Speed-of-light experiments give baffling result at Cern

The neutrinos are fired deep under the Italian Apennines at Gran Sasso

Puzzling results from Cern, home of the LHC, have confounded physicists - because it appears subatomic particles have exceeded the speed of light.

Neutrinos sent through the ground from Cern toward the Gran Sasso laboratory 732km away seemed to show up a tiny fraction of a second early.

The result - which threatens to upend a century of physics - will be put online for scrutiny by other scientists.

In the meantime, the group says it is being very cautious about its claims.

"We tried to find all possible explanations for this," said report author Antonio Ereditato of the Opera collaboration.

"We wanted to find a mistake - trivial mistakes, more complicated mistakes, or nasty effects - and we didn't," he told BBC News.

"When you don't find anything, then you say 'Well, now I'm forced to go out and ask the community to scrutinise this.'"

Caught speeding?

The speed of light is the Universe's ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his special theory of relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it.

Much of modern physics depends on the idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light

Thousands of experiments have been undertaken to measure it ever more precisely, and no result has ever spotted a particle breaking the limit.

But Dr Ereditato and his colleagues have been carrying out an experiment for the last three years that seems to suggest neutrinos have done just that.

Neutrinos come in a number of types, and have recently been seen to switch spontaneously from one type to another.

The team prepares a beam of just one type, muon neutrinos, sending them from Cern to an underground laboratory at Gran Sasso in Italy to see how many show up as a different type, tau neutrinos.

In the course of doing the experiments, the researchers noticed that the particles showed up a few billionths of a second sooner than light would over the same distance.

The team measured the travel times of neutrino bunches some 15,000 times, and have reached a level of statistical significance that in scientific circles would count as a formal discovery.

But the group understands that what are known as "systematic errors" could easily make an erroneous result look like a breaking of the ultimate speed limit, and that has motivated them to publish their measurements.

"My dream would be that another, independent experiment finds the same thing - then I would be relieved," Dr Ereditato said.

But for now, he explained, "we are not claiming things, we want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result - because it is crazy".

"And of course the consequences can be very serious."

resource:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15017484

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Droid Bionic scavenger hunt kicks into full gear

Motorola and Verizon are sending eager smartphone buyers on a scavenger hunt across the Web for one of the fall’s hottest new devices, the Droid Bionic.

The company recently launched an augmented reality scavenger hunt app — available through the Android Store — that gives players a chance at winning one of 192 smartphones. The app directs players to use their smartphones or tablets to chase down components.

The smartphone is supposed to be another credible competitor to Apple’s iPhone 5, along with the newly revealed Samsung Galaxy S II. Verizon’s been fairly mum on the specifics of the phone, but did launch a Facebook page confirming a few attributes of the device.

According to the page, the phone has 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of memory, plus the ability to print wirelessly and act as a “webtop” via an application that seems to let users view their phone on an external screen.

Rumor has it that the phone will be released on Wednesday, Sept. 8, but Verizon has not confirmed that date.

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Sprint files suit to block AT&T, T-Mobile merger

Sprint Nextel on Tuesday filed a complaint in federal court aiming to block AT&T’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile.

The suit follows the Justice Department’s lawsuit filed last week, also trying to prevent the merger between the nation’s second- and fourth-largest wireless carriers.

Sprint Nextel said in its suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, that AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile would violate antitrust laws. By taking legal action, Sprint creates a record of its objections to the controversial merger and gains another platform to fight against the transaction.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the suit is also significant because “it would keep the challenge alive in court even if DOJ were to drop its case against the merger.”

The lawsuit filed by Sprint, a staunch critic of the deal since it was announced last March, was assigned to Judge Ellen Huvelle, the same judge who will hear the Justice Department’s suit against the merger.

Sprint has consistently argued that the merger would hobble its business and effectively end its ability to survive on its own.

“With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal,” said Z. Haller, Sprint’s vice president of litigation.

Justice officials last week argued that the merger would create a duopoly in the cellular market that would lead to fewer choices for consumers, higher bills and less innovation in the thriving market for smartphones and other wireless devices.

AT&T criticized Sprint’s suit. AT&T argues its deal will mean more consumers will get its broadband mobile services. Sprint and consumer groups argue that the merger will create a duopoly wireless landscape that will inevitably lead to higher prices and fewer competitors.

“This simply demonstrates what we’ve said all along – Sprint is more interested in protecting itself than it is in promoting competition that benefits consumers,”AT&T said in a statement. “We of course will vigorously contest this matter in court.”

AT&T has said it will continue to fight for its merger. It hopes to reach a settlement with Justice, but says it will defend the deal in court if there’s no agreement.

AT&T will have to pay an estimated $6 billion in cash and spectrum assets to T-Mobile if the deal isn’t complete by September, 2012. But according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company may not have to pay that penalty if conditions and costs associated with the deal exceed $7.8 billion.

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Mobile Communication Technology

Mobile communication technology is a term that is basically given to the technology used as the communication mode for the portable devices such as cellular phones, laptops, palmtops, digital assistants, global positioning systems, wireless card payment systems etc.

There are many technologies that are used in communication of these devices such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), GSM services (2G and 3G), GPRS, Bluetooth, Virtual Private Networks, dial up modems etc. Using these technologies, one can easily communicate from office, home, car and even while traveling. Using the web or WAP services to access internet either on phone or laptops is known as mobile computing which is also considered as a part of mobile communication technology.

