News in brief
Scientists build first anti-laser
Yale University scientists developed the first anti-laser, which allows interfering beams of light to perfectly cancel each other out. (Photo: Yidong Chong / Yale University)
Physicists from Yale University have built the world’s first anti-laser. The device can absorb an incoming laser beam almost entirely.
The researchers focused two laser beams with a specific frequency into a cavity containing a silicon wafer that acted as a “loss medium”. The wafer aligned the light waves in such a way that they became perfectly trapped, bouncing back and forth indefinitely until they were eventually absorbed and transformed into heat.
The discovery could pave the way for a number of novel technologies with applications in everything from optical computing to radiology. According to Yale physicist A. Douglas Stone, who led the research team, anti-lasers could one day be used as optical switches, detectors and other components in the next generation of computers, called optical computers, which will be powered by light in addition to electrons. Another application might be in radiology, where Stone said the principle of the anti-laser could be employed to target electromagnetic radiation to a small region within normally opaque human tissue, either for therapeutic or imaging purposes.
Theoretically, the CPA should be able to absorb 99.999 percent of the incoming light. Due to experimental limitations, the anti-laser by the Yale researchers absorbs 99.4 percent. Mr Stone, however, is confident that his team will approach the theoretical limit with more sophisticated anti-lasers. The current anti-laser device is about one centimeter across at the moment, but computer simulations have shown that it is possible to build an anti-laser as small as six microns, which is about one-twentieth the width of an average human hair.
http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=8272
EU seeks opinions on e-signatures and electronic identification
The European Commission is conducting a public consultation on e-signatures and electronic identification. Until 15 April 2011, the public is invited to share its views on how e-signatures and electronic identification and authentication could contribute to the development of the European Union’s online economy.
According to the consultation website, the purpose of the public consultation is to provide input for policymakers on how electronic identification, authentication and signatures can contribute to deliver the European digital single market. The existing legislation and the established policy landscape, the EC says, are challenged by new factors and technological innovation. In the context of the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe this debate is meant to help understand what is needed to create the optimal conditions for their use across the EU.
The consultation process is targeted at key players from civil society, industry, academia and public administrations closely involved in the development and deployment of e-identification, e-authentication and e-signatures. The EC aims to receive their contributions on areas in which the Commission needs to act.
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipmforms/dispatch?form=eid4&lang=en
Kroes calls on Member States to act on mobile satellite services
In February 2011, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, issued an urgent call to twenty one EU countries to rapidly introduce all the legislative measures necessary to allow the pan-EU deployment of mobile satellite services that could be used for high-speed Internet, mobile television and radio or emergency communications to EU consumers and businesses.
According to the timetable agreed by a Decision of the European Parliament and the EU’s Council of Ministers in 2008, mobile satellite services should be deployed in all EU Member States by May 2011 at the latest. In May 2009, the European Commission had selected Inmarsat Ventures Limited and Solaris Mobile Limited to provide pan-European mobile satellite services. However, more than twenty months later, 21 Member States have not yet adopted all the national rules needed to facilitate deployment. Vice-President Kroes also appealed to the two operators concerned to step up their efforts.
Vice-President Kroes particularly urged the twenty one Member States to remove remaining legal uncertainties, such as licence fees, and to put in place all necessary implementation measures without further delay. The twenty one Member States are Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
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