Beyond Infinity: Recent Episodes
Piers Cunningham
Broadcast every Tuesday at 11am AEDT on Radio Port Phillip 98.7 or 98.3 FM. It’s your weekly dose of science and technology.
Including features on cool gadgets, website reviews, the latest science and IT news, not to mention astronomy and space exploration.
http://beyondinfinity.com.au/
Special thanks to John Young, Paul Wattie, Steve Meyers, Brendon Telfer and the team at RPPfm.
Piers and bee-keeper activist Simon Mulvany dive into the spread of invasive species around the continent. We explore the devastating impact of the Varroa mite on bee populations, the algal blooms poisoning South Australia's coastline and the devastation of century old trees in Perth by the shot hole borer. There is now an urgent need for action to protect our unique and fragile ecosystems.
US real estate giant CoStar bought Domain, a leading Australian property platform. With sites like apartments.com, homes.com and expertise in data analytics, they could shake up how people trade real estate and mess with the big incumbents. Who knows, maybe they'll start selling houses with NFTs. Andrew Beecher offers insight.
Piers and Andrew chew the phat and agree we're in an AI bubble which could burst at any moment. POP! We ruminate on the future of work and which jobs are stayers in the new paradigm; how AI has shifted employment, not destroyed it. We get esoteric in the uncanny valley of deep fakes, artificial muzak and alien art. We discuss AI's integration into kids' education and the need for guardrails, especially given the tragic suicide of a US teen allegedly egged on by an AI chat bot. We reckon AI needs control and has definite limitations, but should be a force for good.
Cars are moving away from the traditional model many of us grew up with. In spite of our nostalgia, we're seeing a flourishing menagerie of electric vehicles on Australian roads. Piers talks with car guy, online publisher and motoring pro Andrew Beecher about where the industry is headed. We discuss the Chinese EV onslaught, the pros and cons of EV ownership and Elon Musk's dalliance with politics and its effect on brand Tesla and his other businesses.
We consider the aftermath of a once sweet political alliance, now in tatters, between the world's richest man Elon Musk and the leader of the free world, President Trump. Despite Musk deleting his most explosive anti-Trump posts from the X platform, it's hard to see these two colossal egos reconciling any time soon. So who comes out of this worse off or will both men ultimately lose? [AND.... for SO much more of our Pod, check out beyondinfinity.com.au]
Donald Trump's 2nd term started with a bang – tariffs, trade wars, midnight tweets; a national emergency on the southern border. Tariff policies as vague as his hairline, DEI initiatives rolled back faster than his approval ratings and executive orders flew as fast as his thick black marker could scribble them. Conservative values got a boost, while institutions took a hit. Global tensions soared and drama ensued. What can one say? Have we really been trumped or just stumped? Insane as it may sound, DJT has the cards.
Beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany explains how the new Honey Integrity Act cracks down on adulterated honey and improves transparency in the market. He reckons it's way too easy to import fake honey into Australia and we should be following the US lead. Without a healthy and vibrant bee industry, we risk losing a big chunk of our food production which relies on them for pollination. [For more from Simon, visit: https://beyondinfinity.com.au/?s=Simon+mulvany]
The Donald steamed into his second term with laser focus on securing US borders, unleashing American energy and promoting government efficiency. He wielded his big black marker - signing numerous executive orders, luring significant investments, threatening trade wars and making key policy changes. Presenter Piers Cunningham and guest Simon Mulvany discuss the pros, cons and promise of the thunderous shake up rippling around the world under the 47th American President.
Piers and Brad look back on the big events and issues of 2024, as discussed on the Beyond Infinity Pod. From Australia's unrealistic energy policies, sharp population growth, housing shortages and our home state Victoria's Big Build disaster through to Trump's second term, with Musk as efficiency Tsar and the backlash against wokeism. We chew the phat, cough up a fur ball or two, but remain upbeat. We do after all live in interesting times...
Modern cybernetics informs fields like AI, robotics, biology, sociology, and philosophy, offering insights into the intricate web of relationships within and among systems. Piers and cyber security expert Dr. Ian Storey discuss the origins and modern uses. We also delve into the Federal Government's proposed social media ban for Under-16s in Australia. Will all social media users, including adults, be forced to somehow prove their age online?
Necessity really is the mother of invention. And some inventions make a big difference. Retired physicist Dr. Tony Heyes explains how his work solving transport problems for the blind led to an unforeseen reward from a stranger.
While renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro are crucial for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change, they struggle to meet electricity demand during peak load conditions. Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes argues Australia has little choice but to plan for a nuclear energy future, while sticking with affordable and effective fossil fuels in the interim.
Artificial intelligence is leading humanity towards what many see as a new renaissance for human creativity, augmented by almost unlimited computing power. Others fear recursive AI could get out of control and behave in ways that are unpredictable and undesirable. Dr Ian Storey updates us on how far away we are from Kurtweil's Singularity, implications for information security and the potential for an AI super intelligence to come to being by 2045. Or earlier.
Piers sits down with Simon to discuss the spread of varroa mite into Victoria and what might be done to manage the problem. Also, the effects on honey purity and retail cost. Simon also discusses Queensland authorities' alarmist response to fire ants, including the indiscriminate use of chemical spraying, often without land owners knowledge or permission.
Within minutes of former president Trump's attempted assassination on 13th July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X: “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” along with a video of Trump raising his fist after being shot in the ear. Musk has since pledged hundreds of millions in campaign support and on 13th August conducted a 2 hour long live phone conversation with Trump on X.But why is Musk wading into politics? He's already stupendously successful, with multiple highly profitable businesses to his name. Does he really need to publicly choose sides?Like what you hear? Check out our back catalogue on Musk here: http://beyondinfinity.com.au/?s=Elon+Musk
The announcement on the King's Birthday public holiday that Dan Andrews has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia has left many people shocked and bewildered. Why on earth is a failed leader who presided over Victoria's disastrous response to the covid pandemic with the world's longest lockdowns, a health system in crisis, stratospheric infrastructure cost blowouts and state debt S&P forecasts to be $250 billion by 2027 being honoured by the Council for the Order of Australia?
The Australian Government has taken on social media platform X and its mercurial proprietor Elon Musk over the broadcast of a chilling attack on an Assyrian priest in Sydney. Is the medium to blame, or are deeper societal issues the cause? There's little doubt social media can amplify violence, making it more vital to find the right balance between free speech and public safety. Piers and Brad throw their hats in the ring.
Piers catches up with bee-keeper activist Simon Mulvany and hears about the Australian government's fire ant poisoning program in Queensland and NSW. There's concerns about the use of harmful insecticides like Fipronil and Pyriproxyfen. There are serious fears for native species and waterways stemming from hit or miss aerial spraying campaigns. Are authorities over-reacting and is it even possible to eradicate such a hardy, well-adapted ant species?
Welcome back to Beyond Infinity. It's been a while. Today Piers discusses latest space news from Jupiter, the Moon and Mars. NASA admits it can't afford the high cost of returning the Perseverence rover's precious Mars sample tubes to Earth and is looking for help from space privateers. And SpaceX continues to develop the world's most powerful launch vehicle Starship, with a view to colonising Mars. But is this a realistic and worthwhile goal?
A wide-ranging conversation about Dan Andrews life, personality, socialist left politics and the repercussions. Does he deserve hatred or grudging respect? Geoff Wells, a medical specialist who repeatedly warned about brutal and misguided lockdowns during covid, offers insights. We talk golf, medical science, Victoria's economy and the world's response to the pandemic.
In a fiery appearance at the DealBook Summit in New York City, Elon Musk unloaded on Disney CEO Bob Iger. Musk insisted he would not be 'blackmailed' and that Iger should 'GFY' over his advertising boycott of X. We consider what's at stake for the mercurial Musk and the potential fallout for his other businesses.
Piers and John Mac chew the fat, again. Why such heated controversy around the esteemed former Victorian State Premier Dan Andrews joining a couple of Mornington Peninsula golf clubs? Can't a man just relax and enjoy his hard-earned, early retirement in peace? (If you like this stuff, there's PLENTY more at beyondinfinity.com.au)
Exorbitant prices, high interest rates and lack of housing stock mean many young people will never own their own home in Australia. And with 1% or less rental vacancy and record immigration, people are struggling to get any kind of a roof over their heads. Yet governments seem powerless to help, even as banks say lending rules are too tight and make many potential borrowers ineligible for mortgages.Check out our mighty back catalogue of 800+ podcasts at beyondinfinity.com.au
Piers and veteran radio presenter John McCormack discuss Australia's recent referendum on the Voice to Parliament. Passing referenda is historically and technically difficult: only 8 out of 45 attempts to amend the Constitution have succeeded since Federation in 1901 and they require support from a majority of people in a majority of states. Yet there were high hopes, especially among Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, that things could change for the better and the Voice would become law. However, the referendum failed with an average of 60% against the proposal.
Mature (?) social media goes subscription-based; Twitter's blue tick of approval; Reddit's unpopular IPO; TickTock gains ground - forcing change on incumbents; Renting options on new cars. Piers and Brad show their age.
Piers and bee activist Simon Mulvany chat about the politicisation of the debate around so-called climate change, with its fear mongering and manipulation by vested interests. Is 'pollution' a better term to use than 'climate change'? We consider how important it is for Australia to transition carefully to renewables, without causing peak load blackouts and vast economic damage. We discuss how science has been politicised, nuclear energy demonised and our natural resources trivialised. And we look forward to the fight of the century - a cage fight between AI rivals Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
With the referendum to alter Australia's Constitution set for Saturday, 14 October 2023, people will vote yes or no on a single question about the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Yet the devil is in the detail and the challenge for the government and other proponents remains to explain just how the new law will work in practice. Piers sat down recently with Brad Mackenzie for a chat about what's at stake.
Piers reconnects with mathematician Dr Ian Storey and pro investor Guy West over a glass of wine to update listeners on artificial intelligence's effects on markets and investing in AI. Are we seeing the start of an AI bubble, more about hype than a real threat to humanity? We discuss how hedge funds use machine learning and the need to regulate AI. We marvel at AI's astonishing mastery of language - humanity's operating system. We ponder current economic conditions and the inflation/deflation cycle. No doubt we are prejudiced against AI because of our mass exposure to scifi films over the past 50 years, but what of more ominous predictions?
Longest cumulative lockdowns on the planet, declining mental health, record state debt, economic damage, new taxes and levies and now the loss of the Commonwealth Games. Melbourne continues to endure tough times. Piers sits down with Brad Mackenzie to ponder the question: are Melburnians scarred from their collective experiences since early in 2020 when a global pandemic was declared?
Piers sits down with beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany to discuss the spread of a parasite killing honey bees in New South Wales. Simon explains how the varroa mite entered Australia, the only country in the world that was varroa-free until recently. He outlines the enormous damage the mite causes to wild and commercial bee populations and its threat to primary industries. Simon is opposed to the use of Fipronol, an insecticide banned in the UK and EU, to control the outbreak. He points to the work of US entomologist Dr Sam Ramsay as useful in understanding varroa and African countries as exemplars of pesticide-free healthy natural bee populations.
Piers is joined by Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at Torrens University, for a chat about the many and varied effects of artificial intelligence on almost every aspect of human life. From AI-powered battle drones and deep fake voice cloning for ransoms through to plagiarism, provenance of online images and manipulating elections, we are on the cusp of a revolution akin to the invention of the printing press and the World Wide Web. And as Ian explains, this is just the beginning, with some experts predicting that 80-90% of jobs could be redundant because of AI.
Despite its spectacular 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' four minutes into its flight, the maiden voyage of SpaceX's monster super heavy lift rocket is considered a successful failure. SpaceX say they will learn from their mistakes and try again in a matter of months. And if they succeed, they will have a vehicle far more powerful than the Saturn V moon rocket of the Apollo era, with the distinct advantage of being fully reusable. Piers and Brad discuss this giant leap in rocket technology, what it all means and whether they'd ever sign up for a ride.
Piers sits down with Brad Mckenzie to discuss whether Russia should be banned from the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. We look at the long history of politics' involvement in sport - from Jessie Owens at the Berlin Games of 1936 through to the World Cup in Qatar and the Australian Tennis Open. For all the anguish over mixing politics and sport, sport seems to win out anyway.Please check out our entire back catalogue of 883 tracks at beyondinfinity.com.au
Welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Infinity and our first for 2023. We discuss how Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology is re-shaping the battlefield and beyond. We dive into the exciting world of drones and how they will revolutionize space exploration - like on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter, which has just completed its 40th ground breaking autonomous flight. Join us as we explore the future of space exploration and the role that AI-powered drones will play in it. Let's get started!
A retrospective on the year's podcasts: how bee-keeping works; extreme weather hits eastern Australia; covid dwindles yet lingers as other biohazards emerge; Elon Musk's Twitter fiascos; the Multiverse; the mega hacks of Optus and Medibank. 2022 was supposed to mark an inflection point in history - with the rise of China, war in Ukraine and a climate emergency, but did we really 'inflect'?
The world's most successful entrepreneur now owns what he hopes will be Earth's digital town square, but he faces stiff head winds. He paid a very high price for the business at the top of the market, seems to have pissed off many employees, including senior management, as well as raised doubts among key advertisers. He's made his presence felt through mass sackings, a ban on working from home, a move towards a subscription service model whereby users pay $8 a month for the blue tick and foreshadowed a mayhem mode free for all. Can Musk weave his magic at Twitter or has he bitten off more than even he can chew?
The Premier looks like winning another four years in office, despite what many see as his disastrous and incompetent mishandling of the pandemic. First, there was Melbourne's hotel quarantine fiasco, then problems with contact tracing and hundreds of preventable aged care deaths. There followed the longest cumulative lockdown of any city on Earth - 267 days - with devastating effects on mental health, personal freedoms, education, family businesses and our economy. The repercussions will be felt for years to come. Why then, after all this plus serious allegations of corruption and foul play, are voters likely to renew Premier Andrews tenure on 26th November?
A massive cyber attack threatens the private data of 9.8 million current and former Optus customers. Authorities are being forced to reissue drivers licenses and passports, while the Federal Government promises regulatory reforms with stiff telco penalties for future breaches.
Better to recycle waste water and reduce ocean outfall or rely on energy-hungry desalination plants? In the lead up to the Victorian state election, a petition on change.org calls for a $60 million upgrade to the Eastern Treatment Plant to remove all contaminants from wastewater currently discharged near Gunnamatta on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. The Clean Ocean Foundation claims the Weedy Seadragon is directly impacted by the outfall - its numbers are in decline and the species is considered "near threatened." They argue that advanced wastewater treatment plants provide purified recycled water and reduce ocean pollution.
Bee keeping activist Simon Mulvany explains the problem of varroa mites for bees; how the pest entered Australia and what's being done to control it, including the controversial use of fipronil insecticide. We broaden the conversation to include other biohazards, like foot and mouth disease in Indonesia, the reemergence of drug-resistant polio, monkey pox and covid-19.
It's theorised that birds use quantum effects to navigate with help from the Earth's magnetic field. And how do massive flocks move as clouds in such exquisite and controlled close proximity? Inspired by the movie 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', mathematician and lecturer in information systems Dr. Ian Storey outlines the two main theories of QM - the Copenhagen interpretation and the multiverse. He thinks one is arrogant and anthropocentric, while the other is, well, hard to get your head around. Either way, "our intuition is not built around understanding events at the quantum level" he says.
Easy listening on a complicated subject.
Musk's dream to make humanity a multi-planetary species. The frenetic pace of development at Starbase, his private rocket production facility, test site and spaceport in Texas. Success of Starlink in Ukraine annoys Russia. Musk defies the critics and weathers plenty of bets (and threats) against him, including shorting Tesla.
Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 2 of a 2 part interview.
A look at the world's wealthiest individual and his delayed takeover of the loss-making microblogging service. His battles with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Why would Musk want control?
Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 1 of a 2 part interview.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Latest scourge causing concern (but not alarm) around the world is monkey pox. Normally endemic in Africa, cases have been appearing in the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. Scientists have yet to determine why. Meanwhile, Australia's covid death toll passes 8000 and this year's winter flu is proving worse for some than omicron.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Victorian covid stats trending higher. Comparing covid death rates around the world as US approaches 1m milestone. Australian Vs US pandemic response - very different approach, very different results; trust is key. Unreliable covid reporting - North Korea's massive covid spike.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. A rundown of rising covid numbers around Australia. Covid fatigue causing complacency and unnecessary risk taking - people often ignoring mask mandates in transport hubs. NZ passes 1 million confirmed covid cases, but real figure could be much higher. Shanghai expats getting desperate as lockdown drags on; Tesla factory closed.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Ba4 and Ba5 first seen in South Africa now in Europe and America. Draconian lockdowns in Shanghai and Beijing; weakness of Chinese vaccines. New variants more risky than sub-variants. Australia relaxes close contact rules. Dam Andrews keeps his head down.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Covid numbers rising dramatically especially in NSW, but hospitalisations remain low. XE mutant hybrid; NZ PM predicts more variants for 2022; close contact rules in the spotlight. Winter flu also coming, so a double whammy? Surge to peak at end of April.
It's been a rough few years for Australia with extreme weather events ranging from devastating bushfires in 2019 to the record breaking floods of the summer of 2022. Piers and Simon Mulvany discuss the recent catastrophic La Niña-driven floods in South Eastern Queensland and Northern New South Wales. They explain weather modification programs like cloud seeding at the Beijing Winter Olympics and America's during the Vietnam war. They consider the devastating social and economic impacts of increasingly common extreme weather and some of the conspiracy theories that have emerged.
SO much more at beyondinfinity.com.au
A chat with bee keeper activist Simon Mulvany: how bee keeping works in different locations; a bumper season on the Southern Peninsula; his online bee keeping course; problems with almond crops in Victoria and California; Chinese imported pollen; amazing hive substance propolis; how bees bight; Portsea Estate bee sanctuary.
That's a wrap for the year. As a plague-weary world braces for another year 'getting by' with covid, here's a brief summary of 2021 on air, through the lens of Beyond Infinity.
