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On Digital Planet’s final ever show we discuss the legacy of Gordon Moore, the father of transistors and creator of Moore’s law.Special guests this week are Angelica Mari and Ghislaine Boddington.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson. Studio Manager: Bob Nettles Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

Could 3D-printing be serving us up a tasty food revolution, or is it the ultimate in gimmicky processed foods taking us yet further away from natural eating? In the kitchen, a 3D-printer builds up customised tasty treats like exotic cheesecakes, layer by layer, using edible pastes, gels and liquids. The results look delicious, and delicate, and can be tweaked to suit the individual’s specific nutritional needs. The latest possibilities are one of the main courses in the latest issue of npj Science of Food. One of the article’s authors is Dr Jonathan Blutinger worked at the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University in New York where the research was carried out. Jimmy Wales on AI and its impact on Wikipedia In our second interview with Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, Gareth asks about the balkanisation of the internet and how ChatGPT and other AI tech could impact Wikipedia.  Bollywood and the multiverse India is now officially the most populated country in the world and everything there is measured in hug

Digital Planet caught up with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. In the first of two interviews with Gareth, Jimmy explains why Wikipedia was restricted in Pakistan recently and how they overcame the block. And he gives his thoughts on Twitter’s plans to stop the bots and banish its free API. 6G – what we can expect Professor Sana Salous, Chair of Communications Engineering at Durham University is about to submit her latest recommendations for the implementation of 6G connectivity to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). She’s on the show to explain how this will change the way we communicate and tells Gareth that we should be connected to 6G by 2030. Computer labs for schoolchildren in rural Kenya Nelly Cheboi’s nonprofit, TechLit Africa, has provided thousands of students across rural Kenya with access to donated, upcycled computers - and the chance for a brighter future. When she began working in the software industry, she realised that there are many computers that are thrown away as companies

It may seem that in some countries surveillance cameras are everywhere – recording almost our every move. We are using fingerprints and facial recognition to get access to our banking, work emails and even our healthcare systems. Alongside this rise in use comes a rapid increase in biometric data gathering, spurred on by contact tracing apps during Covid-19. But where is this very personal data going, who is using it and how. We bring together a panel of experts to discuss what’s happening now and what’s next for our biometric data – shouldn’t we be the ones in control of our own digital identity? Contributing expert Ghislaine Boddington will shed light on these questions and will be joined by Dr Stephanie Hare, author of Technology is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics, Alice Thwaite, founder of the Hattusia consultancy and The Echo Chamber Club a philosophical research institute, and BBC China Editor Howard Zhang are all on the show.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert com

As Ukraine enters the second year of the full-scale Russian invasion, we hear about an app through which citizens can help alert defence authorities of air attacks. To help prevent future attacks, the country’s Air Defence Forces want people to use their phones to report hostile airborne objects. Simply install an app, point your handset at the object, select the category – say a drone or a missile - and press the button. It means observers on the ground can pick up objects flying too low for radar detection. Gareth speaks to one of the app’s developers, Gennadiy Suldin of the tech start up NGO Technari. Supercomputing predicting weather in Brazil – has it worked? The clear up continues in Sao Paulo following last week’s devastating floods and landslides, which have claimed dozens of lives. But could these extreme weather events have been better predicted with supercomputers? Angelica Mari has been asking if Brazil’s supercomputers are super enough? Spotting illegal farms in Taiwan with citizen tech With 150

After the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Northern Syria, how do you collate data to aid those coordinating the disaster response? Cecilia Utas from DEEP (Data Entry and Exploration Platform) explains how important data is in disaster relief and crisis management. And Aziz Şasa from the Turkish Amateur Radio Association also explains the vital role of amateur radio as a key communication method in the region after the earthquake. High altitude communication platforms After multiple objects have been shot down in US airspace, Professor David Grace from the University of York is on the show to talk Gareth through these high-altitude communication and surveillance platforms. The devices serve many purposes and take many different forms, from balloons to airships.Electricity from human waste In the village of Lelo in South Western Kenya, 21 year old Vincent Odero is harnessing electricity from a surprising source – human waste. Using the warmth from human waste in a pit, he is making enough electricity to po

Within hours of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake across Turkey and northern Syria, the internet in Turkey was partially shutdown. And it wasn’t just because of damage to network infrastructure from the quake itself, but Twitter was blocked, as the authorities raised concerns over misinformation online.Internet shutdowns are used by governments around the world to control people’s access to information, for example during protests, but also somewhat surprisingly to prevent cheating during public examinations.Shutting down the internet costs individuals and countries huge amounts of money. The TopTenVPN annual report which analysed every major intentional internet shutdown in 2022 has revealed that they cost a world economy, already reeling from a number of shocks, a further $24 billion.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson. Studio Manager: Michael Millham Producer: Alun Beach(Image: Keyboard lit up in red in the dark. Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

