Technology – Australian Science

KipstR – A Clever Wristband

Josip — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 13:26:36 +0000

Christmas is here – that wonderful time of year reserved for family gatherings, delicious meals and being lazy in front of the telly. Not surprisingly, most people experience dozing off while watching their favorite Christmas show due to all those sweets and warm blankets. However, there is a solution for all the TV addicts that don’t want to give up on their sweet naps but still want to know what happened on their show without waiting for a rerun. It’s a brand new gadget named KipstR – a wristband that “notices

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-12-22 13:26:36). KipstR - A Clever Wristband. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/kipstr-clever-wristband/

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Why Some Cables are Faster than Others

Dunya — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:10:14 +0000

In an increasingly information-oriented world maximising the speed of data transfer and download are crucial to competitiveness in the workplace. Needless to say, not all cables are the same, even though they may feature the same input – e.g. USB or HDMI. The material they are made of will have a major impact on reliability, durability and speed.

Common Cable Types

Different types of telecommunications cables include copper, aluminum, and fibre optic cables. Aluminum and copper are the cheapest type of cable with copper being more durable and flexible than the former. Aluminum is significantly cheaper than copper cable, though copper is faster and has become the standard for telecommunications companies, particularly prior to the gradual switch over to fibre optic cables, and the age of high speed broadband.

Whilst copper and aluminum cable are made by bundling pairs of copper or aluminum strands together before jacketing them, the fibre optic cable is made of glass or plastic fibres through which light is transmitted allowing for even greater speeds of data transmission.

Factors Affecting Speed of Copper Cable

Ethernet cable consists of several twisted pairs of copper wiring, which cancel out the interference. This interference would otherwise produce background noise during telephone or internet communications.

Ethernet cable is divided into categories, which currently run from Cat.4 through to Cat7.a, with categories 8.1 and 8.2 under development. Level1, Level2 and Cat.3 and Cat.4 twisted pair cables run from 0.4 to 20 Mhz, which is relatively slow, and are suitable for telephone calls and slow dial-up connections only. Of these only Cat.3 is commonly used.

The cables most likely to be in use for data communications run from Cat.5 to Cat.6a, with Cat.5e (an enhanced version of the Cat.5 cable) and above used on all new cable installations. Cat.5 is suitable for large scale data transfer over short distances, though Cat.5e is better for high speed Gigabit Ethernet. Whilst both categories have a bandwidth of 100 Mhz, Cat.5e has features designed to deal with ‘crosstalk’, which is the undesirable phenomenon whereby two wires which are paired together interfere with each other’s signals.

Cat.6 performs at up to 250 Mhz and has further features to deal with crosstalk, whilst Cat.6a (or augmented category 6) performs at 500 Mhz. Other factors which affect twisted pair cable categorisations include the length at which a wire can be run between terminals and its durability.

Advantages of Fibre Optic over Copper Cable

While copper is capable of high speed data transfer and is likely to be used for many years to come, making it an ideal choice for your home or office network, fibre optic cable is set to become the standard over time.

Fibre Optic Cabling by Joel Penner

Fibre optic cable carries visible light or infrared signals which are bounced across the inside of the cable through a process of ’internal reflection’, at an even frequency, reducing interference and delivering data in an even manner. A fibre optic cable consists of thousands of hair-width glass fibres bundled together.

Although fibre optic cable is in most cases more expensive than copper cable, it is less expensive to maintain and can be installed over greater distances. It also has a higher bandwidth making it a popular choice choice for telecommunications companies. It is more secure, being difficult to ‘tap into’, not least as any resulting interference from a third party would involve an obvious loss of light, causing the system to fail. Additionally, fibre optic is less subject to environmental factors such as changes in temperature and can make contact with water without risk, reducing the need for excessive insulation.

Scientists in New Zealand have recently produced a new fibre optic cable capable of delivering the entire world’s internet traffic down one cable due to their having inserted several cores in each hair-like glass fibre. Whilst such speed has little application in daily or business computing, they do point to the superiority of fibre optic cable in the long run.

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Why Should We Trust to Cyber?

Milica Djekic — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 00:15:26 +0000

These days many people are speculating about ongoing mass e-surveillance systems, which got applied by a lot of countries, but the best known is still an NSA project. As the most usual reason against those projects, some people see privacy breach concerns. But, what is a privacy? Why would our governments “spy

Cite this article:
Djekic M (2014-12-05 00:15:26). Why Should We Trust to Cyber?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/trust-cyber/
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What Is the Future of Energy in Japan?

