Popular_Science_Australia_November_2016

70 POPULAR SCIENCE

SOFTWARE

In April 2016, more than

one billion cellphone

users gained the ability to

outsmart the NSA or any

third-party snoop when

Open Whisper Systems

released its WhatsApp

end-to-end encryption

protocols. Made for voice

calls and texting

(including photos, videos,

and files), users verify

their communication is

encrypted by either

scanning a machine-

readable QR code or

comparing a 60-digit

code with their fellow

security-savvy

interlocutor.

One Billion

Safer People

B

WHATSAPP

ENCRYPTION

Humans have brewed

beer for millennia.

Intelligentx Brewing

Company thinks

artificial intelligence

should take a shot. Its

machine-learning

algorithm reads beer

recipes like any other

brewmaster. But it also

learns from you. After

drinking one of the

brewery’s four beer

styles, you tell a bot on

Facebook Messenger

what you like, don’t like,

or want more of, and the

AI uses your comments

to brew the next batch.

More data, better brew.

The First AI

Brewmaster

A

INTELLIGENTX

BREWING COMPANY

When game developer Ryan Green’s

son, Joel, was diagnosed with brain cancer

at 12 months, Green turned to his medium

to work through it. The result is a soul-

twisting video game that lets players

experience the ups and downs the Greens

went through during Joel’s four-year

battle—the challenge of comforting a

child in pain, the joy of storytime, and the

grief of dealing with his death. “My

favorite moments are the moments where

you can be with Joel,” says Green. “To play

with him, hear him breathe, or hear him

laugh, those moments I like the most.”

A Game That Will

Break Your Heart

NUMINOUS GAMES

THAT DRAGON,CANCER

C

GOOGLE
DAYDREAM LABS

Daydream Labs

lets developers

animate and build

virtual reality not

on a flat computer

screen, but for the

first time inside VR

itself. They can

interact, socialise,

offer feedback, and

use hand control-

lers as their virtual

creations rise

up around them.

Creating

VR in VR Instead of server farms,

the entire Internet may

run out of a bunch of vats

fully of organic goo - and

take up less space. That’s

what researchers at

Microsoft and the

University of Washington

proved in July, when they

encoded 200 megabytes

of digital files into the

building blocks of DNA—

breaking the previous

20-MB record. They did it

using a type of enzyme

called polymerase, which

makes copies of DNA in a

programmable way and

allows any part of the

DNA string to be read.

The Densest

Of Data

D

UNIV. OF WASHINGTON

DNA STORAGE

B

C

A