Home Wi-Fi users aren’t the only people struggling with interference. Adjusting antenna to get the signal to bounce just around right may be an activity of the past. Scientist from FermiLab have successfully tested communication using Neutrinos, the most unstoppable sub atomic particles in the universe.

Using a particle accelerator the scientists were able to fire the Neutrinos through 240meters of solid stone to a receiver on the other side. The first transmission was akin to Bells first message over his new phone, in this case the message read neutrino

Neutrinos are almost massless and magnetically neutral, allowing them to pass through almost anything at nearly the speed of light. This ability to complete ignore the world as it passes by makes Neutrino’s perfect as a communications signal.

The Sun naturally emits trillions of Neutrino’s every second as a by-product of the fusion process, these Neutrinos are constantly passing through the Earth without wavering. Neutrinos are the most oblivious of the sub atomic particles.

These strange qualities give Neutrino’s the ability to be transmitted from one side of the planet to the other, straight through the middle, the core. The test system used one of the world’s most powerful particle accelerators to fire the Nuetrinos at the receiver, it worked through 240 meters of stone. To transmit through the Earth this will need to increase to 9,000KM of stone and iron.

Possibilities do exist even with the currently available technology. Communication with deep Earth mines is limited to wired communications at the moment, a wireless emergency communications system that works from the bottom of the mine would be a life saver. Communications with a Moon base would be greatly enhanced if it could also transmit through the Moon, allowing contact even when the base is on the far side of the Moon.

Kevin McFarland, a University of Rochester physics professor who was involved in the experiment, explained “Our current technology takes massive amounts of high-tech equipment to communicate a message using neutrinos, so this isn’t practical now. But the first step toward someday using neutrinos for communication in a practical application is a demonstration using today’s technology.”

It may still be years from practical use but the Neutrino Network can give us all hope that wireless networking may one day be a whole lot less frustrating. An interesting twist on communications.

Reference: Rochester.edu