popular science australia - january 2016

8/18/2019 Popular Science Australia - January 2016

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Now

byLINDSAY

H A N D M E R

14 POPULAR SCIENCE

When everyone has a smartphone intheir pocket that can also work as creditcard, the idea of using that technology asa digital drivers license makes good sense,on the face of it. But, when digital licensesroll out in 2018, will this just make youeven more dependent on your phone?

Don’t panic: this form of licensing will be opt-in, sothosewithout the desire - or theNFC-enabled smart-phone - canstill usea card licence. The “going digital”plan includes a full replacement for a range of currentcards, including photo ID,boat and fishing licences.

While drivers licenses arecomplex to setup, otherIDs could go digitala lot sooner. Anglerswill be thefirst to benefit, putting an endto the tradition of soggy

“sTEP OUT OFTHE CAR ANDSHOW MEYOUR PHONEPleASE, SiR”

bits of paper smeared with prawnguts. Otherlicenses such as RSA andRCG competency cards could alsobeavailable as earlyas 2016. It won’t justbe a system to display your licenceeither - options to apply, update andrenew different IDs will all be availablethrough an app. No more queuing!

The system has the potential tosavea huge amount of money, not tomention thework hours needed tomaintain the currentsystem. In NSWalone, 23 million licences are issuedeveryyear that range across 770dif-ferent types. Going digitalcould savetens of millions of dollars a year, and

of course reduce waste.The scheme is not without

drawbacks though, and the exactdetailsof the implementation are stillbeing hammered out. What happens ifyour phone breaks or has a flat batteryon theday you get pulled over? Rightnow it’s a $160 fine fordrivingwithoutyour license. Thenthere’s privacy -your smartphone has your entire lifeonit, soit over a device for licenceverification is a little more serious thanparting with a piece of plastic. Securityis also an issue, but considering thatexisting licences can alreadybe faked,a digitalsystem should actually bemore secure.

DIGITALWORLDSAustralians are usuallyquick to embrace digitaltechnology, but we stilllag behind several othercountries. According tothe Global InformationTechnology Report, themost “digital” country isSingapore, ollowed byFinland.Europe is gener-ally very digital, while theUSA sits at number 7, andsurprisingly Japan is allthe way backat 10.

One area that Australiadominates is contactlesspayments.53%of ourpopulation has made apurchasewitha contact-less card - a healthy leadover Singapore with 45%.Surprisingly the USA isone ofthe mostNFC-shy (only ahead of theUAE),with just 9% of its

population havingmadea contactless purchase.

JANUARY 2016

Speed Lab

If digital licenses came out today, current lawsmean you could get a $160 ne for having a atbattery - and driving ‘without’ your license.


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Now JANUARY 2016Goods

16 POPULAR SCIENCE

1 TELESINUNDERWATERGOPRO DOME PORT

Underwater photography

is cool. Telesin makes itcooler. This GoPro caseuses a dome made ofacrylic to create spacebetween your lens andthe water—allowing fora more visible waterlinewhen simultaneouslyshooting above and belowsurface level. $85

2 AERELIGHT A1

Fluorescent desk lampsare harsh on the eyes.This one uses organiclight emitting diodes(OLED) to provide awarmer glow. The lampcan be turned on andoff with a tap anywhereon its body and offersthree brightness levels.Qi inductive chargingbuilt into the base letsyou easily charge somephones. $300

3 RIF6 CUBEMOBILE PROJECTOR

Cube isn’t much biggerthan a smartphone. Butthe pocket projectorproduces a big picture. Itsbattery recharges overmicro-USB, meaning onefewer cable to trip overduring movie time. $300

4 JAMSTIK+

The Jamstik teaches youto play guitar, and anysong note by note, with a40-cm-long guitar and atrio of apps. GarageBandpairing lets you recordyour creations. One stepcloser to rock-star status.$300

HiTlisT10 Great Ideas in Gear

5 EMBER SMART MUGControl your coffee’s tem-perature using the dialon the mug’s base or via

smartphone app. An LEDindicator near the bottomoffers precise tempera-ture readings for a drinkthat’s not too hot and nottoo cold—satisfying yourinner Goldilocks. $129

6 SATECHI USBTYPE-C 3-IN-1COMBO HUB

If you’re photo or videoediting on the go, youneed this adapter. It turnsone USB Type-C port intothree USB 3.0 ports, anSD-card slot, and a micro-SD-card slot. $35

7 PAKPOD TRIPOD

Outdoor gear needsto be durable. Theweatherproof Pakpodgives photographers astable yet rugged tripodfor cameras. Stakes atthe bottom make sure itstays put. $99

8 ONEWHEEL

Want to balance-boardoff-road? The all-terraingo-kart tire on thisself-balancing electricvehicle lets you. It hits25 km per hour, makingit faster than most other

electric balancing boards.$1,499

9 MOPHIESPACE PACK

iPhone owners wantmore storage and abetter battery. The SpacePack improves both. Itadds 32GB, 64GB, or128GB of added space.Plus it roughly doublesyour battery life.From $150

10 APPLE iPAD PRO

Apple called on the king ofall planets, Jupiter, whenannouncing its latest tablet.And rightfully so. At 12.9inches, the iPad Pro is thebiggest iPad yet. There’senough room to edit 4K videoand to work in AutoCAD, andwith full support for the com-pany’s Pencil stylus, Applewants professionals to usethis for their great creationson the go. From $1279

byXAVIER

H A R D I N G

(Prices are shown in US dollars...because you’ll have to importmost of this stuff anyway)

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COM.AU OXFORD STREET LEEDERVILLE


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LEICA. DAS WESENTLICHE.


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Now JANUARY 2016

P O P U L A R S C I E N C E

What do we call this PC form-factor? Notebook-tablet-hybrid-but-where-the-keyboard-is-the-cover This de-sign, di erent rom the detachable clamshell that oth-erw se looks l ke a normal notebook, was p oneeredby Microso t. Now the Sur ace has its irst serious rivain the HP Elite X 101 no, we don’t think the iPad Procounts at all). But despite their similarities, the twodevices have some undamental di erences.

OS

TheSurface Pro 4

on ,butis designed fromt e groun up to e1 compatible withMicrosoft’s latest S

1 DISPLAY

Super-accurate2736x1824LCD display, withexcellentcolour reproduction andbrightnesssuitable forprofessionals. ated byDisplayMate Labs as

neof the besttabletisplays ever.

2 TYPECO

Expensive at $199but withexcellent keytravel and an improved

lass trackpad thatmakes it almostindistinguishablefrom a regularultrabook keyboard.

NFIG RABIL TY

Therange starts withan IntelCore m3 CPU

and 4GB ofRAM andoes all the way upto

a ore wfora savage$3399(without Type Cover).

ID

Our review unit wasinitially plagued withtiny irritating bugssuch as thestylus notworking, refusing tobootup, programs notnstall ng properly,unt l we’d run many

indowsupdates.

r ce: rom nc ey oar cover

Price: from $1699 (inc keyboard cover)

OS

Ships with Windows 10 bydefault but reseller orderscan specify a downgradeto Windows 7 or 8 forbusinesses who haven’trolled Windows 10 out.

1 DISPLAY

“Only” 1920x1080p butHP says this and manyother components areuser serviceable, makingthe Elite a better choicefor businesses who need

machines up and running100% of the time.

2 TYPE COVER

Similar to the Surface butincludes an aluminiumplate to improve rigidityand provide additionalprotection for the tabletwhen out and about.

CONFIGURABILITY

There are half a dozen“off the shelf” models,but enterprise customers

can load a customisedBIOS, additional securityfeatures or even tailoredproprietary software.

THE DOWNSIDE

The Elite X2 is aimedprimarily at business andhas “milspec” reliability.Good for enterprise,overkill for normal users.A consumer version,the Spectre X2 will beavailable soon.

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HP eliTEX2 1012

VS

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2

It also has

Bang & Ol ufsenaudio withambient noisecancel lat ionfor videoconferencing

TheHP Spectre X2 is theconsumerversionof the Elite, lessconfigurableand with a more basic warranty, but

like y to be less expensive.

Showdown

byAnthony Fordham


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WWW.AVHUB.COM. AVHUB.COM.AU/AWARDS


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Now JANUARY 2016

P H OTO G RA P H B Y Sam Kaplan22 P O P U L A R S C I E N C E

Ask an Expert

A lot of 22-year-olds have opinions about gadgets. Notmany have three million fans who will listen. MarquesBrownlee—best known as MKBHD—is an Internet celebritywho’s attracted hordes to his YouTube channel sincelaunching seven years ago. Brilliant and funny smartphonereviews, unboxings, and meditations on all things tech haveset him apart as one of the most influential tech loggers outthere. Here, we unbox his tools of the trade. (Prices in US$)

(featuring MKBHD)

HOW TOBE AYOUTUBEsTAR

1 YAMAHA HS8Engineers trust Yama-ha’s studio monitors todeliver precise soundacross all frequencies.Never underestimategood audio. $499

2 ASUS PA328QThis newer model ofMKBHD’smonitor offersbetterergonomics,4Kresolution,and precisecolour accuracy to easilyspoterrors. $1,299

3 APPLE MAC PROYouTube supports upto 4K video,but Apple’stower PC hasthehorsepower for three5K screens at once.Hashtag futureproof.$2,999 ($4,899 inAustralia,ouch)

4 RED WEAPONDRAGONRed’s cameras aren’tcheap. But they offeruser-upgradeableshooters that recordin 6K—the highestresolution available.$59,500

5 SIGMA 18-35MMF/1.8 LENSSigma’s lenses aresharp. Crystal-clearcapture with great low-light options. $799

6 SOUND DEVICES MIXPRE D-P48This battery-poweredfield mixer can be usedas a preamp to addclarity when filming. Orafterward to dub overmistakes. $929 7 SENNHEISERMKH416Cutting out ambientnoise is key. This shot-

gun mic picks up audioonly where it’s aimed,so your viral video willsound just how youlike. $1249 8 LOGITECH MXMASTER MOUSE The side wheel on thismouse lets you scrollhorizontally as easilyas vertically. Pair threedevices at once, switchconnections with abutton press. $99

TIPS FROMMARQUES

LEARN FROMTHE BEST

“When I see a shotin a video or movieI like, I’ll Google itto nd out what itis and how to doit. I watch a lot ofYouTube tutorials.The more oftenI do it, the moresteps I remem-ber—and theeasier it gets.”