As ever, thanks for listening! And we'll be back in MMXXII.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Sydney daily covid cases rising sharply, with more omicron cases popping up. Data from South Africa suggest highly infectious omicron could overwhelm health systems even though it is less severe than delta; Pfizer vaccine less effective in preventing hospitalisation. Moderna to build mRNA factory in Melbourne. Pfizer pill available soon for those infected with covid. US tragically passes 800,OOO covid deaths as NYC tightens restrictions for the unvaccinated; weekly death toll increasing as winter sets in. In South Korean city of Bucheon, 10,000 CCTV cameras help authorities contain the virus.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Omicron more infectious than Delta, but Fauci optimistic; will be dominant UK strain in weeks not months. NYC vaccine mandates. Brazil's big turn around against covid. Studies confirm dire effects of missing school for kids. State ombudsman finds border closures 'inhumane and unjust'. Victoria's very high covid deaths compared to all other states. Failed and veiled government covid policies. Calls for a Royal Commission in to the pandemic.
On November 15, 2021 when Russia fired a hypersonic missile at its defunct COSMOS-1408 satellite in orbit just above the International Space Station, the impact created a field of at least 1500 pieces of identifiable debris, endangering its own cosmonauts aboard the station, as well as vital communication, weather and earth observation satellites. Now critics are calling for the United Nations to mandate norms of behaviour to prevent further intentional disregard for safety, security and sustainability in space.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Comparing vaccine efficacy between Delta and Omicron. Potential benefits of new variant. International response to WHO's 'variant of concern'. Lightening worldwide spread. Germany considering mandatory vaccines. Lessons of Omicron. Differences between Omicron and earlier Covid variants. Booster imperative.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Vic-NSW Covid situations compared. Fortress New Zealand closed to Aussies until 2022. Mystery of unvaccinated Africa doing fine with Covid. Central Europe reacts to more lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Vaccinating kids as young as 5 years old. AstraZeneca claims its covid vaccine is the reason UK doing better than Europe. Vaccinating the South Pacific. Judging Australia's slow vaccine rollout.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Cases and hospitalisations trending down as Victoria approaches 90% fully vaccinated. Increased covid on the Mornington Peninsula, especially among school kids. Low cost anti-viral pills for the developing world. Pandemic winners - super yachts and private jets for the super rich. Angry backlash forces amendments to government's new pandemic laws.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Australia passes 80% fully vaccinated nationally. Further limits on the unvaccinated for non-essential retail shopping. Combining PCR and RAT tests for comparison of accuracy. State covid numbers compared. NZ and Russian covid situations.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. International students heading back to Australia as borders re-open; China's Delta crackdown; Pfizer profits soar as booster rollout gathers momentum; Emergency pandemic powers before Victorian parliament attract sharp criticism from top lawyers.
Piers talks with Australian-American musician and actor Rick Springfield about his latest album ‘Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz'. A joint project with singer-songwriter Russell Morris, the new album has been #1 on the ARIA Top 20 Jazz and Blues Albums Chart. In this wide-ranging interview Rick explains the album's 'Day of the Dead' inspiration and how a creative process with friendly competition worked with his old friend Russell, enabling the project's completion in just 6 weeks. Rick offers insights on politics, religion and conspiracy theories; he says there's "too many of us with too many points of view and too many names for God".
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. More freedoms as Victoria nears 80% double vaxed; Leunig fired after 55 years at The Age over censored cartoon; lack of transparency from Victorian government; controversial permanent pandemic powers set to pass into law.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Victoria passes 70% double dosed; Mornington Peninsula vax rate well ahead of many other Melbourne LGAs. Booster jabs being rolled out in Europe, US and Israel as double dose protection wanes over time, but should 3rd doses be going to poorer countries instead? Boom times for Pfizer forecast to continue in 2022. Update on subvariant AY.4.2 - more infectious than original Delta? And with daily case numbers stubbornly high, Melburnians prepare for an end to the world's longest lockdown.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Authorities lose control of Delta as lockdown fatigue intensifies in Melbourne. Who is dying of covid? Health system shortcomings. Sydney crisis management better than Melbourne's. New Zealand, world's last bastion of covid-free living, abandons its eradication policy.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Melbourne's 241+ days of cumulative lockdown surpasses any other city, costing at least AUD$150 million a day. Record daily case numbers surpass Sydney's for the first time. Hospitals overrun when whole purpose of lockdowns was to buy time and prepare the health system for covid. Failure to learn lessons from last year's city hotspots. Rapid home testing to start in November. Pfizer boosters approved in Israel and the US.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Victoria struck by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake as a riotous anti-lockdown mob gathered in Melbourne's CBD threatening the public, police and efforts to control the city's growing delta outbreak. The potential for a super-spreader event is real and could seriously set back efforts to emerge from grinding lockdown, set to be the longest for any city in the world. Meanwhile, federal health minister Greg Hunt has requested approval for 5 year olds and up to get the jab.
Piers discusses Victoria’s new Roadmap to Deliver the National Plan with Geoff Wells, a senior consultant urologist at Melbourne's Box Hill hospital. While Geoff says there's some improvement for Melburnians, the slow pace of getting kids back to school is scandalous and the roadmap is confusing and lacking in confidence. He thinks people who are fully vaccinated should enjoy more freedoms now and if future lockdowns occur once vaccination targets are met, government ministers should have their pay cut.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Regional status of Mornington Peninsula an increasingly hot issue; Shadow Health minister Georgie Crozier calls for more nuanced, targeted response to hotspots; risk averse Andrews Government plans for gradual and cautious reduction of tight restrictions; overseas lessons in benefits of rapid antigen testing; how to incentivise double vaccinations.
Georgie Crozier, Victorian Shadow Minister for health and deputy leader of the Legislative Council, explains why Melburnians must be given hope that their city will emerge from nearly 8 months of crushing lockdown. In a wide-ranging interview, she discusses the government's broken promise of providing thousands of extra ICU beds, its failure to promote all vaccine options to the most vulnerable and its lack of a firm plan to open up from lockdown. Georgie also discusses the return of Matthew Guy as leader of the Opposition, the need to embrace rapid antigen testing and offers her support for calls that the Mornington Peninsula be considered regional and not locked down as part of Greater Melbourne.
Piers talks with Bruce Keebaugh, founder of catering and events company The Big Group, about the need for a clear and transparent plan to reopen the Victorian economy. Bruce says there's huge frustration for businesses and people stuck at home who want to get back to living. He's a big supporter of rapid anitigen testing, which he reckons is a great tool not being utilised. And he'd love Melbourne Cup Day on November 2nd, often referred to as 'the race that stops the nation', to mark the beginning of Australia's emergence from devastating lockdown.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Cases popping up on highly vaccinated Mornington Peninsula as faith in Andrews government wanes; futile elimination target replaced with vaccine drive. New Opposition leader Matthew Guy reinstalled to take fight to ALP. WHO designates MU mutation a 'variant of concern'.
A chat with Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist Russell Morris about his project with musician and actor Rick Springfield. Their new album 'Jack Chrome and the Darkness Waltz' came together from opposite sides of the world and celebrates the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. Russell explains how the album seemed to almost write itself, plus the influences and technology which made this amazing work possible.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. If stage 4 restrictions don't work and even NZ can't control Delta, what will work to bring the numbers down? Mornington Peninsula vaccine rates well ahead of state average; Europe sets limits on American travellers as US 'pandemic of the unvaccinated' worsens; the unbelievably high cost of over 7 months of lockdown for Melbourne.
Piers chats with Guy West, professional share market investor and a world chess master and Dr. Ian Storey, mathematician and lecturer in information systems about the world's exuberant financial markets and the risk of a so-called Minsky moment - a sudden, major collapse of asset values. Part 1 of a 2 part-long form interview.
Guy West, professional share market investor and a world chess master and Dr. Ian Storey, mathematician and lecturer in information systems share their thoughts on where the world's booming markets might be headed - the possibility of a catastrophic crash, how to balance a future of deflation versus hyper inflation and how to be less of a loser than the next person if things go pear shaped. Keep in mind this is a friendly chat and should not be construed as advice. We don't pretend to know the future. Part 2 of a 2 part long-form interview.
In-depth interview with Mr. Geoff Wells, medical specialist and outspoken critic of prolonged lockdowns in Melbourne, which now exceed 200 days. He says we must learn to live with covid and end the city's sixth punitive and futile lockdown. He says the Victorian government lacks openness and transparency and is acting in a dictatorial, ineffective and cruel way causing incalculable damage to the lives of Melburnians. Geoff is particularly concerned about the harm to young people aged 14 to 17 years old and points to a dramatic 185% increase in calls to the Kids Helpline counselling service.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Melbourne's lockdown extended again, with tighter restrictions and a 9pm to 5am curfew introduced. The city of 5 million souls has been in lockdown for longer than anywhere else in the country, with devastating effects on people's lives, livelihoods and kids' education. We examine the demographics of Australians who've died from covid, plus overseas warnings of super variants emerging in the unvaccinated 3rd world.
Piers chews the fat with beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany. We talk disrupted travel plans, state border closures, vaccine passports, lost freedoms, economic fallout, mental health and lockdown fatigue.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. While Europe enjoys summer holidays, Australia's biggest cities are under wraps, with lockdowns extended as case numbers rise sharply in Sydney and remain stubbornly high for greater Melbourne. We discuss the limits of what lockdowns can achieve, vaccine certificates and how Oxford researchers are questioning the very notion of herd immunity.
We could be entering a new and dangerous phase of the pandemic, with delta and other super contagious variants threatening populations around the world. Piers discusses what can be done to stem the tide: high tech and low tech options and the limits to what lockdowns can achieve.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Delta puts younger people at risk, as Doherty modelling shows 20-40 year olds most important to vaccinate. China's delta outbreak. French protests. Vaccine hesitancy and digital certificates.
Bee keeper activist Simon Mulvany explains why agribusiness multinational Bayer will stop selling Roundup for residential use in the US in 2023.
Michael Simonetti, founder and CEO of Melbourne agency AndMine, talks about his past (very busy) 18 months. He discusses how to tap into group creativity on a collaborative whiteboard, even when working remotely. He explains Zoom etiquette and how his staff have become tighter, having learned about each other's home lives via web cams. He also covers security, cyber crime and going viral on TikTok.
Piers chats with online digital marketing expert Michael Simonetti about how demand for his company's services has exploded over the past 18 months. He reckons the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed, but have actually become more important than ever before.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. The politics of covid: Federal Opposition on the attack over Australia's squandered victory over covid; vaccine availability and supply issues. Delta variant spreads to Victoria. Mixing and matching vaccine doses. UK set to end covid restrictions from 17th July, while infections increase sharply.
Is Australia's response to the pandemic becoming, as Labour politician Bill Shorten put it, a "sh*t show"? Even though the country mass produces its own Astra Zeneca vaccines, there are vaccine shortages. International borders remain closed to enter or leave, the delta variant is on the loose causing repeated damaging lockdowns and crucially the level of vaccination in the population is stubbornly low.
China has become only the second country after America to successfully land on Mars, at Utopia Planitia. The ambitious Tianwen-1 mission includes an orbiter, deployable camera, lander, drop camera, and the Zhurong rover. Its already sent back images of its entry, descent and landing sequence, recorded the sounds of its operations on Mars and taken a now-famous selfie (and video) of its rover and lander on the surface. Instruments include hi-res cameras, weather station, ground penetrating radar, Mars surface compound detector with laser and a magnetometer.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Feds finally get urgent about vaccine rollout, but their messaging is mixed and confusing for Aussies weighing the jab. Shortages don't help either. If astra zeneca isn't supplied to locals, CSL says it will happily sell supplies overseas where demand remains high. Big business enlisted to help Fed rollout, as doctors administering vaccines are guaranteed indemnity. Treasury's 2021 Intergenerational Report paints a concerning ecomomic future.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. British medical journal 'The Lancet' reports up to a third of people infected with covid develop brain disease and psychological disorders; problems emerge with Chinese vaccine; vaccinating under-18s; Australia's slow roll out draws criticism; Clive Palmer's anti vax campaign.
A look at how great NASA is at solving problems with its spacecraft over vast distances. From saving the Apollo 13 astronauts to deliberately ripping a rover wheel off on a sharp rock on Mars, the space agency's 'tiger teams' have superb form when it comes to finding creative solutions to otherworldly threats.
As Melbourne's 4th economically devastating lockdown draws to a close, we discuss the political fallout and changing attitudes to compliance with government health directives. Also: vaccine shortages and supply issues in Australia, which lags behind many other developed countries in number of people who've had the jab; more on the Wuhan leak with the G7 and WHO demanding more info from China; illogical lockdown restrictions; convalescing Premier Andrews reappears on Twitter after 3 months' silence.
Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. As Melbourne emerges from 2 weeks of stage 4 lockdown, attention returns to the origins of the virus. Did the pandemic result from animal to human transmission of covid or was it a leak from the secretive Wuhan Institute of Virology? And to complicate matters further, was the US involved in funding some of the Chinese 'gain of function' research looking at ways to make naturally-occurring corona viruses even more deadly?
Live-to-air interviews: Nasty mucormycosis fungal infections wreak havoc in India; Victoria's 4th hard lockdown extended; limits of quarantine hotels; QR codes finally unified; highly contagious Indian (Delta) variant; Melbourne's 350+ exposure sites; comparing States performance against outbreaks.
A chat with veteran broadcaster Brendon Telfer of RPPfm about the introduction of CD quality music streaming. It's welcome news for audiophiles, but what are the costs and advantages? And what will the impact be on the overall media landscape, including FM and AM radio services.
We talk with Geoff Wells, medical specialist and founder of the Covid Doctors' Network, about the latest outbreak of the Indian covid variant and the stage 4 lockdown ordered by the Victorian Labour Government. We discuss how to convince the community of the urgent need for mass vaccinations, effective contact tracing, safe quarantining, the dire economic fallout and why lockdowns just keep happening in Victoria.
A wide-ranging chat on live-to-air radio with bee activist Simon Mulvany. We cover fast and cheap covid testing using bees, honey (and money) on tap from the Flowhive and Elon Musk's extraordinary Neuralink technology helping the blind and handicapped.
Piers hears from Dr.Tony Heyes, retired physicist and inventor, about what he calls the Adams Event, a time 42,000 years ago when the Earth's magnetic field flipped. During this period, our magnetic shield dropped to below 6% of its current level exposing surface life to dangerous radiation from space and auroral activity so bright that night turned into day. He suggests the extinctions of Australia's megafauna and neanderthals may have been caused by this apocalyptic environmental crisis, as revealed in the rings of an ancient Kauri tree, preserved in a swamp in New Zealand.
Dr. Ian Storey, mathematician and lecturer in information systems and Guy West, professional share market investor and chess master, continue the discussion of different kinds of risk. Here the focus is on gambling and insurance. Which games are best avoided at casinos and why. Is insurance always worth the premiums? Both Ian and Guy agree that mathematical literacy is sorely lacking in the general population and needs to be emphasised more in school. Part 2 of a 2 part interview.
In Part 1 of a wide-ranging discussion, Piers asks Dr. Ian Storey, a mathematician and lecturer in information systems and Guy West, a professional sharemarket investor and chess master, why it's so vitally important to understand risk.
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Activist Simon Mulvany of Save the Bees Australia discusses a new way of tackling mosquitos which spread bacteria causing buruli ulcers. Instead of gassing large areas with harmful insecticides, traps are used to attract mosquitos. This environmentally-friendly approach to a serious health problem has recently attracted government funding.
NASA hits the bullseye with the successful deployment of its autonomous Ingenuity drone at Jezero Crater on Mars. This 'tech demo' paves the way for future drone missions where vast distances can be easily covered and previously inaccessible terrain studied from the air.
Live-to-air radio interview with beekeeper, environmentalist and potential councillor Simon Mulvany. Simon gives his view on how and why the crowd can harness social media to take on powerful Wall St interests. We discuss GameStop, Robin Hood, Dogecoin and insider trading.
Since the April 2019 release of the first ever image of a black hole - the 6.5 billion solar mass beast at the heart of galaxy Messier 87, astronomers at the Event Horizon Telescope consortium have delved deeper into their petabytes of data. The latest images show polarisation, a signature of magnetic fields, close to the edge of the black hole and its 6000 light year long jet extending far beyond the galaxy. These images show spectacular details, unlike the blurry orange donut seen a year ago.
Guy West, professional share market investor and a world chess master and Dr. Ian Storey, mathematician and information security expert share their thoughts on the extraordinary times we find ourselves in. Are we heading for a big collapse - in equities, cryptos and property? Will we face hyper-inflation as governments crank up the money printing presses? What about GameStop and the Reddit group 'Wall Street Bets', which took on the big hedge funds? Is capitalism broken?
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As America passes 500,000 tragic covid deaths, it celebrates a flawless, tour-de-force landing of its Perseverance rover on Mars. The spacecraft has recently sent back historic high definition video of the incredible entry, descent and landing sequence, raising morale in a nation still grappling with the pandemic.
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NASA's Perseverance spacecraft carries 23 cameras, including 7 for entry, descent and landing documentation. For the first time, we will see hi def video of the car-sized rover as it rides its massive supersonic parachute, fires its rockets for powered descent and then is lowered to the surface of rugged Jezero crater from the sky crane. Should make for some interesting viewing!
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Senior medical specialist Geoffrey Wells, organiser of the Covid Doctors Network, says 6 million Victorians did not need to be forced into stage 4 hard lockdown, with all schools and most businesses closed, tight restrictions on movement and no social contact. He argues lockdowns cause more harm than the virus and should only be used as a last resort. He believes there are problems with the Victorian government and that we should be doing much better in dealing with the pandemic, like NSW which safely handles three times the number of returning travellers.
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Australia's Lowy Institute has released an interactive online study of why and how some countries have done so much better than others in taming the covid pandemic.
