Fibreless fibre-optics developed
US Air Force boffins have created wireless links of similar capacity and quality to optical fibre, allowing extremely high mobile bandwidth and - perhaps - the use of quantum encryption methods without a physical connection, says The Register.
According to an announcement issued earlier this week by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the office's Dr David Hughes is "leading a team investigating long-distance, mobile optical links imperative for secure quantum communications capabilities".
The idea is to use a laser beam through the air to carry information optically in the same way that sending light down fibre works. In the case of fibre, it's possible to send information - for instance encryption keys - coded as individual photons, quanta of light. Any attempt to intercept such information would by definition involve changing it, meaning that any eavesdropping would be detected.
DJ game aims to buck predictions
A video game that boasts rap artist Jay-Z among its advisors hopes to capitalise on the popularity of music titles despite poor sales forecasts, reports the BBC.
DJ Hero will be released in the UK today and allows players to emulate their music-mixing idols.
Its publishers hope it will emulate the success of Guitar Hero, the rock-based game that let users jam along to tracks using a guitar-shaped controller.
Roadrunner supercomputer maps HIV family tree
Physicist Tanmoy Bhattacharya and HIV researcher Bette Korber are creating an evolutionary genetic family tree, based on samples taken by the international Centre for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology consortium, in order to compare the evolutionary history of more than 10 000 sequences from more than 400 people with HIV, says CNet.
If they can identify common features of the virus as it is transmitted, researchers might be able to create a vaccine that recognises the virus before the body's immune system reacts to, and mutates it.
What already sounds like a lot of data, however, could balloon further, hence the importance of the Roadrunner supercomputer. "We are at the cusp of being able to obtain more than 100 000 viral sequences from a single person," Korber said. "For this new kind data to be useful, computational advances will have to keep pace."
Share