Beyond Infinity

Our digital fingerprints are everywhere. Big data allows all sorts of insights into human behaviour - some for good, some ill. Researchers at the University of Virginia reckon the language of text messaging may one day enable medicos to foresee increased risk of suicide.

Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are teaming up to create the Global Developer Service Alliance. It'll provide a platform for international developers to upload apps to all of their app stores and is a direct assault on the dominance of the Google Play store.

Sunday February 9, 2020 saw the successful launch of an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral carrying Solar Orbiter on a ground-breaking mission to the Sun. The mainly European spacecraft is bristling with instruments to study the heliosphere, hazardous coronal mass ejections and help scientists understand our star's 11 year activity cycle.

The US Department of Justice accused San Francisco startup Practice Fusion of creating software to increase pain med prescriptions by medical practitioners. The company, which provided software to thousands of doctors' offices, settled for US$145 million.

An expensive new treatment promises gradually to protect allergic children from accidental exposure to small amounts of peanuts.

A look at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the amazing astrophysics research taking place above and below the ice. The observatory is looking for neutrinos - enigmatic subatomic particles that permeate the universe. It involves over 300 scientists at 52 institutions in 12 countries.

As its July 2020 launch date approaches, more information is coming to light about NASA's sophisticated new rover headed for Mars. Expect to see hi-res colour video of the entry, descent and landing sequence from multiple viewpoints, including the sky crane maneuver and touch down.

There's also a new super-precise landing navigation system which can steer the rover away from dangerous obstacles it sees during descent. Terrain-relative navigation (TRN) allows for a highly targeted landing in Jezero crater - an extremely rugged, yet scientifically valuable site.

Imagine a super-advanced civilisation capable of building on a galactic scale, enjoying complete mastery of the most exotic laws of physics. You'll need to think big, like Dr. Albert Jackson at Triton Systems in Houston, whose paper 'A Neutrino Beacon' offers a new take on alien megastructures.

As Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, once wrote:

“When we look into the universe for signs of artificial activities, it is technology and not intelligence that we must search for. It would be much more rewarding to search directly for intelligence, but technology is the only thing we have any chance of seeing.”

Software experts, including our own John Young, are urging Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10 as a decade of support for 7 winds up. It's estimated well over 20% of all PC users are still running the aging operating system, leaving them exposed to risks of hacking, ransomware and data loss.

San Diego start-up BlueNalu has found a way to make a plant-based fillet of yellowfish. Crucially, the lab-made seafood can be cooked by direct heat without disintegrating. Scaling up to commercial quantities will be a big challenge.