SHOOT FORTHE EDITOR

“At events I’ll makea list of everythingI want to capture,shoot it, and thenrecord audioback at my hotel since it’s a morecontrolled environ-ment. I lm know-ing what type ofeffects I want toadd afterward.”

SPEAK TO WHATYOU’VE FILMED

“I have talkingpoints to makesure I don’t forgetanything import-ant. It’s more of aconversation thana script. If I fullyscripted videos, Iwould never nishanything on time.”

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THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION

I AM THE NEW AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR.I am a lens that captures beauty with unmatched clarity. Even beyond these harsh desertsands, this NIKKOR 24-70mm’s unrivalled precision and fast f/2.8 aperture makes lightof any situation, no matter how rough or dark it may be. I am a photographer’s visionmade perfect.What will you pursue with your NIKKOR? VisitMyNikonLife.com.au .

I AM DANY EID,and this is how I seethe beautiful land of

Jordan, through myNIKKOR.


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POPULAR SCIENCE

Price: $369 www.logitech.com

Number of internet-connected devicesin the average Austral ian home in 20 4.

ource: Telsyte research08

Universal remotes ma e it easy to controa bunch o AV gear, but now Logitechhas gone a step urther. Using what isessentially a WiFi-equipped, touchscreenmini tablet as an interface, connected toa smart hub system, it’s now possible tocontrol much more than ust a TV.

HARM NYELI

At a casual glance, theElite looks likean V receiver remote - a little daunt-

ing, t oug wit a snazzy touc screenatt e top.It eepst e standardarrayo tactile buttons, which are backlit.

en t eres t at . touc screenLCD. It’s gesture-equipped for mul-ti-finger inputs, and has haptic fee -back, so your eyes never have to stray

mt e . e screencan sp aya range o cu sea eoptons,suc as avour tes or programcommands. The Elite cancontrol upto 15 devices directly via IR,but alsohas Wi-Fi andBluetooth. A replacea-ble battery c arges overnig t in t einc u e cra e.

THE H B

What makes theElite unique is how itcan tie intoa smart ome, t an sto a

centra Hub. ot itand t e remote ininto your ome networ , and are ac-cessib e remote via t e internet. T eHub a so as two wired I b asters,and t e ideais youp ace itnearyourIR-dependant AV equipment so the re-mote doesn’t always need line of sight.This means that the Elite remote can

e use to control evices from iffer-ent rooms. Thanks to WiFi, the systemcan o smar omese ups,sucas ps ue g ts, oc s, orp at orms like INSTEON and IFTTT.

ogitec sayst e ite can contro over270,000 different devices.

USAGE CENARIOLike previous Harmony remotes, the Elite is built aroundmacro programming, which makes it easy to setup custotions. For example, a “watch a movie” button could re upAV receiver, turn on the TV and Blu-ray player, dim the smights and even tell the electric curtains to close. A “projec

button could instead lower a screen, turn the lights downurther and route video to the projector. A “listen to musicutton cou set t e surroun soun to stereo an turn o

various audio sources, but keep the TV o ff and the lights o

ptions via an appsmartphone into ane. This works onlinecheck the status of ces such as digitale lights no matterOr just turn the TVnvince people yourd.

ac-theartor”

”

n.

THEAPPDig into morethat turns anyauxiliary remotoo, so you canconnected devocks and hous

where you are.n an o to couse is haunt

Clever Little Things

by Lindsay Handmer


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Buy online and subscribe to PC & Tech Authority at

MYMAGAZINES.COM.AU

ON SALE NOW


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2 POPULAR SCIENC

Theresponse to formulated,powdered “whole mealreplacements” by somenutritionists and many, manywhole oo a vocates has eenoneo horror. Howcan youconsider poisoning yoursel withmass-produced chemicalsAlmost everything in, for example,Soylent is bad or you!Don’t eat it

But ifyoutryoneof theseormulations yoursel , you’ll ind

that farfrom being scary, theingredients arent even remarkable.

Until now, Australians have

WHAT’S INAUSSIELENT?Available in choc-olate or vanilla,Auss e ent s a meareplacement thatsupposedly providesenoug energy annutrition to keep a19-30 year old malegoing on just onesatchel a day, mixedwith water. Let slook at some of theingredients.

OAT FLOUR

LowGI, provides asustained releaseof energyover several hours. Techni

cally gluten free, “butgettingcertification is too hard” saysCarpenter, so Aussielent is

notmarketed as safefor Coeliacs.

SOYFLOSomepeople worry

thatprocessed soy containsartificial estrogens thatwillmess youup. Science sayssoy flour is high in protein

andgood fats. The amounin Aussielent conformsto

Australian oostandards.

WHEY PROTEIN

nlikeU andEuropeanversions, Aussielent usesthisbyproduct o cheese

manufacturing to give30gof protein per130g serve

nd also deliver a fullmino acid pro ile.

VITAMINS

ac serve provides25-35% of the recommend-ed daily intake o vitaminsessential for goodhealth.

hey aresourcedfromhe samemanufacturers

asuse inmu ti-vitamin pills.

TAPI AMALTODEXTRIN

Favourite hate-target ofwhole food advocates, it

ma es e mx uresmoo .raditionalcorn maltodextrin

canspike bloodsugarlevels,but this stuffhas

very low GI.

MINERALS

Aussielent’smineralprofile is designedwithbioavailability in mind,to provide a 100% RDI

dosethat includesmolyb-enum, manganese, iron,

iodine andmore.

PROCESSED

None. Notbit.

AUSSIELENT$84 per 28-meal box

Chocolate or vanillawww.aussiesoylent.com.au

adto DIY t eir own mix,w icis surprising y abour-intensive,according to Aussielent “inventor”Paul Carpenter. He mixed his owna terlearningaboutSoylent via itsKickstarter campaign.

is recipe, calledAussielent,i ers slightly rom the in amous

US mix. “It’s basically a lowGI, highprotein ormula,” says Carpenter,simi ar in concept to we -provenmedical ood replacements. But:We la el Aussielent not to e

used as a sole source of nutrition,’because ot erwise you wou d on ybe able to buy it from a doctor.”

ussielent is ma e from

ingredients youcan buy in bulkonline or frombodybuilder shops,an the a e vitaminscome fromthe same companies that makemultivitamin pills. But arpentersays Aussielent is actuallya betterway to get t ose vitamins.

We giveyou 100% o therecommendedamount. o manyo those pills give 2000% or more.”

ow Aussielent affectsconsumers over ong periodsremains to be seen. ButCarpenterhas been eating variationsof hisrecipe fora couple of yearsnow.“I haven’t developed aundice oranything,” he says.

IS THIS STUFF BAD FOR ME?Products like Soylent andAussielent are typically de-signed by non-food-scientists(Paul Carpenter says he hasno food science backgroundat all) who research online,and rely on experiments doneby others. Is drinking nothingbut high-protein shakes foryears worse than a diet oforganic fruit, vegetables andmeat grown in clean soil andclean air? Probably. But swap-ping out a breakfast muffinand lunchtime hamburgerfor Aussielent while stilleating a healthy dinner? Prob-ably not. Like everything, justdon’t go crazy, okay?

N RY 2 01 6

Biohacki

by Anthony Fordham


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The Bok Prize

The Charlene Heisler Prize

The Louise Webster Prize

The Ellery Lectureship

The David Allen Prize

The Berenice & Arthur Page Medal

The Richard Cole Fund

Donate to the Foundation for the Advancement of Astronomy


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Didn’t get that drone you wanted for Christmas? Here’s thePopular Science pick of the best models available in Australiaright now, from affordable hobby drones, all the way up tohigh end professional, uh, aerial surveillance platforms.

