Beyond Infinity

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 powerf...

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!

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.

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...

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.

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 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.

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.

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.