The inventor of the internet, Tim Berners-Lee first mentioned the concept of a semantic web, a web with inbuilt meaning, long before the advent of social sites, but it is yet to become reality. This is despite the ongoing efforts of web engineers, academics, search engine companies, and the web industry itself. There is, researchers writing in the International Journal of Web Engineering and Technology, a semantic web bottleneck.

Nikolaos Konstantinou of Athens Information Technology (AIT) and colleagues at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), in Greece, state that after almost a decade of research, the fundamental concepts that would underpin a semantic web have matured, yet the average web user cannot yet make the most of their full potential. They suggest that there are three main issues to be overcome before Web 3. emerges and they present a roadmap in their paper to explain how these must be addressed.

In Berners-Lee’s original vision for the semantic web, machine-readable information embedded in a digital object, whether a web page, an image, a video or some other file, so-called meta data, would allow software to potentially understand the meaning and context of the digital object. Although some software currently has a limited understanding of simple meta data, it mostly lies in prototypes and lab environments.

However, the potential of the semantic web is to have software agents that can perform tasks automatically based perhaps on a user’s behaviour or preference settings, and to locate pertinent information far more efficiently than an individual searching the web manually might do. The software might also be able to infer additional knowledge based on previously existing information process the information it finds into a usefully organised format. Such a process would be useful to scholars, doctors, engineers, scientists, musicians, designers, artists, indeed anyone who works with data.

Konstantinou and colleagues point out that three issues are preventing this from happening: deficiencies in simplicity, integration with existing technologies and practices, and adoption by the web industry.

They suggest that ways to automatically add meta data to digital objects are now needed to really make it possible to publish semantically rich content without manual intervention whether or not the “publisher” is a large corporation or an individual content creator. They also say that semantic technologies do not offer a substitute for current practices, rather a complement to them and that web engineers need not abandon experience but should build on it. Finally, the driving forces of the web industry should adopt semantic web technologies since their adoption entails a series of benefits both for the companies themselves as well as to the end users. “This appears to be the most promising solution for the chicken-and-egg problem of the semantic web,” the team says. “Much still needs to be done so that you can effectively publish and exploit large-scale semantic information. Following the approach suggested in this paper, we are confident that the semantic web bottleneck will be shortly circumvented and the semantic web vision will be at last realised,” the team concludes.

The scientists used a computer model to forecast global distribution of discarded PCs. It concluded that consumers in developing countries will trash more computers than developed countries by 2016, with the trend continuing and escalating thereafter.

She fuses emerging technology with contemporary jewelry to produce psychologically significant, beautiful objects made to improve human relationships rather than cut people removed from one another.

A selection of her newest work is regarding to take tour with the Craft Council’s new CraftCube:Research exhibition.

Part of the exposure includes objects created throughout Jayne’s recent collaboration with Newcastle University’s Institute for Ageing and Health, which opened up new the possiblility to produce jewellery that can provide tangible benefits for individuals dealing with dementia.

After spending considerable time working co-creatively with a few coping with this condition — Gillian and her husband John — she developed numerous electronic items that are not only helpful and significant, but also potential loved ones heirlooms.

Much of Jayne’s work revolves around the idea which, in spite of electronic technology being omnipresent in today’s culture, as individuals we now have small impact on how it appears, so instead of getting something individual to maintain maintain of, it becomes throw-aways. “Designing personal digital jewellery is the antithesis of a throwaway society and can be a way of uniting and connecting families, bringing them closer rather than distancing them from each other,” said Jayne. “The current design of digital objects is heavily focussed on the functional rather than beautiful or personal, but this doesn’t have to be the case.”

Jayne’s perform also challenges the idea that digital technology afford little chance to upload the encounters inside all of them. “Digital jewellery offers new scope for interaction design that allows us to explore both emotional aspects of our lives and our sense of self,” she said. “It challenges assumptions as to the nature of the digital technologies with a view to providing an opportunity to use technology to support people’s wider emotional needs.”

Jayne, who is a research associate in computing science for the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Research Hub at Newcastle University, would be the first designer to have the woman’s focus on show within the new touring CraftCube:Research, showing at the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin in June.

The chosen functions are usually reflective items according to supply material gathered through Jayne’s in depth research with Gillian and John, in addition to care staff at Alzheimer’s Society day care centres and other people coping with loss of memory. Among the objects within the exhibition are dress brooches which consists of been vocal thoughts inside the material plus a silver locket that contains electronic images which gradually fade when exposed to the light.

The actual exhibition has been created within partnership with Newcastle University and the UK Research Council’s Digital Hub. The actual investigation hub targets conversation with computer systems in everyday settings, and the role technologies plays in making people’s lives more significant. Additionally, it aims to tackle social exclusion by making this easier for people to get into the actual life-changing benefits offered by electronic technology.

Source: University, Newcastle.

Cell phone users are leery of putting banking accounts, identification and other sensitive information onto a device that gets left in cars, buried in the bottoms of purses and lost between sofa cushions, said Esther Swilley, a K-State assistant professor of marketing.

“I think what’s going to happen for consumers to accept a wallet phone is that it’s going to have to go in stages,” Swilley said. “So now we have everybody’s telephone number on our phones. Next you will be doing airline tickets and things like that on your phone. Next thing you know, everything in your wallet is going to be on the phone.”

She surveyed both college students and a segment of the general population about their readiness to use wallet phones. The results for both groups were the same — they didn’t want them.

“It was the risk that was involved, and people didn’t want to take the risk,” Swilley said.

The research will appear in the April issue of the Journal of Consumer Marketing.

“I would say something in my classes about wallet phones, and just the look on students’ faces said no,” Swilley said. “I would ask them why, and everybody said, ‘because I lose my phone.’”

Her students conceded that if their phone had the same information as their wallet they would keep better tabs on it. But they still said it wasn’t worth the risk, even with password protection.

Swilley predicts that consumers will be more willing to accept keeping an airline, movie or sports ticket on their phone. For instance, Fandango is testing a system for sending movie theater tickets to cell phones.

“With something like a ticket, all you have to do is swipe the phone, so it’s easy and people aren’t as concerned about it,” Swilley said. “If somebody stole the phone, you’d be mad, but your identification would be intact.”

