Beyond Infinity

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.