(Mar. 2) – Who says science is boring and not funny? A team of Italian and Swedish has cooked up a novel way of allowing different signals to occupy the same frequency. Taking cue from the famous kind of pasta, fusilli, the scientists theorized that twisting two radio waves together it is possible to allow waves to hold more than one channel of information at a time. And in three dimensions the waves take the form of a “fusillli-pasta-shaped beam”. They broadcast in an experiment in Venice, transmitting radio waves in the 2.4 GHz band over 442 metres from a lighthouse in the waters around Venice to the mainland. The demonstration showed that it was possible to pick up both twisted radio wave channels. According to the researchers, this could mean that increasing amounts of information could easily be sent around the world, and could also help throw some light onto mysteries further out into space, as black holes. This novelty will surely ease the growing frequency congestion caused by wireless internet, mobile phones and TVs.(Peg)