In Europe, Swilley said consumers are using their cell phones to purchase items from vending machines with a swipe of their phone. The difference is that the money isn’t deducted from the user’s bank account. Rather, the phone works like a gift card, in which the user places a set amount of money on it.

Swilley said the wallet phones wouldn’t look any different from other cell phones. It’s the chip inside that would allow users to store the type of information that goes in their wallets.

“What was interesting is that most cell phone technologies start in Asia,” Swilley said. “So they started the wallet phone in Japan, and it didn’t catch on there. If it didn’t catch on in Japan, it probably won’t catch on here, either. If it does, I do think it’s going to take a while for Americans to cozy up to the idea.”

Source: Kansas State University

Two separate research groups, one located in the US and the other in the UK, are reporting dramatic advances in the development of phonon lasers in the current issue of Physical Review Letters. The papers are highlighted with a Viewpoint by Jacob Khurgin of Johns Hopkins University in the February 22 issue of Physics.

Light and sound are similar in various ways: they both can be thought of in terms of waves, and they both come in quantum mechanical units (photons in the case of light, and phonons in the case of sound). In addition, both light and sound can be produced as random collections of quanta (consider the light emitted by a light bulb) or orderly waves that travel in coordinated fashion (as is the case for laser light). Many physicists believed that the parallels imply that lasers should be as feasible with sound as they are with light. While low frequency sound in the range that humans can hear (up to 20 kilohertz) is easy to produce in either a random or orderly fashion, things get more difficult at the terahertz (trillions of hertz) frequencies that are the regime of potential phonon laser applications. The problem stems from the fact that sound travels much slower than light, which in turn means that the wavelength of sound is much shorter than light at a given frequency. Instead of resulting in orderly, coherent phonon lasers, miniscule structures that can produce terahertz sound tend to emit phonons randomly.

Researchers at Caltech have overcome the problem by assembling a pair of microscopic cavities that only permit specific frequencies of phonons to be emitted. They can also tune the system to emit phonons of different frequencies by changing the relative separation of the microcavities.

The group from the UK’s University of Nottingham took a different approach. They built their device out of electrons moving through a series of structures known as quantum wells. As an electron hops from one quantum well to the next, it produces a phonon. So far, the Nottingham group has not demonstrated a true phonon lasing, but their system amplifies high-frequency sound in a way that suggests it could be it a key component in future phonon laser designs.

Regardless of the approach, the recent developments are landmark breakthroughs on the route to practical phonon lasers. Phonon lasers would have to go a long way to match the utility of their optical cousins, but the many applications that physicists have in mind already, including medical imaging, high precision measurement devices, and high-energy focused sound, suggest that sound-based lasers may have a future nearly as bright as light lasers.

Source: American Physical Society

Recent breakthroughs by their team at JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, have paved the way on how to build a tabletop X-ray laser that could be used for super high-resolution imaging, while also giving scientists a new way to peer into a single cell and gain a better understanding of the nanoworld.

Both of these feats could lead to major breakthroughs in many fields including medicine, biology and nanotechnology development.

“Our goal is to create a laser beam that contains a broad range of X-ray wavelengths all at once that can be focused both in time and space,” Murnane said. “If we have this source of coherent light that spans a huge region of the electromagnetic spectrum, we would be able to make the highest resolution light-based tabletop microscope in existence that could capture images in 3-D and tell us exactly what we are looking at. We’re very close.”

Murnane and Kapteyn presented highlights of their research today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, annual meeting in San Diego, during a panel discussion about the history and future of laser technology titled “Next Generation of Extreme Optical Tools and Applications.”

Most of today’s X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums or larger, making their use impractical. Murnane and Kapteyn generate coherent laser-like X-ray beams by using an intense femtosecond laser and combining hundreds or thousands of visible photons together. And the key is they are doing it with a desktop-size system.

They can already generate laser-like X-ray beams in the soft X-ray region and believe they have discovered how to extend the process all the way into the hard X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

“If we can do this, it could lead to all kinds of possibilities,” Kapteyn said. “It might make it possible to improve X-ray imaging resolution at your doctor’s office by a thousand times. The X-rays we get in the hospital now are limited. For example, they can’t detect really small cancers because the X-ray source in your doctor’s office is more like a light bulb, not a laser. If you had a bright, focused laser-like X-ray beam, you could image with far higher resolution.”

Their method can be thought of as a coherent version of the X-ray tube, according to Murnane. In an X-ray tube, an electron is boiled off a filament, then it is accelerated in an electric field before hitting a solid target, where the kinetic energy of the electron is converted into incoherent X-rays. These incoherent X-rays are like the incoherent light from a light bulb or flashlight — they aren’t very focused.

In the tabletop setup, instead of boiling an electron from a filament, they pluck part of the quantum wave function of an electron from an atom using a very intense laser pulse. The electron is then accelerated and slammed back into the ion, releasing its energy as an X-ray photon. Since the laser field controls the motion of the electron, the X-rays emitted can retain the coherence properties of a laser, Murnane said.

Being able to build a tabletop X-ray laser is just the beginning, said Kapteyn.

“An analogy that is pretty close to what is going on in this field is the MRI, which started as just a fundamental investigation,” said Kapteyn. “People then started using it for microscopy, and then it progressed into a medical diagnostic technique.”

Murnane and Kapteyn were recently recognized with the American Physical Society’s Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science for “pioneering work in the area of ultra-fast laser science, including development of ultra-fast optical and coherent soft X-ray sources.” The prize, which was endowed by NEC Corporation in 1991, recognizes “outstanding contributions to basic research which uses lasers to advance our knowledge of the fundamental physical properties of materials and their interaction with light.” Nobel laureates and CU-Boulder physics Professors Carl E. Wieman (1999) and John L. Hall (1993) also have won the award.

SOurce: University of Colorado at Boulder

“Cells receive information in the form of chemical signals, physical attachments to other cells, or radiation damage, for instance,” Tyson said. “On the basis of this information, the cells must make the correct response, such as to grow and divide, or to stop growing and repair damage, or to commit suicide.”

The question for a molecular biologist is: What are the underlying molecular mechanisms that implement these information processing systems? “Just as computer is an information processing system, with silicon chips, wires, mother board, clock, and power source, a cell is a an information processing system made of genes, messenger RNAs, proteins, and enzymes,” Tyson said. “Somehow these molecules interact with each other to detect signals, make decisions, and implement the proper response.”

