Science

A new energy sector based on algal biofuels could guarantee Australia's transport fuel and food security far into the future, a new report says.

A team of researchers from Germany, Italy, and the USA have shown that observations of stellar visibility by citizen scientists accurately measure the brightness of the night sky. The researchers published their results Thursday in Nature Publishing Group's open access journal, Scientific Reports. The researchers hope that such data can eventually be used to track changes in artificial night sky brightness, also known as skyglow, worldwide.

Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics and the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology have achieved the wireless transmission of 40 Gbit/s at 240 GHz over a distance of one kilometer. Their most recent demonstration sets a new world record and ties in seamlessly with the capacity of optical fiber transmission. In the future, such radio links will be able to close gaps in providing broadband internet by supplementing the network in rural areas and places which are difficult to access.

One of the many promising applications of quantum mechanics in the information sciences is quantum key distribution (QKD), in which the counterintuitive behavior of quantum particles guarantees that no one can eavesdrop on a private exchange of data without detection.

(Phys.org) —Arizona State University computer scientist Gail-Joon Ahn has been granted a U.S. patent for a novel identity management system that helps protect personal identity information stored on digital devices.

(AP)—Wireless company Sprint Nextel Corp. says it can now let Dish Network Corp. see its books and talk with Dish to see whether its competing offer to buy Sprint is better than its current deal with Japan's SoftBank.

(Phys.org) —What to do with Marcellus shale wastewater is one of the biggest concerns in Pennsylvania, and few published studies have evaluated such wastewater effects on regional waters, according to a review co-authored by professors at the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State.

(Phys.org) —The National Academy of Sciences recently released an updated national vision for K-12 science education learning goals. Known as the Next Generation Science Standards, the goals outline a vision for what all U.S. citizens should know about science.

(Phys.org) —It's been said metaphorically that too much focus on the trees can cause one to lose sight of the forest. In a similar check of perspective, a group of biologists, led by a University of California, Davis, scientist, suggests that decades of focus on genes has led the scientific community away from a balanced exploration of the organisms that those genes define—whether they be plants, animals or microorganisms.

(Phys.org) —Wellcome Trust Monitor, an independent nationwide survey, highlights the important role of science teachers in encouraging young people to learn science and as a source of careers advice.