Josip — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 13:23:49 +0000

Today, the whole world is trying to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels. The vast supplies of coal and oil are exhaustible after all, and given the list of pollutants they emit and their adverse impact on the environment, the tendency is absolutely understandable. The world offers us an abundance of renewable energy sources and those who see far into the future are smart enough to use them.

However, unlike the countries that want to minimize the use of fossil fuels and nuclear energy, Japan is among those that have no other options. Since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Japan has had to rely on other sources of energy. The country’s 48 nuclear reactors are still shut down and Japan faces an uncertain energy future. At the moment, their plans include making hydrogen the main energy source in the country.

There are two main reasons why the Japanese are investing in hydrogen technology. Firstly, they believe that the dominant use of hydrogen and renewable energy will have a beneficial environmental effect by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing climate change. The other, more obvious one is staying technologically and economically competitive with other countries. One of the ways to achieve these goals is popularization of hydrogen vehicles.

Kitakyushu Hydrogen Station

The Kitakyushu Hydrogen Station is the first of its kind in Japan – an off-site station to which hydrogen is directly delivered via pipelines. It was built as a fueling base under the “Hydrogen Highway” project in 2009. The station serves for refilling hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the most interesting fact about it is that the hydrogen which is delivered to the station is a byproduct generated during the manufacture of iron.

In an interview given to “The Economic Times

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-12-03 13:23:49). What Is the Future of Energy in Japan?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/future-energy-japan/
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A Cyber Disaster Has Somehow Occurred… What to Do Next?

Milica Djekic — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 00:15:37 +0000

More often than not, people and businesses keep their sensitive and confidential information in their data storage within their cyber system. Their main concern is how not to lose that valuable content. Some studies suggest that more than 40% of businesses never re-open after losing their confidential data, while around 90% of them close their businesses 5 years after such an incident. So, losing this type of information can be seen as a serious and sometimes fatal harm to many organisations. The thing everyone should think about is how to protect their critical data from harm or how to recover them after a disaster happens. In this article, we deal with well-known scenarios in terms of data recovery and provide a better insight into current issues and trends in the field.

What Are the Current Cyber Threats for a Business?

There are numerous risks and uncertainties connected to a modern business environment. The fact is the majority of modern businesses rely on IT infrastructure, but is a cyber threat the only thing that concerns us? Certainly, it’s not. There are a lot of different dangers, such as natural disasters, fires, threats to physical security, etc. that can affect business continuity and people’s safety.

When talking about current business and its functioning, let’s compare it to a surface of the water. If there is no wind or no one throws the stone in, the surface will remain calm. The similar situation is with the business. If an incident happens, it will seriously affect an operation of the entire business.

So, what would be the goal of any business existing in a highly aggressive and risky environment? Many believe that a contemporary business has no future without a good business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. This plan should ensure a continual and safe operation of the business, even in case of an emergency situation.

As far as computer-based attacks to our business infrastructure are concerned, it must be said that not only big companies are under risk, but very often, small and midsize businesses as well. Many hackers and cybercriminals target this sort of businesses, because they believe they are an easy catch due to their low security measures.

Indeed, there is a large spectre of scenarios and techniques that data thieves can apply. These normally include cyber espionage in order to obtain confidential details about the business. Afterwards, these would be sold on the black market and consequently the thieves could make a financial gain. The other scenario includes hackers’ and intruders’ activities that can lead to diverse sorts of cyber sabotage and different types of IT harm to their victims.

OK! The Incident Happened… Now What?

Many studies suggest that the majority of small and midsize businesses worldwide are simply unprepared to handle an occurrence of a cyber incident within their IT infrastructure. Many of them are not even capable of surviving an ordinary data breach, which is a regular incident in a cyberspace of today.Why is it so?

First of all, small businesses are too small to invest a serious amount of money and time into their cyber defence. That opens numerous opportunities for cybercrime groups.

In addition, such businesses are still profitable and usually possess highly confidential and valuable data, such as credit card details, employees’ documentation and even some intellectual property or patent information. All those things must be so appealing to bad guys!

So, what we have is such valuable data that can be sold on the black market on one hand, and on the other, easy access to all of those.

In such a case, what we are supposed to do is to try to save what we can. The best advice here is to follow security procedures and try to recover the data using tools available on the market. System and data recovery, as well as a good backup, can be a vital link in the chain that could protect your business from a permanent data loss.

In general, when such an incident happens, the best thing to do is to take some steps that will help you to recover from a disaster. Organisations with a high level of cyber maturity do not improvise or resolve problems ad hoc; they follow very-well defined standards and procedures which enable them to minimize an impact of the incident on their staff, customers and overall reputation.