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A final word on a pretty ordinary year. Hope you enjoyed what we did and stand by for some cool new stuff in MMXXI
John Young gushes over his latest gadget, a versatile E Ink tablet. He loves the matt greyscale screen which he says is easy on the eye, the great battery life and variety of Boox pens that work with it. It's perfect for reading e-books, making hand-written notes which can be converted to text, drawing, email and general browsing. While he concedes ghosting is sometimes an issue, he's very impressed with the Onyx's sleek design and variety of available apps.
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Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Twice weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. - Asian immunity stemming from previous exposure to coronaviruses including SARS - China understating its early cases of covid-19. Possible cover-up - V-Day in the UK: Pfizer vaccine rollout. Fine-tuning vaccinations with UK lessons - EU divisions - are we entering a "new pandemic era"? - Bill Gates warnings - can future pandemics be controlled by very fast development of vaccines? - a seasonal flu shot incorporating dose for latest covid strains? - new dangerous mutation in southern England - covid-20 and 21 on the way?
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Piers hears from Simon Young, Head of Content at LithodomosVR, about how his company refocussed their business in 2020. As expert creators of digital visualisations for the world's most famous archaeological sites and museums, the abrupt end of international travel and mass tourism had a profound effect on their client base. Simon explains how the company changed tack and launched a consumer product which harnesses web VR. Part 1 of a 2 part in-depth interview.
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Piers talks with Simon Young, Head of Content at LithodomosVR, about how his company refocussed their business in 2020. LDVR is utilising its library of 500 visualisations of the ancient world for their new consumer web VR site ancient-world.co, with a headset version in the pipeline. He walks us through the process of how a VR experience of Hobart Town as it was 200 years ago was created and ponders the similarities of the VR experience and dreams. Part 2 of a 2 part in-depth interview.
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In June 2020, the 55th and final satellite in the Beidou constellation was successfully launched into geosynchronous orbit. The system provides global coverage for timing and navigation and offers an alternative to GPS, GLONASS and the Galileo positioning system. It has both civilian and military applications.
There are big changes foreshadowed for Windows 10. Expect to see tighter integration with the Android ecosystem, whereby apps can run on your PC, plus a more modern user interface and improved security. Meanwhile, Windows 10X could potentially mount an attack on Chrome OS. We give you the lowdown.
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Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Twice weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. - the vital need for lots of testing; Victoria opening up; virus in sewage; living with covid - Sweden's ultimately unsuccessful approach, especially when compared to other Scandinavian nations - Australian state border closures; US response; Masks, Gates, Fauci
Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Twice weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. - theoretical elimination; vaccines; quarantine issues - Sweden's predicament; rampant 2nd wave; Anders Tegnell - bioethics; vaccine rollout and prioritisation; international travel prospects
At last, the iPhone 12 Mini is here. For those who loved the form factor of 2012's iPhone 5 or lament smart phones' unrelenting increase in size and yearn for single-handed texting, this device is exactly what you've been waiting for. Piers tells all about the smallest fully-specced phone Apple has released in years and reckons there's a lot to like.
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John Young's long-term report on Oppo's high-spec smart phone. He discusses its useability, controls and big beautiful OLED screen. He loves the great battery life and super fast charging capability, but has reservations about over-heating under heavy use and noisy night shots.
Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. 2-9/11/20: Australian state border closures continue, but there are signs of hope. International travel bubbles under consideration. Politics of covid. Vaccine developments. Victoria's travel restrictions finally lifted. Flu numbers down massively from last year. The need for asymptomatic testing in sensitive industries.
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A look at Apple's 2020 laptop line up - impressions of ownership, pros, cons and which one to choose. They all have the same premium feel and share many features, but it's the new M1 processor that looks like being well worth the wait, that is if you haven't already committed...
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In a major boost for Bitcoin and other leading cryptos, digital payment company PayPal is introducing the ability to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies and plans to significantly increase their utility by making them available as a funding source for purchases at its 26 million merchants worldwide from early 2021. The move is likely to increase the mainstream acceptance of digital currencies around the world.
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Tom Cruise is slated to make a movie in space. The action adventure star is renowned for doing his own stunts, so this should make for exciting entertainment. Though details are scarce, the project has the support of NASA and Elon Musk. NASA wants to commercialise activities on the space station and drum up public enthusiasm for its Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon.
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Research at the University of Bath's Center for Accountable, Transparent and Responsible Artificial Intelligence is developing a new technique that allows more fluent communication by either supporting or, even better, replacing the need to type out what you want to communicate, by using brain signals to do the ‘typing’ instead.
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How sophisticated disinformation campaigns muddy the waters and make it harder to understand the truth about Covid-19 vaccines. Research at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the EUvsDisinfo Project sheds light on false narratives seeded through news channels and social media.
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A look at the very ambitious plan for NASA and its international partners to land people at Shackleton Crater at the moon's South Pole in 2024. Project Artemis includes the deep space Gateway space station in lunar orbit and a lunar surface base with in-situ resource utilisation. Eventually the technology and skills learned at the moon will enable a manned mission to Mars.
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Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer. 16/10/20: Tough questions for the Premier from Peta Credlin. COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry. Unrealistic elimination policy. Analog Vs digital contact tracing. 26/10/20: Endless lockdown. Northern metro outbreak. Government messaging. Asymptomatic spreading. Acceptable risk management. Comparison with NSW covid approach. Mounting pressure on Victorian government. Mornington Peninsula lockdown. Paralysis in decision making.
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In September 2020, the internet exploded with news of life existing at the Earth's twin planet. The James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile found the biomarker phosphine - a phosphorus and hydrogen molecule - high in the Venusian atmosphere. But there are deep doubts about how life could exist at Venus, given its hellish surface temperature and crushing noxious atmosphere. Scientists admit there will need to be corroborative measurements and that phosphine can exist without any connection to life.
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John explains why he didn't buy a new Pixel 5 (he bought an Oppo Find X2 Pro instead). But he's still a fan of this mid-range smart phone from Google. He likes the OLED screen, great battery life (with shared charging capability), advanced camera system and 5G connectivity. He reckons for many people it's a perfectly good alternative to some of the high-end, uber-exxy phones out there.
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Live-to-air radio interview on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 9/10/20: Melbourne GPs dealing with much higher incidence of mental illness, especially among young patients and new mums. Anti-depressants prescribed to 12 year olds. Dr. Stacey Harris's open letter to Premier Andrews. Doctors meeting with new health minister Martin Foley. Great Barrington Declaration signed by leading epidemiologists.
Piers talks with busy Melbourne GP Dr. Stacey Harris about the disturbing incidence of mental health issues among her young patients and new mothers. Dr. Harris says lockdowns do more harm than good and have caused a mental health crisis in Melbourne. She insists we can open up safely, with an emphasis on more robust contact tracing and that the huge cost of striving for corona virus elimination is too high and may not even be achievable.
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Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 25/9/20: How good is the covid modelling? Alternative views on lockdown from Irish Youtuber Ivor Cummins who says masks are useless and lockdowns are a "medieval" solution. Lessons from Sweden. 2/10/20: Growing frustration from senior Melbourne doctors. Why won't the Victorian government listen to their serious concerns over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic? They say outdoor exercise and sport is safe and should be allowed; that we need to open up.
Live-to-air radio interviews on RPPfm. Weekly covid reporting from Piers Cunningham with Brendon Telfer and Shivani Pillai. 11/9/20: The Covid Doctors Network open letter to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Bureaucracy not medical experts driving government response to pandemic. Devastation of business from prolonged lockdown. Government in crisis. 18/9/20: Vaccine espionage - all countries are spying on each other. Hacking and biotech companies targeted by hackers. Race for a vaccine. Fast testing options. Early vaccines in Russia and China.
Box Hill Hospital urologist Geoff Wells says Melbourne's prolonged hard lockdown is causing depression and elevated anxiety, especially among adolescents. Citing unjust discrimination against young people, he says schools should open and people should be allowed to play sport and exercise outdoors. Geoff is critical of the Victorian government's disproportionate approach to the pandemic; the virus does discriminate between young and the elderly with pre-existing illness. He calls for more open dialogue between the government, medical experts and the community and reckons Premier Daniel Andrews "is not prepared to learn from us (doctors), which is extremely worrying and extremely disappointing".
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Resident techie John Young recently took possession of a pair of Jabra Elite 75T in-ear buds and he's pretty impressed. He says they're comfy to wear all day, work well for phone calls, "hey google" commands and have particularly good sound reproduction of streaming music.
Jabra Elite 75t https://amzn.to/3juI1PQ #ad #CommissionsEarned
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Piers talks hacking with Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT. Ian continues the discussion of a range of different hacking methods, including backdoors and trapdoors, logic bombs, man-in-the-middle attacks, trojans, malware and viruses. Part 2 of a 2 part interview.
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Piers is joined by Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Ian shares his in-depth knowledge from years of teaching data security and anti-hacking courses. Topics covered include information security for businesses, public key encryption, cryptography and various kinds of hack attack. Part 1 of a 2 part interview.
**For our complete searchable backlist of over 750 science and technology podcasts, plus show notes and other resources, check out our program website beyondinfinity.com.au
A leaked database known as the Overseas Key Individual Database suggests China is collecting vast amounts of information on millions of prominent people around the world. The leak's source, Shenzhen's Zhenhua Data, stands accused of spreading disinformation and promoting conflict.
Piers talks with digital marketer Michael Simonetti about the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissions's campaign to introduce revenue sharing between local news originators and Facebook and Google. Michael thinks regulators are wasting their time trying to change the media landscape of the digital age.
Piers talks with Robert Millar, general surgeon and transplant specialist at Royal Melbourne Hospital and an original signatory of the Covid Doctors Network's open letter to the Victorian Government, which expressed serious concern with its handling of the covid pandemic. The speed and accuracy of covid testing is discussed, along with the possibility of a nano cellular microscopy test with reliable results in under a minute. Robert thinks covid eradication in Victoria is an unrealistic goal and stresses we need better contact tracing to lockdown specific areas of outbreak, rather than an economically devastating blanket shutdown for everyone. He urges better communication from government and public debate free from fear.
Read the open letter to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews here: https://www.coviddoctorsnetwork.com
Piers talks with Michael Simonetti, the founder and CEO of digital agency Andmine, about what businesses can do to survive Melbourne's severe economic shutdown. Michael says the covid pandemic has accelerated the move to digital by five years and if you're not already doing it, you need to hurry up. He advises people to work out what events they can automate and make digital in their business and says the ones who succeed are the ones who figure this out. Irreversible trends which don't end when the pandemic is over.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is pressuring Google and Facebook to support locally produced news by agreeing to pay for material that appears on their platforms. The regulator believes there is a significant power imbalance between the American tech giants and news originators. But Google and Facebook disagree. Google is warning users its popular services will be diminished, while Facebook says it will remove all news from its Australian platform.
Piers and John examine the utterly disrupted media landscape of the digital age and what's at stake.
On 31st August 2020, a group of thirteen senior Melbourne doctors signed an open letter to Victorian Premier Dan Andrews expressing deep concern with the government's handling of the corona virus pandemic. Five days later, 491 other medical practitioners, mainly from Melbourne, had added their signatures to the letter, which describes the government policy of stage 4 lockdown as “ill-focussed, heavy-handed and unjustifiable”. It calls for a more pragmatic, common sense approach.
We talk with Geoff Wells, an honorary consultant urologist at Melbourne’s Box Hill Hospital, who organised the letter. Geoff reckons the effects of prolonged isolation - depression, neglected pre-existing illnesses, increased rates of suicide and devastating financial hardship, could be worse than the corona virus itself.
(Correction: Geoff Wells of The Covid Doctors Network advises that “based on overseas studies, if you’re healthy and under 60 you have about a 1 in 150,000 chance of dying if you get Covid”. In the interview, Geoff stated under 70.)
A look back over 5 years of beyondinfinity.com.au coverage of artificial intelligence. While there are legitimate fears about misuse and abuse of the technology, there are also benefits for all humanity. This compilation includes: discussion of inceptionism and the strange art produced by artificial neural networks; quantum computing and Kurzweil's Singularity; how AI is harnessed for mass surveillance by authoritarian states; how AI "joins the dots" between scientific research papers, making connections humans have missed.
NASA's Europa Clipper mission, set to launch to Jupiter in 2024, will carry 352kg of science instruments to study the moon Europa. Under its icy surface, it's believed to have a salt water ocean containing 2-3 times all the liquid water of Earth. The rocky ocean floor could have hydrothermal vents teeming with life. Europa Clipper will use radar to peer down 30km through the ice, while other instruments 'taste' particles erupting from surface plumes. It's the first mission dedicated to learning more about this enigmatic world - long held to be one of the best places to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system.
Our resident techie John Young finally gets his hands on the top of the range Oppo smart phone. He's impressed by its large and beautiful OLED screen, underscreen fingerprint scanner, unobtrusive face unlock, 48MP Sony wide angle camera and super-fast charging. In fact, John reckons it's the best phone on the market. At the moment.
Ancestry.com, a global network with 20 billion family history records and the largest seller of home DNA testing kits, with an extensive database of DNA information, has been sold to Blackstone, one of the world's biggest private equity investment firms. But there are lingering questions over the security of private genetic data and exactly what Blackstone plans to do with the company's assets.
The world's most visionary and ambitious entrepreneur continues to exceed expectations, with the recent successful launch of astronauts to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's state-of-the-art Crew Dragon capsule and Tesla's share price up 500%. We review the past 5 years as reported on the Beyond Infinity science and technology radio show. Included is an early Musk 10-year master plan; Mars colony ambitions; Starlink broadband internet from orbit; boring under LA's traffic; recycling rockets; building the world's biggest battery in South Australia and pitching his Hyperloop transit system for Australia's East Coast.
Beyond Infinity's resident tech head John Young gives us the lowdown on Google's mesh router system. It's solved his wifi coverage issues and allows voice control throughout his house, garden and shed. He says while the Nest isn't cheap, it's an integral part of his home office set up.
Despite serious challenges on Earth, NASA has succeeded in launching the most sophisticated rover ever sent to Mars. We look at the mission's heritage of past landers, its design, radical landing system and amazing suite of new instruments. Its sample caching tools will gather and store Martian material for eventual return to Earth, paving the way for people to set foot on the Red Planet.
Piers chats with technology expert Michael Simonetti about Australia's COVIDSafe contact tracing app. How does it compare with overseas equivalents? Why has it only garnered limited public support? And why, after the initial hype, have authorities gone quiet about it? Michael reckons that perhaps they're getting the data they want from other, far more useful sources... (Part 1 of a 2 part interview)
Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer at Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, outlines the evolution of battery technology over the past 250 years. He describes how modern lithium ion batteries are getting more efficient and how solid state batteries offer an exciting future of long-range electric cars, better smart phones and pacemakers that never need changing.
We marvel at the extraordinary success of Tesla in becoming the world's most valuable car company. Meanwhile, driven by the environmental imperative of clean energy, wind and solar renewable technologies are dramatically improving. Part 1 of a 2 part interview with RMIT's Dr. Ian Storey.
Dr Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT, ties together Newton's work on mathematical physics, forces and acceleration, James Clerk Maxwell's Four Laws which approximated the fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics and Einstein's special relativity.
With America reeling from violent social unrest and the Administration's disastrous response to coronavirus, the Presidential election on Tuesday November 3 is arguably the most important in history. Here we look back over our coverage of the last 4 years - from the scientific backlash which followed soon after Trump's election in 2016, Russia's targeting of US democracy via hacking and social media, rejection of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, through to the Doomsday Clock ticking closer to midnight and breaches of security protocols at the White House.
John's been hunting for a new phone to replace his aging Pixel 2. He reckons mid-range makers are increasingly competitive with premium models and is attracted by the new high spec offering from Chinese brand Oppo. Its battery with super-fast charging, in-screen fingerprint unlock, bright amoled screen and advanced cameras compare well against the latest Samsung and Google devices. For an Oppo, it aint cheap, but is worth considering with a long list of goodies.
After presidential tweet “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” was deemed to violate Twitter Rules by glorifying violence, the White House issued an Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship which could have global ramifications and is likely to be challenged in the courts. Though he has well over 80 million followers and has fired off tens of thousands of tweets, President Trump continues to complain about anti-conservative bias on the platform.
A glaring hole in US space capability is finally filled after the safe arrival of SpaceX's new Crew Dragon at the International Space Station on 31st May 2020. Apart from the odd brief Virgin Galactic jaunt to the edge of space, it's the first time since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011 that astronauts have launched from American soil. More importantly, it's the beginning of a new era in the private development of space exploration and human spaceflight.
Here’s a ‘long form’ look at China's use of cutting-edge surveillance technology and artificial intelligence to monitor and control its population with super efficiency. An additional topic is the country's growing footprint in Antarctica.
John explains his enthusiasm for the upcoming Remarkable 2 - a large, ultra-thin E Ink tablet. Apparently the 2nd generation stylus feels just like a pencil on paper and even has an eraser. Those who pre-order get the marker, protective folio and express shipping included.
Dr Ian Storey, mathematician and lecturer in information systems at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, describes the evolution of mathematics and logic over the centuries. From the ancient Greeks' understanding of geometry through to Newton's development of calculus in the Renaissance and the connection between logic and maths in modern computer coding. Fascinating listening for anyone interested in how maths has shaped our world.
Piers and John explain how to podcast remotely on a budget. While they normally record and broadcast from Victorian station Radio Port Phillip, social distancing rules mean they've been forced to improvise and conduct interviews from home. From choosing software, microphones and outlining step-by-step workflows, this clarifies how to record quality phone conversations, edit and post to podcasting platforms.
Piers talks with Dr Ian Storey, a lecturer in Information Systems at Melbourne's RMIT, about the Federal Government's contact tracing app. While acknowledging the app can be useful in controlling the spread of the virus, Ian has doubts about privacy and data security. He reckons it was rushed out the door, relies on the security of a centralised, US-owned server and that at the moment the health benefits do not outweigh privacy concerns.
Four important biotech stories from the past two years: Interview with leading scientists on the leprosy-like Buruli ulcer outbreak in southeastern Australia; Taming drug-resistant superbugs; Deadly fungus Candida Auris spreading around the world; Effective vaccination against influenza.