What is happening with API’s, more commonly known as bots, on Twitter? The platform is set to eliminate free access to its APIs this Thursday, although there appears to have been some backtracking following announcements that bots providing “good content” will have access to the Twitter API for free. Tech writer, broadcaster and bot user and creator Kate Bevan will be on the show with the latest. The right to disconnect Kenya is the latest country to propose a new law that will block employers from interrupting their staff during their time off. The Employment Amendment Bill aims to give Kenyans “the right to disconnect in the digital age” and protect them from working out of hours, at weekends and public holidays – often for no additional pay. Nairobi based tech reporter Wairimu Gitahi is on the show.Tech that tells you when fruit is ripe Harvesting a crop at the correct time is vital to ensure higher profits for the farmer and also to reduce food waste. Reporter Rani Singh has met two entrepreneurs

One of the main causes of maternal mortality during childbirth is that the baby cannot be delivered vaginally, most likely because it is not positioned correctly in the womb. Without a plethora of medical equipment and training to check the baby’s position, midwives and doctors in developing countries struggle to reposition the baby safely. Scientists at UCL have developed a smart glove that links to an app, which in lab tests appears to be able to correctly identify the position of a baby’s head and how much pressure is being applied to it. The glove costs $1, making it an affordable solution in developing countries. Dr Shireen Jaufuraully and Carmen Salvadores Fernandez of University College London, lead authors on the study, explain their work so far.Photometric-stereo 3D imaging reveals secrets of the past At the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, a series of previously little studied copper plates is now, finally, giving up its secrets after three hundred years. The shallow engravings on the copper hav

In the summer of 2021 Kazakhstan was the second biggest producer of Bitcoin in the world, but what has happened since the crypto currency crash? Tech reporter Peter Guest is on the show to tell us about his trip to the country and how mega warehouses that once contained the computing power to make crypto millions now stand empty in the country’s rust belt. He tells us the story of the rise and fall of the bitcoin miners in this remote part of the world.Wearable tech, AI and potential new treatments for rare diseases Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Friedreich's ataxia (FA) are very rare genetic diseases neither of which has a cure. Now scientists and engineers in the UK have used motion sensors to capture the way patients move. They processed this data through new AI medical technology that they say can predict disease progression and significantly increase the efficiency of clinical trials in these conditions. Treatments are desperately needed as both diseases can lead to paralysis and currently th

MIT researchers have concluded in a new study that computers that power self-driving cars could generate as many greenhouse gas emissions as the total of the world’s data centres do today. We’ve reported many times on the huge carbon footprint of data centres as well as the massive amounts of electricity needed to run them. They currently account for 0.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions – a similar level to Argentina - according to the International Energy Agency. The models created show that 1 billion autonomous vehicles, driving for one hour a day each, need a computer consuming 840 watts. These would consume enough energy to generate similar emissions as data centres currently do. Lead author Soumya Sudhakar joins us on the show to explain how hardware efficiency will need to advance rapidly to avoid these high levels of emissions.Brazil’s antisocial media Following last week’s events in Brasilia we look at the role social media played in the violence by far-right protestors. Angelica Mari, and act

One of our listeners in Ukraine contacted us to tell us how he stays online during power outages following bombing in Ukraine. Volodymyr Bielikov is on the show to explain the issues he’s regularly facing with internet connectivity.AI avatars undressed and virtual employees Ghislaine Boddington looks at the alarming story of how a young female reporter created avatars in the AI avatar app Lensa and was shocked to find that out of 100 avatars, 16 were topless and another 14 wore very skimpy clothing and were in provocative poses. Why has this app created astronauts and warrior avatars for her male colleagues and is undressing her avatars? Ghislaine also looks at the rising employment of virtual staff. The tech company Baidu says the number of virtual people projects its working on has doubled in the last year with prices of a virtual employee starting at just under $3k. Why are they becoming popular and what jobs are they being used for? Evelyn Cheng, senior correspondent from cnbc.com in Beijing, has b

This week and to start the New Year we take a look at the use of technology in agriculture around the world. Agriculture as an industry is keen to clean up its act on emissions, so what could be better than an electric tractor. But will it be able to manage all that farming throws at it? Gareth puts the questions to Praveen Penmetsa who is co-founder and CEO of Monarch Tractors which recently launched a ‘Smart Tractor’.It’s no use having a tractor smart or not, if your crop has been devastated by insects. Pests destroy up to 40 percent of global crops and cost 220 billion US dollars of losses worldwide annually, according to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the FAO. Matej Stefancic the Chief Executive Officer of Trapview a Slovenian company, has developed intelligent insect traps. He explains to Gareth how they monitor bugs in the field, in an effort to cut the need for indiscriminate use of insecticides.And once you’ve grown your crop you need to harvest it, and in the case of s