No

camera, that links back to a FatShark video headset. Flight comesfrom powerful 6mm motorsthat give extremely responsivehandling. It’s also got SAFEtechnology, which ensures stablehands off hovering and accuratecontrols. The QX is ready to fly,but can also bind to your existing2.4GHz controller. Get a massivediscount by picking it up withoutthe FPV gear for around $150,which makes it one of the bettermini quadcopters for beginnersand experienced pilots alike.

www.modelflight.com.au$649.99

HUBSAN X4H107L V2A classic minidrone on a shoestring(not literally)

Buying a cheap drone can be tricky, lest youcrash and burn with a dodgy knock off brandthat flies poorly. The Hubsan X4 is one of thebest budget models available, and has actuallyhad a few design revisions over time, so makesure you get the V2. Six-axis gyro stabilisationmeans the X4 is super easy to fly, yet zippyenough for acrobatics. It comes with a basiccontroller, or can be linked to a compatible2.4GHz model. There are a few variants - theH107C has a camera, the H109 has powerfulbrushless motors and there is even a Nanomodel. Rreeeee!

www.dx.com $60

BlADE iNDUctRiX

A drone like no otherFlying a quadcopter indoors can be fun (even one thatseems to be named after a blender), but it’s all too easyto bump into walls or furniture and crash, despite propguards. The Inductrix solves the issue with electric duct-ed fans instead of propellers, that are much more pro-tected. This little quad uses 6-axis stabilisation, so is veryeasy to fly. It’s not quite as zippy as Nano QX, but is quickenough for more advanced pilots to have plenty of fun.It comes with a controller, or can be bought as a slightlycheaper model that binds to an existing transmitter.

$129 www.rchobbies.com.au

flY THE fRieNDlY(BUT SUDDeNlYCROWDeD) SKieS

DJi iNSPiRE ONEA serious drone, for seriousdrone work

At the professional level, there are plentyof large but very expensive drones. The DJIInspire 1 crosses back into the high endconsumer level - just. Sure, it costs as muchas a usedhatchback, but for serious aerialvideo work, it’s worth it. The Inspire 1 hasa modular camera system that records in4K and streams 720Pvideo up to 2000mback to the controller. The camera is on agyro-stabilised mount that can be pannedthrough 360 degrees and controlledseparately to the drone itself. It’s also got agaggle of smart functionality, such as targettracking and autonomous flying.

www.riseabove.com.au $4999

BlADENANO QX FPVLearn to fly in first person

This tiny 22 gram drone hasa built-in miniature wireless

28 POPULAR SCIENCE

The Roundup

by Lindsay Handmer


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JANU ARY 2 016

DRONELAWSGoverned by CASA, Australianlaws are fairly simple. Fly low-er than 120metres,keepin lineof sight of the operator, re-main 30m or more away frompeople and don’t operate overlarge crowds. Importantly, youneed to stay at least 5.5 kmfrom any airport or helipad,which actually rules out hugeswathes of most cities (andit’s why you don’t see droneseverywhere). For commercialuse, a UAV operator licenceis needed. Check out the freeapp RPAS Logger, which canshow airport exclusion zonesand help log ights.

footage back to a reas immersive as FPV goggles, but itsThe basic quadcopter has an eightminute flight timeand up to a 100m range. It’s stabilised by a 6-axis gyroand has switchable beginner and advanced flight modes.It can also do 360 degree flips at the touch of a button.Colourful LEDs for night flying area neat touch.

www.jaycar.com.au $299

DJi PHANTOM 3Much more than a toy

DJI has dominated the drone mar-ket, and the Phantom 3 Profes-sional is the latest high tech mod-el. Onboard video can be capturedin 4K, using a 1/2.3” Sony Exmorsensor that gives video quality on

quV isa gorgeochunk of black plastic. It has agimballed 1080P or 4K camera,or can carry a GoPro. Rangeis rated at 500m, which is justa quarter of DJI’s capability.While it comes with a controller,camera streaming depends on asmartphone app. It has a full suiteof inbuilt smarts, such as autotake-off and landing, waypointflying, POI tracking and a follow

mode. So it’s not quite as good asthe Phantom, but the Explorer Vis a lot cheaper. Sometimes, that’swhat counts.

$1000 www.xirodrone.com

SWANN XtRQUADFORCAerial footage withothe expense

Swann worked withSythe QuadForce basedlent X5C. A medium-s93 grams, it has enough grunt to flyoutdoors without getting blown about.The drone has an onboard720Pcamera that records to SD card, andwhile the quality is pretty average, it’sstill aerial photography, right? TheQuadForce has 6-axis gyro stabili-sation, a 100m range and an eightminute flight time. It also has astunts mode - hit a button onthe controller to initiate perfectflips and rolls. The Swanndrone is available from Cost-co, but can also be foundonline for a bit cheaper.

$129.95www.swann.com

P O P U L A R S C I E N C E 2 9

par with the likes of GoPro. It canalso stream 720P video back tothe controller from 2000m awayand has the usual DJI smarts,

such as auto take-off and landing,and return-home mode. The dronecan also be set to circle a point ofinterest, tracking it with the cam-era, or follow the controller. ThePhantom 3 is actually availablein a few different versions, with a$500-cheaper Advanced modelwith 2.7K camera, or the Standardthat uses the older DJI controllerwith a shorter range.

www.riseabove.com.au$2199

Now

JAYCAR HAWKeYEReady to go FPV flying

s rone s on oar camera streams rea t mte mounte sp ay. t s notqu te

a t e pr ce.

XiROXPlOReR

in theone market

ompeting with the excellent DJIcopters,

ar

E

to eve opt e exc -

at

The Roundup


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byLINDSAY

HANDMER

30 POPULAR SCIENCE

Loudspeakers, or to use thefancy name, electroacoustictransducers, have been aroundsince the late 1800s. Theconcept behind the technology isfairly simple: an electrical signalmoves a diaphragm, whichvibrates air molecules, creatinga compression wave, whichwe hear. The most commontechnology is the dynamicspeaker (invented in 1925),which uses an electromagneticcoil and a magnet to producethese waves. There are otheractivation methods, some ofwhich are in the middle of a new

renaissance. There’s demandin the market for unusual oratypical loudspeaker designs.Let’s take a listen to their varioushighs and lows.

BENQ TREVOLOPortable speakers - Bluetooth and otherwise - aregreat for music anywhere, but they typically sufferfrom fairly poor audio quality compared to “proper”big speakers. Not so with the treVolo, says BenQ,

which is the first portable Bluetooth system to useElectrostatic Diaphragm technology.

Unlike a bulky traditional speaker, the treVolo hastwo large fold-out panels. This makes the unit smalland easy to move, but gives a large surface areato create crisp, dynamic playback. The speakers

ROGNT VibrationSpeakerRather than having its own diaphragm,this speaker turns an object such as atable or window into a speaker.Despite good volume levels, the audioquality depends on the surface used, andso often lacks a full frequency response.Inside is essentially the core of a heavy,powerful traditional speaker transducerthat creates vibrations.

3D SoundThe odd shape of thehuman ear means we arevery good at determiningthe direction of a soundsource, which makes3D sound - instead ofmere stereo - difficult tosimulate. Fortunatelywith some signalprocessing wizardry,it’s possible to fool ourbrains into thinking pointsource sounds came fromdifferent direction.It works especially wellin headphones.

State of the Art

Sound is producedby both sides of thispanel, giving this littlespeaker a lot morepunch than youmight expect.

ANAWeSOMEWAVE


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NowState of the Art

POPULAR SCIENCE 3 1

SPeAKeR TECH

PIEZOELECTRIC

Using the piezoelectric effect(where an electric currentcauses a material to vibrate) tomove the speaker diaphragm,these speakers can be verythin, light and cheap. Typicallythey don’t offer a very widefrequency range, though arevery resistant to overloads thatcould destroy a normal speaker.Most piezoelectric speakersare tiny, and used as alerts oralarms, such as in watches.

ELECTROSTATIC

A high voltage electric field,(rather than a magnetic field)moves a statically-chargeddiaphragm membrane. By pro-ducing the driving force over theentire speaker, this tech createsmore linear sound with lowerdistortion. The downside is thatthey need to be fairly large toget a full frequency response,so are more often used as midto high range speakers, ratherthan subwoofers.

MAGNETIC Available in many differentforms, all still use magneticfields in one way or another.Traditional models have apermanent magnet reactingagainst a moving electromag-net, but the positions can alsobe reversed. Ribbon speakerscreate the magnetic field (andmovement) in flat conductors,while magnetostriction speak-ers use the changing shape offerromagnetic materials.

DIAPHRAGM-FREE

There are alternatives to the di-aphragm. Plasma arc speakersmanipulate electric fields, butsuffer from reliability problems.Thermoacoustic speakers heatthe air with carbon nanotubesto make it expand and createsound waves, but so far haveonly been tested in the lab.Rotary woofers use variablepitch fans to create very low fre-quencies and are often used incinemas for deep bass effects.

SoundCannonNot so mucha speaker as atool, these unitscan be usedfor everythingfrom crowdcontrol to longrange com-municationsor chasinganimals off run-ways. Used as asonic weapon,these speak-ers can causeeverythingfrom discom-fort through toburst eardrumsand extremepain. A soundcannon haseven been usedto help repelSomali pirates.

It’s not all about Kevlar cones. Various speaker technologiesexist. Here’s how they break down (that’s a musical term).

push air in both directions, whichgives a richer, fullersound that isless affected by listeningposition.Electrostatic speakers are bestat mid tohigh frequencies, sothe treVolo alsopacks a pair of63mmdiaphragm subwoofers togive a solid bass kick. Each of thedrivers in the system is driven by aseparate 10Wamp.