Piers discusses the Australian Government's new CovidSafe app with digital marketer Michael Simonetti. Will enough people use the virus tracking app? What are the privacy considerations? And if we're all on Facebook, does it even matter? Is this expensive, high-tech app solution really any more effective than New Zealand's paper and pen contact diary approach? To understand the issues at stake, Michael reckons we need to educate ourselves about the technology.
Piers talks with Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT, about the virus, economic shocks, the future of work and growing pressure to wind back social isolation. Ian offers mathematical insights into exponential viral spread and human response to risk. We discuss privacy issues of the Australian Government's mooted Covid-19 tracking app and worsening post-pandemic financial prospects for millennials. Ian reckons we're going to need something akin to the 1930s New Deal in America - if that's possible...
When Australia's emerges from the the Covid-19 shutdown, the country will need some big infrastructure projects. Here are three high tech projects announced in 2019: Elon Musk's Hyperloop for the East Coast; Uber Air pilotless drone transport from Melbourne CBD to Tullamarine airport; the Sun Cable project to harness outback solar energy for South East Asia.
Piers talks with Michael Simonetti, CEO of digital marketing agency AndMine, about the redefined business landscape we find ourselves in amid a global pandemic. Michael explains how his clients are dealing with challenging trading conditions and offers important advice on companies' relationships with their customers: If we're all in this together, then HOW? We also talk about online education for kids, working from home and helping the elderly get digitally connected.
Several space missions have been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic. And it's especially sad for Mars-bound spacecraft, as the next launch window is not for 2 years. Delayed missions include: James Webb Space telescope; Artemis manned lunar landing; SLS and Orion; ExoMars. Current European orbiters Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter have been placed in stand-by mode. In addition, SpaceX has closed facilities; Bigelow Aerospace is in financial trouble; ALMA telescopes in Chile are closed. But NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, UAE's Hope orbiter and a Chinese lander and orbiter will launch to Mars mid-year, as planned.
John gives us a rundown on how he's set himself up to do his office job from his house. He talks productivity, software, servers; the importance of routine, improvisation and sanity. It's far from ideal, but also far from impossible.
Musings on a planet changed with blinding speed and our shared futures. Quotes from an Italian author in isolation and a fantasy classic hatched in the darkest days of World War 2.
Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes outlines his career – from study at Cambridge with Hawking and how myopia led to his invention of the parking sensor through to the philosophy of science and what Australia must do to become a nation of innovators. Tony also talks neuroplasticity and how our 'plastic brains' can adapt to trauma and overcome disability.
The Parking Sensor, originally called, ReverseAid, was a spin-off from the Sonic Pathfinder – an Electronic Guidance Device for the Blind. Both devices were invented in the late 1970s by Dr Tony Heyes while working at the Blind Mobility Research Unit at Nottingham University in the UK. After patenting the device in 1983 Heyes offered it to Jaguar Cars in Coventry. After test driving the prototype on Heyes’s car they very politely told him that, “You like it because you are a one eyed driver who cannot judge distances. Real people would not want a thing like this.”
Activist Simon Mulvany pursued his passions through very effective use of social media. He explains how he engaged with both fans and foes to build big followings on Facebook and Instagram. Simon is adamant the importance and benefits of free speech outweigh risks of defamation.
Activist Simon Mulvany built up big followings on Facebook and Instagram and used his influence to crowd fund an expensive legal battle, mobilise opinion with various online petitions and raise awareness about food safety and truth in advertising. Here he explains how he pursued his passions through effective use of social media.
Melbourne dentist fights 'unfair' anonymous online reviews; Tapping big data to predict and prevent suicide; Fancy a fake steak??; NASA's new tech enabling targeted Perseverance rover landing at dangerous Martian crater; Controversial TikTok muscling into music streaming?
We chat with beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany about the need for more clarity on Australian food packaging, which allows consumers to make informed and healthy choices at the supermarket. Knowing details of country of origin is a right, not a privilege.
The legal battle that has ground on for years between beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany and Capilano Honey (now Hive and Wellness Australia) is finally over. Relieved and philosophical, Simon discusses the outcome of his struggle, what he's achieved and the lessons learned. And he's positive about the future: he's just raised over $50,000 for bushfire-effected beekeepers and reckons there's a book to be written about his journey so far.
https://www.beethecure.com.au/emergency-fundraiser/
CSIRO has found a way of capturing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere using sponge-like metal-organic frameworks. The project, called Airthena, can be scaled up and used in a wide variety of industrial applications, including making fizzy drinks.
Mars is a busy place in 2020. Four more spacecraft are set to blast off to the red planet: Mars 2020 rover from NASA, the ExoMars Europe/Russia rover, a small Chinese rover and the Hope orbiter from the United Arab Emirates. The Hope Mars Mission is an effort to gain the technical know how to further the UAE's space capabilities and symbolise hope for all young Arabs.
In groundbreaking legal action, a Melbourne dentist has persuaded the Federal Court of Australia to ask Google for a damaging online business review to be removed. Reform and redress of anonymous business reviews is urgently needed.
More than 10% of the world’s entire human population is in lock down. We outline the World Health Organisation's recommendations at a time of rising fears of a global viral pandemic. We discuss the benefits and issues of the quarantine process, asymptomatic spreading of the disease and the need for good personal and respiratory hygiene by travelers.
John reports that the latest 'flip phone' from Motorola is a lemon. He says it suffers from poor durability, screen flickering, green lines and squeaks when opening and closing. For US$1500 you might get 18 months out of it. As big a fail as the Galaxy Fold debacle...
Our digital fingerprints are everywhere. Big data allows all sorts of insights into human behaviour - some for good, some ill. Researchers at the University of Virginia reckon the language of text messaging may one day enable medicos to foresee increased risk of suicide.
Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are teaming up to create the Global Developer Service Alliance. It'll provide a platform for international developers to upload apps to all of their app stores and is a direct assault on the dominance of the Google Play store.
Sunday February 9, 2020 saw the successful launch of an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral carrying Solar Orbiter on a ground-breaking mission to the Sun. The mainly European spacecraft is bristling with instruments to study the heliosphere, hazardous coronal mass ejections and help scientists understand our star's 11 year activity cycle.
The US Department of Justice accused San Francisco startup Practice Fusion of creating software to increase pain med prescriptions by medical practitioners. The company, which provided software to thousands of doctors' offices, settled for US$145 million.
An expensive new treatment promises gradually to protect allergic children from accidental exposure to small amounts of peanuts.
A look at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the amazing astrophysics research taking place above and below the ice. The observatory is looking for neutrinos - enigmatic subatomic particles that permeate the universe. It involves over 300 scientists at 52 institutions in 12 countries.
As its July 2020 launch date approaches, more information is coming to light about NASA's sophisticated new rover headed for Mars. Expect to see hi-res colour video of the entry, descent and landing sequence from multiple viewpoints, including the sky crane maneuver and touch down. There's also a new super-precise landing navigation system which can steer the rover away from dangerous obstacles it sees during descent. Terrain-relative navigation (TRN) allows for a highly targeted landing in Jezero crater - an extremely rugged, yet scientifically valuable site.
Imagine a super-advanced civilisation capable of building on a galactic scale, enjoying complete mastery of the most exotic laws of physics. You'll need to think big, like Dr. Albert Jackson at Triton Systems in Houston, whose paper 'A Neutrino Beacon' offers a new take on alien megastructures.
As Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, once wrote: “When we look into the universe for signs of artificial activities, it is technology and not intelligence that we must search for. It would be much more rewarding to search directly for intelligence, but technology is the only thing we have any chance of seeing.”
Software experts, including our own John Young, are urging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10 as a decade of support for 7 winds up. It's estimated well over 20% of all PC users are still running the aging operating system, leaving them exposed to risks of hacking, ransomware and data loss.
San Diego start-up BlueNalu has found a way to make a plant-based fillet of yellowfish. Crucially, the lab-made seafood can be cooked by direct heat without disintegrating. Scaling up to commercial quantities will be a big challenge.
With bushfires still burning out of control in South Eastern Australia, the nation's capital Canberra was hit by an ice storm, damaging thousands of cars and buildings. Wildlife and trees have also been pounded.
The bushfire emergency has killed over a billion animals and decimated national parks and old growth forests. Now seems a good time to listen again to our in-depth interview on anthropogenic climate change with Professor David Karoly, recorded in 2016. We discuss global warming, its impacts and implications for the planet.
The podcast includes an update on the enormous and tragic losses of native flora and fauna in Australia, plus how to donate and support recovery efforts.
With 1.5% of Australia's land mass burnt in disastrous bushfires - an area bigger than Scotland - and 1.25 billion animals lost, we revisit an in-depth interview we did in 2016 with leading climatologist Professor David Karoly. He spoke about human-induced climate change, its impacts and implications for the planet.
There are mounting fears about foreign-made apps hoovering up sensitive personal data. The proposed National Security and Personal Data Protection Act would try to stop foreign app owners from collecting any more data from American users than is necessary to provide their service.
Fossilised Antarctic seashells show the planet was unstable, warmed by intense volcanism, long before it was smashed by the notorious space rock impact 66 million years ago.
New measurement methods show that pieces of plastic smaller than 5 mm in diameter are scarily common. Microplastics are entering all parts of the marine ecosystem. If we eat any kind of fish, we are likely ingesting toxic microscopic plastic. Things must change.
Library Genesis and Sci-Huh have evolved into very popular and massive repositories of pirated scientific papers. Now there are moves to formalise and protect the "pirate bays" of science.
Metallosphaera sedula is a single-celled organism and hails from some of the earliest life forms on Earth. Now scientists think this metal-eating extremophile could help extract minerals from space rock or even find signs of life on Mars.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk successfully fended off a monster US$190 million defamation lawsuit brought by UK cave diver Vernon Unsworth. In a far-reaching decision, an LA court found that tweets are merely casual conversation and opinions, and should not be taken too seriously.
After serving a lengthy jail term, a German criminal wants Der Spiegel Online to remove his name from archived references on its website.
When you buy a smart phone in China, your face will be imaged and the biometric data kept by the government.
Though Google search, thanks to its sheer size, offers the best search available on the Net, users must accept that it will store their IP addresses and user information. They must also accept tracking, tailored ads and suggestions to use Google products like Maps and YouTube. For most purposes, Duck Duck Go provides an acceptable search alternative, albeit without the tracking.
'AC 75' hydro foiling monohulls, capable of sailing at over 50 knots from wind power alone, will compete for the Auld Mug in Auckland. But there are concerns over crew safety, susceptibility to capsize and how they'll handle before getting up on to their foils.
After concluding a national drone noise review, the Australian Federal Government has come under fire from Google-linked Wing, a delivery drone operator. The Feds want to hand responsibility for drone noise to the states, which may result in an uncertain and inconsistent regulatory environment.
A new music streaming service from TikTok's parent company Bytedance could challenge Spotify's market dominance. It aims to capitalise on the massive and growing popularity of TikTok to encourage sharing and virality among music lovers, with emphasis on video and interactivity.
Doctors at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have used emergency preservation and resuscitation (EPR) to place critically ill patients in suspended animation. EPR involves lowering body temperature to 10-15C, by replacing all the body's blood with ice cold saline, for up to 2 hours, thereby buying time for life-saving surgery.
Australian billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest are lead investors in a project to build an enormous solar power plant near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, plus a 4,500 km long interconnector to supply clean energy to SE Asia.
In an important opinion on privacy at borders, US District Court Judge Denise Casper ruled that device searches without probable cause are in violation of the 4th Amendment. She held that people have significant privacy interests in their digital data and that device searches require reasonable suspicion from border officials.
The Air Force has completed an upgrade to its Strategic Automated Command and Control System whereby its 1960s era 8-inch floppy disk system was replaced with a solid state digital storage solution. Yet America's ICBMs may wind up being less secure from hackers.
A new report from Australia's peak science and technology agency says artificial intelligence will be vital to the future of healthcare, natural resource management and the built environment. Data61's roadmap says more jobs will be created than lost, with digital technologies potentially worth AUD$315 billion to the local economy by 2030. By the same year, AI could be worth AUD$22.17 trillion to the global economy.
The River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve in South Australia is a massive 3000 square kilometres in area and, with some of the darkest skies on the planet, is a star-gazers paradise. Only the 15th location to receive such status, viewers can feast their eyes on the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, which cannot be seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
The Eye in the Sky program, a drone surveillance system developed in India and the UK, uses artificial intelligence to provide early warning of violent actions in large crowds. But there are concerns about privacy and abuse of the technology.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority will block illegal offshore gambling websites. It's part of an effort to counter the growing problem of unscrupulous and unlicensed operators which don't pay up if you win, charge hidden fees and are involved with credit card fraud.
Concerned about adverse social effects, the government is introducing strict limits on the amount of time (and money) spent gaming by young people. But just how will it know the age of an online gamer?
If you lose 1 kg of body weight, where does it go? Physicist Dr Tony Heyes explains why the amount you eat is far more important to your weight than what you eat. With thanks to Ruben Meerman and Radio National's 'Ockham's Razor'.
John's comprehensive critique of the much-leaked new Pixel smart phone. It has an impressive camera, with great low-light capabilities, but disappoints in other key areas like battery life and the lack of integration of Face Unlock into tap and go payment. He was considering an upgrade from his Pixel 2 but is adamant it won't be to this iteration of Google's device.
An Australian ex-pat was forced to reveal passwords and give Customs officials access to his digital devices on arrival at Adelaide airport. His phone contained intimate material of his partner. The man claims this breach of his privacy has cost him his relationship and has vowed never to return to Australia.
Launched in 2004, Google's web-based mail service has over a billion users. Many are getting closer to using up their free 15GB of storage, partly due to sharing the trillion plus images taken each year, not to mention 4K videos. And many users don't want to lose their email addresses or the archived email messages they have, so they will start paying Google for extra storage. This will add billions of dollars to the tech behemoth's bulging coffers and draw users away from other cloud services.
Physicist Dr Tony Heyes tells how the Serbian polymath Milutin Milankovic, interned in Budapest during World War 1, studied long-term climate change on Earth and showed the profound influence of axial tilt and orbital precession. We also discuss how active geology enhances the chance of life developing on planets.
A French-Australian study finds the way your muscle groups work together is unique. Like your iris, fingerprints and voice, your gait is an example of the immutable exceptionalism that makes you you. This insight may one day help identify you at a border crossing, but could also help with designing better prostheses, physical therapy and robotics.
In this fascinating discussion, Physicist Dr Tony Heyes explains the background and importance of the 1960s scientific revolution which became known as plate tectonics. He describes the roles played by German researcher Alfred Wegener and English geophysicist Frederick Vine in realising that it wasn't just a coincidence that the West coast of Africa and the East coast of South America have a similar shape and look like they might once have neatly fit together. Tony also explains geomagnetic pole reversals and the long-term cycles which influence climate and cause ice ages.
After much procrastination, there's a space agency Downunder. And an Aussie satellite was launched from the ISS to study Earth's thermosphere. PLUS, Breakthrough Starshot aims to achieve 20% of the speed of light and go interstellar; The Kepler Space Telescope revealed weather on an exoplanet.
The SpaceX founder's plans for a regular shuttle service to the Red Planet; NASA's electromagnetic propulsion system confounds the experts. PLUS, resistance to new technologies and how automation could threaten half of Australian jobs.
A look back at various stories we've done on the Social Network: UK kids disenchanted; The Zuck faces Congress; Queensland Uni study finds limiting time on FB lowers stress; Naming and shaming on FB; Does FB make you unhappy?
We discuss whether algorithm-generated music is any good. Is it creative or a strange perversion of the senses? We don't know, but still manage friendly conversation about London-based AI musicians Auxuman (or is it 'auxiliary human'?)
In a blow to Facebook's nascent Libra crypto project, online payments giant PayPal has decided to "forgo further participation... and to focus on advancing existing mission and business priorities". With doubts over regulatory approval, will other Libra associates follow suit?
The second known comet to travel through our solar system from interstellar space has been detected by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov. Not much is known yet about this exotic object which is streaking by at over 110,000 kmh. But like its predecessor the cigar-shaped metallic Oumuamua, it's stimulating plenty of speculation about its composition and origins.
Hedge funds have for several years been using a trading strategy from outer space. Satellite speculators count cars, watch crops grow and follow oil inventories from on high and use this information to make significant gains playing equity markets. The question is: Is this fair?
A new Chinese-made camera has 4 times the resolution of the human eye and can individually identify people in a crowd of tens of thousands. Its development is of concern to civil libertarians and others worried about how this supercam can feed vast amounts of data into China's burgeoning social credit system.
Piers talks with leading experts on Buruli ulcers Professor Tim Stinear of the Doherty Institute and Professor Paul Johnson, Director of Research at Austin Health. While they acknowledge gaps in their understanding, they explain the spread of the disease from Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula to the Mornington Peninsula and why they believe mosquitos are the likely link from possums which carry the bacteria to humans.
More: https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/infectious-diseases/beating-buruli
Fully operational in 2020, the comprehensive, AI-driven corporate ranking system will cover 33 million companies, both local and international. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China has described it as "the most concerted attempt by any government to impose a self-regulating market place and it could spell life or death for individual companies".
John describes changes to the relaunched Fold but still has doubts about Samsung's expensive tablet-in-a-phone. PLUS, the super high spec flagship phone from Huawei is seriously hampered by limited access to Google core services.
Australia's prime minister signs deal to be part of America's ambitious plans for the Moon and Mars; hopes to grow local space industry. Meanwhile, Russia and China agree to jointly explore the Moon and create shared deep space data centres.
John explains how Google Drive can delete your data due to account inactivity, even if you're paying for the service. We look at the benefits and risks of cloud-based data back-up and comparative pricing of different offerings.
After a four year legal battle, the world's biggest selling car maker has agreed to pay Aussies caught up in its emissions scandal up to AUD127.1 million, or about $1400 per car. Co-presenter John Young, who used to own a diesel VW, gives us his thoughts.