Tyson and other biologists want to know how jumbles of molecules can figure out how a cell should respond to its environment in order to survive, grow, and reproduce. “So we do what any good engineer would do. We create a mathematical model of the components and their interactions, and let the computer work out the details.”

Tyson presented his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting February 18-22 in San Diego, as part of a session on “Moving Across Scales: Mathematics for Investigating Biological Hierarchies,” which includes talks ranging from “HIV interventions in Africa” to the “Neural Dynamics of Decision Making.” Tyson will talk about “Molecular Network Dynamics and Cell Physiology,” or the cell as an information-processing system.

The speakers in this session will illustrate how math models help scientists reason across scales in biology, such as from interactions between sick and healthy people to the spread of global pandemics. Whereas models of this sort can inform public health decisions on a global scale, Tyson’s research addresses basic science at the smallest scale — bridging the gap from molecules to cells. “We have to first understand the molecular basis of normal cell behavior; then we have a chance of figuring out how the system is broken in diseased cells,” said Tyson.

“What decision-making processes tell a cell when to grow and divide and when to just hang-out? It is mistakes in this decision process that cause cancer. Tumors are cells growing when and where they shouldn’t. Cancer is a collection of diseases caused by faulty decision-making at the cellular level. The cells are no longer obeying the rules. We know the cause is in the molecules that are supposed to be enforcing these rules.”

During the course of his research, Tyson and colleagues have used computer simulations to test their math models. “If the math model behaves in the computer the way cells behave in the lab, we gain confidence that we understand the molecular interactions correctly. If not, we can be sure that our models are missing something important.”

Tyson will talk about the control of cell division in yeast and in mammalian cells. “Yeast cells are easy to work with in the lab, and their molecular control systems are very similar to the control systems in mammalian cells,” he said As a result of the success that Tyson and his colleagues have had in modeling yeast cell growth and division, they are now making the transition to mammalian cells and cancer.

“We do not yet have an engineer’s understanding of normal mammalian cell proliferation and of what goes wrong in cancer cells,” Tyson said. “Cancer treatment is still a matter of cutting out, blasting, or poisoning cancer cells — and any normal cells that get in the way. We could be more subtle and perhaps more effective in treating cancers if we had a systematic insider’s understanding of the molecular networks that control cell growth, division and death, and an ability to manipulate this control system with a new array of drugs and procedures.”

Source: Virginia Tech

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed a revolutionary way of capturing a high-resolution still image alongside very high-speed video — a new technology that is attractive for science, industry and consumer sectors alike.

By combining off-the-shelf technologies found in standard cameras and digital movie projectors they have successfully created a tool that will transform many forms of detailed scientific imaging and could provide access to high-speed video with high-resolution still images from the same camera at a price suitable for the consumer market.

This could have everyday applications for everything from CCTV to sports photography and is already attracting interest from the scientific imaging sector where the ability to capture very high quality still images that correspond exactly to very high speed video is extremely desirable and currently very expensive to achieve. The technology has been patented by Isis Innovation, the University of Oxford’s technology transfer office, which provided seed funding for this development and welcomes contact from industry partners to take the technology to market. The research is published February 14, 2010 in Nature Methods.

Dr Peter Kohl and his team study the human heart using sophisticated imaging and computer technologies. They have previously created an animated model of the heart, which allows one to view the heart from all angles and look at all layers of the organ, from the largest structures right down to the cellular level. They do this by combining many different types of information about heart structure and function using powerful computers and advanced optical imaging tools. This requires a combination of speed and detail, which has been difficult to achieve using current photographic techniques.

The image shows a drop of milk falling into a beaker of water. A video was made at the same time, using the same camera, and represents the same image data. The still image has a 16 fold greater spatial resolution (see swirls of milk in the beaker), and it can be decoded into the video frames played in sequence to reveal the high-speed motion content.

Dr Kohl said: “Anyone who has ever tried to take photographs or video of a high-speed scene, like football or motor racing, even with a fairly decent digital SLR, will know that it’s very difficult to get a sharp image because the movement causes blurring. We have the same problem in science, where we may miss really vital information like very rapid changes in intensity of light from fluorescent molecules that tell us about what is happening inside a cell. Having a massive 10 or 12 megapixel sensor, as many cameras now do, does absolutely nothing to improve this situation.

“Dr Gil Bub from my team then came up with a really great idea to bring together high-resolution still images and high-speed video footage, at the same time and on the same camera chip — ‘the real motion picture’! The sort of cameras researchers would normally need to get similar high-speed footage can set you back tens of thousands of pounds, but Dr Bub’s invention does so at a fraction of this cost. This will be a great tool for us and the rest of the research community and could also be used in a number of other ways that are useful to industry and consumers.”

“What’s new about this is that the picture and video are captured at the same time on the same sensor” said Dr Bub. “This is done by allowing the camera’s pixels to act as if they were part of tens, or even hundreds of individual cameras taking pictures in rapid succession during a single normal exposure. The trick is that the pattern of pixel exposures keeps the high resolution content of the overall image, which can then be used as-is, to form a regular high-res picture, or be decoded into a high-speed movie.”

The technique works by dividing all the camera’s pixels into groups that are then allowed to take their part of the bigger picture in well-controlled succession, very quickly, and during the time required to take a single ‘normal’ snapshot. So for example, if you use 16 pixel patterns and sequentially expose each of them for one sixteenth of the time the main camera shutter remains open, there would be 16 time points at which evenly distributed parts of the image will be captured by the different pixel groups. You then have two choices: either you view all 16 groups together as your usual high-resolution still image, or you play the sixteen sub-images one after the other, to generate a high-speed movie.

This concept has attracted the attention of Cairn Research, a UK based scientific instrument manufacturer. “High speed imaging of biologically important processes is critical for many of our customers at Cairn Research,” said Dr Martyn Reynolds, “Frequently there is a requirement to record events in living cells that are over in a fraction of a second, and this pushes us to the limits of existing technology. For several years we have been developing a product line for fast imaging of optical slices though cells, and we are very interested in using the processes and technology developed by the group in Oxford to extend the capabilities of our devices and the scientific benefits this could bring.”

