Every week we will break down, debunk and demystify your rights as a shopper in Australia. This week we are looking at businesses that enforce additional surcharges for card payments, and whether that's legal.

We all know life is getting more expensive than ever before, and how important it is to stretch every dollar you make.

That's why each week we'll answer a question surrounding what shoppers are – and aren't – entitled to when dealing with retailers and manufacturers.

MONEY MATTERS: Is it legal for a shop to refuse cash as payment?

Punished for using a card?

Hi there,

I was just buying a coffee and a sandwich from my local cafe when I saw a sign on the register that said all purchases made with EFTPOS would incur a 5 per cent surcharge.

It didn't worry me because I wasn't spending much money, but it got me thinking – is that illegal?

It may be, as 5 per cent sounds excessive.

According to the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Payment Surcharges) Act 2016, a business cannot charge a payment surcharge that is deemed to be "excessive".

So what is excessive?

According to consumer watchdog the ACCC, the amount of the surcharge must not exceed the costs incurred by the business to accept that payment type.

MONEY MATTERS: Is it legal for a shop to only accept cash as payment?

Some shoppers might not realise that it actually costs businesses money to accept some payment forms, such as credit cards.

The business is allowed to recoup this cost as a surcharge on the transaction, but it can only be to cover costs – they can't profit from it.

Payment types covered under the law include Eftpos, Mastercard, Visa and American Express companion cards.

According to the ACCC, it's unlikely for surcharges to exceed any more than 2 or 3 per cent.

"The RBA has said that as a guide, payments through the domestic Eftpos system (used to process payments from debit cards) are usually quite low, mostly below 0.5 per cent. Accepting a Visa or MasterCard debit transaction may cost a business around 0.5 to 1 per cent of the transaction value," the watchdog notes on its website.

"Credit cards usually have a higher cost for businesses, and may cost the business up to 1-1.5 per cent for Visa and MasterCard, and between 1.5-2 per cent for an American Express card payment.

"It is important to note that different businesses have different costs of acceptance. In general, smaller merchants' costs may be higher than these indicative figures."

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So what should you do?

The best thing to do is to discuss the surcharge politely with the business who is charging it – it may be necessary.

If you're still thinking you're being overcharged on some payment types, you can contact the ACCC here.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and should not be taken as legal advice. People who need clarification on these matters should obtain appropriate legal advice.

In what might be considered a mixed blessing at best, scientists are one step closer to making a Terminator.

Researchers in Japan have developed living skin that can be used to cover a robotic structure – in the case of this project, a finger.

The skin not only has a similar texture to human skin, but can self-heal and repels water.

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"The finger looks slightly 'sweaty' straight out of the culture medium," said the study's lead author Shoji Takeuchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

"Since the finger is driven by an electric motor, it is also interesting to hear the clicking sounds of the motor in harmony with a finger that looks just like a real one."

Looking "real" like a human is one of the top priorities for humanoid robots that are often tasked to interact with humans in healthcare and service industries – a far cry from the killer cyborgs of the big screen.

A human-like appearance can improve communication efficiency and evoke likability, researchers say.

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While current silicone skin made for robots can mimic human appearance, it falls short when it comes to delicate textures like wrinkles and lacks skin-specific functions.

Attempts at fabricating living skin sheets to cover robots have also had limited success, since it's challenging to conform them to dynamic objects with uneven surfaces.

"With that method, you have to have the hands of a skilled artisan who can cut and tailor the skin sheets," Takeuchi said.

"To efficiently cover surfaces with skin cells, we established a tissue molding method to directly mold skin tissue around the robot, which resulted in a seamless skin coverage on a robotic finger."

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To craft the skin, the team first submerged the robotic finger in a cylinder filled with a solution of collagen and human dermal fibroblasts, the two main components that make up the skin's connective tissues.

Takeuchi said the study's success lies within the natural shrinking tendency of this collagen and fibroblast mixture, which shrank and tightly conformed to the finger.

Like paint primers, this layer provided a uniform foundation for the next coat of cells—human epidermal keratinocytes—to stick to. These cells make up 90 per cent of the outermost layer of skin, giving the robot a skin-like texture and moisture-retaining barrier properties.