Theresult is easily the best-sounding portable speaker systemwe’ve heard, with a clean crisphighs and warm, richmids. It doeslack a little bass and the treVolo isaimed at more relaxed listening, so

doesn’t handlethe party-blastingvolumes of other portable systems.Connections include Bluetooth,

USB and 3.5mm in/out. It weighs inat 1.2KG, andthe included batteryruns for 12hours ona charge.Nuances of control come via aBenQ music app. The unit also hasa microphone, socan beused asaspeakerphone. $299

JANUARY 2016

Sonic weapons canbe non-lethal (inducingnausea) or plentylethal indeed,bursting organs withair pressure.


32/843 2 PO PUL AR S CI EN CE PH OTO GRA PH BY Mike Zorger

Something bizarre is happening to KIC8462852, a star located 1,480 light-yearsfrom Earth. Its glow dims significantly andat irregular intervals. The cause could beasymmetry in the star, or it could be theshadow of a family of comets, for example, ora megastructure built by an advanced civili-sation. SETI’s Allen Telescope Array recentlysearched the skies to no avail, so in 2016,scientists plan to investigate using the GreenBank Telescope. It is far more sensitive thanthe array and is equipped to scan 1.5 billionradio frequencies simultaneously. If there isa structure, we might be able to detect radio

signals, like those ofEarthly electronics, fromits makers. WhateverGreen Bank reveals(we’re hoping aliens), itwill be new to science.

bySARAH FECHT

EDITED BY BREANNA DRAXLER + MATT GILES

The time lapse of the GreenBank Telescope consists of 400images captured over a periodof three hours, starting at 9 p.m.


33/84P O P U L A R S C I E N C E 3 3

JANUARY 2016

Diameter, inmetres, ofthe GreenBankTelescope,the world’slargest ful lysteerableradiotelescope

99.9


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JANUARY 2016NextThe Big Idea

D-ERINGGS

CUREPTSD

34 POPULAR SCIENCE

byMATT GILES

We just need tore-imaginethe trip

Post-traumatic stress disorder has reachedcrisis levels. About 6.4 per cent of Australiansexperience PTSD; for returned servicemen (andwomen), that number is much higher. Treatmentis notoriously difficult, but people could findrelief in an unusual form: psychedelic drugs.

MDMA—best known as molly or ecstasy—earned a bad rap in the 1990s as ravers’ drug ofchoice. But psychotherapists are coming to valuethe way it increases empathy while decreasingfear and defensiveness. “MDMA gives peoplethe ability to revisit an event that’s still painfulwithout being overwhelmed,” says psychiatrist

Michael Mithoefer. Following a recent MDMAtrial, 83 per cent of his treatment-resistant par-ticipants no longer showed symptoms of PTSD.

In one study, Mithoefer worked with a NewYork City firefighter post-9/11. The subjecthad tried treatment before. While undergoinga popular method that uses eye movement toreprocess a trauma, he’d been so overcome thathe ripped a sink off the wall. MDMA, however,worked. “It wasn’t easy for him,” Mithoefer says.“But our sink is still attached.”

MDMA isn’t a one-trick pony either; it cantreat end-of-life anxiety and alcoholism, andit’snot addictive. “We’re talking about the riseof a whole field of medicine,” says Rick Doblin,founder of the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Asso-ciation for Psychedelic Studies, which is runninga handful of MDMA trials, including Mithoefer’s.

Doblin thinks the FDA willgreenlight the drug formainstream use by 2021:“The psychedelic psycho-therapist of the future willhave a medicine bag filledwith drugs like MDMA.”

During the course ofa given year, approxi-

mately 1.4 million adultsin Australia will

experience PTSD.

MDMA releasesneurotransmitters,

such as serotoninand dopamine,

in the brain.


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NextFood for Thought

JANUARY 2016

POPULAR SCIENCE 35

by Pa t P i l che r

WillIeverbereplacedbyanAlgorithm?

PHD Worldwide is a company thatspecialises in communications planningand buying. Not the usual target for anAustralian Popular Science interview,but its latest publication, “Sentience:The Coming AI Revolution and theImplications for Marketing”, caught ourattention and made us ask that vexingquestion: “Will I, one day, be replaced byan algorithm?” PHD’s strategy director,Simon Bird, tackles the concept head on.

PP: What exactly is an AI? If you look at the core definition of

Artificial Intelligence (as proposed byJohn Mccarthy who coined the term in1956) it’s “the science and engineeringof making intelligent machines”.

This implies a few ideas: theability for technology to learn fromexperience, to apply that learning tonew problems, to apply logic and tothink abstractly.

Making this a reality requireshighly advanced algorithms, powerfulcomputer processors and access tosignificant amounts of data.

The advanced requirements ofthese three areas can’t be understat-ed. Many of today’s AI applications arebased on simulations of human braincells called neural networks. Whilethese networks certainly don’t repli-cate the form and function of the brainperfectly, they draw inspiration from it

How do you see AI evolving? From a marketing perspective, oneof the challenges for consumers isnavigating the relatively disconnected,disorganised and decentralised worldof information. Try missing a flightand having to change hotels, cancel

your car, contact work colleagues,rearrange diaries, call family membersetc. Viewed from a position 10 years

fromnow itwill feel asthough aseamless bridge between us and theworld was missing.

The most interesting bridgingdevice and the one that’ll become theultimate bridge is a virtual PersonalAssistant. At the moment they’re weakAI (like Siri or Cortana) but considerwhat they might become.

AIs and robotics have alreadydisplaced some unskilled jobs, Willthey eventually do the same to skilledroles?There are two schools of thoughtaround this. One suggests AI leadsto widespread displacement of jobs,the other that takes a more balancedview, emphasising that [historically]technology has created more jobsthan it has replaced. From a marketing

and media perspective, it’s natural toassume that these fields will evolvedramatically over the next 15 years,

due to the influence of AI.

Will machines becomesmarter than humans?One of the most respect-ed sources of knowledgeon this is Ray Kurzweil,who works as the directorof Engineering at Google

and is guiding the company’s effortsto teach computers to understandnatural language.

He’s developed a theory called‘singularity’. This refers to the fact thathumanity is fast approaching the pointat which not only are our machinesmore intelligent than we are, but wemerge our own consciousness withthem, after which point it’s impossibleto predict how technology and human-ity will develop. He believes we willreach this point by 2045

Can we program e mpathy? An

AI may one day even know youbet ter than you know yourself .

“Historically, technologyhas created more jobs thanit has replaced”— S I M O N B I R D O F P H D W O R L D W I D E


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NextTime Machine

JANUARY 2016

36 POPULAR SCIENCE

Put the real world on notice. The long-predicted virtual-reality boom has nally arrived. Now anyone with somecardboard and a few lenses can turn an Android phoneinto a passable VR headset. By 2020, an estimated38 million more-sophisticated devices—such as theOculus Rift, which hits shelves this year—will bestrapped onto human faces. Over the past ve decades,VR has advanced from its science-ction roots to afuture that, well, soundspretty sci- too.

byA L L I S ON W I L L I AM S

Virtual RealityGets Real

Morton Heilig—

a cinematographer andthe father of VR—patents

the Sensorama Simulator .The refrigerator-size mini

theatre comes equipped witha vibrating seat and awind machine to blast

the viewer.

Artificialintelligence and VR

willdovetail, so peoplecoulddevelop bonds with

virtualhumans . At leastthat’s the speculation of Hunter

Hoffman, lead designer ofSnowWorld:“Thebrain is

prettyopen to buyinginto that.”

PA ST F U T U R E

1962 203520302025202020142006200219951981

Tom Furness

of the US Air Forcebuilds the first im-mersive VR system , a

virtual cockpit with a widefield of view, to improve

cockpit design.

To distract burn

victims from the excru-ciating pain of wound care,

an immersive VR experiencecalled Snow World helpspatients focus instead ontossing virtual snowballs

at mammoths andpenguins.

Magic Leaphopes to master

“mixed reality.” The VRstartup’s light-fielddisplays could eventuallyenable viewers to interactwith both the real world

and a virtual objectprojected on it.

Since9/11, VR-expo-

sure therapy alleviatespost-traumatic stress in

civilians . Another program,Virtual Iraq, later treats veterans

experiencing PTSD by helpingthem revisit the trauma. Itincorporates virtual rock-

et-propelled grenadesand Black Hawk he-

licopters.

The hapticsproblem—recreatingtouch and pressure in

VR—could be solved bystimulating nerves with elec-trodes, building on researchinto muscle-propelled force

feedback at the HassoPlattner Institute.

Stream-ing data could

allow VR to renderany physical locationin real time. Officespaces might all

go virtual.

Facebook

buys Oculus Riftfor $2 billion . MarkZuckerberg calls the

device “one of the nextmost important com-

puting platforms.”

Hollywooddiscovers VR . In

The Lawnmower Man , VRcauses a woman to go mad anda simpleton to become a genius.In Virtuosity , Denzel Washington

enters VR to catch a killer. Acritic blasts the latter as“numbingly frantic, in the

manner of many vid-eogames.”