The research may soon move from the optical bench to a consumer-friendly package. Dr. Mark Pitter from the University of Nottingham is planning to compress the technology into an all-in-one sensor that could be put inside normal cameras. Dr Pitter said: “The use of a custom-built solid state sensor will allow us to design compact and simple cameras, microscopes and other optical devices that further reduce the cost and effort needed for this exciting technique. This will make it useful for a far wider range of applications, such as consumer cameras, security systems, or manufacturing control.”

This research was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the British Heart Foundation.

Source: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

A study found that people who used computer simulations to learn about moon phases understood the concepts just as well – and in some cases better – than did those who learned from collecting data from viewing the moon.

The results suggest the use of computer simulations in science classes may be an effective and often less expensive and time-consuming way to teach some science concepts, said Kathy Cabe Trundle, lead author of the study and associate professor of science education at Ohio State University.

“These results give us confidence that computer simulations can be effective in the classroom,” Trundle said. “But now we need to do further study to see if it works in others areas of science.”

Trundle conducted the study with Randy Bell, associate professor of science education at the University of Virginia. Their study appears online in the journal Computers & Education and will be published in a future print edition.

While there have been many studies examining computer use in the classroom, most have only examined whether students find computers easy to use and enjoy using them.

The few studies that have examined whether computers are effective for learning content have had mixed results, Trundle said. This study is an improvement because it actually compares people who used a computer simulation with those who had more direct observations.

“Our expectation was that the computer simulation would be at least as effective as direct observation in teaching about moon phases,” Trundle said.

“When we did our analysis, the simulation was just as effective in teaching two aspects of moon phases, and more effective in a third aspect. So we were excited by that.”

Participants in the study were 157 pre-service teachers– master’s degree students who are in training to become early childhood teachers.

Studies have shown that the majority of people – including preservice students and the students they teach – do not understand the cause of moon phases.

This study examined how well these preservice teachers understood moon phases before and after taking a 10-week science methods course that included a unit on moon phases.

In contrast to traditional instruction, this class was inquiry-based, which meant that students learned from gathering data themselves — either directly from viewing the moon or from the computer simulation. The participants then analyzed the data they gathered to identify patterns.

One class learned about moon phases using only a computer simulation, one group from nature alone, and a third group from both a computer simulation and nature.

The computer simulations were provided through a commercially available software program that allows users to visualize the movement of the sun and the moon through time from any point on Earth.

The researchers tested the participants’ understanding before and after the class in three areas: knowledge of sequences of moon phases, the causes of moon phases, and the shapes of moon phases.

Before the class, none of the preservice teachers had a complete scientific knowledge of the moon phases.

But after the class, teachers in all three groups – computer simulation only, nature only and simulation and nature – dramatically improved their scores. Up to 98 percent of the teachers showed they understood moon phases after the class was completed.

Those who used only computer simulations did just as well as others in learning causes of moon phases and shapes of moon phases. But those who used the simulations were actually slightly more likely than others to understand the sequences of moon phases.

“We believe that the computer simulation was more effective at teaching moon sequences because the students who used it had a complete set of data,” Trundle said.

“Those who observed the moon in nature didn’t – there were cloudy days and nights and other reasons why they couldn’t collect data every night they were supposed to.”

The ability to collect all the available data is just one reason why computer simulations may be better for teaching some science concepts.

“Classroom teachers don’t always have time to do nature-based instruction,” Trundle said. “In this case, computer simulations allow teachers to speed up instruction, which means students gather the same amount of data in a shorter period of time. It’s faster, easier and much less frustrating.”

Computer simulations may be especially important in teaching earth and space science, because it offers opportunities that aren’t available in the real world. For example, the software program used in this study allows students to see how the earth looks from the moon or from the sun, giving them a better perspective on how the earth-moon-sun system interacts.

Trundle said computer simulations might also be effective in teaching introductory biology. For example, students can take part in simulated animal dissections, overcoming some of the ethical and practical concerns.

Simulations would also allow students to “see” microscopic or even sub-atomic particles, giving them a better understanding of how particles interact.

“We’re finding that technology can help students learn and understand scientific concepts in a way that may be easier for teachers and just as effective for students,” Trundle said.

Source: Ohio State University

The Harz region is banking on electric cars. Electric cars will soon be rolling through Quedlinburg, Werningerode and other cities in the region. Seventeen partners from research, academia and industry have committed themselves to this with their project Harz.ErneuerbareEnergien-mobility or Harz.EE-mobility for short.

The success of electric cars will stand or fall with the power supply. The ability to charge vehicles with green power anytime and anywhere will boost acceptance of this technology. Hence, charging stations will have to be located astutely enough that electric cars will even be able to reach a city sixty kilometers away without any problem. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF in Magdeburg are determining the optimal locations for charging stations. »In addition to the flow of traffic, we are analyzing mobility characteristics to find out where vehicles are parked for how long. This time can be used to charge cars. Locations where vehicles may park long enough are favored for charging stations. Garages or parking lots at work or near one’s residence are the preferred option,« says Dr. Przemyslaw Komarnicki, Research Manager at the Fraunhofer IFF. »We will also be making a decision about the number of charging stations. However, the results aren’t in yet. The placement of charging stations must be carefully considered to keep the network from overloading.« The mobility control center where all the traffic and power data converge advises a driver to head for a suggested charging station based on the battery’s charge level. Through the navigation system, the control center informs a driver which charging stations are occupied, being serviced or are closed and have low priced, renewable and/or sufficient electricity. When traffic is backed up, the control center guides cars with a low charge to a nearby charging station. Researchers at the Fraunhofer IFF are developing the necessary database system concept.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Remote central locking is among the most convenient aspects of modern motoring. Transmission of the radio signal that activates the system is not particularly secure, however. A new encryption technique increases security without draining the key’s battery.

Most drivers love the convenience of remote central locking — the car doors are locked or unlocked just by pressing a button on the key. These systems are not particularly secure, however, as a potential car thief can, for example, use an antenna to eavesdrop on the radio signal and create a second key from the captured data on a computer. The reason for this weakness in security is that the algorithms which encrypt the signals sent from the key to the vehicle are not strong enough. Their code was broken about two years ago.

Car manufacturers are therefore using new algorithms to make the radio key systems more secure. But these algorithms too have a major disadvantage — they are symmetric, their codes are embedded in the key and in the car. Also, the same coded information is embedded in numerous vehicles from the same production line. Once one code has been broken, numerous cars are at risk.

