engraving measures just 46 by 32 microns and depicts the Queen - plus crown - in silhouette as on a stamp. To put that into perspective, it would apparently fit on a standard-sized stamp some 300,000 times.

Professor Poliakoff was very pleased with the finished result, which he said looked exactly like the Queen "from a scientific point of view."

The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN) is releasing a best-practice packaging guide for internet merchants.

INCPEN is doing so not only to ensure that customers receive their online goods in perfect condition, but also to encourage retailers to be as efficient as possible with their resources.

It argued that some materials are used in too great a quantity. They often arrive in over-sized, yet under-packed, containers, Packaging Europe reports.

Jane Bickerstaffe, director of INCPEN, said: "Companies have to rise to the challenge of identifying packaging that is appropriate for delivering goods via a number of different distribution systems to retail outlets as well as directly to consumers at home."

The scheme is being developed in partnership with local authority Trading Standards officers and comes at the same time as Climate Week 2012 begins. Although packaging's most important role is to keep goods in pristine condition between factory and user, packaging also contains important information; often emblazoned on printed labels.

However, the resources required to make the packaging still account for around a tenth of those used in the actual packaged good.

INCPEN says that packaging optimisation isn't just about being environmentally-friendly. It can also "stimulate genuine cost savings for businesses, enhance packaging performance and increase brand reputation," according to an introductory scheme statement at INCPEN.org.

Gardeners are being caught out by the inconsistent labelling practices of plant retailers, a horticultural expert has claimed.

Helen Yemm explained in her gardening column on The Telegraph that too many gardening centres include marketing names on packets, which can confuse less experienced buyers and lead to the wrong flower being bought, since the seller ends up "moving the goalposts".

In her view, the whole plant-naming business can get "highly complicated", so people should do plenty of "homework" on the topic as well as checking custom labels in-store.

Ms Yemm gave an example of how her friend purchased a blue plumbago rather than a conventional plumbago, saying: "As many know, to their cost, plant names can be confusing anyway: a friend of mine, who by his own admission is neither a gardener nor a Latin-lover, got his fingers singed when he went to a garden centre and asked for a blue plumbago to grow in a pot."

However it is not just the labels on plants that can cause problems in the garden; TheJournalTimes.com horticultural educator Patti Nagai urged gardeners to check and double-check the instructions on a pesticide before using it.

If a pesticide is not known to kill the bug that a gardener wants to get rid of, then it is certainly not worth applying to plants, since it may cause problems for the plants themselves and create a health risk, she explained.

Supermarket giant Tesco has opted out of a Carbon Trust labelling scheme just over four years after signing up for it.

Industry commentator Laura Elliot wrote on International Supermarket News that the system would have seen each product sold by the company given a carbon footprint, yet it was eventually worked out that it would involve 250 years research to complete the project.

Ms Elliot noted that the move may actually be quite smart, since the scheme feels a little out-dated for only listing the carbon footprint and not the makers' impact on land use, water or farming practices. This suggests that future custom labels may need to cover a more diverse range of topics.

Martin Chilcott, chief executive of online sustainability firm 2degrees, has been working with Asda and Tesco on their supply chains.

Commenting after the announcement, he said: "It's only four years, but the Carbon Trust process has become something of an anachronism. Tesco is not saying it doesn't want to stop carbon foot-printing, but you can't do it with 70,000 lines with the time it was taking."

According to The Grocer's environment and health expert Ian Quinn, a British Retail Consortium (BRC) report has shown that retailers are increasingly leaving initiatives such as the one run by the Carbon Trust in favour of supply-chain methods of cutting emissions.

The BRC study demonstrated that UK firms in the sector have "smashed" green targets in terms of transportation, refrigeration and construction.

Electronics manufacturer Samsung is following in Apple's footsteps by encouraging customers to engrave one of its products.

The Asian brand is keen for buyers in South Korea to have their Galaxy Note engraved, according to Android Community. There are currently no official plans for the initiative to be expanded globally, but it may inspire other owners of the big-screen smartphone to use laser engraving.

Cory Gunther wrote on the technology news site that this type of personalisation has been popular among Apple customers for years and it seems Samsung has now also seen how the value in the activity.

GottaBeMobile's Chuong Nguyen pointed out that there is already some bad blood between the two brands as a result of the legal battles they are involved in, which makes this latest move even more interesting.

He said: "With Apple and Samsung still embroiled over a number of lawsuits over accusations of each other 'stealing' the other's intellectual property, it'd be curious to know if Apple will find Samsung's latest bit of 'imitation' flattery or something else."

The Samsung Galaxy Note is a new mobile that straddles the smartphone and tablet device categories with its 5.3 inch screen. As well as having a touchscreen, the device features an 'S pen' that allows users to write on the front.

Almost six out of ten consumers have difficulty understanding the nutritional information on food packaging, according to a new study.

A worldwide poll by Nielsen Holdings has revealed that 52 per cent of shoppers only partly understand nutritional labels, whilst 7 per cent don't understand them at all.

Reacting to the figures, Nielsen vice-president James Russo suggested that changing the way that nutritional information is presented on food labels could drastically help consumers in their bid to lose weight through dieting.

He told marketwatch.com: "Consumers around the world have healthy eating on their minds and consumer packaged goods marketers have an opportunity to help. Consumer-friendly nutritional labelling can be a powerful marketing tool as consumers are hungry for easy-to-understand information."

An article from The St. Louis Beacon has questioned whether a new rating system developed by NuVal, which simply grades the healthiness of food out of 100, could help people develop a healthier diet. The NuVal system is used by a few supermarkets in the United States and is reportedly favoured by the Obama administration.

However, University of Missouri nutrition expert Glenda Kinder says that a system like this would just increase confusion amongst shoppers. "I can't imagine that you could get a very good idea of [the] nutritional value of a food just from a number," she told stlbeacon.org.

Ascot Racecourse has defended its decision to use orange labels to uphold a dress code over the weekend.

Nick Smith, a spokesperson for the venue, apologised if the system - which saw inappropriately dressed visitors given the aforementioned labels - caused offence, but stressed that it was meant to be beneficial to people, according to The Telegraph.

"The stickers were given out to those racegoers who had been spoken to [by gatemen] about the new dress code for Ascot meetings. We didn't want them [customers] bothered again, so it was a way of identifying them. Strangely enough it was meant as a customer service," Mr Smith said.

With the aid of labels, officials at the racecourse apparently hoped they would not have to pester people regarding the new etiquette, which demands that men wear a jacket and tie among other things if they want to enter the 'premier enclosure'.

Charles Barnett, chief executive of Ascot, echoed this sentiment in a statement reported by Sky News, pointing out that it was a "well-intentioned" policy that was ultimately misguided.

The event facility is hoping to mend its reputation by giving full refunds to its premier enclosure customers and Mr Barnett highlighted how creating a welcoming environment was a major part of this. It is thought that the new dress code may have been introduced in response to suggestions in the media that standards of attire had dropped at Ascot.