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NextJANUARY 2016

POPULAR SCIENCE 37

In theory, optical bre andwireless connections can havesimilar maximum speeds.The difference is that wirelesssignals in the same area caninterfere with each other, whichreduces ACTUAL bandwidth.Optical bre doesn’t sufferfrom interference, but is ofcourse limited to the specic

routeson which thecableis run. The technologies arecomplementary though - withbre suiting xed locations andhigh bandwidth backhaul, whilewireless gives exibility to thenal data delivery.

The current record forwireless transmission in a lab isone terabyte per second - or 1000

times as fast as what Telstrahas just tested. Optical bre hasthat beat though, and a singlestrand can handle 26 Tbps. Andusing a multicore bre, speedsof over a petabit per secondhave been demonstrated - amillion times faster than 4GX.Electrical signals tend to maxout at around 10 Gbps.

TelstraExplorestheLandBeyond4G

Towards5GIn partnership withEricsson,Telstra is testing thefuture of highspeed internet, and the deploy-ment of anynew technology isabout five years away. That said,the tests are conducted on theexisting commercial network -not some fancy lab equipmentin tightly controlled conditions.That testers can hit speeds of agigabit per second (or 1000Mbps)is thanks to an aggregation of100MHz of 4G spectrum, acrossfive existing channels.

The problem with this ap-proach is that in normal use, us-ers share spectrum and channels,and one person pulling those kindof speeds leaves everyone elseshort on bandwidth.

Quantum Leap

The limit of bandwidth

The solution is upgradedequipment and a larger chunkof the wireless spectrum to playwith. This is relatively easy to doas a one-off test, but rather morecomplicated to roll out for millionsof users. Still, the future of highspeed wireless internet looksbright indeed.

Telstra Right NowYes, 1Gbps seems crazy fast, butTelstra customers already haveaccess to one of the quickestnetworks in the world. On aso-called 4GX smartphone suchas the Samsung Galaxy Note 5,

it’s already possible to hit speedsup to 450 Mbps. You won’t everactually hit that speed on a cellthat’s shared with hundreds ofother users at a time, but thecapability is there. Peaks over 100Mbps are already common. Onthe Telstra 4GX network, usinga dedicated mobile data hotspot(sort of like a smartphone withoutthe smarts, or screen), speeds ofup to 600 Mbps are possible.

Even though this stockphone image is running

an obsolete version ofAndroid, speeds like

this could be possiblewithin 5 years.

by LINDSAY HANDMER

While most of us wait on (and on) for

the NBN - which willinitially offer a max-imum speed of 100Mbps - Telstra istesting a much fasterwireless standard.And by wireless, wemean mobile. Today,the 4G connection on adecent smartphone is5-10 times faster thana suburban ADSL2+link. What couldn’t wedo with five HUNDREDtimes that bandwidth?


38/8438 POPULAR SCIENCE

JANUARY 2016NextDecoded

Insane Study

Faster Food,Fewer Neurons

Legendary NFL linebackerJunior Seau committed suicidein 2012, less than three yearsafter his final game. An autopsyoverseen by the NationalInstitutes of Health revealedthat he’d had chronic traumaticencephalopathy, or CTE—adegenerative brain diseasethat can result from hits tothe head and might causedepression, aggression,memory loss, and dementia.High-profile cases like Seau’s

Needanother reason toavoidfast food?Australianscientistsfound thatpeoplewitha dietof processed foodsandsugary drinks tend tohave a smallerhippocampus—a brain region involvedin learning, memory, andmood. “Unhealthy diets cancreate an environmentthat is toxictothebrain,”says neuroscientistNicolas Cherbuin. Soyoumight want tolayo ff the BigMacs.

by JOE DeLESS IO

Tackling BrainTrauma Head-On

“There’s something aboutrepetitive hits to the head that

turns on this disease.”—ROBERT STERN, DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL RESEARCH AT

THE CTE CENTER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Currently, the disease can’t be treated. Infact, doctors can’t even diagnose it when aperson is alive. CTE can be found only duringautopsies. But that might be about to change. “There’s tremendous optimism that we candevelop a way to identify this in livingindividuals,” says Ann McKee, director of neuro-pathology at the CTE Centre.

Some scientists are trying to find a CTEsignature in blood, saliva, or spinal fluid.Others aim to track down a misfolded proteincalled tau, which is known to aggregate in thebrains of people with CTE. By developing aradiotracer that adheres to this abnormal tau(and only this tau), researchers hope to be ableto spot it in PET scans. A team of researchers from Boston Univer-sity and two local hospitals is testing a tracercalled T807 in clinical trials backed, in part, bythe US Department of Defence. They’re injectingit into former NFL players and expect resultson its effectiveness within the next few years.

Back in April 2015, a UCLA team developed atechnique using a tracer called FDDNP, thoughsome researchers question whether it attachesexclusively to tau. “There’s been incredible growth in tau

neuroimaging, just in the pastthree years,” says Robert Stern,director of clinical research atBoston University’s CTE Center.“Millions and millions of dollarsare being poured into thisgigantic area of research.” Atthis pace, scientists—includingStern and McKee—anticipate

they could be diagnosing the condition in livingbrains within a decade. Researchers can thenwork on treatments to reduce tau or its effectson the central nervous system, putting thebrakes on the disease before it’s too late.

have raised public awareness of CTE in theNFL in recent years. And rather than a rarity,researchers are concerned the disease might bemore widespread than previously believed.

Boston University’s CTE Centre has beenanalysing the brains of deceased athletes andveterans since 2008; the condition has shownup in 175 of the 247 brains studied. Amongdeceased NFL players, it’s 88 of 92.

First found in boxers and called “punch-drunk syndrome,” CTE now shows up inthe brains of former gridiron players too.

by STEP H YIN


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N 20 16

extParadigm Shift

PO S CI EN C E 3

The (Other)Cold War

by

While the fight against globalwarming focuses mostly onenergy generation, cars and theoccasional flatulent cow, there areother battles going on behind thescenes. Such as the war of wordsbetween the Australian Refriger-ation Association (ARA) and theSynthetic Refrigerants Alliance

HFC (Hydro uorocarbonsRefrigerant used as an alternative to Chloro-uorocarbons, the infamous CFCs that mostcountries legislated against in the 1980s and1990s to preserve the ozone layer. Unfortunately,HFCs still contribute heavily to global warming.

HFO (Hydrouoroelns)So-called fourth-generation refrigerants which, despitestill being made of hydrogen, uorine and carbon, nevertheless have a lower global warming potential thanHFCs. As well as HFOs, the ARA advocates the use ofnatural refrigerants, including ammonia and CO 2

a strongly-worded letter saying it has plenty ofmembers who produce and sell natural refrig-erants and that the government doesn’t need tostick its nose into the whole business... possiblydue to the risk of frostbite.

Mentioning the government wasn’t com-pletely random, because the Commonwealthhas just published a review of the OzoneProtection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Man-agement Act that commits to phasing out HFCrefrigerants by 2036. That might seem a longway off, but most refrigeration experts seem tothink this is a realistic time scale.

The central irony of this ongoing stoush (atone point in the chain of official correspond-ence, the ARA essentially challenged the SRAto a fight in the street) is that hydrofluorocar-bons were the “good guys” of the great ozonelayer crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. Broughtinto to replace ozone-eating chlorofluorocar-bons (you may remember them as CFCs),HFCs have since turned out to be significantcontributors to global warming. Not that theSRA entirely agrees with that assertion.

As usual, this whole argument boils downto an industry insisting it doesn’t need gov-ernment intervention to stop it from furtherdamaging the planet, while another interestgroup insists only the government can excisethe rotten core of a cabal that’s every bit aspolitical as the government. Or whatever.

So next time you stagger home after anespecially hot and humid day (and there are

plenty more of those to come) and flick onthe AC, spare a thought for all the shouting inconference centres that makes this amazingtechnology possible.

a refrigerant in everything from airconditioners to, well, refrigerators.

The ARA recently pointedout that natural refrigerantssuch as CO 2 and ammonia aremore energy efficient thanHFCs, but also claims thealliance of synthetic refrigerantmanufacturers is actively lobbyingagainst expanding their use.

Naturally, the SRA responded in



Hands Off

the WheelDriverless cars navigate the Autobahns of Germanyand the great freeways of the US with ease, but how willthey handle Australia’s more... idiosyncratic road network?Pat Pilcher trusts a robot to find out.

JANUARY 2016NextThe Conversation


41/84POPULAR SCIENCE 41

Saturday, 7 November 2015 was a landmark day forAustralia. It saw the start of Australia’s first major testsof autonomous road vehicle technology. The tests wereheld in South Australia and Australian Popular Sciencecaught up with Gerard Waldron, CEO and managing di-rector of the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) totalk autocars. Waldron leads the team conducting testswith Volvo, for transport bodies, and federal, state andlocal government organisations across Australia.

What’s the background for this test?GERARD WALDRON: The Australian Driverless Vehi-cles Initiative (ADVI) is leading the safe and successfultransition of driverless vehicles onto Australian roads.

This scenario is unl ikely to be legalsoon. Even on auto-drive, a humanwill need to be “in c harge” of the car.



Saturday’s test is part of a series of research

demonstrations coordinated by ARRB to assesswhat is required to make driverless vehicletechnology appropriate for Australian roads andsafe for road users.

The demonstrations are a major turningpoint for the future of motoring the evolution ofdriverless car technology in Australia.ARRB’s ADVI puts Australia amongst only ahandful of countries, including Germany, Swe-den, and the UK and USA, pioneering on-roaddriverless vehicle research.

