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Digital Planet: Loon Balloon internet deflated

Factual: Science & Nature

Loon Balloon internet deflated

26/01/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Loon Balloon internet deflated

Google’s Loon Balloon internet connectivity project has been dropped.

Google’s Loon high altitude balloon project, designed to provide internet connectivity in very remote areas, has been dropped by the company.

Loon Balloon internet deflated.  Also Rabies vaccinations in Malawi – how tech is eliminating the disease in dogs and Cybersecurity and AI.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company has announced it’s winding down Project Loon.  Hundred’s of high altitude balloons carrying miniature mobile phone towers were to drift around the globe providing internet connectivity to very remote regions.  Digital Planet has been following the project from its first trials in 2013 and even visited one of their base stations in Kenya.  We discuss why it didn’t succeed.

Rabies vaccinations in Malawi – how tech is eliminating the disease in dogs 
Vaccinating dogs is the best way of reducing human deaths from rabies, but getting a minimum of 70% of dogs vaccination in an area (the coverage needed to eliminate the disease in the dogs) is very time consuming and costly.  Now a new app, along with detailed data-driven analysis, has led to halving the time it takes to vaccinate dogs as well as significantly reducing costs and the workload for vets. Dr. Stella Mazeri, from Edinburgh University, is on the show explaining how their data-based approach has been so successful in Malawi.

Cybersecurity and AI
In the second of his reports on cybersecurity threats of the future Florian Bohr looks at artificial intelligence. Apparently, hackers are starting to use machine learning to attack systems more effectively. On the flipside, cybersecurity professionals are depending on AI more and more to control and defend their systems but who will prevail? 

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington. 

Studio Manager: Giles Aspen
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz




(Image: A Google Project Loon internet balloon. Credit: Reuters/Stephen Lam)

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