Jake Sturmer is the ABC News science and technology correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter: @thesoundofjs
Posted
| UpdatedPharmacists have become the latest targets of sophisticated computer hacks known as ransomware attacks, which lock up PCs until victims pay up.
Topics: hacking, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, business-economics-and-finance, miami-4220, australia
Posted
| UpdatedGrape growers in the New South Wales Riverina are facing a "depressing" wait to see what damage a heatwave will reap on their crops this week.
Topics: rural, agricultural-crops, viticulture, weather, griffith-2680, nsw
Posted
| UpdatedThe head of the National Broadband Network has told a Senate committee that speed guarantees have "lost currency".
Topics: internet-technology, information-and-communication, government-and-politics, federal-government, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, telecommunications, nsw, australia
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| UpdatedTwo Australian companies that sold internet advertisements and website space have gone bust, leaving thousands of customers out of pocket and without a website for their businesses.
Topics: internet-technology, advertising-and-marketing, business-economics-and-finance, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
Posted
| UpdatedCommunications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says job losses are "likely" at the NBN Co after a review of the Government's broadband plan found it will be billions of dollars more expensive than the Coalition had promised.
Topics: information-and-communication, business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia
Posted
| UpdatedThe former head of the National Broadband Network has warned the new management team not to rewrite history in its review of the NBN.
Topics: information-and-communication, internet-technology, federal-government, business-economics-and-finance, australia
Posted
| UpdatedA comprehensive new study investigating east coast high-speed rail argues that it could be $30 billion cheaper than first thought and pay itself off entirely within 40 years.
Topics: rail-transport, industry, business-economics-and-finance, australia
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Former OECD economist Henry Ergas says he would welcome the chance to help conduct a cost benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network.
Topics: government-and-politics, information-and-communication, wireless-communication, federal-government, internet-technology, australia
Posted
| UpdatedOne of Australia's most influential anti-wind farm lobbies is confident it will keep its charity status, despite a potential investigation by the Australian Taxation Office.
Topics: health, environmental-technology, environment, tax, alternative-energy, wind-energy, science-and-technology, energy, oil-and-gas, business-economics-and-finance, australia
Posted
| UpdatedMore than 150 Australian websites have been hacked in protest of Australia's reported involvement in spying on Indonesia.
Topics: security-intelligence, defence-and-national-security, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, hacking, foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, australia, asia, indonesia
Posted
NBN Co chiefs visit the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam and find support for the Coalition's plan.
Topics: computers-and-technology, internet-technology, australia
Posted
| UpdatedRepresentatives from the National Broadband Network are at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam, looking for ways to satisfy the new Coalition government's direction to build a cheaper network that will be completed sooner.
Topics: information-and-communication, internet-technology, computers-and-technology, science-and-technology, netherlands
Posted
| UpdatedThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there is now a 95 per cent probability that humans are responsible for global warming.
The figure, in the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, which was released in Stockholm on Friday, is a 5 per cent increase from the panel's 2007 landmark report.
That report was criticised for a handful of well-publicised mistakes, particularly the claim that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035.
However, IPCC chairperson Rajendra Pachauri says the group has "learnt from that experience and this time around we're being very, very careful".
The report says the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 40 per cent since the pre-industrial era and presents a number of different scenarios of how climate change may unfold over the next century.
Topics: climate-change, environment, science-and-technology, sweden
Posted
| UpdatedSea levels could rise a metre by the end of the century, according to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Topics: environment, climate-change, community-and-society
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| UpdatedA 20-year-old Queensland university student is hoping to use the power of the internet to change the new Coalition Government's mind about the National Broadband Network.
An internet petition calling for the Coalition to scrap its plans to create a fibre-to-the-node network has had more than 110,000 signatures in just five days.
Twenty-year-old Liberal-voting student Nick Paine created the online petition in protest at the Liberal party's plans to switch to a $29.5 billion fibre-to-the-node model.
He wants the new government to continue rolling out a $44.1 billion fibre-to-the-premises network.
Topics: information-and-communication, science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, internet-technology, government-and-politics, federal-government, abbott-tony, qld, australia
Posted
The Coalition has revealed if it wins government it will slash funding for one of the key partners of the bionic eye project.
Topics: science-and-technology, computers-and-technology, health, australia
Posted
Australia's top researchers gathered in Sydney for the annual Eureka awards last night
Topics: science-and-technology, science-awards, sydney-2000
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| UpdatedScientists believe they have discovered several new species of creatures around Western Australia's remote Kimberley coast.
Topics: animals, animal-science, science-and-technology, port-hedland-6721
Posted
| UpdatedWe are used to cameras watching our every move, but what about having your phone tracked when you go to the shops or the CBD?
Topics: science-and-technology, mobile-phones, information-and-communication, retail, industry, business-economics-and-finance, adelaide-5000, australia
Posted
| UpdatedA leaked draft of a major United Nations climate change report has revealed scientists are 95 per cent certain human activity is causing global warming.
Topics: climate-change, environmental-impact, research, environment, australia
Posted
| Updated50 jobs could be affected as mobile and internet provider ispONE enters administration with $30m of debt.
Topics: telecommunications, industry, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, mobile-phones, australia, melbourne-3000
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| UpdatedThe prepaid mobile phone services of 120,000 Kogan users are in limbo after wholesale provider ispONE collapsed.
A reseller of Telstra services, ispONE, was placed into voluntary administration on Monday with debts of about $30 million.
Telstra says it will no longer support prepaid Kogan Mobile users and they will no longer be able to recharge.
Kogan users will have access to interim Telstra services, but rival telco Optus is hoping to take advantage of the uncertainty, offering a special deal to affected customers.
Topics: telecommunications, industry, company-news, business-economics-and-finance, mobile-phones, australia
Posted
| UpdatedAn independent investigation into allegations of workplace bullying at the CSIRO has found no major or widespread issues.
Topics: work, bullying, australia, canberra-2600, act
Posted
| UpdatedAustralia's chief scientist Professor Ian Chubb calls for urgent changes to how science is taught, as more students turn their back on the subject.
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Australia's top scientists say far greater investment in research into efficient water technologies is required to see Australia become the food bowl of Asia.
Topics: food-processing, science-and-technology, rural, federal-parliament, federal-government, federal-election, government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, agricultural-crops, agricultural-policy, australia