How does this particulardriverless car work?The Volvo XC90 D5 has adaptive cruise control,active queue assist and lane keeping assist. Innormal operation, these features operate onlyif the driver has his/her hands on the steeringwheel. Once it is detected that there is nohuman input from the steering, then all threefeatures are deactivated and the driver is givenwarnings compelling the driver has to take backcontrol of the vehicle.

In the demonstration, Volvo will implementa software change and the three features willcontinue to function without any human steeringinput. The vehicle therefore becomes capable ofautonomous movement.

The condition imposed by Volvo is that when

this change is made for the demonstration,the vehicle is limited to 70 km/h and only anapproved Volvo driver can [be the licensedoperator of] the vehicle.

There’s several different automated safetyfeatures used in the demonstration.

Lane Keeping Assist: This activates toposition the vehicle in the centre of the laneat all times

Adaptive Cruise Control: Doestwo things, it will (a) maintain the

vehicle at a present speed for high-way driving as well as (b) maintaina preset distance from the vehiclein front. Should the vehicle in frontreduce speed, the system willrespond by reducing the vehicle’sspeed while maintaining the presetfollowing distance. Should thevehicle in front increase in speed,the system will also increase thevehicle’s speed, but only up to thepreset maximum speed.

Active Queue Assist: At speedsbelow 60 km/h, Active Queue As-sist will function as per the Adap-tive Cruise Control mode, as wellas bring the vehicle to a completestop and follow the lead vehiclewhen it starts moving again.

All three modes above normallyrequire the driver’s hands to beon the steering wheel. If no drivercontrol of the steering wheel isdetected by the system, all threemodes are deactivated.

Ok, so how reliable aredriverless cars?Once this technology is publicly

available, driverless vehicles willbe safer than the safest driver.

Volvo runs driverless vehicle initia-tives in US, UK and now Australia.Learning from all three countrieswill be continuously applied andwill assist us in getting the technol-ogy on the road faster.

Other countries like the UK,US, Sweden and Germany aremaking strides with their driverlessvehicle technology. Looking at theirsuccesses, there is an incredibleopportunity for Australia to makeuse of the frameworks developedoverseas to implement the tech-nology for Australian road users.

What do you see as the key ben-efits of an autonomous vehicle?Ninety per cent of crashes occur asa result of human error. Driverlessvehicles remove this element oferror and can reduce the impactof human error on road crashes,which costs Australia $27 billionannually, on top of the cost inhuman lives.

Driverless vehicles can alsohelp reduce congestion, whichcomes at a current cost to the

The ARRB’s GerardWaldron believes autono-mous cars are inevitable,and could make Aussieroads even safer.

NextThe Conversation

One day, every road tripwill be in convoy, as carsnetwork together tomaintain safe distanceand mitigate congestion.



economy of $30 billion, a problem for which wehave no other infallible solution.

Accidents in the US involving driverlesscars have almost all been caused by ahuman in another car. How can driverlesscars cope with bad human drivers?Driverless vehicles will be able to detect andmanage hazards faster than humans can andwill therefore be able to cope with cars beingdriven by humans – they’re designed with thecurrent driving environment in mind. The pro-

cessing power of a vehicle’s computer is muchfaster than the decision making process of ahuman driver, not to mention any impairmentsthan human might be facing like stress, fatigueor alcohol.

Are there any differences in their ability toautonomously drive in different environ-ments (such as built up vs. rural areas?)

There is a long road of testing ahead to ensure

driverless vehicles can operate autonomouslyin a range of different road environments,which is why it’s so important that thistechnology is tested in closed, controlledenvironments thoroughly in as many differentlocations and jurisdictions as possible. This iswhy ADVI is integral to getting driverless carson the road in Australia and ensuring eachstate and territory can feed into the adaptationof this technology for Australian road userswhile it’s still in its early stages.

What are some of the barriers to driverlesscars being licensed for public roads?There are two key barriers as we see it to driv-erless cars hitting the mainstream – the first ispublic perception, and the second is regulationand legislation.

Public perception is easy enough to change –ten years ago, the iPhone seemed like a strangenew invention. Now, it’s strange to not have aSmartphone.

Similarly, when cruise control and ABSbrakes were introduced they seemed very futur-istic, but people have caught on to their benefitsquickly and they’ve become commonplace.

The same will happen with this technology.New autonomous elements will be introducedslowly to new vehicles to give people time to

learn how to use them and get accustomed tothem – we won’t have driverless cars roamingthe roads overnight.

Is the regulatory environment ready fordriverless cars or are changes still needed?Regulations and legislation need a lot of workbefore we’re ready to put driverless cars on theroad in Australia.

Every new vehicle that hits the road inAustralia has to go throughrigorous standards testing, andthese standards need to beset up to account for the factthat these vehicles will also beconstantly evolving as a resultof software upgrades.

Driverless vehicles will beon our roads in the next decade,so the ARRB is working to

ensure road environments safely accommodatethese vehicles. Road authorities need to beable to register these vehicles and license theirdrivers, before we can start experiencing thebenefits they will bring.

Road policy and legislation needs to preparefor the introduction of driverless vehicles now,including planning upgrades to the road networkand testing of new driving laws.

Legislation urgently needs to be amend-

ed, like it has been in South Australia, andinfrastructure policy and planning needs to bereassessed to allow for driverless cars.

ADVI is working directly with state and fed-eral Governments to ensure that infrastructureand legislation is treated with as much urgencyas the trials themselves.

Our infrastructure needs grow and changeas our population grows and the pressure on ournetwork mounts.

We need to start planning for this transitionnow and making driverless cars a key compo-nent of all new road infrastructure plans.

European researchers have a roadmap forthe introduction of driverless vehicles by 2020;Australia needs to keep pace by putting some-thing similar in place.

In the autonomous car future, will I stillneed a driver’s license to own and operate adriverless car?The licensing and registration of automatedvehicles is still a work in progress, but once thistechnology reaches a high level of automation,it’s unlikely you’ll need a driver’s license tooperate a driverless car.

How about peoples’ willingness to acceptthe technology? It’s a bit of a leap of faith?

Australians are well known to be early adoptersand willing to try new things. Given this technol-ogy will be slowly introduced, it isn’t so much aleap, but more ‘baby steps of faith’.

We recently did a survey to see what wouldconvince people to travel in a driverless car, andthe majority of people’s concerns were actuallyabout safety. For us, this is positive, as we knowthese vehicles are safer than vehicles driven bya human.

About 42 per cent said the knowledge thatthe car operates safely in all driving areas (citytraffic or rural roads) and driving conditions (likebad weather) would convince them to use adriverless car

Nearly 41 per cent said the knowledge thatdriverless cars are safer than the safest humanwould convince them to use a driverless car

And 35.51 per cent said the knowledge thatthe car will be able to spot hazards like pedestri-ans or animals crossing would convince them touse a driverless car

The key finding is that 57.39 per cent said theability to take back control of the vehicle if theywanted to would convince them to use a driver-less car, showing us that the real challenge toovercome is entrusting control to the vehicle’soperations to the car itself, which will graduallyhappen over time.

JANUARY 2016 Next

“When rst introduced, cruisecontrol and ABS seemed veryfuturistic. But people caught on. ”— G E R A R D WA L D R O N O F T H E A U S T R A L I A N R O A D R E S E A R C H B O A R D


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ID E A

O F T H E Y

R2016

4 4 P OPULAR SCIENCE

Mark Kelly (foreground) and his twin brother, Scott, talk every day, despite their 400-vertical-kilometre separation.

PHOTOGRAPH BY Marco Grob

If there’s one constant in the future, it’s change.Because 2016 will change the way we explore, connect,

cure disease, and go to war. Here are the most inuential ideasand extraordinary individuals poised to shape the year ahead.


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P R O F I L EP O P U L A R

SCIENCE

4 6 POPULAR SCIENCE

BIG IDEAS

MARKKELLY & LIFEIN SPACEWhen astronaut Mark Kellysays, “I’ve spent a lot of time onEarth,” it’s relative. He’s been tothe International Space Station

four times for short missions. Histwin brother, Scott, is about towrap up a full year in space, thelongest stint of any US astro-naut. To understand how life inspace affects humans, scientistsare investigating how the twins’bodies now differ—informationthat might inuence the future oflong-term space exploration.

saliva, stool, and urine samples—sometimes 24hours’ worth. And then, when I go to Houstonevery few months, I get MRIs of my brain andheart, and ultrasounds of my cardiovascularsystem and optic nerve. They send

the ultrasound machine right into thegoo on your eye. For some tests they putme in a contraption—alower- body negative- pressuredevice—and have me takenitroglycerin. I don’t evenknow what experiment it’s for.

Scott’s also drawing hisown blood and sending itdown to the ground foranalysis. And there’s anultrasound machine aboardthe space station. One of theresearchers sent my brotheran email that said theywould have more scientificand medical information onScott and me than on anyother person, ever. The bigquestion for us is, how muchdo we want to know? They’relooking at not only ourgenetic profile but also whichgenes have mutated. If a genehas turned on, then the riskfor diseases like Alzheimer’s

I ALWAYS THOUGHT scientists neededa large sample size. It turns out when youdon’t have that opportunity, a small samplecan still lead to really useful science. In ourcase, it’s just one sample: Scott as subject,me as control. I’ve spent only 50-somethingdays in space. When Scott gets back inMarch, I think he will have spent somethinglike three per cent of his life there.