Research scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Garching have now used an asymmetric algorithm to develop a car key prototype for the first time.

An asymmetric algorithm in this car key ensures high security when the car door is unlocked by radio signal, but does not drain the battery.

“With this type of algorithm the secret is only located in the car key, and not in the car as well,” explains Johann Heyszl, a scientist at the SIT. “Each car key incorporates a different code, and this makes the encryption much more secure than when a symmetric algorithm is used.”

Up to now the high computation intensity and associated high energy consumption posed a high barrier against the use of asymmetric algorithms. “We have built a small cryptographic chip which is particularly energy-saving. In addition, we have developed a new, efficient protocol which minimizes computation effort and the amount of data that has to be transmitted,” says Heyszl. As a result, the battery life of the key is about the same as in symmetric encryption, but the new system is much more secure. The electronic immobilizer is encrypted in the same way as remote central locking.

The research scientists have already developed a functioning prototype and will be presenting the system at the Embedded World trade show from March 2 to 4 in Nuremberg (Hall 11, Stand 11-101).

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

“In 2001 the ‘Code Red’ worms caused $2 billion dollars worth of damage worldwide,” said Yoon-Ho Choi, a postdoctoral fellow in information sciences and technology, Penn State. “Our algorithm can prevent a worm’s propagation early in its propagation stage.”

Choi and his colleagues’ algorithm defends against the spread of local scanning worms that search for hosts in “local” spaces within networks or sub-networks. This strategy allows them access to hosts that are clustered, which means once they infect one host, the rest can be can be infected quickly. There are many types of scanning worms, but Choi calls these worms the stealthiest because they are the most efficient and can evade even the best worm defenses.

A worm outbreak can begin with the infection of a single computer. After infection, a worm begins to probe a set of random, local or enterprise IP addresses, searching for more vulnerable hosts. When one is found the worm sends out a probe, or packet, to infect it.

“A local scanning worm can purposely scan a local or enterprise network only,” said Choi. “As the size of the susceptible population increases, the worm’s virulence increases.”

The researchers’ algorithm works by estimating the size of the susceptible host population. It then monitors the occurrence of infections within it and sets a threshold value just equal to or below the average number of scans necessary to infect a host by an infected host.

If the scanning worm’s number of scans carrying a specific destination port number exceeds the threshold, the algorithm quarantines the worm. The algorithm then breaks down the network into many small networks, or cells, which in some cases might be only one computer. A worm can spread within the cells, but not between the cells. This way the algorithm can isolate an infected host or small cluster of infected hosts housing the worm.

“By applying the containment thresholds from our proposed algorithm, outbreaks can be blocked early,” said Choi.

To test the effectiveness of their algorithm the researchers ran a series of computer simulations and emulations using different scanning strategies of local scanning worms. Results showed that their algorithm was an efficient estimator of worm virulence and could determine the size of the susceptible host population after only a few infections.

“Our evaluation showed that the algorithm is reliable in the very early propagation stage and is better than the state-of-the-art defense,” said Choi.

Choi, working with Lunquan Li, assistant professor, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, and his Penn State colleagues, Peng Liu, associate professor, information sciences and technology, and George Kesidis, professor, electrical engineering and computer science and engineering, published their work in the February issue of Computers and Security.

According to Choi, local scanning worms are constantly evolving. They are becoming more complicated and increasingly efficient. As a result, worm outbreaks pose a real threat to networked systems. Because many networked home and office computers are susceptible to local scanning worms this algorithm may be an effective defense against damaging worm outbreaks.

Source: Penn State

An innovative computational technique that draws on statistics, imaging and other disciplines has the capability to detect errors in sensitive technological systems ranging from satellites to weather instruments.

The patented technique, known as the Intelligent Outlier Detection Algorithm, or IODA, is described this month in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology.

IODA offers the potential to alert operators to faulty readings or other problems associated with failing sensors. If sensors malfunction and begin transmitting bad data, computers programmed with the algorithm could identify the problem and isolate that bad data.

IODA was developed by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).

The National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR’s sponsor, funded the research. “This technology will have broad applicability in many new areas,” says Steve Nelson, NSF program director for NCAR.

IODA separated good and bad data from an anemometer: blue=high-quality; red=low-quality.

The developers of the algorithm say its principles can eventually be used in a vast range of technological settings, including cars and other transportation systems, power plants, satellites and space exploration, and data from radars and other observing instruments.

“This could, at least in theory, enable operators to keep a system performing even while it’s failing,” says Andrew Weekley, a software engineer at NCAR who led the algorithm development effort. “When a system starts to fail, it’s absolutely critical to be able to control it as long as possible. That can make the difference between disaster or not.”

IODA is designed to perform quality control on time series data–that is, data collected over time, such as wind speeds over the course of a month.

The algorithm, an expert system that draws on statistics, graph theory, image processing and decision trees, can be applied in cases where the correct assessment of data is critical, the incoming data are too numerous for a human to easily review, or the consequences of a sensor failure would be significant.

At present the algorithm consists of several thousand lines of a technical computing language known as MATLAB. The researchers may expand and translate it into a computer programming language such as C so it can be used for commercial purposes.

Ensuring the quality of incoming time series data is a priority for virtually any organization involved in complex operations. If sensors begin relaying inaccurate information, it can be highly challenging for personnel or automated systems to separate good data from bad, especially in cases involving enormous amounts of information.

Typically, to identify bad data, complex operations may rely on multiple sensors, as well as algorithms that characterize specific relationships among the data being collected, and identify failures when the data unexpectedly change.

A drawback in most of these algorithms, however, is they are designed for a particular type of time series and can fail catastrophically when applied to different types of data, especially in situations where there are numerous and sometimes subtle errors.

IODA, however, compares incoming data to common patterns of failure–an approach that can be applied broadly because it is independent of a specific sensor or measurement.

Weekley and co-authors took a new approach to the problem when they began developing IODA 10 years ago. Whereas existing methods treat the data as a function of time, Weekley conceived of an algorithm that treats the data as an image.

This approach mimics the way a person might look at a plot of data points to spot an inconsistency.

For example, if a person looked at a line drawn between points on a graph that represented morning temperatures rising from 50 to 70 degrees, and then spotted a place where that smooth line was broken, dipping precipitously because of numerous data points down at 10 degrees, the person would immediately suspect there was a bad sensor reading.

