Beyond Infinity

UK scientists at Imperial College London are working on a synthetic alcohol substitute which promises many of the joys of grog, minus the hang-over or physical harm.

In addition to hunting for microbes, testing oxygen production and caching rock cores, NASA's next big rover will carry a small solar-powered helicopter. If this technology demonstrator is successful, expect to see more helicopter drones exploring the surface of the red planet.

The lawless wild west internet has failed. Now is the time to introduce tough, binding global regulations of social platforms. And with the prospect of monster fines and even prosecution of top executives, Mark Zuckerberg agrees that there should be laws controlling Facebook content.

In the wake of the Christchurch massacre, law makers around the world are focused on how to control the spread of extremism and objectionable material on social media. But can it be done and what will be the effect on the internet as a whole?

Rolling out in 2020, 5G mobile technology promises to be super fast, with minimum speeds of 100mbs. But you'll need a new 5G compatible device and a pretty robust data plan to handle the speed. If you only have 10 gigabytes of data a month, you could easily get through this in under a minute!

Spotify has complained to the European Commission that Apple's AppStore rules "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation" and asked the regulator to take action to guarantee fair competition. Apple has countered that "Spotify's aim is to make more money off others' work" and that it under-pays artists.

The Disinformation and 'Fake News' Final Report has been published on parliament.uk. It is scathing of social media platforms, especially Facebook's role in illegally influencing democratic elections and referenda in Britain, going back to 2014. The Commons Select Committee calls for tough modern regulations and far more law enforcement oversight of social media companies, with heavy penalties for breaches.

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!

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 powerful super computer, is using machine learning to help with long-term weather forecasting and earlier warnings of storms and floods.

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.