Beyond Infinity

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

With John's purchases safely landed from America, he concludes his look at the ins and outs of Australia Post's ShopMate service.

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.

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.

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!

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.