Bigelow Aerospace could provide NASA with its B330 space habitat to use as the Lunar Gateway space station. If selected, it would form an integral part of the Artemis Program to land people on the Moon's south pole in 2024.
Production costs are falling dramatically and the day may come when a fast food burger is made by a machine, instead of a cow. There will also be massive environmental benefits of such ethical eating.
At long last, the world's search giant is taking steps to favour the originators of true journalism in its search result rankings over aggregators, plagiarists and retweeting parrots. This is a potential win for dedicated investigative reporters, smaller publishers and all those resisting the tide of fake news and misinformation poisoning real debate and open, constructive discussion.
Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation are mourning the failure of their Vikram lander and Pragyan rover which targeted the Moon's south pole and its large stores of water ice. Fortunately, the Chandrayaan 2 mother ship made it into lunar orbit, with a sophisticated suite of instruments including the highest resolution camera ever to scrutinise the surface.
Version 69.0 of the popular browser has enhanced tracking protection, which significantly improves users' privacy. It has ad blocking as its default, blocks autoplay and runs on all platforms, whether mobile or desktop.
Smart home devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Nest are super handy but do come with some security risks. There are now 50 million in use in America, with 21% of adults owning them and sales are booming. Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) is calling for a new generation of digital privacy laws to protect people's private conversations at home from being recorded without permission.
We look at the effects of the accelerating trade war on consumer spending on everyday items in America, in particular on the pricing of Chinese-made devices from Apple.
See for yourself just how comprehensive new tariffs are at ustr.gov
From The Vault: The Best Of Beyond Infinity. The first time one spacecraft orbited two separate objects in our solar system was NASA's pioneering DAWN mission to Vesta and Ceres. PLUS: Planet X - the hunt for the elusive 9th planet; and the JUNO spacecraft's hairy encounter with the gas giant Jupiter.
From The Vault: The Best Of Beyond Infinity. Honey and Bees. Cedar Anderson talks development of the Flowhive, his gadget which gives "honey on tap" and his wildly successful social media campaign that made it a worldwide hit. PLUS: Bee experts Simon Mulvany and Ben Moore on the challenges facing the honey bee industry in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, and the banning of neonicitinoids.
A recent Michigan State University study published in the Journal of Behavioural Addictions suggests that heavy social media users act in a way not dissimilar to cocaine or heroin addicts.
Newly developed at the Institute of Technology in Madras, iron-ion batteries are safe, clean and stable. They can't be recharged as many times as lithium-ion batteries, but for specific uses they offer advantages.
If it passes a final vote in the Senate, California's AB5 bill will force companies like Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Postmates to classify workers as employees, not independent contractors. This fundamental challenge to a beloved business model of Silicon Valley could seriously effect bottom line profitability.
US tech giants are cracking down on misuse of their platforms. Twitter recently closed 200,000 fake accounts from China and Google has taken action against government-backed hacking attempts, issuing an update titled "Maintaining the integrity of our platforms".
Hollywood is embracing the latest VFX techniques to accurately depict what actors looked like when they were much younger. Ang Lee's 'Gemini Man' and Scorsese's 'The Irishman' showcase the incredible (and very expensive) tools filmmakers now have at their disposal.
Billions of CCTV cameras now monitor cities across the world but don't necessarily result in big reductions in crime or improvements in public safety. What they do provide is a data bonanza for governments, anxious to keep ever closer tabs on 'their' people.
The whole country is revelling in the wonders of science and the achievements of Aussie scientists. From 10-18 August, there are over 1000 events for kids, uni students, citizen scientists and the general public. We discuss why National Science Week is important and offer a taste of what's happening.
The Republican Senator for Missouri says social media is "a parasite on productive investment, on meaningful relationships and a healthy society". His latest salvo against Facebook et al, the Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act, aims to curb social media addiction.
Artificial intelligence has been proven to fast track technical breakthroughs and human progress by sifting through millions of scientific papers, finding connections that humans may have missed. But the need for explainability is vital yet not always available from AI analysis.
The Feds are moving to clamp down on Google and Facebook - to protect citizens' privacy and online security; to more effectively tax tech giants; to even de-monopolise. BUT, just as we may not trust the commercial holders of big data, can we trust our government?
Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast find that bone spurs at the back of the neck could be caused by long-term smart phone use, especially among young people.
Popular Russian-based FaceApp uses machine learning and facial recognition technology to show how you might look when you're older. But what else is being done with your precious biometric data, once you've clicked 'Agree' to all the T's&C's?
The US space agency will launch a nuclear-powered drone to the solar system's second largest moon to fly between multiple locations over hundreds of kilometers, take samples and look for prebiotic chemistry. Called 'Dragonfly', the mission will image the surface, gather weather data and perform seismic studies to detect subsurface activity and structure.
NASA wants to gradually commercialise the International Space Station and is offering 2 paying visitors up to 30 days each on board at US$35K a night. If this sounds cheap, you might want to consider your transport costs, which come in at US$58 million for the round trip.
New Zealand is one of the most ambitious and advanced users in the Western world of artificial intelligence to streamline government decision-making. But there are concerns about the need for explainability.
A dangerous and hard-to-treat ulcer is spreading among residents and visitors on the Mornington Peninsula. The Victorian Government and health authorities are scrambling to understand the enigmatic bacteria which causes infection. To restrict a possible disease vector, an extensive 'fogging' campaign may be used to target mosquitos from October. But activist Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia has grave concerns about the effects of pesticides on bees and other insects. His petition on change.org garnered well over 8000 signatures in 3 days.
A staggering 350 million litres of recycled water is pumped from Gunnamatta beach, just south of Melbourne, into Bass Strait every day. The Hinterland Environmental Water Scheme aims to purify this water and redirect it to nearby farming hinterland. HEWS board members Russell Joseph and Alana Jones argue the case for better use of a precious resource on the Mornington Peninsula.
A staggering 350 million litres of recycled water is pumped into the ocean off Victoria's Mornington Peninsula every day. The Hinterland Environmental Water Scheme aims to further purify this water and redirect it to nearby farming areas. We chat to HEWS board members Russell Joseph and Alana Jones about this exciting proposal, which has recently attracted Federal Government funding.
Companies claiming to be able to crack iPhone security measures for law enforcement are getting more commercial and now openly tout their services.
Some say Sir Fred Hoyle, an English astronomer famed for his work on nucleosynthesis, the process by which elements are created within stars, was not an easy man to get along with. Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes discusses Sir Fred's theories, collaborations and controversies. He reckons he deserved, and should have received, the Nobel Prize.
Some say Sir Fred Hoyle, an English astronomer famed for his work on nucleosynthesis, the process by which elements are created within stars, was not an easy man to get along with. Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes discusses Sir Fred's theories, collaborations, and controversies; concluding he deserved, and should have received the Nobel Prize.
An app-based 'deadbeat debtors' map can warn users if they're in close proximity of anyone on a government financial blacklist. It's another way pressure is applied to those who fall foul of China's powerful social credit system.
Whether it's antibiotics polluting the world's major rivers, illicit drugs - especially ice - showing up in sewerage processing facilities or excrement on our beaches, the world's waterways are increasingly under threat from human effluent.
Simon Young, founder and CEO of Lithodomos VR, updates us on his company's exciting expansion into museums around the world, where you can put on VR goggles and plunge into what life was really like thousands of years ago. He explains how the Lithodomos Explore app gives access to the company's large library of historical landmarks exactly as they were, in VR or panoramic 360 mode.
(As a gift to Beyond Infinity listeners, keep an ear out for the Lithodomos Explore app's complementary access code!)
Uber names Melbourne, Australia as the first market for Uber Air outside the US, after Dallas and New York. Riders could get from the CBD to the airport in 12 minutes for about the same price as an Uber X. Testing from now and beginning services in 2023, subject to regulatory approval.
"Imagine this for a second....whoever controls the data controls the future" - thus didn't speak the Zuck... but it's hard to tell when his speech and face are faked. PLUS: the global social experiment of putting a smart phone in billions of hands and totally addicting everyone rolls on, with barely known (and scary) consequences.
The tech giant is taking a stand to force Chrome browsers to view its ads. But will people just switch to the faster-loading Firefox, which allows ad blocking add-ons?
Big improvements are on the way for the popular navigation service, including the ability to quickly report car accidents and traffic hazards, speed camera locations, local speed limits across 40 countries and AR-assisted navigation for walkers.
Looks like heart disease drug Ticagrelor could double as a new kind of antibiotic that's effective against drug-resistant bacteria.
Physicist Dr Tony Heyes explains the equation inscribed on Stephen Hawking's grave in Westminster Abbey and how it refers to the temperature of a black hole. And it wasn't the equation the late eminent physicist, mathematician and author had wished for.
John explains what happened when thousands of attempts, possibly originating in the Russian Federation, were made to break into our program website beyondinfinity.com.au. It's an unfortunate sign of the times and a salutary reminder of the importance of security awareness and vigilance.
Mark Sirangelo, Special Assistant to the NASA Administrator, was hired to get America back to the Moon in 2024. He resigned just 6 weeks into the job, after Congress knocked back extra funding for the effort. A 21st century manned lunar landing continues to recede into the distant future due to political infighting, budget constraints and confusion over long-term plans for American human spaceflight.
10,000 computers operated by City Hall continue to be locked up in a ransomware scandal that has exposed just how unprepared Baltimore is to cyber attack. Parking fines can't be processed, houses can't be sold, bills remain unpaid and public services have been curtailed. There is no data back up, no insurance and no budget to even pay the ransom.
Early investors in blockchain start-up Block.One stand to make 6,500% in 3 years care of a buyback. But some are hanging in there, believing "the success story is just beginning". The company boasts its technology will put ownership of data back in the hands of users and it will soon announce a social media product.
Researchers at Washington State University have invented an environmentally-friendly foam made from nanocrystals of cellulose that is a better insulator than polystyrene.
Adobe has warned Creative Cloud users they're no longer licensed to use older versions of the popular software and could be sued if they do so.
Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes offers his thoughts on the now famous image obtained of the super massive black hole at the centre of neighbouring galaxy M87. It was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope, a planet-wide array of eight ground-based radio telescopes and released in April 2019.
The wireless technology is incredibly useful and integrated into a host of devices, but the underlying specifications run to 3000 pages and are almost unintelligible. There are security vulnerabilities, especially for business and corporations. And the advice for everyday users: turn Bluetooth off when not in use.
Josiah Zayner live streamed injecting himself with gene editing compound CRISR at a biotech conference. He sells DIY CRISPR and other biohacking paraphernalia on his website The Odin. Now he's being investigated by Consumer Affairs in California for practicing medicine without a license.
We chat with physicist Dr.Tony Heyes about new Hubble Space Telescope data which seem to suggest that dark energy is somehow involved in speeding up and slowing down the expansion of the universe.
In 1869, Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev formulated his periodic table which revolutionised how we see the world by ordering elements according to their atomic weight. Retired scientist Dr. Tony Heyes offers his thoughts on this vital scientific landmark.
Two developers offered a warning to others at this year's Game Developers Conference: making a buck out of gaming apps shouldn't just be a race to the bottom (even though they made money with minimal effort).
US Senator Josh Hawley wants to ban the sale of loot boxes in games targeted at children under the age of 18. He considers addictive games to be manipulative and exploitative, "siphoning kids attention from the real world".
The US government wants to send people back to the Moon by 2024 and Jeff Bezos welcomes the plan. His rocket company Blue Origin could help with the task and has a big lunar lander called Blue Moon under development.
In the future, AI may decide if you are really you at passport control. AI, facial recognition, iris and fingerprint scans and other biometric data will be used to streamline immigration processing. At least until the system crashes or is hacked.
If you were after a log of a phone with ultra long battery life, Energizer's 18,000 mAh battery-with-a-phone-in-it isn't made for you, after failing miserably with its Indiegogo crowd funding attempt.
Search engine DuckDuckGo proposes a new law which would compel big internet companies like Google and Facebook to honour your browser preferences with regard to tracking. If you select "do not track", then this will actually happen, rather than being ignored.
Three containers of sealed moon rocks will soon be opened 50 years after they were collected by Apollo astronauts. Scientists are hoping that modern lab analysis will yield new information about the early history of the Earth-Moon system.
After a 2 year international investigation, the dark net's biggest drug marketplace has been closed. The sophisticated operation was being run out of New Jersey by three men. When their property was raided, police made the largest pill seizure in New Jersey history.
Prolific Chinese Android App developer DO Global has been banned from the Google Play store after being caught out committing ad fraud and violating other Google policies. This is a serious embarrassment for Google, which has suffered reputational damage to the core of its advertising-based business model.
China and others are rapidly expanding their presence in Antarctica - not just for scientific purposes. There are now 80 international bases with several new ones under construction. Will the 1959 Antarctic Treaty continue to restrict activity in the world's last pristine wilderness? And is Australia's 42% sovereign claim to the continent at risk?
The ride-sharing juggernaut has revised down the value it proposes for its initial public offering by about 30%, to between US$80.5 to US$91.5 billion. This follows sharp falls in recently listed rival Lyft since its IPO. There are concerns over intensifying competition, high operating costs and the fact that since launching services in July 2010, Uber is yet to make a profit.
Israeli scientists have succeeded in printing a mini heart the size of a cherry tomato, complete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers. Engineered with bio-ink made from the tissue of patients.
Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that botox and cosmetic surgery can prevent facial expression mimicry between people and even prevent emotions and empathetic thoughts. The loss of minute facial movements could result in disconnection from your feelings and those of others.
Age-verification for online pornography will come into force on 15 July 2019 in the UK. It's an effort to protect minors from stumbling across explicit material and is a worthy goal, but there are questions about privacy, data security and whether it's technically viable.
A Russian start up has grand plans to place artificial constellations of cubesats in orbit to promote Pepsi's Adrenaline Rush energy drink. The coordinated swarm would light up as a giant billboard visible from Earth. Aiming to launch in 2021, $20,000 could buy 8 hours of night sky advertising.
In a PR disaster reminiscent of the Galaxy Note 7 snafu, the South Korean tech behemoth has indefinitely postponed the public release of its latest bendable smart phone-come-tablet after reviewers around the world reported breakages and basic quality issues with the very expensive gadget.
Despite assurances it's secure and your privacy is protected, sources claim that in addition to software and AI responding to your Alexa voice commands, there are humans listening back at Amazon.
Is blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin and other crypto currrencies, just a passing fad or can it have long-term benefits for Australian industry and employment? A comprehensive report has just been released by the Australian Computer Society called 'Blockchain 2030: A Look At The Future Of Blockchain In Australia' which strives to shed light on this question. One thing is certain though - billions of dollars of investment is now being made by those who believe in a blockchain blockbuster future.
The Event Horizon Telescope, a huge effort of more than 200 scientists who synchronised 8 different telescopes around the world, has directly imaged a black hole for the first time. Located at the heart of galaxy Messier 87, it is 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass some 6.5 billion times that of our Sun.
The Human Research Program is NASA's comprehensive effort to enable safe and productive travel for people in space. Now retired identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly took part in a year long mission to closely compare changes in their bodies. Scott spent more than 300 days aboard the ISS, while Mark remained on Earth. Both submitted to regular checks of their immune systems, genetics, bone formation, gut bacteria, the effects of vaccines, radiation and biochemical changes. The information recorded will be used for years to come to understand how to make a return journey to Mars survivable.
Launched from Norway, NASA's Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment dropped gases through aurora borealis to better understand the interaction of Earth's ionoshere with particles from outer space.
The new video game streaming service will start in late 2019. It'll run on the Chrome browser, will "state share" via YouTube and, depending on available bandwidth, promises lots of great hi-def games without the need for local storage.
Antibiotics were introduced in the 1940s and have saved countless lives from deadly infections. Now drug-resistant super bugs are becoming more prevalent, preying on the weak and infirm. This is largely due to massive over-use of antibiotics in farming and the third world.
From solid state data storage and back-up through to dash cams and smart plugs, we rack our brains for the most indispensable and affordable consumer devices out there. For detailed product info and to send feedback to us, head to http://beyondinfinity.com.au
UK scientists at Imperial College London are working on a synthetic alcohol substitute which promises many of the joys of grog, minus the hang-over or physical harm.
A slew of new, highly capable robots can now do amazing things. The latest factory robot, the Handle, can handle heavy boxes with ease and neatly stack pallets.
In addition to hunting for microbes, testing oxygen production and caching rock cores, NASA's next big rover will carry a small solar-powered helicopter. If this technology demonstrator is successful, expect to see more helicopter drones exploring the surface of the red planet.
The lawless wild west internet has failed. Now is the time to introduce tough, binding global regulations of social platforms. And with the prospect of monster fines and even prosecution of top executives, Mark Zuckerberg agrees that there should be laws controlling Facebook content.
In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, law makers around the world are focused on how to control the spread of extremism and objectionable material on social media. But can it be done and what will be the effect on the internet as a whole?
Rolling out in 2020, 5G mobile technology promises to be super fast, with minimum speeds of 100mbs. But you'll need a new 5G compatible device and a pretty robust data plan to handle the speed. If you only have 10 gigabytes of data a month, you could easily get through this in under a minute!
Spotify has complained to the European Commission that Apple's AppStore rules "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation" and asked the regulator to take action to guarantee fair competition. Apple has countered that "Spotify's aim is to make more money off others' work" and that it under-pays artists.
The Disinformation and 'Fake News' Final Report has been published on parliament.uk. It is scathing of social media platforms, especially Facebook's role in illegally influencing democratic elections and referenda in Britain, going back to 2014. The Commons Select Committee calls for tough modern regulations and far more law enforcement oversight of social media companies, with heavy penalties for breaches.
A ripping yarn about the hugely successful New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, by Alan Stern, principal investigator and astrobiologist David Grinspoon. After 25 years of painstaking work, scientists involved were astounded to find that the icy world has been geologically active throughout its four billion year history. No wonder they say that Pluto is the new Mars!