Things that Can Protect your Organization from Harm

As mentioned before, the best things here are proper cyber defence procedures and processes. After all, cyber security is not only about risk management; it is also about people, processes and technologies involved into that management.

Finally, if a business is not capable of functioning in case of an emergency, it will not survive in a dynamic environment such as our today’s market. In other words, to get ready for such an extreme situation, it is vitally important to have a very-well developed business continuity plan, as well as a disaster recovery strategy.

These two plans will prove themselves more than useful in the situation of uncertainty and high risk to your organisation and employees. Only with them, you will be able to protect your strategically important resources and eventually save your business.

Thinking Ahead is the Best Protection at the Moment

So, what seems as crucial here is a well-planned scenario in case of a disaster. In order to make a good strategy, you need to think in advance and protect yourself and your business from all the potential difficulties that can occur in a real life situation. In other words, thinking ahead can offer the best protection at this moment.

Cite this article:
Djekic M (2014-11-25 00:15:37). A Cyber Disaster Has Somehow Occurred… What to Do Next?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/cyber-disaster-somehow-occurred-next/
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Are Windowless Planes the Future of Flying?

Josip — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:21:51 +0000

Are you one of those who suffer from aerophobia – fear of flying? Then you won’t be too thrilled to read about the new breakthrough in the aerospace industry.Otherwise, you will probably be intrigued by the new windowless planes, planned to set off in a decade. The term “windowless planes

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-11-24 13:21:51). Are Windowless Planes the Future of Flying?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/windowless-planes-future-flying/
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Somewhere in the Future … How Does Cyber Security Look Like?

Milica Djekic — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 00:15:49 +0000

Throughout this article, we do not plan to tell you some fictional story, but rather to provide you with very realistic predictions for the future of cyber defence which relies on current research and development trends and a way which cyber industry makes for us. The focus of this review will be on cyber security automatic solutions which will include an intelligent software for monitoring, prevention and incident response. A human’s effort will be replaced with machine’s skills and people will be the ones who will just use benefits of such an intelligent system.

The Path We Have to Walk

The main problem with a modern cyber security is that it is still based on very passive principles. For instance, recent cyber solutions are quite good in monitoring and prevention, while they still suffer a serious lack of a good incident response. Security experts believe that an appropriate cyber defence system should provide a mix of all of three – monitoring, prevention and incident response.

What we should have in mind at this stage is that today’s security solutions are still very human-dependent and, from such a perspective, the greatest challenge for the future would be an automatic operation of cyber systems with a minimum human’s effort invested. Many researchers and software engineers forecast that the future of cyber security will rely on some sort of (security) software that will have its own self-defence capabilities.

The idea which stays behind this software is related to solution that automatically generates the patches. In other words, such a software has an ability to learn what a normal behaviour is and what an error could be and to repair itself if any vulnerability appears.

Some suggests that the path we have to walk would lead us to very sophisticated solutions which will be governed with intelligence. Such a scenario predicts a piece of code that will be capable of learning, adapting and predicting. Further, we will attempt to give a better insight on what exists on the market at the moment and to explain a course of the future discoveries and inventions.

A Self-Defending Software Already Exists

Quite recently the US research team was investigating and testing the capabilities of an intrusion prevention software (IPS). Such a software is able to protect itself from external attacks and intruders.

The testing included the list of questions which researchers carefully prepared and sent to vendors of the IPS expecting them to provide the answers and to share some of their industry experience with them. Once the research team got the response from the industry, they selected the best software for a testing in the laboratory conditions. The results suggest that a recant version of the IPS can be assumed as a good prototype of self-defending software that we will have in the future.

A theoretical background of such a solution is based on ‘automatically patching an error’ system. A current model given in [1] indicates that an automatic patching or a generating of the repair code is feasible only throughout a good learning and repairing algorithm. Some advanced studies invoke adaptive algorithms and predictive analytics as a trend in the coming times.

In general, some types of initial self-defending software already exist and as it is given in [2], they find their applications in military sector. In other words, if some testings have been made for army, we can expect that the first commercial versions of the software will appear on the market soon.

What Would Happen the Next?

In not that distant future, we can expect that a software with a self-defence mechanism governed with intelligence will become a part of our lives. General science defines intelligence as an ability to adapt to new conditions, while security sees intelligence as an information with some analysis applied. The key word here would be ‘an ability to adapt’ or ‘a capacity to track a change’.

Whatever a software of the future would appear, it will include two characteristics – an adaptivity and a self-defence. Intelligent systems are definitely something that will gain their place in the future, but what is also possible is a system with an automatic incident response.