In cases where there are thousands or even millions of data points about temperature or other variables, pinpointing the bad ones can be more difficult.

But Weekley thought that a computer could be programmed to recognize common patterns of failure through image processing techniques.

Then, like a person eyeing data, the computer could identify problems with data points such as jumps and intermittency; view patterns in the data; and determine not only whether a particular datum is bad but also characterize how it is inaccurate.

“Our thought was to organize a sequence of data as an image and apply image processing techniques to identify a failure unambiguously,” Weekley says. “We thought that, by using image processing, we could teach the system to detect inconsistencies, somewhat like a person would.”

The research team came up with ways of arranging data points in a time series into clusters, both in a domain that represents the data points over time and in another domain known as delay space.

Delay space, which offers another way to detect differences in the data, is a technique that pairs a data point in the time series with the previous value.

Using the clusters from both the time domain and delay space, bad data are separated into their own cluster, clearly distinct from the cluster of accurate data. At the same time, IODA can calculate quality scores indicating if each individual data point is good or bad.

“I would say the approach we report in the paper is a radical departure from the usual techniques found in the time series literature,” says Kent Goodrich, a CU mathematician and a co-author of the paper.

“The image processing and other techniques are not new, but the use of these images and techniques together in a time series application is new. IODA is able to characterize good and bad points very well in some commonly encountered situations.”

When the research team tested IODA, they found it accurately isolated incorrect data in several cases.

For example, they applied the algorithm to wind readings from anemometers in Alaska that contained faulty errors due to a loose nut, which left the anemometers unable to consistently measure gusts in high-wind situations. The algorithm identified the bad readings, separating them into a series of clusters away from the good data.

“This technique has very broad implications,” Weekley says. “Virtually all control systems rely on time series data at some level, and the ability to identify suspect data along with the possible failure is very useful in creating systems that are more robust.

“We think it is a powerful methodology that could be applied to almost all sequences of measurements that vary over time.”

Source: National Science Foundation.

Microelectronic chips used to take pressure readings are very delicate. A new technology has been developed that makes pressure sensors more robust, enabling them to continue operating normally at temperatures up to 250 degrees Celsius.

The drill bit gradually burrows deeper into the earth, working its way through the rock. Meanwhile, dozens of sensors are busily engaged in tasks such as taking pressure readings and evaluating porosity. The conditions they face are extreme, with the sensors being required to withstand high temperatures and pressures as well as shocks and vibrations. The sensors send the data to the surface to help geologists with work such as searching for oil deposits.

Yet there is one major hurdle: on average, the pressure sensors can only withstand temperatures of between 80 and 125 degrees Celsius — but at great depths the temperature is often significantly higher. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems IMS in Duisburg has come to the rescue, its researchers having developed a pressure sensor system that continues to function normally even at 250 degrees Celsius.

“The pressure sensors consist of two components that are located on a microelectronic chip or wafer,” explains Dr. Hoc Khiem Trieu, department head at IMS. “The first component is the sensor itself, and the other component is the EEPROM.” This is the element that stores all the readings together with the data required for calibration.

The new pressure sensor works at temperatures of up to 250 degrees Celsius.

To enable the pressure sensor to function properly even at extremely high temperatures, the developers modified the wafer. While normal wafers tend to be made of monocrystalline silicon, the researchers chose silicon oxide for this application. “The additional oxide layer provides better electrical insulation,” Trieu continues. “It prevents the leakage current that typically occurs at very high temperatures, which is the principal reason that conventional sensors fail when they reach a certain temperature.”

The oxide layer enabled the researchers to improve the insulation of the memory component by three to four orders of magnitude. In theory, this should enable the pressure sensors to withstand temperatures of up to 350 degrees Celsius — the researchers have provided practical proof of stability up to 250 degrees and are planning to conduct further studies at higher temperatures. In addition, the researchers are analyzing the prototypes of the pressure sensors in endurance tests.

There is a broad range of potential applications, with engineers hoping to use the high-temperature pressure sensors not only in the petrochemical environment, but also in automobile engines and geothermal applications.

Source: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Specific leaf area, or SLA, plays a prominent role in ecological theories that attempt to provide explanations for plant and ecosystem function. SLA, a measurement of the total leaf area to dry mass, has been found to correlate with the potential for light-resource use, the relative growth rate of a plant, and differences in essential nutrient demand and habitat preference.

Scientists also have observed that the SLA of individual leaves varies within a single plant, and this measurement often correlates with leaf maturation and position within the canopy. More recently, scientists have discovered that, as a tree increases in size, its total canopy SLA decreases — that is to say, its total leaf surface area fails to keep pace with increases in total leaf mass.

What causes this decrease in SLA as tree size increases has remained a mystery, but recent research by Cornell University scientists Karl Niklas and Edward Cobb published in the January issue of the American Journal of Botany provides an explanation for this decrease in SLA with an increase in tree size.

“The traditional explanation for the size-dependent decrease in SLA was never very satisfying,” Niklas said. “We wanted to look at this phenomena in greater details with more care, and we found a totally different answer to a classic ecological question.”

The commonly accepted hypothesis has been that decreasing SLA in trees of increasing size is a result of leaf-by-leaf acclimation to the local environment. Physical factors such as differences in light intensity are affected by differences in leaf position within the canopy, providing different local environments. Niklas and Cobb hypothesized that changes in SLA may be a result of changes in the relative numbers of different shoot types that produce leaves differing in SLAs — a developmental shift that occurs as a tree increases in size.

Niklas and Cobb examined 15 red maple trees that differed in trunk size and found that the changes in SLA can be attributed to shoot type rather than to the location of the leaves within the canopy. As the trunk diameter increased, the number of short-shoots increased rapidly relative to the number of long-shoots. Detailed analyses of the largest tree demonstrated that short shoots, on average, produce leaves with smaller specific leaf areas than those produced by long shoots. Consequently, developmental shifts occurring at the shoot and whole plant level account for size-dependent decreases in total canopy SLA, rather than leaf-by-leaf acclimation to the local environment.

Mathematical models for the distribution of light within the canopy predict that the photosynthetic rate of the entire canopy is maximized when the specific leaf area is lowest for leaves at the top of the canopy. This research provides new insight into the mechanism by which trees have evolved to obtain light and photosynthesize at the greatest rate.

