Beyond Infinity

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.