I know, I know, the 700MHz wireless spectrum auction (Auction 73 PDF) that the FCC is officially beginning today isn't the sexiest topic in the world. Hell, it's not even a giant, yeti-like squirrel. But it is important. The open slot in the airwaves, caused by the move from analog television to digital, is pretty much the last hunk of the radio frequency spectrum in the country that we, as end users, will have access to for quite a while. Hit the jump for the basics of what you need to know.
Results tagged “radiowaves” from 60 Second Science
The 700MHz auction basics (Or: I read mountainous government documents so you don't have to)
Fighting cancer with radio waves, DIY-style
Today the L.A. Times publishes a fascinating article on John Kanzius, a leukemia sufferer and radio man who, after spending years both experiencing grueling chemotherapy treatments and watching it in others, applied his talent for building radios to create a possible alternate treatment method. Kanzius had worked as a radio and television engineer and co-owned stations in the Erie, Pa. area, but he had no medical background — he didn't even have a bachelor's degree.
Kanzius knew how to send radio wave signals around the world. If he could transmit them into cancer cells, he wondered, could he then direct the radio waves to destroy tumors, while leaving healthy cells intact? For months, Kanzius tinkered, using the pie pans to create an electronic circuit, often waking Marianne with his clanging. By day, he sent her out with supply lists: mineral mixtures, metals, wires. His early-morning experiments would lead him to one of the nation's top cancer researcher centers, and earn the support of a Nobel Prize winner.
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