Author: The Conversation

Three new spacecraft are due to arrive at Mars this month, ending their seven-month journey through space. The first, the United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe, should have made it to the red planet this week. It will stay in orbit and study its atmosphere for one complete Martian year (687 Earth days). China’s Taiwen-1 mission also enters orbit this month and will begin scouting the potential landing site for its Mars rover, due to be deployed in May. If successful, China will become the second country to land a rover on Mars. These two missions will join six orbiting spacecraft actively studying the…

Water scarcity is among the top five global risks affecting people’s wellbeing. In water-scarce areas, the situation is grim. Conventional sources like snowfall, rainfall, river runoff and easily accessible groundwater are being affected by climate change, and supplies are shrinking as demand grows. In these countries, water is a critical challenge to sustainable development and a potential cause of social unrest and conflict. Water scarcity also impacts traditional seasonal human migration routes and, together with other water insecurity factors, could reshape migration patterns. Water-scarce countries need a fundamental change in planning and management. We are looking at how to do this, through the creative exploitation…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way we work and interact with machines — and people — in the workplace. The surge in remote working brought on by the pandemic has magnified the need for unmanned work operations. More automation, however, does not always make the workplace more efficient. Industries that have heavily relied on manual operations, like warehouses or meat packers, are now introducing more automated or tele-operated systems. Unlike traditional, manually operated machines, in tele-operation the human operator sits in a remote location away from the machine they control. Despite some of the unquestionable benefits of automation, however, these trends are in part an…

There are increasing concerns the new Apple iPhone 12 could interfere with implantable cardiac devices such as pacemakers, presenting a risk for people with heart problems. The issue relates to a particular feature of the iPhone 12 — a new magnetic charging technology called MagSafe — which uses magnets to attach wireless charging accessories to the phone. https://twitter.com/shibanijoshi/status/1357738018363355137? Patients with implantable cardiac devices are being warned keeping their iPhone 12 too close to their chest, such as in a shirt pocket or handbag, could cause temporary disruptions to their cardiac device’s functions. So how does this happen, and what do you need to…

Looking at its achievements over the past decade, nobody would doubt China is aiming to win the new space race. Not only has it been the only country to land on the Moon in about 40 years, and the first to soft land on its far side, it has also planted a flag on lunar soil and brought samples back to Earth. The race between several nations and private companies, however, is far from over. China is now approaching Mars with its Tianwen-1 mission, due to arrive on February 10. A successful insertion into orbit – the rover won’t land until May — will mark another crucial milestone for more than…

While people tend to contribute more to a virtual public good if they see others doing the same, this effect reverses if they become aware too many people are participating, according to research that I conducted over the summer. Public goods are things that many people share. They can be physical, such as highways, clean air and blood banks, or virtual, like free online encyclopedia Wikipedia or mobile traffic app Waze. Combining methods from geography, urban planning and big-data analysis, my co-authors and I studied millions of postings by users of a mobile navigation app called Waze, in which users voluntarily post…

Imagine that you’re a typical middle school student having dinner with your family. Your mother takes your smartphone away and puts it in a lock-box that won’t open for an hour. Would you: (a) go ahead and eat dinner with your family? (b) try to pry open the box? or (c) smash the box with a heavy tool when your family is sufficiently distracted? As depicted in Netflix’s popular documentary, “The Social Dilemma,” the answer is first (b) – if that doesn’t work, then (c). Apparently, for youth, being connected online is akin to an addictive substance: “There are only…

It’s been suggested that an advance party of robots will be needed if humans are ever to settle on other planets. Sent ahead to create conditions favourable for humankind, these robots will need to be tough, adaptable and recyclable if they’re to survive within the inhospitable cosmic climates that await them. Collaborating with roboticists and computer scientists, my team and I have been working on just such a set of robots. Produced via 3D printer – and assembled autonomously – the robots we’re creating continually evolve in order to rapidly optimise for the conditions they find themselves in. Our work…

One of the most difficult problems in finance right now is figuring out the fundamental economic value of cryptocurrencies. And the past week has complicated this further. For many cryptocurrency investors, the value of Bitcoin is based on the fact it is artificially scarce. A hard cap on “minting” new coins means there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin in existence. And unlike national currencies such as the Australian dollar, the rate of release for new Bitcoin is slowing down over time. Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that takes its name and logo from a Shiba Inu meme that was popular several years…

There’s a new kid on the social media block, and it is making big waves. It is less than a year old, yet is already valued at US$1 billion, and has venture capitalists scrambling to invest. The newcomer is Clubhouse, a social platform built around “drop-in audio chat”. Featuring ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to and nobody can record, the invite-only app has gathered a legion of high-profile fans and some two million users. The coronavirus pandemic may have created the ideal conditions for Clubhouse to thrive: hordes of people isolated by lockdowns or safety concerns, desperate for…