Some of the foremost technologies that are used in the field of Mobile Communication can be listed as:

1. GPRS: General Packet Radio System is a mobile technology that uses GSM services for data communication. It is mainly used for providing the data services on cellular devices. One of the drawback of GPRS service was its slow connectivity, but with the coming up of 3rd Generation of GSM, the speed limit has been increased and the data transmission has become quite fast. GPRS holds a unique feature by which a user can very easily transmit the data while making calls.

2. EDGE: Enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution or EGPRS is a technology having the faster data transmission rate as compared to GPRS. If the EDGE network is not available in some places, then there GPRS service is used as a replacement of EDGE.

3. Wi-Fi: Wireless fidelity is the technology that uses wireless technology communication for the data transmission; previously Wi-Fi was only used with laptops and palmtops but now-a-days it is also used with modern cellular phones that have Wi-Fi services. The benefit of using Wi-Fi technology is transmission speed as it can support up-to 100 Mbps.

4. Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a technology that is used for the transmission of data between devices in a small range of 100 meter. The network formed from by Bluetooth devices is known as Piconet. The Bluetooth technology can be used to create connections between multiple devices resulting in machine to machine communication. At one time, seven devices can communicate via Bluetooth.

5. GSM: Global System for Mobile communications is a technology used for digital cellular networks used for second generation technology but later it is succeeded by 3G to increase the speed of circuit switched network. GSM network works on different frequencies for 2G and 3G.

• 2G GSM network operate in 850 Mhz or 1900 Mhz frequencies.
• 3G GSM network operate in 2100Mhz frequency

Key features of 3G are video calling, video download, transfer the large amount of data at a very high speed.

Apart from these, there are many other technologies such as VPN which is used to access external networks by a secured channel.

The benefit of mobile technologies is that it makes our life very easy as we can access data resources and services from any part of the world. But at the same time, it faces certain problems as well such as network problems, security issues and cost of data services. But with advance in technology, these problems are gradually decreasing and mobile communication technology is making our life very easy

Christa Joe is the author of this article. She has been demonstrating her writing skills by writing the articles for mobile software development companies like Q3 technologies from last two years. She is also used to write good articles for custom application development.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6531358

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How Does a Wireless Access Point Work?

Wireless networks have been available for quite a number of years now, and prior to their introduction the only option available for Local Area Networks was through the use of copper, twisted pair cabling. A Wireless Access Point is used in a Wi-Fi network as a central hub, to allow wireless client devices to connect through to a wired network. The WAP authenticates wireless clients and then relays data between other wireless clients and also devices on the wired network. A Wireless Access Point will often be connected through a router or switch to make the connection or interface with the wired network.

Wi-Fi networks support the IEEE 802.11 standard for passing data traffic using radio frequencies as the physical medium, within allotted frequency bands. Such networks are often referred to as a WLAN, which stands for Wireless LAN because of the localized area in which the wireless network operates. Some WLANs can operate without the need to use a WAP in a peer-to-peer configuration which is termed an "ad hoc" network, but these are inefficient and problematic.

Some of the early Wireless Access Points only supported a few clients (typically 10-30), but most modern WAPs support up to 254 wireless clients using a whole Class C network range or sub network of a larger Class A or Class B range. Most Broadband routers and gateways designed for the home user now have wireless as an option to wired connection. These routers effectively have a built-in wireless access point and DHCP Server for automatic allocation of IP Addresses. The SSID (Service Set Identifier) is normally configurable and is used to identify your wireless network from other networks in range. Most wireless clients in Desktop or Notebook computers will often use Microsoft's Wireless Zero Configuration to find all available wireless networks and allow a user to connect to a preferred Wi-Fi network.

In a corporate environment, several Wireless Access Points may be used to allow hundreds or thousands of clients to connect to the corporate network through the wireless environment. Each WAP will need a wired connection to the LAN and WAPs are normally positioned so as the wireless signals overlap, allowing clients to have mobility and roam between different Access Points. To ensure full coverage within a large area, a wireless site survey will need to be conducted to ensure each WAP is positioned in an optimum location to ensure total coverage. You can look at it a bit like the Cellular system used within our mobile phone networks.

Whether you are setting up a WAP for a home network or corporate network then security should be a big consideration. Wireless networks work by sharing the frequency space amongst all clients in a similar fashion to a wired LAN. Instead of using CSMA/CD, WLANs use CSMA/CA (Carrier Sensed Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance. The fact that it is a shared environment and that the radio signals are propagated within an area means that any wireless client within range can detect and connect to that network. A number of security standards have been developed for use with Wireless Networks and WAPs over recent years.

Authentication and Encryption are the key to securing a WLAN via a Wireless Access Point. One of the first standards was known as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) which used either a 64-bit or 128-bit encryption key and provided limited security. This was often sufficient for most home WLANs but certainly not strong enough for the corporate environment. Along came WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and then WPA2 which used much stronger encryption algorithms and IEEE 802.11i specifies the use of WPA2.

If you are setting up a Wireless Access Point to create a home network, or using a Wireless Router with built in WAP, then configure a unique SSID that will identify your network and check which security standards are supported and select the most secure. For example, if your device supports WEP 64-bit, WEP 128-bit WPA and WPA2 or WPA with PSK then implement WPA2.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6533465

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