Technology Getting Ahead of Us

This week we saw technology getting ahead of us in some cases quite literally with advances in medicine and taking us to Space.

(Mad) Science

We begin this week in science where we meet Surgeon Sergio Canavero who claims that full body/head transplants of humans could be just around the corner after years of similar attempts on animals. Sticking with the weird a recent scan of a statue from 1100 AD of a monk has revealed the mummified remains of what is to be believed Buddhist master Liuquan within the structure itself. If the idea of a transplanted body or keeping your own preserved within a statue doesn't appeal to you then there's always the option of eating healthy by doing it the scientific way of eating 3D printed snacks that grow their own fillings.

Digital Dealings

Back to the digital world we're confronted with a major security breach after it was discovered that Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo had installed malware called Superfish on various computers it sold. After revelations of the Superfish malware some took into their hands to express their displeasure when hacking group lizard squad took down the Lenovo website. Speaking of hacking, the FBI has set a record $3 million bounty for the capture of Russian hacker Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev who is believed to be behind the GameOver Zeus botnet. Lastly, the week wasn't all bad with the announcement that the internet would remain free after the FCC chief said he would vote for strong rules on Net Neutrality in the States.

Earth and Beyond

While there was progress in attempts to keep Earth healthy and green, such as the Eiffel Tower making use of wind turbines to generate it's own power, there was shocking news when it was revealed that the ruined Fukushima plant was leaking radiation at 70 times the normal rate.

Taking a break from it all and heading out into space we saw ISS prep for arrival of new commercial capsules expected in 2017 and making the best out of the situation ISS astronaut Butch Wilmore took probably the most epic selfie of all time. Finally we end with news that Russia will keep it's station modules in orbit when ISS goes out of service and has plans to use them to create it's own base, Death Star anyone?

Technology Far and Near

This week technology allowed man to travel to the outskirts of our world while closer to home it was fighting for it's freedom.

Far

The ESA made history when the Rosetta spacecraft managed to successfully land it's robot craft, Philae, on the surface of Comet 67P. There was a slight hiccup when the anchoring harpoons didn't fire causing the probe to bounce and re-land technically making it both the first and second successful landing. A little further out in space scientists believe they may have figured out how Jupiter's infamous red spot got it's colour.

On the human front of space exploration, investigations into the crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has revealed that the surviving pilot didn't realize his copilot unlocked the space plane's re-entry system early. 3 space station crew, one from Russia one from the United States and one from Germany, returned home after 5 and a half months on board the International Space Station landing their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan.

And finally when it comes to orbiting our place in the universe Elon Musk confirmed plans for his company SpaceX to launch satellites in 2-3 months to provide internet access but this was over shadowed when the Chinese revealed plans to create a satellite facility in Antarctica raising concerns of the militarisation of continent.

Near

Closer to home the worlds two largest polluters, the US and China, made progress by agreeing on cutting green house gas emissions and also agreeing to drop tariffs on a wide range of technology products.

But soon it was back to the usual debates with President Obama stepping in to give his support to Net Neutrality but while your access might be free for the time being it's also been revealed that US authorities have been snagging large amounts of data via mobile phones using fake cell towers on planes. But it's not only the American Government as we discovered when Germany's foreign intelligence agency reported that it wants to spend $375 million to spy in real time on social networks outside of Germany.

And lastly the FBI was busy after it managed to uncover and arrest the creator of under world website Silk Road 2.0 causing the TOR project member to figure out where they went wrong but while the FBI may have had success on one front they lost out when a judge said the public had the right to know about the FBI's facial recognition database.