Communications, features and articles | Educational Science

Apr 4, 2018

'Stingray' Spy Devices Are Eavesdropping in Washington, D.C.: Here's How

Washington, D.C., may be home to spies and criminals using spying devices to intercept people's cellphone calls and text messages. In a March 26 letter, the U.S Department of Homeland Security publicly acknowledged, for the first time, that these devices, known as cell-site simulators, were being used anonymously in the...

May 21, 2018

How Can a Smartphone Survive a 100-Foot Drop But Crack on Your Floor?

A few weeks ago, I pulled my iPhone out of my purse only to discover a spiderweb of cracks emanating from the earpiece area of the screen. I couldn't remember dropping the phone or hitting my purse against anything, but I must have jostled something just wrong. Considering that last...

May 25, 2018

SpaceX's Elon Musk Proposes Media Company That Rates Journalists. Is He Serious?

SpaceX founder Elon Musk just said on Twitter that he wants to start a new media outlet. What's behind his posts? Is it just another Musk prank, or is he actually serious about the idea? The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish...

Apr 29, 2019

Facebook Will Be Littered with More 'Zombie' Profiles Than Living Ones by 2070

The dead could outnumber the living on Facebook by 2070, and the social media site could be a virtual crypt by the end of the century. Depending on the rate of the site's growth, the number of dead Facebook users could range from 1.4 billion to 4.9 billion by 2100,...

Dec 12, 2020

How does a secure phone line work?

We've all seen those corny, binge-watchable spy action series where, upon uncovering a plot, the agent must alert the White House post haste to thwart an imminent attack on the nation. Cue to the horse voice of TV drama 24's star Kiefer Sutherland: Get me a secure line to the...

Feb 1, 2021

5G Network: How does it work, and is it dangerous?

The fifth generation of cellular technology, 5G, is the next leap in speed for wireless devices. This speed includes both the rate mobile users can download data to their devices and the latency, or lag, they experience between sending and receiving information. 5G aims to deliver data rates that are...

Oct 14, 2022

Wireless Devices Overwhelm Nature's Signals

A crowd of consumer gadgets such as cell phones and wireless devices may overwhelm the small band of scientists straining to detect faint radio emissions from offbeat sources ranging from hurricanes here to galaxies in the distant cosmos. The electronic fog of manmade signals could not only dampen scientific discoveries,...

Jun 15, 2023

Cosmic-ray 'GPS' system that tracks underground movement could change the way we respond to disasters

Scientists have harnessed the byproducts of cosmic rays to create the world's first GPS system that works underground — and it could be used to monitor volcanoes and aid in future search-and-rescue missions. The new positioning system, named the muometric wireless navigation system (MuWNS), scans for ghostly and ultrafast subatomic...

Dec 11, 2023

Wireless tech could replace Bluetooth at short distances and boost battery life 5-fold

Scientists have created a new wireless technology that could one day rival the reigning wireless communication technology, Bluetooth. The new technology requires so little power it could make devices last five times longer on a single charge. Currently, the main wireless technologies — including Wi-Fi, 5G and Bluetooth — embedded...

Dec 19, 2023

Project Kuiper: Amazon's answer to SpaceX's Starlink passes 'crucial' test

Amazon's upcoming satellite broadband network, dubbed Project Kuiper, just passed a key test test that paves the way for a 2024 launch. Similar to SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper is Amazon's plan to provide high-speed internet by launching and connecting 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). The firm launched two...

Jan 17, 2024

Scientists use TV tech to test light-powered internet connections that can be 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

Scientists have developed a new type of visible light communication (VLC) technology that can transmit data using conventional lighting fixtures used in homes and offices. The technology could one day usurp Wi-Fi as the go-to tool for wireless communication. Unlike wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology, which uses electromagnetic radio waves to transmit...

Feb 6, 2024

'Remarkable' new algorithm could dramatically speed up web browsing

A new algorithm could significantly speed up web browsing by making caching more effective. The open-source program, called SIEVE, introduces a new way to handle web caching — the process of storing and retrieving objects from a computer's long-term storage as you encounter them while surfing the internet. These objects...

Feb 26, 2024

'Quantum memory breakthrough' may lead to a quantum internet

We're now one step closer to a quantum internet — an interconnected web of quantum computers — after scientists built a network of quantum memories at room temperature for the first time. In their experiments, the scientists stored and retrieved two photonic qubits — qubits made from photons (or light...

Mar 12, 2024

35 years after first proposing the World Wide Web, what does its creator Tim Berners-Lee have in mind next?

When computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee sent a memo detailing his idea of a distributed hypertext system on March 12, 1989, it was largely ignored by his colleagues at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. This is not surprising: CERN is a place where scientists build huge colliders, not a...