Popular Mechanics - USA (2020-05)

Beaudet has experimented with
LiFi, a wireless communication tech-
nology that uses infrared and visible
light. “It’s in the terahertz range,” she
says. “It’s electromagnetic radiation,
but at a much higher frequency and
much easier to contain.”
Around the apparatus is Beaudet’s
self-made Faraday cage, constructed
from sheet metal, glass, and fine mesh.
She says bandwidth-wise it works just
as well as WiFi, but reach is where it
falls short—the range is only around
15 feet. The observatory is currently
experimenting with this new tech in
conference rooms, but six devices are
needed to give every seat access. This
makes LiFi fairly expensive. Beau-
det says the nearby school also has
expressed interest in this new tech.
“They want a grant for it...but they
would need a lot of them.”
While workarounds for this unique
challenge are still being figured out,
Green Bank remains far more quiet
than many areas. Both O’Neil and Niday say vis-
iting astronomers love working here because
interference is still limited. The bad news is it
might not stay that way for much longer.
“It’s just everything now,” says Niday, “And it’s
not going to get any better.”

WIFI EVERYWHERE
It’s dismissal time at Green Bank Elementary-
Middle School. Kids rush out to the waiting buses
as the school administration watches. Julie Shif let
became principal of this 242-student school last
summer and loves it already.
“The students here are great,” she says. Of
course, they’re a bit different than other county
schools in that they rely more on traditional text-
books as opposed to online resources. They do have
the internet, though, hardwired into the computers
in the school's two labs and library.
However, it’s no secret to her or the school’s
music teacher, Greg Morgan, that many of the
students have WiFi, Bluetooth, and other RFI-

emitting electronics at home. “I asked 22 eighth

graders, ‘How many of you have [WiFi and Blue-

tooth] electronics?’ All of them raised their

hands,” says Morgan. “Then, I asked how many

of them have music and headphones for their

devices. All but one raised their hands.” Shif let

laughs at this. “And that’s probably because they

lost them.”

Down the road from the school, about 1.5 miles

from the observatory, there’s a convenience store.

Rumor is that it has WiFi. When one walks in to

grab a soda, a WiFi connection indeed pops up.

The clerk at the checkout says the store’s owner

installed WiFi because a lot of folks in town have it

anyway and no one yet has asked them to turn it off.

When told that the signal could interfere with

the important scientific research being done down

at the road at the Green Bank Observatory, like

looking for gravitational waves, detecting massive

neutron stars, and even listening for extraterres-

trial intelligence, she shrugs.

“Yeah, but everyone’s got WiFi now.”

Kids play

behind the

Green Bank

Elementary-

Middle

School as

the Robert

C. Byrd

Green Bank

Telescope

looms in the

background.

2,004

panels in GBT’s

parabolic dish,

each one the size

of a full mattress

4,600

LIGHT YEARS

the distance from

Earth of the most

massive neutron star

ever detected, which

was discovered by

the GBT in 2019

6,500

HOURS

time per year the

telescope spends

observing the sky

17,000,000

POUNDS

the weight of the GBT

8,500

people who live

in Pocahontas

County, where the

GBT is located

May/June 2020 55