The incident response is a big challenge of cyber security nowadays, so it’s natural that in the future such a security element will be a part of the (security) system which will need a minimum human-machine interaction.

Few Words at the End

As anything else, cyber security must get along with a change, because that’s the only certain thing in the future. In such a case, it is necessary to rely on intelligence, so what we need to do is to think in multidisciplinary manner and to try to connect everything with everything as the ‘Internet of things’ concept suggests. That’s how we can get ready for the coming days.

References:

[1] Ernst M., Self-defending software: Automatically patching errors in deployed software, Lecture notes, University of Washington, 2009
[2] Kerivan, J.E., Brothers, K., Self-defending security software, Military Communications Conference (2005 MILCOM), IEEE, 2005

Cite this article:
Djekic M (2014-11-11 00:15:49). Somewhere in the Future … How Does Cyber Security Look Like?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/somewhere-future-cyber-security-look-like/
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Electric Car Batteries that Last for 20 Years

Josip — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 13:16:51 +0000

The benefits of using electric cars are indisputable and numerous. They help in reducing greenhouse gases as they don’t emit tailpipe pollutants. They are fast, elegant and popular. However, there are some problems that seem to be impossible to solve – and this is what makes electric cars less desirable than their internal combustion engine counterparts.

Most electric car models are quite expensive, but the thing that makes them even pricier is regular battery replacement. However, electricity is cheaper than gas and drivers who boast electric vehicles say that saving the environment is definitely worth it.

But what about safety? While electric cars are safer for drivers due to the batteries’ high impact resistance, they may not be as good for pedestrians. Their engine is silent and rarely heard by people and this often leads to accidents.

Finally, the biggest disadvantage may be the waste of time – most models need hours to charge. Also, as electric cars heavily depend on recharging stations, they instill “range fear

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-10-30 13:16:51). Electric Car Batteries that Last for 20 Years. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/electric-car-batteries-last-20-years/
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When Will the Moon be Just the Push of a Button Away?

Josip — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:55:08 +0000

A recent discovery by a research team at Penn State University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington reminded us of the amazing, but still unrealized idea of constructing space elevators. A team of researchers discovered a new material and they say it may be used for anything – even for a space elevator.

This unbelievable discovery thrilled scientists around the world and assured them that they will finally be able to undertake space elevator construction. Until recently, building space elevators has been in the realm of science fiction. However, thanks to this discovery, it is slowly moving out of science fiction and into reality.

Nanotechnology breakthrough

John Badding, professor of Chemistry at Penn State University and Thomas Fitzgibbons, his student, announced they have discovered a way of making extra thick and strong diamond nanothreads. This material is stronger, thinner and stiffer than any other known fibers, including nanotubes and polymers.

A unique, ultra thin diamond nanothread structure (Credit: John Badding lab, Penn State Univeristy)

Professor Badding and Fitzgibbons used a specialized device which compressed benzene up to 200,000 atmospheres. This caused benzene to polymerize into carbon atoms which are arranged to form the fundamental unit of a diamond’s structure. The atoms are linked in all three dimensions and linked again to four carbon atoms, forming a tetrahedron.

This is an incredible discovery, given almost a century of failed attempts to create such a strong nanomaterial. Previous carbon nanotubes were too weak and they wouldn’t have been able to make a reliable elevator ribbon (cable). These diamond nanothreads are more than 20,000 times thinner than a human hair, but just a few centimeters long. So, the next step for researchers is to create nanothreads that will be longer and more practical.

The development of the idea

Who is the first person that created the concept of space elevators? Yuri N. Artsutanov, Russian engineer, is best known as one of the pioneers of the space elevator idea. He first discussed it in 1960 in his article “To the Cosmos by Electric train

Cite this article:
Ivanovic J (2014-10-22 12:55:08). When Will the Moon be Just the Push of a Button Away?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/will-moon-just-push-button-away/
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How the Internet Has Changed the World

Maya Edberg — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 11:15:35 +0000

The Internet revolutionised the way we live, learn, communicate and the way we do our business.Today, most of us can’t and won’t imagine our lives without it and we take the existence of the Internet for granted. Younger generations may not be aware of this fact – but us who were born in the 70s and 80s had no other means of communication except letters, telegrams and bulky desk phones when we were teenagers! No Wikipedia, MMO games, email, YouTube videos, social networks, liking, sharing and online courses – just good old books, face to face socialising and playing movies on our VHS player. The Internet has become an ultimate worldwide broadcast “entity

Cite this article:
Edberg M (2014-10-14 11:15:35). How the Internet Has Changed the World. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 01, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/technology/internet-changed-world/
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