To highlight potential advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence, a website called thispersondoesnotexist.com displays believable images of AI generated people who don't exist. Meanwhile, OpenAI's GPT2 "deep fakes for text" can produce believable stories with no connection to reality or truth, revealing AI's mastery and comprehension of language. And 'Summit', the world's most powerful super computer, is using machine learning to help with long-term weather forecasting and earlier warnings of storms and floods.
Russia wants a 'kill switch' on its internet connection to the outside world to protect it from cyber attack, while Australian political parties have been targeted in a sophisticated hack into parliamentary servers by a so-called state actor.
A study by the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona suggests that Mars could still be geologically alive. Researchers think a suspected lake beneath the south pole could only be kept liquid by a hot magma chamber. Internal heating raises the chance of finding underground life.
A study of 14 and 15 year old teenagers by the UK's venerable Royal Society finds no link between violent video games and acts of violence in the real world.
After a good showing as an independent candidate in the 2018 Victorian state election for the seat of Nepean, Simon now intends to run for the seat of Flinders in the upcoming federal election to be held in May. He gives his thoughts on the fate of the incumbent, health minister Greg Hunt.
Simon gives the low down on his recent activism, including the removal of Capilano's Allowrie branded honey from supermarket shelves. He goes through several different retail honey brands and offers his thoughts and concerns. He has a campaign to crowd fund German lab tests to determine exactly what retail honeys contain, explaining the tests would look for neonicitinoids, antibiotics, fungicides and glyphosate. Simon also gives us a state by state run down of the health of the bee industry in Australia.
Verily, part of Alphabet, is creating algorithms which use machine learning to create completely new medical insight, without human direction. One use is to analyse eye scans to make accurate predictions about a person's risk of heart attack.
Recent studies using advanced brain scanning techniques are revealing new details of how LSD effects different parts of the brain. These insights could be important in the development of new medicines.
Big companies like Samsung and KFC are curtailing their use of single use plastic and moving towards recyclable and biodegradable packaging materials. Hawaii and Bali are moving to get in on the act too by banning plastics for food and water in an effort to clean up their environment.
Coinciding with Safer Internet Day which aims to create a better internet for young people, Google releases a new Chrome feature that warns about compromised logins.
The Amazon CEO and world's richest man faces personal embarrassment over leaked sexting with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. But the matter has widened into a massive political scandal, with accusations the Saudis and Trump are involved.
Cyber security experts say the world's democracies should fear the development of artificial intelligence as a means to automate control in authoritarian states.
2844 people were surveyed after giving up Facebook for a month. Many reported increased personal happiness, less extreme political views and more time spent disconnected from the internet. A large number reportedly stayed off social media after the survey was over.
The Swiss Blue Brain Project aims to create biologically detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of rat, and ultimately human brains. Aided by super computers, the project provides a radically new approach to understanding the multilevel structure and function of the brain.
Efforts intensify to revive the Opportunity rover, silent on Mars since June 2018; the InSight lander deploys instruments to study the Martian interior at Elysium Planitia and New Horizons completes its successful flyby of Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever visited.
Are elections downunder vulnerable to manipulation like the 2016 US election? Are the 9 million Instagram users sitting ducks for an all-out meme assault?
Malicious software can cause enormous physical damage to older, insecure infrastructure. It can even black out the internet for entire countries.
A new study using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests the rate of cratering on the moon has almost tripled in the last 300 million years. Is the Earth now more vulnerable to asteroid strike?
China is building enormous towers in an effort to scrub dangerous pollution from its air. But critics point out that the benefits only seem to be noticed in a small local area close to the towers and that they are fuelled by coal-fired power plants.
China is fast catching up to the US in developing military applications for quantum technology and is now ahead in registering patents in quantum communications and cryptography.
Gates has joined the voices of concerned scientists around the world in issuing his deep reservations, pointing to the potential problem of class disparity between those who can afford enhanced genes and those who can't.
An interactive dark fantasy show on Netflix allows viewers to make their own decisions about how the narrative will unfold. The concept has huge potential, as we move towards a more interactive TV experience at home.
Among the options for high speed mass transport under consideration is Hyperloop, a brainchild of Elon Musk. Capsules contained within large tubes could enable travel at up to 1200 kph, but critics reckon the technology is not ready and that we should be looking at more conventional very fast trains.
How the rushed Assistance and Access Bill 2018 risks job losses and could see local investment in technology head offshore. It's a prime example of a nanny state's over-reach and may well prove to be unenforceable.
How Russia's extended assault on US democracy used computational propaganda to mislead and divide Americans. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were all exploited to microtarget millions of voters between 2013 and 2018.
Whether it's fake texts from Australia Post, threatening robo calls from the Australian Tax Office or bogus calls from an Indian call centre seeking access to your PC, the scammers are out in force over the holiday season. We run through some of the most common tricks and what to look out for to protect yourself and your finances.
An ambitious world-first mission is set to land in Von Karman crater and release a rover to investigate the little known far side of our nearest celestial neighbour. It will set the scene for the Chang'e 5 and 6 sample return missions.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reckons that the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) testing of Australian supermarket honey brands by Germany's Quality Services International (QSI) lab is "not yet reliable enough to determine whether honey is adulterated". Industry whistle-blower Simon Mulvany disagrees with this finding and says his legal dispute with Capilano Honey could be adversely effected by the news.
After getting more than 4% of the primary vote in the Victorian state election for the seat of Nepean, anti food fraud campaigner Simon Mulvany outlines his plans to contest the Federal seat of Flinders in the next federal election due in May 2019. He would be taking on Greg Hunt, Australia's health minister and a frontbencher with leadership ambitions of his own.
Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia takes us through some of what he can and can't say in his legal dispute with Capilano. He is also critical of an article about Capilano published on Choice.com.au, a website which claims to be pro-consumer, independent and "free from commercial bias". He explains how new labeling regulations have exposed the real amount of Australian honey in supermarket products.
He Jiankui, an associate professor at Shenzhen's Southern University of Science and Technology, has shocked the world with claims he's succeeded in editing the genes of new-born twins Lulu and Nana. Bioethicicists and genetic researchers fear he has opened Pandora's Box.
With Opposition support, the Australian Government has rushed through new laws to force device makers and software companies to enable law enforcement and intelligence organisations to access encrypted communications.
A virtual reality driving simulator for the aged is being trialed in Invernell in NSW. It aims to assess and enhance driving skills to improve road safety and give those who've stopped driving a taste of the real thing.
An Australian/Israeli start up has developed a clean, efficient and cost effective new fuel comprising a stable mix of hydrogen and water. We talk to Michael Simonetti, the digital marketing expert entrusted with spreading the story of this intriguing new technology which he says will change the world.
Finally, after technical issues delayed the mission by 2 years, NASA's latest outpost on the red planet is safely established at Elysium Planitia. InSight will use a crane to deploy surface instruments to study Mars' interior, listen for marsquakes and drill several meters beneath the landing site with a heat probe.
Victoria is following in the footsteps of the world's biggest battery at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, building new battery sites in Ballarat and Gannawarra. Australia is one of nine countries leading the big battery charge and is tipped to be a global leader in grid-scale battery storage.
Australia's national science agency is spending up on space technology and AI. Objectives include improved food security and quality, health and well being, better security for Australia and our region, improved response to drought and management of food resources and better genome and climate data to help with crops and livestock performance.
After 11 years in space and historic orbits of 2 separate objects in the main asteroid belt, the Dawn mission is over. Part of NASA's Discovery Program, Dawn was a huge success, demonstrating cutting-edge ion propulsion and vastly improving our knowledge of the origins of the solar system, the large asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, a startling and exotic world believed to once have an ocean.
Kids are amazing: energised and enthusiastic about science, tech and how to take best advantage of the internet of things. Three young winners of Australia's 'Little Big Ideas Competition' will go on an all-expenses-paid innovation adventure to the US, including a visit to NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Capilano Honey for years. Here he provides startling revelations about the leadership of Capilano in the person of Ben McKee, the company's CEO. He says his battle is partly about free speech and reckons in future there'll be benefits from his case for other activists.
The China Academy of Space Technology is aiming high, with an orbiter, lander and rover mission to Mars scheduled for 2020. Thirteen payloads will be carried, including ground-penetrating radar and a methane-sensitive spectrometer to look for hints of biological processes. But getting there aint easy, with more than half of all Mars missions ending in failure.
Fragmentation of quality programming among different streaming services is causing more people to turn to bit torrent and the like to get hold of the content they want.
Monsanto has been ordered to pay $290m to Dewayne Johnson, a Californian groundskeeper riddled with cancer after working with the herbicide Round Up. Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia offers his thoughts on how this landmark case could open the door to over 4000 related law suits. He explains the terrible effects of Round Up on dogs and bees, and outlines alternative safe strategies to control weeds.
Google Plus, Google's failed social networking platform, suffered a significant security breach of users' private profile data but failed to disclose it immediately out of fear of 'reputational damage'.
Peptides extracted from Australia's deadly funnel web spider appear to be very effective in selectively killing melanoma skin cancer cells and Tasmanian Devil facial cancer cells. And there could be other uses in the biopharmaceutical industry.
In an effort to tap China's 750 million internet users, Google has secretly developed a search engine for the Chinese government that incorporates tight censorship and blacklists. Yet under pressure from free speech advocates, Google says the custom search engine may never be used.
There were only 40,000 cases of influenza in the 2018 Australian flu season, compared with 230,000 the year before - thanks mainly to an effective (and lucky) national vaccination program.
One of the biggest and most damaging malware attacks of the past 10 years, Wannacry infected millions of computers running Windows XP, 7 and 10 around the world, compromising hospitals, airports and government systems. Now the FBI has charged North Korean programmer Park Jin Hyok for a string of big cyber attacks, including Wannacry, the hacking of Sony Pictures in 2014 and stealing $81 million from a bank in Bangladesh.
A flawed genius or just chronically over-worked? Elon Musk's behaviour over the past few months has raised eyebrows among investors and regulators. Tesla's share price has fallen nearly 30% and the hunt is on to find a person to assume some of the responsibilities currently shouldered by the company's founder and CEO.
RangerBot, developed at the Queensland University of Technology, is a compact autonomous submarine that can identify and kill crown of thorns starfish with a lethal injection of animal bile. In future, fleets of these robotic bounty hunters could help tame the scourge of coral-killing sea stars which threaten the Great Barrier Reef.
A survey of British school kids showed that 63% would be happy if social media had never been invented. Other studies suggest that younger crew are becoming disenchanted with Facebook, while older generations are getting on board.
A run through of some of the Australian Museum's Eureka Prizes, including a glue to close wounds in place of stitches, a super-sensitive test for detecting leukaemia and an outdoor gaming app to encourage citizen scientists.
Researchers at Auckland University of Technology's Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Research Institute have come up with an AI model which predicts choices made by the sub-conscious mind before you are even aware you've made a decision. The breakthrough has huge implications for marketing and advertising.
After recent ABC News revelations about adulterated imported honey from China, activist Simon Mulvany reflects on his protracted legal battle with Australia's biggest honey company ASX-listed Capilano and the personal toll it has taken on him and his family. While legal proceedings are yet to be resolved, he is already tempted to feel that the worst might be over and that his arguments about truth in advertising, about tainted imported honey and protecting the local bee-keeping industry are finally being vindicated. Part 2 of a 2 part interview.
Independent analysis using nuclear magnetic resonance at the Quality Services International lab shows that about half of honey on sale at big supermarket chains is adulterated with sweet-tasting syrups. Following revelations on the ABC's '730 Report', much of this has now been withdrawn from sale. But fundamental questions have been raised about food fraud, truth in advertising, about consumer naivety about the quality of imported ingredients and the vulnerability of the Australian honey industry. Part 1 of a 2 part in-depth interview with honey activist Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia.
Tougher screening laws at airports in Australia mean you can be required to unlock electronic devices for inspection or face heavy fines and up to 10 years behind bars. Nathan Hague, a British-Australian IT developer, had his devices taken out of sight and his laptop's password cracked at Sydney airport. He reckons his files may have been copied and software installed on his equipment.
After a perfect course-refining engine burn on August 20, NASA's first dedicated mission to the Sun is on course for a gravity assist from Venus on October 3 before its first perihelion on November 5. The fastest spacecraft ever will travel at speeds up to 690,000 kmh, endure temperatures of 1400 C and send back vital information about space weather, the solar wind and our nearest star's enigmatic atmosphere.
The widespread use of weak or common passwords among the general public is well known, but a recent check by the auditor general on agencies of the state government of Western Australia showed that 60,000 out of 234,000 accounts used insecure passwords. And these very agencies are supposed to be trusted with the safe handling of the public's data.
Graeme Hanigan, Secretary of White Cliffs Solar Thermal Power Station Friends Inc, explains how he became involved in efforts to preserve the disused site of the world's first commercial solar power station. From 1981 to 1997, 14 parabolic dishes covered in thousands of mirrors harnessed the sun, generating power for the small outback town of White Cliffs in Western NSW. Graeme gives us the history of the project and how various technical and logistical hurdles were overcome. The conservation project recently received a government grant of almost $60,000 to fund repair and restoration works to ensure this important part of our engineering heritage is preserved for future generations.
Hydrogen derived from ammonia could soon be powering cars in Japan, Korea and Singapore. This follows ten years of research at Australia's CSIRO into a special membrane to convert hydrogen to ammonia, meaning it can be shipped safely and then easily converted back to hydrogen anywhere in the world.
John takes us through some smart moves with home sharing that can save you big time on popular internet services.
Donald Trump arguably benefited from WikiLeaks during the 2016 US presidential campaign and said he "loved" the publisher of damaging information to the Democrats. But time could be running out for Julian Assange, as the Australian hacker and founder of WikiLeaks may soon be ejected from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Trump's new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US "can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues to use free speech values against us".
What to do with old phones, laptops, TVs, printers, monitors, cables and chords? Well, it could prove cheaper to 'mine' this rubbish for the valuable metals it contains than to actually mine such materials from ore. It would also be far better than dumping our growing mountains e-waste in landfill.
A large watery lake is believed to be hidden beneath the Martian South pole, while studies of the driest places on Earth, like Atacama in Chile, suggest that there might still be dormant microbes near the surface of Mars.
Our weekly news round-up: The world's first trillion dollar companies; Facebook and Twitter's share prices crash on revenue results; Blood moon - the century's longest total lunar eclipse; More delays to America regaining its ability to launch humans into space; Most common ways to die while taking selfies; Negative consequences of facial recognition technology; Your electronic medical records could be worth $1000 each to hackers.
Despite clear benefits to typing speed, there are privacy considerations when using popular apps like SwiftKey, Gboard and Swype. Your private information like phone numbers, email addresses, device ID, contacts info and call records may be shared with service providers.
Oppy remains silent at Meridiani Planum as a global dust storm envelops Mars, drastically reducing energy to the rover's solar panels. While ground controllers keep nervous vigil listening for a signal from the 15 year old veteran explorer, a flotilla of orbiting spacecraft are beaming back a bonanza of scientific info about this major Martian weather event.
What to keep an eye out for in the next few months if you're considering a smart phone upgrade. We look at what's brewing from Apple, Samsung, Google and the specialised premium Oppo Find X and Red Hydrogen One models.
Our weekly news round-up: Another data scandal hits Facebook; Big update for Apple HomePod; San Fransisco plans to issue electric scooter permits in August and begin year-long trials; Google fined US$5 billion over Android mobile system; Nvidia Shield media centre now on sale; Over-heating reported on top-of-the-line Macbook Pro with i9 CPU.
With almost 6 million Australians already signed on, 13,000 health professionals connected and 6.5 million clinical documents uploaded so far, the Federal Government's new ehealth system aims to improve health outcomes by better sharing of information between service providers. But there are real concerns over sensitive data protection and it is possible to completely opt out by October 15, 2018.
Google engineers and third-party app developers are given permission to read the emails of the 1.2 billion Gmail users around the world. In some cases this is done to train algorithms to handle the data contained in emails, but it does highlight the vulnerabilities of Google's permission system. Companies like Microsoft, Return Path and Edison Software have also been given access to Gmail user info and the problem applies to other online email services.
After a lead diver in the Thai cave rescue Vern Unsworth told Elon to "stick his submarine where it hurts" and described it as a PR stunt, Musk branded him a "pedo guy" on Twitter, where the tech billionaire has 22 million followers. He now faces the prospect of being sued for this so far unjustified slur. In addition, his green credentials have been called into question after it was revealed he donated thousands to climate change denier Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.
Many major Australian companies have had job applicants' data compromised by the hacking of Melbourne-based online recruitment services company PageUp. While the true scope of damage is unknown, some might well ask whether it's such a good idea to outsource their hiring needs.
In the final part of our interview with professional apiarists Simon Mulvany and Ben Moore, we discuss what's so important about bees and how attitudes are changing both in Australia and abroad to the vital need for healthy bee populations. Plus, Simon updates us on his protracted legal dispute with Capilano Honey, saying "there's a very good chance we'll now be able to settle the case".
Though incredibly promising for eradicating nasty disease, there remain troubling questions about unintended consequences. Now the US military is getting in on the act, looking at how to defend against and take advantage of gene drives - genetic engineering technology that can propagate inheritable genes through a population.
Unnecessary bill complexity is a real (and quite deliberate) issue for Australian retail energy consumers. We offer suggestions on how to read your bill and secure a discount from your gas or electricity provider. And it's worth looking at the plethora of price comparison websites including: energywatch.com.au and compare.energy.vic.gov.au
Our weekly news round-up: New Facebook patent describes how a TV ad could contain a hidden audio trigger for your smart phone's mic; Raya - the world's most exclusive social network; NASA's NExSS aims to refine how biosignatures are used to assess the chance of life beyond Earth; Saturn's moon Enceladus is releasing plumes of far more complex organic molecules than we thought; Drones using AI to spot violent outbreaks in crowds; China builds the world's first laser assault rifle to vapourise targets within a 1 km range; Amazon Prime is well priced downunder; Much anticipated NVIDIA Shield gaming terminal on sale in Oz.