“Our research shows that plants are highly integrated organisms that respond to their environments in ways that are every bit as complex as even the most sophisticated animals,” Niklas said. “This research also shows that we still have plenty to learn about phenomena that we thought we understood very well.”

Source: American Journal of Botany

loriana González, a professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at Illinois, says when students used dynamic geometry software they were more successful in discovering new mathematical ideas than when they used static, paper-based diagrams.

The study, published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, analyzed how students solved geometry problems over four days, with two days spent using static diagrams and the other two with dynamic diagrams drawn using a calculator with dynamic geometry software.

“There’s been a big push to have teachers use technology in the classroom, and there’s a lot of incentives for them to use it, the chief one being the motivation kids get from using technology,” González said. “But the powerful thing is that integrating technology in the classroom allows teachers to provide students more opportunities for learning, which gets students thinking about mathematical ideas in a new light.”

González, who co-wrote the study with Patricio G. Herbst, of the University of Michigan, said that teachers like to use technology in the classroom not only because it’s stimulating for students, but also because it’s a more efficient use of resources for teachers.

For example, instead of drawing 20 different diagrams on a chalkboard by hand, teachers can create one diagram on a computer and manipulate it using the dynamic geometry software. Without the software, the teacher is drawing 20 different variations of the same diagram, “which can get very boring very quickly,” González said.

“The technology allows teachers to do many things that they couldn’t ordinarily do or would be very hard to do by hand, such as call attention to a particular geometrical pattern or configuration that the students may not have seen otherwise,” she said.

But students shouldn’t get too excited: González says there’s no need for them to throw away the protractors and compasses just yet.

“What we found is that students who did things by hand, although they didn’t formulate the same conjectures as when they used the dynamic geometry software, just having the experience with the manual tools really helped them to understand what happens when you try to do the same thing using the dynamic geometry software,” González said. “So there is some transference between the two.”

The technology, González said, pushed students to think about mathematics in a completely different way.

“Compared to the two days of using static diagrams, students didn’t find anything as sophisticated as they did when they used the computer,” she said. “The dynamic geometry software really helped them make connections that they hadn’t made before.”

For teachers, integrating technology into a lesson plan can bring about unanticipated complications.

“Sometimes students may understand the tool, but not the underlying mathematics behind the tool,” González said. “Students can play, but teachers are trying to teach mathematics, not a particular tool. As a teacher, you want your students to go beyond the tool. The heart of mathematics is proofs, and only teachers are able to ask students to go beyond the tools and provide a proof.”

González said educators have a difficult job gauging how students will react to a lesson, while simultaneously teaching the content they need to learn and keeping students engaged and focused.

“If we help teachers try to understand what kind of thinking students will have when using technology, then we can help students to have a deeper understanding of mathematical ideas,” she said. “Whatever we can do to support teachers’ work in terms of having a better understanding of student thinking about mathematics, the better, because teachers have a challenging job,” she said.

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Though the use of artificial intelligence made a relatively late debut in the field of cultural heritage, computer algorithms are now steadily finding their way in this new domain. Berezhnoy has examined the extent to which colour analysis computer programmes can contribute to analysing the authenticity of paintings. To aid his research, he developed computer algorithms, which he tested on digital reproductions of Van Gogh’s paintings. Using digital processes, he also studied how trademark features of brush work can reveal the identity of a painter. The Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum have been closely involved in this research project.

It is widely acknowledged that, during his French period, Vincent van Gogh began employing complementary colours to emphasize contours of objects or parts of scenes, for example blue next to yellow. With this in mind, Berezhnoy proposed a new method of digital analysis (the Method for the Extraction of Complementary Colours), which enabled him to identify general colour patterns in Van Gogh’s work. This method provides an objective way to support art historians’ analysis of colours in a painting, thereby enabling them to determine its authenticity.

Berezhnoy has also developed a digital analysis technique to detect the orientation of brush strokes (the Prevailing Orientation Extraction Technique). His research demonstrated that this method was also effective in identifying the ‘fingerprint’ of a master and thereby revealing his identity.

Berezhnoy’s research shows that digital technology is just as effective in identifying the authenticity of paintings as the discerning eye of an art historian. The PhD student is, however, keen to point out that digital technology will never replace art historians.

Source: Tilburg University

Citations in science are important as a mechanism to follow the evolution of science and because they are employed as an indicator as to the importance of scientists and institutions: the higher the number of citations of an article, the greater is its recognition. This measure of success implies increased sources of funding, recognition, salaries, etc.

According to Camacho Miñano and Núñez Nickel, the problem arises when the authors, instead of altruistically choosing original sources which facilitate the ideas on which their reasoning is constructed, cite because of spurious interests, attempting to increase the possibility of successfully publishing in the scientific journals.

“In this way, prejudices arise, and what is worse, so does the discrimination suffered by scientists who are not cited,” explains the UC3M Full Professor of Financial Economics and Accounting, Manuel Núñez Nickel.

Such discrimination can be summarized in three fundamental aspects: personal characteristics of the author (for example, sex, race, where doctorate was obtained, current or previous affiliation, if the author forms part of the editorial staff of some journal, etc.); characteristics of the article (methodology utilized, number of pages, if it is a bibliographic recompilation, etc.); and finally, type or nature of the journal (journals with a higher degree of impact tend to be cited).

With the systems of control that exist at present (double-blind review) it is difficult to control this type of behaviour, according to the authors of this study. Moreover, the reviewers and editors could be accentuating this behavior which they criticize by advising them to cite journals with a certain degree of impact or certain authors. For example, one journal advises citing the journal where the article will be published. The explanation of the editors is: If our journal is not interesting to cite, why do they want to publish in it? If this editor did not wish to alter the essence of the citation, his reasoning should have been: If you give us a quality research study, we are interested in whatever you do, and if we consider that it is not of good quality, we reject it.

A possible solution

Notwithstanding, the researchers point out a partial solution to this problem: the editor of the journal should give clear guidelines for the reviewers to follow, so that the moment that they are aware that this type of discrimination exists, they eradicate it at the grass roots level. “At a personal level, this is extremely difficult, since an editor is usually specialized in only one of the areas of the scientific field, not in all of them. But nowadays, with the level of knowledge available, if the editors sent the correct message, penalizing those reviewers who “advise certain citations or self-impose certain journal discipline, there would be a marked improvement in the correct direction.”