We’re looking back on the technology year that was 2022. We go firstly to Ukraine to look at the booming tech industry before the war and discuss how that is doing now. Also how the cybersecurity declaration signed in Africa is already leading to the beginnings of a legal and regulatory framework across the continent. There was trouble for visually impaired patients using an implant to improve their sight – with some of the hardware becoming obsolete and finally the amazing popularity of flight tracking apps.The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington, Angelica Mari and Bill Thompson. Studio Manager: Donald MacDonald Producers: Ania Lichtarowicz and Alun Beach(Image: Getty Images)

More than 8 million unregistered SIM cards have been blocked in Ghana. The Ministry of Communications and Digitisation set a final deadline for mobile phone users to link their SIM card to their identification cards and now those who have not been able to register cannot use their SIMS. Opposition parties and civil liberties groups are protesting as the SIM needs to be registered with the biometric Ghana Card. The scheme has been full of delays, but it looks as though the government is standing firm this time. BBC reporter in Accra Thomas Naadi is on the show.Heart attack on a chip Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a “heart attack on a chip” to ultimately test new drugs and even personalise medicines. Prof Megan McCain and Dr Megan Rexius-Hall speak to Gareth about how the chip can monitor oxygen imbalances that happen in the heart during an attack. The heart muscle doesn’t regenerate as well as other tissue in the body, meaning patients are often tired and do not recover to

One of the biggest platforms in South East Asia, which is as popular as Google, YouTube and Facebook, has stopped bank transfer payments. Users have reported money missing from their accounts – the transactions should have been secured with a one-time passcode but according to social media they we processed without permission. Shopee have now stopped customers from linking their accounts to the platform directly. The company also denies they were hacked and that they had taken the decision to stop bank transfers last month. It also says that the customers were probably victims of phishing scams. The BBC’s Tossapol Chaisamritpol has been covering the story and joins us from the Bangkok Bureau. Facial recognition plans dropped in Sao Paulo – for now Plans for the controversial facial recognition surveillance system in Sao Paulo have been scrapped – at least for now. Twenty thousand cameras, half of which had facial recognition capabilities, were to be erected across the city – making it one of the largest

Due to climate change cyclones are increasing in frequency and intensity. Data available to study these weather phenomena though is quite scare, so a new project at Imperial College in London, hopes to harness the computing power of people’s mobile phones to create a virtual supercomputer and create a massive public database of simulated cyclone models to help predict future events. Professor Ralf Toumi, Co-Director of Grantham Institute, is leading the project and is on the show. Listeners are being invited to take part by downloading the Dreamlab app to help process the billions of calculations needed for the project. What is the Fediverse? If you’re on twitter then you’ve probably heard of Mastodon, you may even have moved onto it. It’s the largest service on what is known as the Fediverse. We speak with Cindy Cohn, the Executive Director of the Electronic Freedom Foundation to find out what the Fediverse is and why we should be part of its growth. It’s not a single social media platform like Twitter

Researchers at MIT have made significant steps toward creating robots that could practically and economically assemble nearly anything, including things much larger than themselves, from vehicles to buildings to larger robots. Many objects could be built from tiny identical lightweight pieces e.g. an airplane wing or a racing car, and this latest work is a big step towards a fully autonomous self-replicating robot assembly system. Two of the authors are Professor Neil Gershenfeld, Director of the Centre for Bits and Atoms, and doctoral student Amira Abdel-Rahman, they explain how these robots self-assemble.War of words on Wikipedia.We’ve reported on the disinformation on the War in Ukraine on Twitter and Facebook, now reporter Shiroma Silva looks at what’s happening on Wikipedia. From paid editing, harassment of editors and using multiple online identities to push certain messages, Wikipedia entries are being pushed towards a pro-Kremlin stance. It’s not the first time that these coordinated activities hav

What is happening with Twitter and what can we expect? Bill Thompson give us his assessment while Angelica Mari discusses the how the new direction of the platform Pix payments two years on PIX payments have revolutionised how people in Brazil use money – especially the 40 million of the population who are unbanked. We discuss with Fintech expert David Birch why Pix has been so successful and where does it go from here.What’s new in WhatsApp Angelica Mari brings us up to date with WhatsApp’s latest plans for one of its biggest markets. It aims to bring "everything that matters to business and consumers" into its app. WhatsApp is central to people's lives in places like India and Brazil, and the company want to monetise that by taking people of browsers and allowing them to complete transactions from start to finish on the app. Could this signal the end of some apps e.g. food delivery apps?Can video games improve your memory? Parents often worry about the harmful impacts of video games on their children, whe