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Instant Messaging With Neutrinos
An anonymous reader writes "A group of scientists has for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, 'Neutrino.' From the article: 'Many have theorized about the possible uses of neutrinos in communication because of one particularly valuable property: they can penetrate almost anything they encounter. If this technology could be applied to submarines, for instance, then they could conceivably communicate over long distances through water, which is difficult, if not impossible, with present technology. And if we wanted to communicate with something in outer space that was on the far side of a moon or a planet, our message could travel straight through without impediment.'"
The link doesn't seem to work but the article is here
Once we get cheap narrow-beam neutrino transmitters and receivers that can do gigabit/terabit speeds, I'll buy several thousand and set up true point-to-point peer-to-peer networking with my neutrino-enabled peers all over the planet! Fiber optics required? Hah! Just point and shoot!
Obviously the neutrinos, with which the http reply was sent, passed straight though your computer.
I, for one, think that anything with the potential for better internet access X feet below the water is an excellent idea.
404 just means "cross section too low, send more packets"
Should SETI switch to monitoring neutrino transmissions now?
If you can do that, well, that just means you can now detect a sub's nuclear reactor super-easy. Don't they give off neutrinos?
The first person who figures out how to do this reliably will make a huge profit. There are already undersea cables which exist for the sole purpose of reducing latency between NY and UK stock exchanges. Neutrinos going _through_ the earth (arriving at the Nikkei for instance) would have a significantly shorter time of flight and would give traders a massive advantage.
they sent word "neutrino" but on the other end, they recieved message "Thanks fucking god you _finally_ figured this out. Lets just say that Milky Way contains four intelligent civilizations, and yours is not among three smartest".
839*929
I am not that good in Physics, so I'll post my questions here:
I heard that photons don't collide with other photons, that's why two beams can cross path and still behave as though they were travelling without any hindrance
Will Neutrinos behave like photons? Or will Neutrinos collide with other Neutrinos?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
No. Its just that the article summary arrived before the article.
boom boom
If neutrinos can pass through thousands of miles of solid rock without apparently being affected by it, how are you going to make a receiving antenna of any practical size?
Well we know from the FTL neutrino saga that it can be done. The idea I believe is that if the beam can be focused enough you make up for it by sending a massive quantity of neutrinos and hoping that just one of them hits... A bit like a telescope taking a picture with exposure times on order of minutes to hours.
For the neutrino sources on earth I forget exactly how it works but the signature you get in the detector registers a double hit that allows you to separate it from noise of other sources so these things don't need to be burried under thousands of feet of rock either as they are normally.
Some crucial details were left out.
The "transmitter" uses the Fermilab accelerator ring to generate neutrinos. 6km of particle accelerator.
The "receiver" is a neutrino detector the size of a large house.
The data rate is so low that it took 20 minutes to transmit one word.
Neutrinos still interact with other particles very infrequently. These researchers have no way around that. They just used a very powerful beam and a huge detector to pick up the very rare events. It's a stunt, not an advance.
My bad, the GPS cable was loose.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Well it's a great thing that technology never improves then. We'll almost certainly never develop better neutrino detection technology.....especially considering we just plain don't have time, what, in between skinning bears, chopping up bones with primitive stone axes, and stacking up big rocks to form a crude fire pit at our latest migratory camp.
Gotta run now, tribe needs a hand. A hunter found a field of skunky smelling trees with big flowery arms, totally covered in some weird looking crystals. Looks like great kindling for the bonfire. Ugh is stacking em up and getting ready to light. Back later...