Télécoms Sans Frontières has sent satellite kits to Tonga to improve connectivity on the islands following the volcanic eruption. Before the pandemic TSF would have immediately deployed to Tonga after it went dark, but strict quarantine rules limit what they can do. As their engineers can’t go out, they’ve had to adapt the equipment they send so that it can be set up on the island. Their kit is now out of quarantine and should be deployed imminently and will eventually bring internet connectivity to the smaller islands where people are still completely cut off. TSF Regional Manager Sebastien Latouille also tells us in the podcast about their latest deployment to Madagascar following Cyclone Batsirai.

Could NFT protect our health data?

Enhanced Audio Description

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Studio Manager: Bob Nettles

(Image: Aftermath of volcanic eruption and Tsunami in Tonga. Credit: Malau Media/via Reuters)

The first-ever robotic surgery without a human surgeon guiding it has been successfully performed at Johns Hopkins University. The Smart Tissues Autonomous Robot (STAR) completed a keyhole procedure called intestinal anastomosis – the sewing together of two sections of soft bowel - on pigs. More than a million of these surgeries are performed each year in the US alone and they need to be carried out very precisely and accurately to avoid potentially fatal complications. Professor Axel Krieger, the mechanical engineer on the team, tells Gareth how this is a major advancement in robotic surgery.

Singapore Surveillance

unReal City

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

Photo: The smart tissue autonomous robot performing laparoscopic anastomosis. Credit to Jiawei Ge//Johns Hopkins University

Connectivity to Tonga partially restored but undersea cable repair could take weeks. The underwater volcanic eruption severed the country’s only underwater network cable and ash clouds have made satellite connectivity impossible. Professor Nicole Starosielski from NYU, an expert in underwater connectivity and author of “The undersea network”, joins us on the show. An underwater cable is severed every three days somewhere in the world, yet the network has the capacity to usually cope with this disruption. Many developing countries do not have this extra capacity as they cannot afford it. Professor Starosielski argues that richer nations should step up and fund this lack of spare connectivity.

Virtual IT brain drain in Argentina

Robot training made easy

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

(Image: Underwater fiber-optic cable on ocean floor. Credit: Getty Images)

After 222 days the social media platform is back up and running in Nigeria. The country suspended Twitter after it deleted a tweet by President Buhari and Nigerians have been accessing the platform via VPN, but now Twitter has agreed to the government's demands which include opening a local office, paying taxes, and being respectful of Nigerian laws. Abubakar Idris, the reporter for tech site Rest of World, joins us on the show. We are waiting on a response from Twitter.

100 years of the BBC

Ban on online education classes in China

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: John Boland

(Image: Pius Utomi Ekpei /AFP via Getty Images)

Huge robots, including a seven-metre two-tonne vessel named Ran, are on their way to the Thwaites Glacier to learn more about the retreating ice and its impact on Climate Change. But this won’t be the only tech that’s being deployed on the 65-day mission; British Antarctic Survey’s Boaty McBoatface and the Autosub Long Range vehicle operated by the National Oceanography Centre in the UK, will travel under the ice shelf along with Ran. Professor Anna Wåhlin from the University of Gothenburg tells us more about her robot Ran and about the data she’ll be collecting.

Tiny light engines

James Webb telescope tech

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Studio Manager: Nigel Dix

(Image: Ran navigates its way under the ice front of Thwaites Glacier.

This week we have a special programme on Afrofuturism and tech innovation. It’s a subject often covered in science fiction, but what makes Afrofuturism different from standard science fiction is that ancient African traditions and black identity is steeped throughout the story. A text that has a black character in a futuristic world is not enough. But Afrofuturism is more than just Sci-fi. It’s the reimagining of a future filled with arts, science and technology seen through the perspective of black people.

Studio Manager: Bob Nettles

(Image: Getty Images)

We look back on some of the stories we covered in 2021 – from age appropriate design to protect children, through internet shutdowns, a remote air traffic control tower and a WhatsApp school in Zimbabwe to a virtual reality opera.

The podcast has even more stories: comparing Mars locations to Earth locations, a smart phone test to detect malaria, how technology can help prep for a date at home if you’re blind and controlling our devices with a muscle in our ear! Available on BBC Sounds.

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Angelica Mari, Bill Thompson and Ghislaine Boddington.

Image: Man using mobile phone

Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald

Twenty-five years ago the world wide web was 2.5 terabytes and you needed to dial-up via your phone line to get onto it, so Brewster Kahle decided to set up a project to archive what was out there already. Now the Internet Archive consists of more than 588 billion web pages, as well as 28 million books and texts, 14 million audio items, and 580,000 software titles, making it one of the world’s largest digital libraries. Brewster tells Gareth how they’ve done this – especially making content that runs on old and absolute technologies accessible today.

The Future of Text

Moonshot – tech used to learn more about neglected diseases is fighting COVID

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: Bill Nettles

(Image credit: Internet Archive)

Ministry of Health websites in Brazil are still down following a number of cyber-attacks. Millions of people now do not have access to their Covid-19 vaccination data (including certificates). It is estimated that 50TB of data has been removed by Lapsus$ Group, which is claiming responsibility for the ransomware attack. Dr Patricia Peck, who is on the board of the National Data Protection Authority is on the programme with the latest on the attacks.

First-ever delivery of medicines by drone in Sierra Leone

Reimagining the new Spider-Man trailer through animation

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen

(Image: Hacker with computers in a dark room. Credit: Getty Images)

New research shows that mobile phones may not be as beneficial to displaced people as previously thought. Using video diaries, where displaced people in Somalia recorded their mobile phone use, researchers found that women, in particular, are being exploited by employers who fail to pay them using mobile money. Professor Jutta Bakonyi from Durham University is on the show and her colleague Dr. Peter Chonka joins us in the podcast.

Slaughterbots – autonomous lethal weapons

WikiAfrica

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

Studio Manager: John Boland

(Image: Getty Images)