The crafted skin had enough strength and elasticity to bear the dynamic movements as the robotic finger curled and stretched.

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The outermost layer was thick enough to be lifted with tweezers and repelled water, which provides various advantages in performing specific tasks like handling electrostatically charged tiny polystyrene foam, a material often used in packaging.

When wounded, the crafted skin could even self-heal like humans' with the help of a collagen bandage, which gradually morphed into the skin and withstood repeated joint movements.

The developed skin is much weaker than natural skin and can't survive long without constant nutrient supply and waste removal.

Next, Takeuchi and his team plan to address those issues and incorporate more sophisticated functional structures within the skin, such as sensory neurons, hair follicles, nails, and sweat glands.

"This work is just the first step toward creating robots covered with living skin," Takeuchi said.

Nothing ominous about that.

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NASA is launching a study of UFOs as part of a new push toward high-risk, high-impact science.

The space agency announced on Thursday that it’s setting up an independent team to see how much information is publicly available on the matter and how much more is needed to understand the unexplained sightings.

The experts will also consider how best to use all this information in the future.

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NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen acknowledged the traditional scientific community may see NASA as “kind of selling out” by venturing into the controversial topic, but he strongly disagrees.

“We are not shying away from reputational risk,” Zurbuchen said during a National Academy of Sciences webcast.

“Our strong belief is that the biggest challenge of these phenomena is that it's a data-poor field.”

NASA considers this a first step in trying to explain mysterious sightings in the sky known as UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena.

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The study will begin this year and last nine months, costing no more than $US100,000.

It will be entirely open, with no classified military data used.

NASA said the team will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation for advancing scientific research.

In a news conference, Spergel said the only preconceived notion going into the study is that the UAPs will likely have multiple explanations.

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“We have to approach all these questions with a sense of humility," Spergel said.

“I spent most of my career as a cosmologist. I can tell you we don't know what makes up 95 per cent of the universe. So there are things we don't understand."

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A hero dog that saved her owner from a mountain lion in California last month has died after her condition suddenly deteriorated.

Erin Wilson took to Instagram to announce her beloved Belgian shepherd, Eva, died yesterday morning at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

The two-and-a-half-year-old dog was rushed to the vets after she began panting, while there she suffered seizures and slipped into a coma.

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"We said goodbye at 9:20 this morning. There were no changes to her condition overnight," Wilson said on the social media platform.

"Goodbye my beautiful sweet girl. You are my world, my light, my best friend."

Wilson has been posting tributes to her pet, revealing she got Eva in the last weeks of March 2020 as COVID-19 started spreading around the world.

She was "rock-obsessed" and loved cuddles.

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"Our favorite game was let's see how big a rock Eva can move. She was so incredibly strong in her shoulders, she would drag rocks around backwards," she wrote.

Eva sustained serious injuries battling a mountain lion who attacked Wilson near the Trinity River in northern California, on May 16.

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The predator lunged at Wilson, who was walking ahead of Eva, and scratched her shoulder.

Eva came bounding to Wilson's defence.

The pair started fighting, but Eva weighed only 25 kilograms and was outclassed by the big cat.

The mountain lion bit the dog's head and wouldn't let go, even when Wilson hit it with sticks, rocks and her fists.

In desperation Wilson ran to her car to grab a tire iron and flagged down a passing car.

The driver of that car rushed to help and sprayed the mountain lion with pepper spray, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

"(She) sprayed the lion in the face with little to no effect," they said in a statement.

"The mountain lion was attempting to move off the trail and drag the dog to a different location.

"The woman and the passerby eventually retrieved a piece of PVC pipe and began hitting the mountain lion with it until it finally released the dog".

Eva was rushed to the vets with skull fractures and deep lacerations.

She had been slowly recovering and was once again enjoying walks, when her condition took a turn for the worst.

Following the attack, wildlife officers collected DNA samples from Eva's wounds and said they would try and trap the cougar, adding they would "further evaluate the situation if it is caught."

Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare but animals responsible are usually killed if they are caught.

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