‘World Record’ for Data Transmission Speed

Aston University researchers break ‘world record’ again for data transmission speed
ini Pratiwi, Mingming Tan, Ian Phillips, Aleksandr Donodin, Ruben Luis, Wladek Forysiak, Ben Puttnam

Aston University researchers are part of a team that has sent data at a record rate of 402 terabits per second using commercially available optical fibre.

This beats their previous record, announced in March 2024, of 301 terabits or 301,000,000 megabits per second, using a single, standard optical fibre.

“If compared to the internet connection speed recommendations of Netflix, of 3 Mbit/s or higher, for a watching a HD movie, this speed is over 100 million times faster.

The speed was achieved by using a wider spectrum, using six bands rather than the previous four, which increased capacity for data sharing. Normally just one or two bands are used.

The international research ...

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This Desert Moss has the Potential to Grow on Mars

Graphical abstract. Credit: The Innovation (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100657
Graphical abstract. Credit: The Innovation (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100657© Provided by Phys.org

The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis is a promising candidate for Mars colonization thanks to its extreme ability to tolerate harsh conditions lethal to most life forms. The moss is well known for its ability to tolerate drought conditions, but researchers report June 30 in the journal The Innovation that it can also survive freezing temperatures as low as −196°C, high levels of gamma radiation, and simulated Martian conditions involving these three stressors combined. In all cases, prior dehydration seemed to help the plants cope.

“Our study shows that the environmental resilience of S...

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Breakthrough Research Makes Cancer-fighting Viral Agent More Effective

Cancer cells.
Credit: iStock.

Researchers from Aarhus University have made a significant breakthrough by discovering that the drug 4-OI can enhance the effectiveness of a cancer-fighting viral agent. This may lead to treatment of cancers that are otherwise resistant to therapies.

When a cancer cell doesn’t respond to traditional therapies, doctors may turn to a sort of viral biological warfare, by deploying ‘troops’ in the form of viral agents that are specifically engineered to target and eliminate cancer cells. The mode of attack is to transform the tumor into an immunologically “hot” environment, making it more visible and recognisable to our immune system.

Now, researchers from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University have found a way to make one strain of viral agents even more ...

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Wireless Receiver Blocks Interference for Better Mobile Device Performance

A cellphone has a blue shield which blocks red interference.
Caption: A new receiver can block up to four times more interference than some similar devices.
Credits:Image: MIT News; iStock

The growing prevalence of high-speed wireless communication devices, from 5G mobile phones to sensors for autonomous vehicles, is leading to increasingly crowded airwaves. This makes the ability to block interfering signals that can hamper device performance an even more important — and more challenging — problem.

With these and other emerging applications in mind, MIT researchers demonstrated a new millimeter-wave multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless receiver architecture that can handle stronger spatial interference than previous designs. MIMO systems have multiple antennas, enabling them to transmit and receive signals from different directions...

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