This Way Up for Saturday 28 June 2014
Solar panel roads
Scott Brusaw of Solar Roadways wants to revolutionise road building with his solar roads. They're glass-covered smart roads containing solar panels and embedded LEDs that can generate power, and display road information and even ads.
Digital immortality
Jenny Kleeman's being looking at ways to be immortal in the digital world. Now your digital life can continue forever with a range of services designed to allow you to keep tweeting, posting updates, video and photos. But is this really progress?!
Social physics, big data and reality mining
Alex "Sandy" Pentland has been named as one of the world's top data scientists and he advises some huge companies on how to create a happier and more productive workplace. We chat to him about big data, 'reality mining' and his book his book 'Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread- the Lessons from a New Science'(The Penguin Press).
Tech news: Google and Telecom's Lightbox
Peter Griffin on Google's plans to control our health, homes, cars and sell more ads. Also details leak out about Telecom's new video-on-demand service, called Lightbox.
Truffle harvest
We're on the hunt for black gold, Perigord black truffles to be exact, with truffle-growing couple Kees van den Munckhof and Wendy Hutchins in Hawke's Bay.
Airline seating
The major airlines are in an arms-race to build the perfect seat to lure passengers to the pointy end of the plane. We speak to David Owen whose article "Game of Thrones" appeared in The New Yorker.