This study’s main contribution, ordering such diverse ideas that exist in such a broad range of literature, is to put in place the different steps in selecting citations. In this sense, “an author cannot permit herself to not know the most relevant sources if she wishes to have a certain trustworthiness within her area,” Nuñez Nickel explained. . However, when deciding which authors to cite, if various articles cover the same needs, the author may be inclined for those which are similar to her reviewers of certain journals, full professors from institutions which interest her, etc. “This could be one of the reasons why “quality” schools appear as opposed to those which offer original ideas,” he remarked..

The researchers were able to determine, according to the results, that there always is “amoral” behavior which cannot be controlled when citing authors. “Science is not altruistic, but in the majority of cases, it is egotistical,” states Professor Núñez Níckel. “If these hypotheses are true, Science could degenerate or simply stagnate without actually advancing in certain areas.” he added. The idea of carrying out this research arose precisely because of the difficulty encountered in the field of study to value the researchers’ real effort and the results they obtained, at the hour of remuneration, promotion, obtaining funding, etc. “We carried out this research,” he pointed out, “for purely selfish reasons in an attempt to establish guidelines regarding assessment within the Accounting area of the Business Economics Department at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.”

Source: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid – Oficina de Información Científica.

As the grant’s lifespan comes to an end, leading representatives from academia, government and business gathered at the Institute of Physics on December 10 to highlight the most recent advances and discuss what is now needed to make the most of the opportunities that quantum information processing gives the UK.

Dr Hermann Hauser, a successful venture capitalist strongly associated with Cambridge’s Silicon Fen, in his presentation ‘Disentangling a billion dollar opportunity’, said, “We need to invest £50 to £100 million in something which can give the UK a truly global lead with big market opportunities. I’m talking a £5 to £10 billion pound return, not just a billion.”

Prior to Dr Hauser’s presentation, quantum optics theorist Professor Sir Peter Knight from Imperial College London, optical communications systems Professor John Rarity from the University of Bristol, and physics of computation theorist Dr Simon Benjamin from the University of Oxford, used the platform to describe the latest advances made by them and their quantum colleagues.

The market opportunities associated with advances in quantum information processing have long excited researchers from governments and big businesses that seek technology to advance secure communications and to enable computers to tackle problems that classical machines falter with.

For secure communications, the promise lies in quantum cryptography which could transform secure communications on macro and micro levels; from re-keying satellites to secure links between bank customers and ATMs.

Entangled photons provide a means to distribute keys which encrypt and decrypt information. It is a particularly promising method which uses quantum properties to make hacking of information futile. As soon as hackers try to get their sticky fingers on the data they corrupt the information irrecoverably.

For computer processing, the benefits stem from quantum systems’ ability to exist in mutually contradictory states at any one time. This allows the computer to explore a much wider range of possibilities than a classical machine and will be invaluable to, for example, engineers working on large-scale projects with a need to take into account all of the different environmental factors that might have an impact on their construction.

The financial promise of the field is yet to be realised but all of the speakers believe that quantum information processing could well be one of the key disruptive technologies needed to breathe life back into the UK economy.

Professor Rarity, on the potentially mass appeal of quantum keys for secure banking, said, “People will become as comfortable carrying their own personal quantum key, using it to secure all transactions by encoding their PIN, as they are with lasers in their DVD players.”

Professor Knight added, “The promise of quantum information processing emerges from the remarkable property of being able to manipulate information to be in two states at once. There is spectacular potential in the field of sensors, quantum cryptography and computing. The UK started the second quantum revolution with the exploitation of quantum coherence in 1990 and now we need to ensure that we maintain a lead.”

Source: Institute of Physics

A 270-kilometre optical fiber has been transformed into the world’s longest laser, a feat its inventors believe will lead to a radical new outlook on information transmission and secure communications.

Engineering academics at Aston University, UK, are leading research into ultralong fiber lasers, to create a platform capable of delivering ‘next generation’ information transmission, including telecommunications and broadband.

When normal telephone conversations or data sent over the internet are converted to light in order to travel through standard optical fibers the signals lose around 5 per cent of their power for every kilometre that they travel. The signals then have to be amplified to ensure that they reach their destination, a process which creates background noise and affects the signals quality.

Using a physical process called the Raman effect*, a natural phenomenon that affects light passing through a material and fiber Bragg gratings to reflect light at both ends of the fiber, the team can create a uniform distribution of light through a cavity in the optical fiber. This scheme also presents an ultra-long fiber laser offering new opportunities for handling ultra-fast communications at a high operational capacity.

World's longest laser -- channelled through 270 km fiber optic cable.

Professor Sergei Turitsyn from Aston University’s Photonics Research team believes the 270km Ultralong Raman Fiber Laser, (the result presented in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters), has pushed laser technology to completely new territories. It increases by a factor of three the Research team’s previous record result with laser of 75km, reported in 2006.

The UK team have been collaborating with the Instituto de Optica, Madrid, Spain and Institute of Automation and Electrometry, Novosibirsk, Russia to achieve this record result.

“The demands on communication systems are increasing significantly, particularly with the huge growth of internet traffic. This technology offers a new platform for improving the speed, reliability and the operational capacity of future optical communication systems,” said Prof Turitsyn.

“However, even more interesting is a fundamentally new way the laser is used — as a transmission medium, rather than a source of coherent radiation. Despite extraordinary advances in laser science, only recently have the fundamental limits of laser cavity length become an area of exploration. One important new concept here is that an ultra-long laser cavity implemented in optical fiber can be seen as a new unique type of a transmission medium. This might lead to a radical new outlook on information transmission and secure communications.”

*Note: The Raman effect (a natural phenomenon that affects light passing through a material) is used to transform a long optical fibre into an ultra-long laser. Lasers inject light at each end of the fiber, which makes some of the fiber’s atoms give out more energy and emit photons (particles of light) of a longer wavelength. These photons are reflected back into the fiber by special mirrors at each end of the optical link. The fiber then stores a stable, uniform amount of laser light that travels with the signals and strengthens them, enabling them to move across the fiber at full power without suffering any loss, so removing the need to amplify the signals.

Source: Aston University.