Beyond Infinity

After much procrastination, there's a space agency Downunder. And an Aussie satellite was launched from the ISS to study Earth's thermosphere. PLUS, Breakthrough Starshot aims to achieve 20% of the speed of light and go interstellar; The Kepler Space Telescope revealed weather on an exoplanet.

A look back at various stories we've done on the Social Network: UK kids disenchanted; The Zuck faces Congress; Queensland Uni study finds limiting time on FB lowers stress; Naming and shaming on FB; Does FB make you unhappy?

We discuss whether algorithm-generated music is any good. Is it creative or a strange perversion of the senses? We don't know, but still manage friendly conversation about London-based AI musicians Auxuman (or is it 'auxiliary human'?)

In a blow to Facebook's nascent Libra crypto project, online payments giant PayPal has decided to "forgo further participation... and to focus on advancing existing mission and business priorities". With doubts over regulatory approval, will other Libra associates follow suit?

The second known comet to travel through our solar system from interstellar space has been detected by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov. Not much is known yet about this exotic object which is streaking by at over 110,000 kmh. But like its predecessor the cigar-shaped metallic Oumuamua, it's stimulating plenty of speculation about its composition and origins.

Hedge funds have for several years been using a trading strategy from outer space. Satellite speculators count cars, watch crops grow and follow oil inventories from on high and use this information to make significant gains playing equity markets. The question is: Is this fair?

A new Chinese-made camera has 4 times the resolution of the human eye and can individually identify people in a crowd of tens of thousands. Its development is of concern to civil libertarians and others worried about how this supercam can feed vast amounts of data into China's burgeoning social credit system.

Piers talks with leading experts on Buruli ulcers Professor Tim Stinear of the Doherty Institute and Professor Paul Johnson, Director of Research at Austin Health. While they acknowledge gaps in their understanding, they explain the spread of the disease from Victoria's Bellarine Peninsula to the Mornington Peninsula and why they believe mosquitos are the likely link from possums which carry the bacteria to humans. More: https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/infectious-diseases/beating-buruli

Fully operational in 2020, the comprehensive, AI-driven corporate ranking system will cover 33 million companies, both local and international. The EU Chamber of Commerce in China has described it as "the most concerted attempt by any government to impose a self-regulating market place and it could spell life or death for individual companies".

John describes changes to the relaunched Fold but still has doubts about Samsung's expensive tablet-in-a-phone. PLUS, the super high spec flagship phone from Huawei is seriously hampered by limited access to Google core services.

Australia's prime minister signs deal to be part of America's ambitious plans for the Moon and Mars; hopes to grow local space industry. Meanwhile, Russia and China agree to jointly explore the Moon and create shared deep space data centres.

John explains how Google Drive can delete your data due to account inactivity, even if you're paying for the service. We look at the benefits and risks of cloud-based data back-up and comparative pricing of different offerings.

After a four year legal battle, the world's biggest selling car maker has agreed to pay Aussies caught up in its emissions scandal up to AUD127.1 million, or about $1400 per car. Co-presenter John Young, who used to own a diesel VW, gives us his thoughts.

Bigelow Aerospace could provide NASA with its B330 space habitat to use as the Lunar Gateway space station. If selected, it would form an integral part of the Artemis Program to land people on the Moon's south pole in 2024.

Production costs are falling dramatically and the day may come when a fast food burger is made by a machine, instead of a cow. There will also be massive environmental benefits of such ethical eating.

At long last, the world's search giant is taking steps to favour the originators of true journalism in its search result rankings over aggregators, plagiarists and retweeting parrots. This is a potential win for dedicated investigative reporters, smaller publishers and all those resisting the tide of fake news and misinformation poisoning real debate and open, constructive discussion.

Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation are mourning the failure of their Vikram lander and Pragyan rover which targeted the Moon's south pole and its large stores of water ice. Fortunately, the Chandrayaan 2 mother ship made it into lunar orbit, with a sophisticated suite of instruments including the highest resolution camera ever to scrutinise the surface.

Version 69.0 of the popular browser has enhanced tracking protection, which significantly improves users' privacy. It has ad blocking as its default, blocks autoplay and runs on all platforms, whether mobile or desktop.

Smart home devices like the Amazon Echo and Google Nest are super handy but do come with some security risks. There are now 50 million in use in America, with 21% of adults owning them and sales are booming. Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) is calling for a new generation of digital privacy laws to protect people's private conversations at home from being recorded without permission.

We look at the effects of the accelerating trade war on consumer spending on everyday items in America, in particular on the pricing of Chinese-made devices from Apple. See for yourself just how comprehensive new tariffs are at ustr.gov