Today, I learned that:

In our connected world, where everyone has a smartphone, do you ever give the ubiquitous communication technology a thought? It is true that the mobile phone networks (2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, …) play an important role, but frankly speaking Wi-Fi is the main player, right?

So how did Wi-Fi come about? I think that it is one the most important inventions ever made, but originally it was not meant as such. The whole story was told in the Australian Radio National’s Science Show by Brian Schmidt, Nobel laureate in Physics in 2011, on May 5, 2012. See reference #1 below, it is an amazing story!

And speaking about amazing, how about having the same Brian Schmidt and the marvellous educator Paul Francis teach you astrophysics without any cost? Details in reference # 2 below.

Paul Francis and Brian Schmidt introducing one of the astrophysics courses. © edX Inc.

Getting back to Wi-Fi, you have probably also noticed how much battery power is consumed when the Wi-Fi functionality is switched on. But here comes good news:
A team of University of Washington computer scientists and electrical engineers has demonstrated that it is possible to generate Wi-Fi transmissions using 10 000 times less power than conventional methods. See reference #3 below for the complete story.

And finally, do you know what Li-Fi is? It is a communication technology that uses light signals for communication instead of the radio waves in Wi-Fi. It has been around for some years, but is not very well known yet. The advantage with Li-Fi is that it permits very high transmission speeds. Very likely, you will see it around some time soon. In the meantime, look at reference #4 below.

… That’s what I learned in school !

Refs.:

1: The value of international scientific collaborations

2: Learn contemporary astrophysics from the leaders in the field

3: UW engineers achieve Wi-Fi at 10,000 times lower power

4: Li-Fi

+: What did you learn in school today ?