Hasta La Gadget!

Many researchers over the years have worked towards increasing data speeds, something that has had breakthroughs in various ways over the years. The latest one involves a method the creators say is a simple concept, but one that – for whatever reason – was never done. By creating mirrored beams of light that cancel out noise, the researchers sent a 400GB/s signal down nearly 8,000 miles of fiber optic cables.

According to the researchers, fast data transfers over long distances is best achieved using two beams of light rather than a single one ran down a fiber optic cable. These twin beams, as they’re called, are mirrored images of each other, something that has the added benefit of cancelling out the noise resulting from traveling down the cable. As such, data can be send across long distances.

The merging of the signals is done at the end of the cable, with the noise-cancelling effect being the result of something call phase conjugation. When light beams are sent down the fiber optic, they produce a pattern full of essentially “ups” and “downs” referred to as peaks and troughs. The way phase conjugation works is by forming an inverse of one light beam so that a peak becomes a trough and vice versa. As a result, the noise effects are cancelled out.

While conventional methods would require phase conjugation to be performed using devices located a various places along a cable length regardless of where the cable is located – even the ocean floor – the researchers’ method removes that necessity by using the twin-beams method instead, and simply merging them together so that the noise is automatically cancelled out, resulting in a perfect signal.

Such a concept has the prospect of both increasing data speeds and increasing the distances a signal can travel without suffering from the effects of signal noise. Said lead author Dr. Xiang Liu: “Nowadays everybody is consuming more and more bandwidth – demanding more and more communication. We need to solve some of the fundamental problems to sustain the capacity growth.”

SOURCE: BBC News

Image via Ozan Uzel

Twin-beam signals send data 4x faster than conventional speeds is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s been a long-winded debate over what exactly caused early humans to start walking upright back in ancient times, but a recent study suggest that the move towards bipedaling was due to the shift in geology, and rocky landscapes made it difficult to get around on four legs, thus the switch to two legs to get around quicker.

The study, which was published in this month’s issue of the archaeological journal Antiquity, claims that the transition to walking upright was prompted by volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates in East and South Africa, which inevitably produced rocky terrain, making it more and more difficult to get around.

This encouraged early humans to improve their locomotor skills by implementing activities such as climbing and balancing over rough ground. These types of movements are better done upright, rather than on four legs, so after that initial transition, humankind has since been walking on two legs, as it provides better all around movement.

Previously, it was highly cited that climate change was the culprit for getting early hominids to walk upright. As the percentage of forests in Africa declined due to temperature fluctuations around 2.5 million years ago, early humans slowly made their down from trees and traveled on the ground instead, which can be done quite easily with two legs, rather than the four legs that are crucial for tree climbing (just as any kid).

Of course, there’s no definitive proof to either argument, but rather mild evidence that supports the claims. Both theories make sense in their own ways, and it’s possible we may never know the exact reason why us humans began walking upright. Think of it this way, though: What would the world be like now if we were still walking on four legs today?

VIA: The Christian Science Monitor

IMAGE CREDIT: epSos .de

Study claims humans started walking upright due to rocky landscapes is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

News that Amazon will add three large biospheres to its downtown Seattle headquarters had the tech world buzzing this week. The domed structures will feature a mix of workspaces and gardens, and they’ll be flanked by a public park. Amazon’s big announcement wasn’t the week’s only surprise, though. A multinational consortium announced plans to develop a Dubai-style artificial island with a space hotel and a zero-gravity spa off the coast of Barcelona. And new research finds that “pinkhouses” — vertical farms that use only pink light — are much more efficient than those that use the full light spectrum.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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You already know that graphene can be used to make transistors, solar cells and even Sennheiser-quality cans. But if you think that’s about as cool as the carbon material can get, listen to this: It can also be used to make ultrashort-pulse lasers. According to scientists from a smattering of institutions, the atomic-scale chickenwire material has the ability to absorb light effectively — much like a sponge — over a broad range of wavelengths. It can then release the light it absorbs in quick bursts that last a few femtoseconds each (with one femtosecond lasting one millionth of one billionth of a second), which is what ultrashort-pulse lasers do. With graphene as a component instead of traditional materials, scientists could develop a laser as small as a pencil that’s immune to thermal damage typically caused by intense beams. The finished product, if ever someone actually concocts one, could be applied across a variety of fields — everything from pollution monitoring to medicine. For those unafraid of technobabble, there’s plenty more in the source link.

[Image credit: Michaelpkk, Wikimedia]

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Source: Nature

Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.

We think it’s fair to say that, we all aspire to a future where robots do the hard work, lost limbs self-regenerate, and kids love science. That’s not too much to ask now is it? This is alt-week.

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Via: io9