The co-inventor of the Flow Hive and founder of Beeinventive describes the journey to get 'honey on tap', plus his super effective use of social media and the new deluxe model, the Flow Hive 2. Cedar explains how the original Flow Hive developed over a 10 year period, culminating in a record-setting Indigogo crowd-funding campaign in 2015. Now with a string of awards to his company's name and over a billion views of its web content, he says "the reason we keep going is because we want to have a positive impact in the world. So business for a positive purpose is cred to our company".
Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia has single-handedly run a successful media campaign centered around Facebook and Instagram. Here he offers his insights into how to take full advantage of the power of social media to build a community and raise awareness of a business or social issue.
Our weekly news round-up: Mars VR on Kickstarter to fund new open source VR platform for the public and eventual settlers to visualise Mars landing site; How binge drinking leads to insomnia; New Firefox desktop browser is strong response to crisis of confidence with internet's privacy and security; Tesla ramps up Model 3 production, but still struggling to hit 5000 a week goal; NZ will introduce a universal non-cash payment method for all public transport.
Simon and Ben discuss different approaches to bee keeping in different parts of the world. Despite strong apiarist traditions in Europe, efforts are being made to breed bees that are better at cleaning each other, using genetics. They outline the hot issues facing their industry and explain some of the less well known uses for bee products, including beard conditioner and women's skin treatments.
As bitcoin steadily loses value from its stratospheric heights of late 2017, other cryptos have gained in value and market prominance. John offers an introduction to the differences between bitcoin and ethereum.
Last heard from on June 10th, NASA's venerable Opportunity rover has entered low power mode as the sky darkens dramatically, reducing solar power at Meridiani Planum to dangerous and unprecedented low levels. Meanwhile, an international flotilla of orbiters takes full advantage to harvest precious information about how dust storms form and behave.
Our weekly news round-up: Trump directs Pentagon to set up "Space Force" to ensure America's continued dominance beyond Earth; Microsoft's Project Natick places environmentally friendly data centres underwater; Google's DeepMind AI learns how to see via a generative query network; Europe's new General Data Protection Regulation is cleaning up the world's email spam problem; Vivo X21 is world's first smart phone with in-display fingerprint sensor; Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission abandons deal with NEC to expand national fingerprint database with other biometric info, such as facial and footprint recognition.
At WWDC 2018, the company foreshadowed changes coming soon in iOS 12, including a new feature called Screen Time which aims to make it easier to curb smart phone addiction. Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, another big theme was improved privacy. Apple also touted significant improvements to Siri, MacOS, Watch OS 5 and AppleTV. And Facetime will soon allow up to 30 people to share the same video conference call.
In the first of a three part interview, bee experts Simon Mulvany and Ben Moore compare Australia's honey bee industry with those in Europe and New Zealand. They discuss the big problems caused by the varroa mite and welcome the banning of neonicotinoids, which are widely-used insecticides deadly to bees. Both Simon and Ben are firm believers that social media can be pivotal in raising awareness of the serious dangers facing bees and those who depend on them around the world.
With a 6 inch display, the latest Snapdragon 845 SoC, 8GB of RAM and a 90Hz refresh rate, the ROG phone is really more gaming console than phone. It also has some neat add-ons to boost battery life and enhance the gaming experience. For serious gamers, this device sounds like it's got a lot to offer.
To find an alternative to cellophane, NZ biotech start-up Humble Bee looks to mimic the Australian masked bee's nesting material to create a bioplastic.
Our weekly news round-up: Japan moves to tighten regulations on Airbnb; How to save on iPhone storage costs; Juno mission extended by 3.5 years to meet science goals; Continuing headaches for some NBN users; Most popular ridiculously insecure passwords; PageUp HR reveals major breach of clients' personal details.
Ahead of the July 1st introduction of GST on all online purchases, the ecommerce juggernaut now redirects shoppers to its Australian site. Some are disappointed at the reduced choice this change will entail, while others reckon the change will have minimal impact.
Despite their current humble beginnings, the future looks bright for AR/VR developers. John offers his thoughts, forecasting that conventional offices could become obsolete and VR dating the norm.
Our weekly news round-up: Tencent and Alibaba look like becoming trillion dollar companies, dominating 770 million Chinese internet users; Curiosity rover resumes onboard rock sample analysis after 18 month hiatus; Cryosleep chamber under development by NASA for long-duration space travel; Big Californian utilities expand their EV infrastructure spend in readiness for the phase out of petrol-powered transportation; Big study finds chemotherapy not useful in treatment of most common early stage breast cancer; Aussie webcams hacked and fake testimonials posted on YouTube as endorsements for scammers' service; Google Lens arrives on Android phones (and it's really useful); Big tech companies team up to make computers more accessible to the vision-impaired.
While Trump's use of the secret messaging service Confide may breach federal record-keeping laws, there are also concerns about security breaches. Chief of Staff John Kelly may have used a compromised phone for months when he was Secretary of Homeland Security, while several inner circle advisors relied on private devices to conduct government business. On the social media front, a US Judge says that as President, Trump doesn't have the right to block followers on Twitter.
Our weekly news round-up: How to find out what Apple and Google know about you; Alan Bean, 4th man on the Moon, dies aged 86; German scientists debunk NASA's EM-drive propulsion claims; Apple AirPlay 2 lets you stream music to a wide variety of 3rd party speakers; Amazon Alexa records private conversation and sends it to a random contact; Hours after EU's new General Data Protection Regulation laws took effect, Facebook, Google and others were accused of breaches; South Australian government will honour Tesla virtual power plant project of previous Labour government.
QuestaGame and Nature's Notebook in the US encourage everyday people to photograph, document and monitor animals and plants in the wild and experience biodiversity.
If you've received updated terms of service emails lately from the likes of Twitter, Spotify and eBay, it's because of new laws which provide huge fines if companies breach your privacy. They're the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.
The Chinese maker of application specific integrated circuits is increasing its control of mining, amid concerns that such centralised power could be used to disrupt or attack cryptocurrency networks.
With his trademark boundless ambition and enthusiasm, Elon Musk updates plans to beat traffic chaos by tunneling underground. He announced a deal to work with Los Angeles County Transportion Authority on a project that aims to one day take passengers from the city to LAX airport in 8 minutes at 200 km/h.
Our weekly news round-up: Old data from Galileo spacecraft reexamined to confirm plumes on moon Europa; Human habitation in the Philippines dates back 700,000 years; Cold Atom Lab to create lowest temperature in the Universe aboard ISS; Google revisits its 'Don't Be Evil' mantra; Telstra suffers another major mobile outage; Facebook users shrug off recent scandals; Net neutrality rules caught up in Trump lawyer allegations.
Tolstoy wrote: "One can no more approach people without love than one can approach bees without care. Such is the quality of bees..." To mark World Bee Day on 20th May, Piers talks with Simon Mulvany of Save The Bees Australia about his intensifying legal battle with big honey, recent wins in having dangerous chemicals banned by major retailers, his disdain for Australian Certified Organic and his change.org petition to ban toxic neonicotinoids in Australia - as Europe has already done.
Delegates were treated to a raft of cool (and slightly creepy) innovations. Google Assistant can robocall and make an appointment for you in a very human-sounding voice, while Gmail now has automated, predictive reply options and smart compose.
In April 2018, average atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeded 410 parts per million. There are various dangers including rising sea levels and deteriorating human health resulting from what has been described as an unprecedented experiment on the only home we have.
Uber, Google, Boeing, Bell Helicopter and others are teaming up to make electric aerial transport ubiquitous. But there is plenty of testing, development and regulatory work to do to achieve this dream.
Our weekly news round-up: Mars 2020 lander will carry a helicopter; Australian Space Agency aims to triple industry size in 12 years; Super computer modelling casts doubt on multiverse theory; 2 more killed in US Tesla crash; Apple using drones to improve their Maps; Ransom-seeking hackers target NSW family planning centre; Equifax reveals full extent of data heist on its servers; Robocallers hit with big FCC fines for breaching Truth in Caller ID Act.
There are rising concerns over the unfettered use of the technology. How well is your information secured and what are the possibilities for abuse? Should businesses like Ticketmaster in Australia be allowed to access this unique identifying technology for ticketing and venue access?
Jeff Bezos has been awarded the 2018 Axel Springer Award. At a ceremony in Berlin, he outlined how he can get through his US$130B fortune - by investing in his space company Blue Origin and helping humanity populate the solar system.
Not according to the latest ground-penetrating radar survey of the boy pharaoh's tomb, but the hunt for unknown chambers at the Great Pyramid of Giza continues.
Our weekly news round-up: A large Harvard University survey shows how to increase life expectancy by a decade or more; MarCO cubesats piggy back to Mars; China has amazing drone swarms with military applications; Somnox: a smart cushion for insomniacs; A futuristic solar power generating highway in Jinan; Trackable suitcases banned from flights; Telegram instant messaging service outlawed in Russia and Iran; Facebook trials a 'dislike' button, while launching its own dating service.
Bill Gates and Google's Larry Page launch the "Universal Influenza Vaccine Development Grand Challenge" to fund novel concepts that reduce flu's global death toll and prepare us all for the next pandemic.
The Australian Government pledges A$500 million to help save the Great Barrier Reef, but is it too little too late?
Spring already sprung? Nature's Notebook aims to garner information gathered by the American public to help understand changes in seasonal transitions.
Our weekly news round-up: NASA's InSight lander will probe the Martian interior; Spacecraft AR app allows spacecraft to be visualised as never before; Space Net offers super hi res, multi-spectral imagery to developers and start-ups for free; Pigs brains kept alive after decapitation; Private owner of France.com has his site seized by French Government; Apple will pay US$21 billion in back taxes to Ireland; Drug testing tech at dance parties and festivals; Scam watch: fake utility bills.
A constellation of satellites operated by start-up EarthNow could one day deliver real-time video from space to businesses and governments. Uses include monitoring the health of the planet, better crop management, more accurate and timely weather prediction, preparing for natural disasters and keeping an eye on conflict zones.
An unregulated free-for-all sparks protests from the elderly, disabled and city halls. But for the gung ho start-ups behind the scooter plague, these are just the growing pains of urban transportation in transition.
Our weekly news round-up: TESS exoplanet hunter successfully launched toward unusual lunar resonant orbit; The many, varied (and slightly scary) ways Facebook gathers information about you; World heritage Henderson Island in the remote South Pacific has the planet's worst plastic pollution; Japanese researchers make an enzyme that breaks down PET plastic bottles; Woolly mammoths and many other large mammals declined with people's migration out of Africa; Gmail hacked by spam scam - users receive messages from themselves; Lyrids meteor shower worth a look; Digital medical consultations via Coviu, a cloud-based video platform; Extracting gold from SIM cards to reduce e-waste; Grasshopper - a free app to learn the basics of coding.
Will another attempt to unify Android users under a new messaging service fail because it doesn't use encryption?
1.5 billion Chinese ranked by a behaviour monitoring system. If you've been bad, stiff restrictions are imposed by the State, including limited internet access, travel bans and reduced job opportunities.
A Queensland University study finds that limiting time on Facebook lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol, as Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg gets a grilling from Congress. Regulation of the social behemoth seems far more likely now, as millions around the world are notified they're data was misused.
Our weekly news round-up: Boost for space tourists as Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity soars in flawless test flight; Flesh-eating super bug outbreak reaches epidemic levels on coasts south of Melbourne; Red Bull plans to send rovers to Apollo 17 landing site in 2019 media extravaganza; NASA's TESS exoplanet hunter ready for launch; SpaceX's huge internet-from-space satellite constellation approved by FCC; Big revamp for Gmail; Tesla's solar roof in use in California; NBN rolls out fibre-to-the-curb, for the lucky few.
Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT, discusses the vast potential for good and ill offered by quantum computing. QC can help molecular modelling, industrial processes and AI, but might in the long run threaten encryption, on which secure ecommerce depends.
The view from space shows our planet's nights are getting much brighter, thanks to economic development and the increasing use of LED lighting. But there are adverse effects for plant and animal life, not to mention city dwellers looking to marvel at the firmament above.
Our weekly news round-up: How to cheaply upgrade iPhone storage; Chinese space station crashes back to Earth; Musk April Fool's tweet backfires; Russian hacker of Linkedin, DropBox and Formspring finally extradited to US to face the music; Google Lunar X Prize competition to rove on the moon expires with no result.
A serious security flaw exists in the hardware at the heart of many of the world's computers. And being hardware, it can't be fixed with a software patch. Dr. Ian Storey says it can give access to supposedly secure areas of microprocessors, where passwords and private keys are stored, thereby threatening safe ecommerce.
The social network stands accused of allowing Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, to use psychographic data to target political and divisive ads on its platform. Congress and the UK's Information Commissioner are looking into whether the data of 50 million Facebook users was illegally used both in the last US presidential election and in the Brexit campaign.
RMIT's Dr. Ian Storey teaches risk and prospect theory. Here he discusses risk assessment for companies, explaining the psychology of risk analysis and how it's not just a matter of maths, there's plenty of psychology too.
Our weekly news round-up: Elon Musk backs #deletefacebook campaign by taking down Tesla and SpaceX pages; Tim Cook tells China Development Forum new regulations are needed to protect privacy online; Australia to deploy wind and solar powered ocean research drones; Great Pacific Garbage Patch far bigger than previously thought; Millions of Spotify users have ad blockers to avoid paying for the service; Smart farms showcased in Sydney; Google Chrome cracks down on autoplay video ads; Samsung Pay connects Australia's big banks into its NFC payment system.
With John's purchases safely landed from America, he concludes his look at the ins and outs of Australia Post's ShopMate service.
Where do devices like Google Home, Home Pod or Alexa store all the data they collect about your life at home? What protections should exist for users of this technology?
Dr Ian Storey walks us through the late cosmologist's career highlights. He also explains Hawking's strong belief in the benefits of the National Health Service and some of the practical applications of his theoretical work in physics.
Our weekly news round-up: Platypus milk could help battle antibiotic-resistant bugs; Bantu archaeology aids study of gap in Earth's magnetic field; Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory peers back almost to the time of the Big Bang, shedding light on poorly understood Dark Matter; VR providing the 'gamification of learning'; Kitty hawk autonomous planes to be tested for official certification in NZ; Send your name to the Sun aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe; Sydney bio-hacker with implanted public transport pass loses court case; Google Maps to include wheelchair accessible routes; Oculus Rift headsets suffer major outage; Uber self-driving car kills pedestrian in Arizona; Facebook shares drop amid concerns of misuse of users' data.
We get down to the nitty gritty about which iPhone you should buy and why - the 8, 8 Plus or X. We also look at the latest, very competitive Pixel phones from Google.
With heritage status confirmed, government funding will be provided for the preservation of this important part of Australia's engineering heritage. According to Graeme Hanigan, who was pivotal in securing the grant, insights about the promise of solar energy gained from the project - and teaching this to future generations - is the main reason to preserve the outback site at White Cliffs in Western NSW.
Our weekly news round-up: US schools fitting bullet proof student shelters in classrooms; Mercedes and BMW team up to develop driverless taxis; Driverless autonomous cars will soon be allowed on US roads; False claims by ISPs about NBN speeds to be outlawed; Facebook approaches maximum penetration; Smart phone rabble copy iPhone's notch.
We're good at research but not so good at developing the fruits of our research. A new plan seeks to lay out a road map for the next 13 years to maintain the country's quality of life and job security.
John runs through some of the headline mobile phone offerings, including Nokia's re-release of its Matrix banana phone, new keenly priced Huawei products, Telstra's ultra fast 5G network and the Galaxy S9.
Our weekly news round-up: Melbourne University study of baby Tasmanian tigers reveals when they developed their similarities to dogs; LRO data suggests the moon has water all over it; Opportunity rover's 5000 days on Mars; Refunds for those caught up in Western Union scams; SA government promises $30m NBN speed boost for Adelaide; AI can diagnose diseases from retina scans; Almost 1.5b smart phones sold in 2017!
With 13 Russians and 3 organisations charged with alleged interference, the spotlight returns to the role played by social media. Have vulnerabilities been effectively shut down? Or are future elections, including the 2018 US mid terms, open to foreign meddling as before?
Next gen computers promise a paradigm shift in biotech, weather forecasting and logistical planning. They also pose security risks due to their ability to crack advanced encryption.
When ordering a new laptop, John found some useful ways to ensure he got the exact model he wanted at a reasonable delivery cost.
Our weekly news round-up: Sony's new super cute Aibo robot dog on sale in Japan; How to use a 4WD to attract frenzied spiders; Space X's Starlink microsats aim to bring low-cost internet to anywhere in the world; FAA investigating collisions between drones and larger aircraft amid rising safety concerns; Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority moves to improve safety understanding by drone operators; UK unveils AI-based extremism blocking tool; Belgium takes Google to court over breach of privacy laws; SnapChat redesign alienates users.
We chew over the recent dramatic falls in the much hyped and super volatile cryptocurrency. What does the future hold for bitcoin and other digital currencies? Is the world headed for a single global, blockchain-based currency?
In an open letter of January 6, 2018, JANA Partners and The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a big teachers' pension fund, pleaded with Apple to take steps to decisively protect young people from excessive use of iPhones. We discuss the issues of smart phones in the classroom, managing screen time, plus the tech giant's response to the letter.
The popular sports app's visualisation of its global network of athletes shows over a billion activities covering all of Earth's continents. But some intelligence services are concerned about what this map might reveal.
Our weekly news round-up: Intel's Shooting Stars provide spectacular Olympics Opening Ceremony drone show; Trump Administration weighs privatising International Space Station; Falcon Heavy success ushers in new era of competition in space; Social media bans pornographic face-swapping 'deep fakes'; Equifax hack compromises more consumer data than first admitted; Chinese police wearing facial recognition glasses; Embark's self-driving truck travels from LA to Florida; Australian government websites hacked and used to mine cryptocurrencies.
With a view to driving down domestic power bills, thousands of homes will become part of a new virtual power plant.
The Bulletin of the Atomic scientists, including 15 Nobel laureates, has moved the minute hand 30 seconds closer to Armageddon. There are grave concerns over North Korea, NATO Vs Russia, tensions in the South China Sea, war in the Middle East, global failure to act effectively on climate change and the use of technologies as weapons to weaken democracies.