I have, on multiple occasions now, givenmassive amounts of blood. I’ve also given

and cancer really goes up.I imagine that NASA is hoping to learn that

space isn’t a big deal, that it doesn’t have thatbig of an impact on astronauts. That wouldbe great. But I think the reality is that it does,and so we’re going to have to learn how tomitigate those effects. Maybe we shield crewmembers from radiation. Or maybe we couldfigure out a way to repair our genes. Thinkabout the implications for your averageperson on Earth.

I applaud the enthusiasm of people whowould sign up for a one-way trip to Mars,but they wildly under estimate the issuesinvolved, not only to their physical but alsoto their mental health. Imagine if you wereplopped down in a Winnebago in DeathValley, left there for the rest of your life, andhad to put on a suit to go outside? The noveltywould wear off. But I do think the first personto walk on Mars is alive today.

as told toJENNIFER

B O G O

ILLUSTRATIONS BY Sam Ward

JANUARY 2016


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T HERE’S PERHAPS no more powerful force in naturethan light. It influences everything from our cells to ourmood and metabolism. Blue wavelengths cue the brainto produce cortisol to make us alert, while red wavelengthsallow the production of melatonin to help us sleep—a cycle thatonce followed the sun and moon. The invention of the lightbulb(and smartphones) changed that. Engineers are now usinglightbulbs to change it back.

“The science has led us to understand that the light we’ve

been using for the past 100 years has caused damage to us,”says Fred Maxik, founder of bulb-maker Lighting ScienceGroup. When our circadian rhythms went rogue, it increasedour risk of developing obesity, depression, and even cancer.That doesn’t have to be the case, Maxik says: “We have theability to create lights that have purposes other than justilluminating our world.”

Such bulbs have started to reach sockets. Last year, theRenton School District in Washington became the first to installtunable LEDs. They can be adjusted from red wavelengths,to calm students after recess, to blue, to improve test-dayconcentration. The Seattle Mariners installed LEDs at SafecoField that can make nighttime games seem more like day; theNew York Yankees will follow suit in 2016.

This year, NASA also plans to change the bulbs on theInternational Space Station, where the sun sets every 90minutes, and constant light makes astronauts chronicinsomniacs. The new bulbs will subtly shift from bluewavelengths during the workday to red when the crew needsto rest. LEDs like Lighting Science’s new Genesis Light, whichhits shelves in January, will do the same thing for homes.

“We have been in this era of efficiency,” says MichaelSiminovitch, a University of California at Davis professor oflighting design. “Now what can we do with technology thatactually does something for us?” R E B E C C A B O Y L E

ENGINEERS are taking materialsinto a whole new dimension: thesecond dimension. By transforming3D clumps of atoms into 2D sheets,researchers are finding amazinguntapped potential in ordinary-seeming elements.

The 2D revolution began morethan a decade ago with the discov-ery of graphene, a mesh of carbonatoms linked together like the wiresin a chain-link fence. Graphene istransparent, but more than 200times stronger than steel, nearlyimpermeable, and an excellent con-ductor. Turning graphene into prac-tical devices has been a challenge,

but teams are now closing in on afew applications: ultra-high-densitycomputer flash memory, a broad-band radiation detector, and a toolfor precision medical imaging.

Other 2D materials might proveeven more impressive. Scientistshave begun creating analogousmeshes of silicon (silicene), phos-phorous (phosphorene), germanium(germanene), and tin (stanene). Sili-con and phosphorus are particularlywell-suited to making atomic- scaletransistors that could lead to ex-tremely fast, efficient, and physicallyflexible electronics.

The goal for 2016 is to mix andstack flat materials to combine theirbest qualities. A team at LawrenceBerkeley National Lab has startedbuilding 2D sheets that function asa laser, with applications that rangefrom quantum computing to—maybeironically— 3D displays.C O R E Y S . P O W E L L

IN 2015 , scientists discovered thefirst new antibiotic in three decades.Called teixobactin, it works againstseveral of the superbugs, such asMRSA, that today’s drugs seempowerless to wipe out. That’s a bigwin in an age of growing antibioticresistance. But perhaps even more

pivotal is the tool that made its dis-covery possible.

Antibiotics come from bacteriafound in nature. Test more bacteria,and you can find more antibiotics.The challenge is this: 99 per centof the microbes on Earth can’t becultured in a dish. To work aroundthis problem, researchers at North-eastern University invented the iChip,which can grow microbes in a sam-ple of soil or water from their naturalenvironments. When the bacteriarelease antibiotics, scientists canisolate them for testing.

The team has used the iChip toculture thousands of new bacteria,which have so far yielded 25 antibi-otics. According to Novo Biotic Phar-maceuticals, a company co-foundedby one of the researchers, the first ofthose is roughly two years from clin-ical trials. “There’s still a lot of workto be done,” says Stuart Levy, directorof the Centre for Adaptation Geneticsand Drug Resistance. “But becauseof this device, the door is open and abright light is on.”A L E X A N D R A O S S O L A

LIGHTBULBS

CAN MAKE USHEALTHY

3.1.A NEWWEAPONTO FIGHTSUPERBUGS

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C K Y M

C G A

H E R N ;

O R I G I N A L L Y P U B L I S H E D

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JANUARY 2016

The Grammy-winningmusician Imogen Heap has longused technology to interact

with fans. Now she wants touse it to radically change themusic industry. Heap envisionsa platform, called Mycelia,that will use blockchains—the system that underpinsBitcoin—to create a transparent,decentralised database ofmusic. It will cut out middlemenand enable artists and followersto connect directly.

music industry from scratch, knowing what Iknow, how would I do it?

I realised that the architecture of theindustry is built on an old paper system

and defunct technology. We spend billionson accounting sys tems that no longerwork. It doesn’t make any sense in thisdata-driven world, wherewe can access any type ofinformation we want. Thereare now ways to connectdata to payment instantly.

At the moment, Myceliais just an idea; nothinghas technically been built.But I think of it as a livingorganism—a system thatbreathes and responds toplays. The music would comefrom a portal, and listenerswould get some kind ofnotification that it has beenverified by the artists. Eachartist would have a profile,and everything connected tothat song or album, like lyrics,photos, and who played which

AS A MUSICIAN, I like to think the worldrevolves around me. For years I wonderedwhy it took so long for money to filter backto me, or why I didn’t know what the fineprint of my record deals really said. For thefirst time in my career, I am on my own—I amnot signed to any record label or representedby any management. Success has alreadyopened a lot of doors for me, so I wanted to putmyself in the position of being a brand-newartist. I imagined, if I could design the

instruments, will act like a beacon ofinformation: “Here I am! Come and get me!”

The system will be fair and transparent.Because the artists have complete control,we will split the money with exactly whoshould be paid. And because everything isconnected through blockchains, the transferof money will be instantaneous. We canalso decide whether we want to release ourmusic for free, or what the subscription baseshould be, or whether to agree to a per-playmodel. It is liberating.

My latest song, “Tiny Human,” has been atest case, and to be honest, money is comingin slowly. I’ve got an account and variouscryptocurrency wallets, but there aren’t manyadopters yet. What is really exciting, though,is the solidarity of building something withother musicians. The idea hit a nerve, and Ifeel a responsibility to capture this energyand turn it into something.

IMOGEN

HEAP &HACKING

THE MUSICINDUSTRYas told to

MATT GILES

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BETHStevens

& THEBRAIN’SBEST-KEPTSECRET

BIG IDEAS

A neuroscientist at HarvardMedical School, Beth Stevensknows how your brain iswired—quite literally.Because of her discoverythat certain cells sculptbrain circuitry, making itmore efcient, the Mac-Arthur Foundation awardedher a 2015 “genius grant.”She suspects those cells,called microglia, have othersecret abilities—and sheplans to uncover them too.

I’VE BEEN INTERESTED in glial cells—which make up more than half the cells ofthe brain—since I was a research assistantat the National Institutes of Health. Of thethree types of glial cells, microglia are myfavourite. There is so little known aboutthem, which is crazy because they make up10 per cent of our brains.

For years, scientists essentially ignoredmicroglia. One of the things they do isprune synapses. There are trillions ofsynapses in the brain, but initially you startwith way more. Synapses that are ringa lot get strengthened, and those that arenot ring very much get eliminated. Micro-glia are like the brain’s Pac Men—regulated

garbage collectors that eat synapses thatno longer function.

We think certain disorders are theresult of microglia pruning too much, ornot enough. This has huge implications fordiseases like autism, schizophrenia, andAlzheimer’s. If the microglia don’t pruneproperly, it can lead to faulty wiring.

I think pruning is the tip of the iceberg.We recently learned that micro glia enter thebrain during embryonic development—soearly that they have to be doing other things.I have a hypothesis that they form synapses,and could be involved in helping to regulatethe growth and development of neurons.

Because of the MacArthur, these cells

now have a bit of limelight outside thiseld. Even my mom knows what micro-glia are now. The award also means thedifference between pursuing conservativeprojects and projects that are still just

ideas on a whiteboard.My lab plans to reallydig in and test whethermicro glia play a key rolein neurological diseases.

