Beyond Infinity

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.