By RNZ
Winner Best Daily or Weekly Feature 2018 NZ Radio Awards
Best-selling author David Adam experimented with 'smart pills', brain zappers and memory-enhancing music for his new book about the cognitive enhancement industry, The Genius Within.
Would daily reminders of death change the way you live? The app WeCroak sends its users mortality-themed messages “at random times and at any moment, just like death”. Creator Hansa Bergwall tells us how he came up with the idea.
Knowing where and when a landslide will occur is currently more of an art than a science, but a Wellington research team is figuring out how cheap GPS sensors could help predict them.
For the first time ever, a UK design team have grown and harvested a crop without a single human being setting foot in the field.
Farms without farmers? Sensing slips: better landslide detection. Adventures in Intelligence: testing smart pills and brain hacks, and reflecting on mortality with the WeCroak app.
Who are the main players, who protects your security and privacy best, and why does Apple keep sending alerts that your iCloud is full? Peter Griffin looks at the options for safely storing data and photos.
Making bacon (nitrite free), online design to hack your attention, and Facebook's data breach.
Most of the bacon we eat is processed using sodium nitrite, which has been linked to an increased risk of colorectal cancer. But many New Zealand firms are producing nitrite-free bacon.
Our brain's reward centres help keep us alive, but they also make us susceptible to manipulation on the internet. Ramsay Brown is exploring more transparent (and ethical) ways to harvest online attention.
Facebook blames Cambridge Analytica for allegedly obtaining personal information from millions of American Facebook users in an attempt to manipulate elections – but are the UK consulting firm really the only ones at fault?
Edible archaeology: recreating Pompeii's bread, pro cycling's latest doping scandal, robotic recruitment and Bits+Bytes (Nissan Leaf battery warning, Facebook and politics, flying taxis's NZ trial, You Tube moderators and RealMe ID system).
Farrell Monaco researches and recreates recipes from ancient history. Her culinary exploration ranges from cheese made to Roman farmer Columella's recipe, to Roman porridge, and Cato the Elder's Globi – that’s deep fried honey-soaked ricotta and wheat balls.
As we head into the European professional cycling season, pro cycling is still dominated by rumours of drug taking and cheating thanks to a select committee report in the UK that's just been published. The report concluded Sir Bradley Wiggins...
Algorithms and artificial intelligence are being used to screen job candidates. The problem for jobseekers is whether the system is open or fair. Sifting through millions of job applications costs global businesses billions of dollars every year. So could algorithms, robots...
This week, a warning about electric vehicles from a group of NZ citizen scientists, flying taxis to be trialled here, and why the people who sift through and remove disturbing YouTube content work a 4-day week.
Telling porkies: the big bacon cover up, baby formula for exotic animals and Bits+Bytes (broadband, space race and #Alexalaughs)
According to food writer Bee Wilson, the meat industry has been well aware of the dangers of eating processed meat for decades and has been concealing this from consumers, a cover-up she compares to Big Tobacco's attempts to obscure the...
An Australian family-run business called Wombaroo has carved out an unusual niche for itself making baby formula for a whole menagerie of exotic animals. Gordon Rich of Wombaroo tells us how his father started up the business, and what it's...
Joining Peter Griffin to navigate the world of tech and analysing the latest news from the digital world. This week plans are afoot to position New Zealand as a base station for the global satellites sector. Also competition heats up...
Bits+Bytes: Spotify, Sky slashes prices and Apple cable failures. Also we visit a school for teen parents.
He Huarahi Tamaraki (HHT)is a school for teenage parents set up in Linden, north of Wellington, more than 20 years ago.
Bits and Bytes with Peter Griffin helping you navigate the world of tech and analysing the latest news from the digital world. This week, Spotify goes public (well sort of!). But can it continue to dominate in the world of...
Digital noise or cultural heritage? Bits+Bytes covers Snapchat and the Tesla cryptocurrency hack. Finally Alex Hutchinson's book 'Endure' explores the outer limits of human performance.
Digital ephemera fills our lives, and may appear to have little value... but not for everyone.
Bits and Bytes with Peter Griffin helping you navigate the world of technology and analysing the latest news from the digital world. This week Snapchat becomes a real threat to Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, so why have over a million users...
"How far and how fast can humans go? What defines a person's limits?"...these are some of the questions athlete and sports journalist Alex Hutchinson tries to answer in his book 'Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human...
From a few panels on your rooftop to the giant solar farms spreading around the globe, cheaper solar tech has been boosting demand for this type of renewable energy throughout the world. In the US a new 30 percent tariff...