8:00pm – Thursday, October 8 on ABC1
WiFi Windfall Imagine inventing a piece of technology with extreme lucrative potential only and then having to enter an extensive court battle against the world’s technology giants to prove ownership! Well that’s exactly what happened to a small group of Australian scientists from the CSIRO. In an Australian David verses global Goliaths epic, CSIRO successfully won a long-running legal battle enforcing its patent on technology used in connecting local wireless networks for a settlement worth many millions of dollars. Dr Jonica Newby delivers an intriguing story that begins in the dusty fields of outback New South Wales and ends in a courtroom showdown in Texas.
Virtual Clinic Depression is Australia’s second biggest health problem after heart disease, yet the resources available to treat people effectively are often out of reach. Tools for the remote delivery of therapy over the internet do exist, but the adherence rate to this method of cognitive behavioural therapy stands at just 1%. In an effort to improve this figure, researchers at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney have developed a program which combines face-to-face clinical consultations with internet based therapy. Join Dr Norman Swan as he checks out the results and sees what part virtual clinics might play in the future treatment of mental illness.
Carbon Country Up-date In 2006 Mark Horstman headed to Arnhem Land to report on the first carbon trading agreement of its kind in the world. The agreement struck a deal between an energy company, government and local Aboriginal communities. Conoco-Phillips was able to offset its greenhouse gas emissions from their gas refinery in Darwin Harbour, by funding the seasonal burning of fire breaks. Now, three years later, Mark Horstman investigates how the emissions trading scheme, currently being thrashed out in Canberra, might impact on the Aboriginal fire brigade of Arnhem Land and if reducing wildfires will count in the emerging carbon market.
Catalyst will be repeated on ABC2 – Friday, October 09 at 5:30pm
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