Our weekly news round-up: Meteorites found on Earth hint at complex organic precursors in the asteroid belt; All systems go for historic Falcon Heavy; Transparent, stetchable nanostructures used to make a smart contact lens; Aussie Jackson Palmer, creator of Dogecoin, reveals his crypto currency was supposed to be a joke; Automated cashiers disrupt bricks and mortar retailers; Facebook loses a million users in North America; New Australian data breach notification laws take effect on February 22.
Social media has driven high demand for cute squash-faced dogs. But they often suffer from serious health issues, including breathing and dental problems, skin and eye conditions and birth complications.
The tech giant cops flack over auto-throttling some iPhones as part of so-called better power management capabilities. Is this merely a cynical move to encourage upgrading your device?
Our weekly news round-up: NASA legend John Young - Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle astronaut - has died aged 87; After delays, Space X's giant Falcon Heavy rocket is set for launch in early February; US Army develops school shooting simulator to aid survival for teachers and students; Italian clothing designers defeat Apple lawsuit, gain right to use brand name Steve Jobs for clothing and electronics products; Nigerian prince con artist arrested in New Orleans; Bitcoin has a volatile month as interest grows in alternative digital currencies like Ethereum and Ripple.
Simon Mulvaney of Save The Bees Australia details his costly legal battle with Capilano Honey. He explains how he crowd-funded his legal advice to counter a cashed-up corporate legal team. Simon has a petition on change.org to have imported honey labelled with country of origin and wants a ban on imported honey due to the dangers of disease entering Australia.
In the first of a 2 part, wide-ranging interview, Simon Mulvaney of Save The Bees Australia gives us the low down on his legal stoush with Capilano Honey, challenges facing the honey industry, the techniques of bee keeping and the dangers of neonicotinoid insecticides.
The Federal Communications Commission plans to roll back regulations intended to treat all internet traffic equally. There are censorship, surveillance and bias issues at stake, with the fall-out to be felt around the world.
The US Administration's budget request for NASA includes politically-motivated cuts to earth sciences, but continued support for robotic exploration of the solar system.
Our weekly news round-up: Robots replace security guards in San Francisco; Juno peers deep inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot; Pentagon admits to running UFO program; Dwarf planet Ceres found to be an active and still evolving world; G20 will discuss bitcoin bubble at next meeting; Uber seen as faster and more reliable than ambulances; Publicly released anonymous Medicare shown to be not so anonymous.
These ubiquitous creatures are more interesting than you think. They mimic sounds, remember human faces, have a broad vocal range, are superbly adapted to our urban environments and can hear earth worms underground.
From January 9-12, the annual Las Vegas show will serve up a veritable feast of consumer electronics. Keep an eye on Alexa and Google Home and Assistant integrations, AI tech, new VR headsets, QLED TVs, foldable smart phones, 4K HDR projectors and robots of all persuasions.
Our weekly news round-up: Latest Nissan Leaf EV impresses; Google Maps helps public transport users; Latest Bose Quiet Comfort bluetooth headphones work with Google Assistant; Some reservations about Amazon's Aussie service; Optus compensates NBN customers for poor network performance; Nvidia's new crazy fast GPU; Boeing says it'll be the first to land people on Mars; Extremophile Antarctic bacteria survive off air alone.
In a clear sign bitcoin mania has taken hold, many investors are looking forward to a strong correction in the unit price so they can afford to buy more of the crypto currency. There's also a growing rivalry between supporters of bitcoin cash and conventional bitcoin.
The first known asteroid from beyond our solar system was detected by NASA's Near Earth Object Observation Program as it rounded the Sun. This exotic object is like nothing seen before, being about 400m long by only 10m wide and composed of rock and metal.
Elon Musk keeps his bold promise to install and commission the battery in 100 days. While a step in the right direction, it doesn't guarantee the state against power blackouts.
Our weekly news round-up: Study confirms flies are an oft overlooked vector for disease transmission; Uber admits in 2016 it covered up a big hack of 57m users' data and paid off hackers to delete it; Calls for glitter and other sources of microplastics to be banned; Reading out loud to yourself shown to boost memory; Humpback dolphins indulge in gift giving; Aussie judge presses VW on why emissions cheating software was installed on its cars; Perth set for test of Uber-style driverless cars; Magnesium battery technology offers safety advantages over conventional lithium ion; Amazon officially launches in Australia - challenges local retailers.
A new theory suggests a correlation between Earth's slowing rotation and the incidence of major quakes.
The semi is said to be more reliable and cheaper than a diesel truck, while the roadster has insane racing car performance. Expect delays for both.
The South Australian Government plans to legislate for mandatory police access to private phone and computer passwords.
Our weekly news round-up: Scientists message ET and ask for a reply on June 21, 2043; NASA debates locations for Mars 2020 lander; European regulators flag privacy nightmare of kids' smart watches; Spectacular meteor flash over Finland; Facebook changes its 'delete post' option; Gamers unite against Star Wars Battlefront 2 micro-payments; Global software update enables ATM bitcoin transaction support; Google Assistant can troubleshoot your phone; Google busts itself for copyright breach.
Professor Jenny Graves AO of La Trobe University has won the country's most prestigious and highly regarded award for her research into the genetics of sex.
New email program uses AI to waste cyber crims' time by tricking them into believing they're in touch with a potential human victim.
This live-streaming security camera offers HD coverage, simple app control and free cloud storage all for US$120.
Our weekly news round-up: Large and mysterious cavity detected inside Great Pyramid; Dinosaurs were super unlucky to go extinct (along with 75% of all life); Apple brings its 'Anyone Can Code' initiative to Australia, NZ and Europe; Japanese smart fork masks the sound of noodle slurping; South Korea's new carless smart city; Logitech ends support for Harmony Link universal remotes; Bitcoin's latest fork cancelled for technical reasons; Samsung gives up on in-display fingerprint scanner for Galaxy S9.
The social network already knows so much about you. With sophisticated AI, it could almost be reading your mind. But hey, it's a great place to advertise!
Leveraging the efficiency, low running costs and longevity of Tesla cars, an LA start-up offers a luxurious ride to Vegas, Palm Springs and San Diego.
Our weekly news round-up: Google Earth used to discover ancient structures in Saudi desert; Cochlear implant sound processor now made for iPhone; Sunu wristband uses sonar and haptic feedback to create a mental map of the world for the blind; Curiosity rover almost back to drilling Martian rocks; Global aurora and deadly radiation levels found at Mars after violent solar storm; China develops rice that thrives in sea water; Bitcoin's so hot that just mentioning blockchain causes a stir; CAPTCHAs easily beaten by AI; Google extends warranty on Pixel 2 phones following screen complaints; Delays confirmed for iPhone X.
This 17-lens 360-degree camera can live stream in 4K, which should make it a hit with professional filmmakers and other commercial users.
John offers his first impressions of Google's latest and greatest. But amid rumours of screen burn-in problems, he has some reservations.
Evaluating the case for investing in the digital currency, despite its seemingly sky-high valuation.
As politicians bicker over who's to blame, Prime Minister Turnbull calls the national high-speed network a 'train wreck' which may never be profitable.
Our weekly news round-up: Apple introduces space-saving photo and video file formats; Canadian spy agency releases open-source Assemblyline anti-malware software; Controversial 'Cupcake' walking index pulled from Google Maps; Tesla insuring its own vehicles; Websites co-opting your computer to mine bitcoin; Netflix to spend $8 billion a year on its own shows; ScamWatch update.
Our weekly news round-up: Compelling evidence for existence of mysterious Planet 9; Dubai Police testing electric hover bikes; Send your name to Mars aboard the 2018 InSight lander; Millions of PornHub users hit by malvertising attack; Uber has alarming 'God View' privileges on iPhones; Microsoft adds hi-tech tree house offices to its Redmond HQ; Worldwide wi-fi network security called into question.
As far as we know, your phone won't give you cancer. But a massive European study called COSMOS should one day conclusively answer the question.
Our weekly news round-up: Google Pixel Buds translate up to 40 languages in near real time; Project Loon given go ahead to launch balloons to deliver internet to hurricane-ravaged Caribbean; Sydney University develops MeTro hydrogels to help close wounds both in the field and on the operating table; New tool to efficiently extract stem cells from human teeth; The Moon once had active volcanism and an atmosphere - remnant lava tubes could be a good place for manned lunar bases; FaceTec's Zoom technology offers software-only Face ID which could be used in a range of standard smart phones.
At the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Senator Simon Birmingham, federal minister for Education and Training, announced that the country will finally get its own dedicated national space agency.
Our weekly news round-up: Uber faces London ban; EU accused of over-stating damage to copyright holders caused by piracy; Zuckerberg admits FB used to skew US and Brexit poll results and promises reforms; Computers the world over co-opted by malware to mine digital currencies; PM Turnbull's 'innovation nation' fails to resonate with voters.
We compare the new iPhone 8 with the flagship iPhone X. Is it really worth waiting and spending all that money on the 10 year anniversary model?
Despite the skeptics, the crypto currency survived a recent correction and continues its strong upward trajectory.
Our weekly news round-up: Giant Triton snails take on crown of thorns starfish to save Great Barrier Reef; Caltech develops collaborative DNA robots to perform tasks on nanometer scale; US government bans use of Kaspersky antivirus software, on fears it contains spyware; AI driven financial services apps grow in sophistication; Fallout continues from that massive Equifax data breach; CCleaner PC performance software found to have malware; Supporting high-tech farming start-ups.
The grand finale, scientific highlights and legacy of the awe-inspiring odyssey to the crown jewel of our solar system.
The BlueBorne vulnerability could affect 8 billion devices around the world leaving users open to, among other things, man-in-the-middle attacks.
The Aurora Solar Energy Project is set to commence in 2018. US operator Solar Reserve will build the plant, generating 495 GWH of power annually.
Our weekly news round-up: Triple Atlantic hurricanes baffle climatologists; A bad few months for aging communications satellites; Hackers breach Equifax, stealing SSN's and other sensitive data of 143m Americans; Drones banned from delivering marijuana; Safer lithium ion batteries that can't explode; Lenovo computers shipped with spyware pre-installed; Russians used Facebook propaganda ads during US presidential election; AI learning how video games work.
After the exploding battery debacle of the Note 7, the Korean tech giant needed to redeem itself. And it looks like they've succeeded with record-breaking pre-sales of the new Note 8.
The new 10 year anniversary iPhone, due for release on 12th September, will take full advantage of iOS 11 and its baked in augmented reality.
In a range of sizes, colours, shapes and prices, heaps of smart speakers now challenge Google Home.
Our weekly news round-up: Breakthrough Listen detects repeating Fast Radio Bursts from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion lights years away; Being snap happy can actually improve your recollection of a place; Swedish study finds ravens are scary smart; Computers determine pain levels by analysing faces; Uber will stop tracking you after your trip is complete; More smart phones lack head phone jacks; Drones speed up insurance claims post hurricane Harvey; Domino's testing autonomous pizza delivery vehicles; Apple to launch 10 year anniversary iPhone on September 12.
Explosive growth of paid subscriptions augurs well for an eventual public float of the Swedish company, even though it's yet to turn a profit.
Our weekly news round-up: Chinese required to use their real names when posting comments online; Sharks to be monitored by AI drones on Aussie beaches; Babylonians invented trigonometry well before the Greeks; Johns Hopkins APL proposes a quadrocopter mission to Titan in 2019; Google pulls 500 apps containing spyware backdoor; MIT drones tackle big warehousing issue; More White House resignations over "inattention to cyber security threats"; Scamwatch: NBN scams proliferate.
One day in the not-too-distant future it may be possible to produce an image of what someone looks like based only on their DNA. In the meantime, forensic police have many high tech tools at their disposal to help solve crime.
Our weekly news round-up: Cassini has only 3 orbits to go before being deliberately crashed into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15; AI and robotics experts call on UN to ban killer robots; Add-ons for your smart phone turn it into a mini lab to measure everything from heavy metals through to detecting and monitoring malaria and ebola and tracking antibiotic resistance; NASA signs contract with BWXT to revisit use of nuclear thermal propulsion; Federal Court blocks 59 pirate movie sites and 127 domains; Optus and Telstra offer refunds for where advertised NBN speeds were not met; MoviePass lets you see a movie a day for US$30/month - in the US; Adelaide high school students win Robotic Olympics.
Retired satellite telecoms expert Graeme Hanigan's pet project is the preservation of the first ever commercial solar power station, built in 1980, at White Cliffs in western New South Wales. Graeme explains how it worked and why it should be recognised as an important part of Australia's engineering heritage.
Dr Tony Heyes takes us through the big theories of science and how scientists have responded to philosophy. He shows how the more a scientific theory claims, the better the theory because it can potentially be disproved more easily. At the end of the day, nothing is absolutely certain. Science is tentative, provisional and only a metaphor of reality.
Physicist Dr Tony Heyes traces the development of science from the time of the Greeks, through the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and up to the 20th century. He describes the development of scientific method and the interaction between philosophers and scientists.
Our weekly news round-up: Total eclipse fever grips the US; NASA's massive video collection on archive.org; Largest volcanic region on Earth found beneath West Antarctica's ice; Big Australian survey to understand impact of smart phones on our lives, relationships and kids; Amazon takes on TicketMaster in Australia; Russians hack hotel guests via free wifi networks; Google Play Protect for Android; Microsoft laptops and tablets deemed unreliable by Consumer Reports; Scamwatch: supermarket customers subjected to continuing text message scams.
John explains the process and wonders whether it's even worth trying to mine the digital currency.
A wrap of key scientific findings in the rover's study of past habitability at Gale Crater.
The blockchain has split into two to speed up transactions and lower costs. And the market has responded positively to the change, pushing the value of the crypto currency to record highs.
Terminator 2 director James Cameron worries that reality is catching up to science fiction, while tech titans Musk and Zuckerberg trade barbs over the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
Our weekly news round-up: Keck telescope finds 9000km long storm on Neptune; Global VR revenue predicted to hit US$37.7B by 2020; Gene editing fixes disease-causing mutations in early stage human embryos; Breakthrough sunscreen made from salmon sperm; LastPass price hike comes with new features; Android speed control for YouTube; Ransomware saviour detained by FBI; Ultra high compression digital storage; Scamwatch update.
The British Medical Journal reports that policy makers, educators and doctors should stop advocating "complete the course" when referring to these life saving drugs. Instead we should stop taking them when we feel better.
Our weekly news round-up: Apple criticised for removing VPN apps from its Chinese AppStore; New insights into complex molecular processes in Titan's atmosphere; Research ship to hunt for sunken lost continent Zealandia; Latest Scamwatch; European countries will phase out all petrol and diesel vehicles; Grappling with the anti-science movement; Musk to build world's biggest battery in South Australia; Nano carbon tube filters to effectively remove heavy elements from polluted lakes.
The oldest known axe head in the world has been found 300 km east of Darwin. Using the latest advanced dating techniques, scientists confirm humans arrived 18,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Governments want access to WhatsApp and other encrypted messaging technologies that have been used by terrorists.
Our weekly news round-up: Cape York palm cockatoos perform drum solos to attract mates; Some Australian Uber drivers want to be full-time employees, not just contractors; Mars rovers use AI to autonomously do targeted science; Juno orbiter to swoop close over Great Red Spot on July 10; Google's Triangle app lets you control which apps use mobile data; Google's AI will automatically identify photos and suggest recipients; European Commission fines Google a record US$2.7 bn for breaching EU anti-trust rules; Scamwatch update: phishing by phone or email most common scam to target Australians.
Another massive cyber attack has swept around the world, disrupting the computer systems of several large multi-nationals. But is the real motivation the destruction of critical data, rather than extortion?
Dr Ian Storey of RMIT's School of Business IT and Logistics marvels at the great promise (and serious threats) of artificial intelligence and big data. Are we ready for the future, post Singularity?
At a time of increasing concern over cyber crime, we talk with Dr Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at RMIT, who says there is no way to make data 100% secure. He preaches "defence in depth" as the best strategy to mitigate risk.
RMIT's Dr Ian Storey on the origins and growing applications of artificial intelligence and deep neural networks. He discusses the potential for secure communication through quantum cryptography and hints of the multiverse through quantum entanglement.
On August 21, 2017, the United States will be treated to a rare celestial event. Those who live along a narrow corridor between Oregon in the North-West and South Carolina will see the Moon blot out the Sun. Just beware the mother of all traffic jams!
Australian engineer Dr Susan Graham is building drones to fire germinated seeds into soil. The system can access remote areas, determine the best places to plant and even help with mine rehabilitation.
Our weekly news round-up: Gmail will no longer be scanned to serve relevant ads; Hi res images suggest moon is still geologically active; China building ultra-compact, cheap electric cars; Fake girlfriends on Facebook; Trump sued for alleged breach of Presidential Records Act; GOP leaks data on 200m Americans; McDonalds shares jump after adoption of ordering kiosks to reduce staffing levels; Sophisticated algorithms threaten jobs of accountants and investment managers.
Despite US government policies to turn back the clock on climate change, political, business and religious leaders around the world will not abandon their commitment to reduce carbon emissions.
After the demise of the Concorde in 2003, China and the US race to revive the dream of hypersonic flight with turbine rocket combined cycle propulsion.
It's not quite Google Glass, but Canadian film maker Rob Spence has come up with a prosthetic eye with an embedded video camera. Reckons he can 'hear' colours.
Our weekly news round-up: Genetic clues to why some people live longer; NASA weighs missions to Uranus and Neptune in the 2030s; China smashes quantum entanglement distance record; Aussie retailers will struggle to compete with Amazon's lean margins; Robot flips 400 burgers an hour; Norway to upgrade Global Seed Vault to prevent further damage; Tesla to fit full self-driving hardware on all its cars.
The Australian sandstone monolith near Alice Springs is revealed in stunning interactive detail, while Story Spheres sheds light on local Anangu culture.
LithodomosVR is a Melbourne start up pioneering archaeologically accurate virtual experiences of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem. We speak to founder and CEO Simon Young.