I don’t believe there is amagic bullet for anythingthese days, but if you canunderstand what regulatesmicroglia, I think you canslow the onset or progressionof these diseases. And ifyou can gure out how tomanipulate microglia, youcan develop a drug that couldpotentially treat them—which is a big deal.

as told toMATT GILES

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BACK I N AUGUST, STEWART RUSSELL , a computerscientist at University of California at Berkeley, authoredan open letter calling for the ban of “lethal autonomous

weapons.” To those outside the military-industrial complex,this could seem a bit premature, sort of like calling for a ban onStar Trek phasers or the Death Star. Reality says otherwise.

Humans have a venerable tradition of automating warfare.Land mines are a kind of robot, though a very dumb one.Heat-seeking missiles are smarter, albeit not by a lot. “There’s

a continuum,” Russell says, and we’re further along it than werealise. “If you wanted to produce something very effective,pretty reliable, and if it became a military priority—in 18months you could mass-produce some kind of intelligentweapon.” Indeed autonomous killing machines already exist:The Super aEgis II, a South Korean-made weapons platform,can recognise humans and target them. (It will requestpermission from a living operator before making a shot with its.50 calibre gun, but that’s more a courtesy than a requirement.)

Russell writes that “autonomous weapons will become theKalashnikovs of tomorrow”—cheap and abundant. And thatshifts the rules of war. “AI weapons could change the scale inwhich small groups of people can affect the rest of the world,”he says. “They can do the damage of nuclear weapons withless money and infrastructure.”

Proponents of AI weapons point to some upsides: Robotsgoing to war would mean fewer human casualties. But tothe 20,000 people (the majority of whom are scientists) whosigned the letter, the costs far outweigh the benefits. Laterthis year, Russell and others will push for legislative stopgapsand a change in international law, similar to those that prohibitbiological weapons. Meetings are set at the United Nations andthe World Economic Forum. Once killer AI is here, there’s nogoing back. RYA N B R A D L E Y

BIG IDEAS

4.KILLERROBOTS ARECOMING

THE GENE-EDITING techniquecalled CRISPR has the much-hypedpotential to revolutionise medicine,deliver designer babies, and endglobal hunger. Developed froma mechanism found in bacteria,CRISPR allows scientists to cut-and-paste DNA with unprecedentedprecision. The researchers behind

its discovery are favourites to winNobel prizes in 2016.

In the three years sinceCRISPR was introduced, it has beenadopted by thousands of scientistsworldwide. Already, they’ve usedthe technique to create hypermus-cular beagles and pigs that cangrow human organs for transplant.Innovations that used to take manyyears to realise can now be madein mere months. “The technology ispretty darn fast,” said Dan Voytas,a genetic engineer who has editedwheat to reduce gluten sensitivity.“In a year we can generate a plantfrom just an idea for one.”

As a result, CRISPR-basedstartups are busily raising hundredsof millions of dollars. Patent appli-cations that mention CRISPR havesoared, from 43 in 2013 to 292 lastyear. And while the first products—things like hornless dairy cows andhypoallergenic peanuts—are still afew years from market, this will bethe year gene editing transforms lifeas we know it. MEGAN MOLTENI

5.CRISPRREMAKES THEWORLD

IT’S NOW EASIER to buy marijuanain the US for personal consumptionthan it is for scientists to procure itfor research: 23 states and DC havelegalised it (at least as medicine),and several others may have it onthe ballot in 2016. Researchers hopethe barriers to studying the plant willlikewise crumble so they can finallyprobe its full therapeutic potential.

Scientists have long known thatmarijuana can treat nausea and pain.But they only recently figured outwhy: Chemicals in marijuana calledcannabinoids can activate receptors

on brain cells, changing the messag-es they send to one another. WhileTHC is the best-known cannabinoid,researchers suspect others might beuseful in treating the symptoms ofdiseases such as cancer, fibromyal-gia, epilepsy, and autism.

So far, even in states wheremedical marijuana is legal, scientistshave had to wait months or years forapprovals from the Drug Enforce-ment Administration, Food andDrug Administration, and NationalInstitute on Drug Abuse. In June, theWhite House took one step out of thecomplex process: They no longerneed permission from the PublicHealth Service too. In November,Senator Bernie Sanders introduceda bill that would remove marijuanafrom the list of substances regulatedby the DEA—a move that would takeit out of the company of heroin andmake it much easier for a lab to buy.A L E X A N D R A O S S O L A

6.MARIJUANAREACHESNEW HIGHS



8.POLLUTIONCAN BEINHERITED7.

YEAR OF THE

ZETTABYTE

MOST PEOPLE KNOW that anindividual’s environment has clearhealth effects. Drink water lacedwith heavy metals, and you’re likelyto get sick. What’s now becomingapparent is that those impacts couldlast for generations.

A person’s genome controlsdevelopment, function, andreproduction. In other words, justabout everything. But the genomedoesn’t act unchecked. It is subjectto the epigenome—chemicalcompounds that help determinehow and when genes express. In2014, a group at the University of

British Columbia reported that justtwo hours of exposure to dieselfumes in a closed space couldaffect about 400 genes by alteringthe epigenome. And last year,researchers in North America andEurope published a number ofpapers that indicated such changescould be inherited.

“The field is exploding right now,”says Carrie Breton, who studiesthe effects of prenatal air-pollutionexposure at the University ofSouthern California. Energised bynew findings and the completionin February of the first full map ofthe human epi genome—a 10-year,$240 million initiative—scientistsare racing to understand howepigenetic changes can alterthe likelihood of cancer, obesity,diabetes, and other diseases. “Canwe sequence the epigenome to lookfor environmental effects?” Bretonasks. “Technologically, this is thenext logical step.” C L AY R I S E N

BY THE END of 2016, Ciscoestimates that Internet traffic willbypass 1 zettabyte. For those whothink of storage in the relatableterms of a smartphone, a zettabyte is1,000 exabytes, which translates into1 trillion gigabytes—or roughly 300trillion photos of your baby and dog.

The profusion of data fromphones, wearables, and the Internetof Things affords us new insights.

But it also opens the door tohacking. “We never thought aboutthe implications of all this additionaldata,” says Samy Kamkar, anindependent security researcherand hacker. “We’ve all becometargets.” According to IDC, 90per cent of IT networks will haveexperienced a security breach bythe end of this year.

But as hacking grows, so toodoes cybersecurity. The researchfirm MarketsandMarkets estimatesthe email-encryption market willincrease 23 per cent annuallyuntil 2020. This past year, Gmailbegan developing warnings formessages that come through anon-encrypted connection, Netflixdecided to encrypt all its data, andthe Electronic Frontier Foundationlaunched the Let’s Encrypt program,to transition the Web to the more-secure HTTPS protocol. While theextra protection won’t necessarilymake us impervious to hacks, saysKamkar, “when it does happen,it won’t undermine your life likebefore.” M AT T G I L E S

9.A SECOND ACTFOR SPACEEXPLORATIONWHEN NASA’S New Horizons probe skimmed pastPluto this past July—50 years to the day after Mariner4 first snapped photos of Mars—humans ‘completed’reconnaissance of the solar system. We had sent probespast all eight planets (and two of the dwarves - Pluto andCeres) and landed on every major type of object in thesolar system: rocky planets, rocky moons, icy moons,asteroids, and comets. We have left behind the era of firstlooks, and entered the age of true understanding.

In that spirit, the next generation of planetary missionswill look past surface appearances. NASA’s InSight probe,launching in March, will establish a seismic station on theRed Planet; it will sense mars quakes and use them to mapthe planet’s interior.

A complementary European-Russian probe calledExo Mars 2016 , lifting off almost simultaneously, will use achemical sniffer to ferret out atmospheric methane frompossible Martian microbes. Then in September, OSIRIS-REx will head to Bennu, the kind of carbon-rich asteroid thatmay have seeded ancient life on Earth, to collect samplesand bring them home for analysis.

Equally notable is a move to open the solar system toall. The InSight probe will bring two miniature satellites,or CubeSats, that will go into orbit to create a dedicatedMars communications network. Student-built CubeSatsare already widely deployed around Earth; if InSight ’swork, expect the DIY movement to spread to other planets.NASA’s Juno probe, which reaches Jupiter in July, has aneven more populist mission. It carries a camera designedsolely for students and citizen scientists—the first timean entire planet has been turned over to the public. In thewords of NASA’s John Grunsfeld: “Five hundred yearsfrom now, we will look back on this as the golden age ofexploration.” C O R E Y S . P O W E L L


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JAMESCRAWFORD & a NEW

WAY TO SEETHE WORLDAfter stints running Google Books and headingup the team tasked with giving Mars roversautonomy, James Crawford launched Orbital In-sight—a startup that applies articial intelligenceand data analysis to satellite imagery.

MOST PEOPLE KNOW that humans can’tsee really small things. That’s why weinvented the microscope. On the ip side,humans also struggle to see really big things.If you want to view the whole Earth, forexample, you have to look from space andyou lose a lot of detail. Every pixel youreye sees is 25,000 square kilometres. Usingarticial intelligence and cloud computing,we can simultaneously see the whole Earthand see the detail. We can look at trillions offeatures within millions of satellite imagesall at once. We call this a macroscope.

popular science australia - january 2016

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