The merits of vaccinating children has recently come back in to the spotlight recently in Australia with the Federal Government pushing to withdraw welfare payments from families that refuse to vaccinate their children: parents who conscientiously object to vaccination. Are parents putting their kids at risk by not vaccinating them, or is the politicians in Canberra overplaying the issue? Steve and Ben take a look at the importance of vaccinations and the role it plays in health and longevity in all of our lives.

By some strange twist of fate, have humans unwittingly crafted a living that is not in line with how we are wired, both physically and mentally? Are we too distracted by our gadgets and constant need to be connected that we have no way to unplug ourselves from it, to the point where we can exist as we should? And on the flip side, are we getting so healthy that the age of 60 will become the new median age for the industrialised world? Steve and Ben take a look at all these questions and try to fashion some answers of their own.

We had the expose of Belle Gibson and The Whole Pantry recently, now American health blogger Vani Hari, The Food Babe, has been called out for making pseudoscientific claims in an article written by California-based scientist Yvette d’Entremont. Steve and Ben discuss this latest story of a blogging sensation being exposed as a potential fraud and the dangers in the messages given to the public. The guys also discuss the concept of fast dieting, and whether or not abstaining from food for a short period can be helpful in losing weight.

Internet providers must hand over contact details of Australian customers accused of illegally downloading The Dallas Buyers Club, the Federal Court has ruled. Steve and Ben discuss the wider implications of the landmark ruling by the Federal Court that will allow the owners of the film Dallas Buyers Club to send letters to individuals they have identified as having illegally downloaded their movie and thus infringing their copyright, or stealing the film.

The team at CERN, using the sophisticated Large Hadron Collider, made history in 2012 with the confirmed discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle. All those years of work, investment and doubt over its function and capabilities, the LHC finally delivered with this amazing discovery. It’s also amusing to remember that there were many people who believed that the LHC would destroy by unravelling the fabric of the universe! However, three years later, what can the LHC now discover? Steve and Ben re-visit the topic of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider, covering topics such as Dark Matter, Anti-Matter, Other Dimensions, Black Holes and Killer Strangelets.

The extraordinary story of Belle Gibson and her battle to overcome significant health battles became extraordinary for a different reason when serious doubts were cast over her story and whether or not she used her cancer battle as a front to sell her wellness app and book, The Whole Pantry. Now her book publishers have shelved her book, and Apple has pulled her successful app from the app store, with many calling for her to be made accountable for misleading the public. Steve and Ben take a look at this new form of con artistry, and whether or not today’s technology and platforms has made it easier for people like Belle Gibson to get away with this sort of fraud.

A new round of gadgets have been announced, from the Apple Watch, MacBook, Chromebook Pixel, Samsung Galaxy S6 and Edge phones, and the recent announcements at Mobile World Congress, it’s been a busy month for the big tech giants in Silicon Valley. How do they stack up against each other, and how well will they integrate in to the lives of consumers? Steve and Ben take an overall look at these tech announcements of the latest gadgets, how they like them, if they’ll get them and whether or not they are relevant for everyone.

Will today’s data formats be retrievable and usable in a hundred years time? Or even fifty years time? Will your data ever degrade? What do you need to do to protect the longevity of your digital information? These are all pertinent questions in the cloud-based, digital data age we are living in where so many of us are creating and storing so much data that one must wonder if it is possible to preserve it for the long term when standards and formats could easily change from one decade to the next. Steve and Ben take a look at the importance of ensuring that our data is preserved for the long term.

Most of us now carry around a smartphone, and many of us also use tablets. The app market has exploded since 2008 when the app store was introduced for the iPhone, so much so that it can seem like trying to find a needle in a haystack when it comes to finding good, usable apps that help you use your device to its full potential. Steve and Ben discuss their top 5 apps that they use on their devices, as well as how these apps have improved their workflow and daily lives. They also discuss the passing of legendary entertainment and sci-fi geek icon, Leonard Nimoy.

Humans believe that they are the dominant species on this planet given how much of the planet we have taken over and how little we are at threat from other species. But is this actually the case? Steve and Ben discuss the study and the overall impact that such small species could have on our world, as well as a look at how life on Earth may have flourished a lot earlier than we ever imagined.