Category: technology

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The Flat Particle That Could Be The Key to Unlocking Quantum Computing

We don’t hear much on the news or in our daily lives about quantum computing per se, but the majority of the technological advances that have changed our lives over the past several decades are thanks to increased computer power.

Now, physicists have confirmed the existence of a particle they’re calling an anyon, and it could be the key to unlocking many more computing possibilities in the future, says Discover.

“These particle-like objects only arise in realms confined to two dimensions, and then only under certain circumstances – like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the presence of a strong magnetic field.”

Physicists have theorized that these anyons exist since the 1980s, but their nature has made them hard to pin down.

Those same qualities would make them very valuable to quantum research and computers, though, so scientists haven’t stopped trying to prove they exist.

Image Credit: YouTube

Purdue University talked about their many potential uses in a recent press release.

“Anyons have characteristics not seen in other subatomic particles, including exhibiting fractional charge and fractional statistics that maintain a ‘memory’ of their interactions with other quasiparticles by inducing quantum mechanical phase changes.

Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, professor of physics at MIT, gave these quasiparticles the tongue-in-cheek name ‘anyon’” due to their strange behavior because unlike other types of particles, they can adopt ‘any’ quantum phase when their positions are exchanged.”

Researchers were able to train a miniature particle accelerator to “sort” particles and notice anyons, then came up with a maze that would phase out all of the other particles in order to end up with only the mysterious particles they were searching for at the start.

Image Credit: Cornell Chronicle

What they found was that it worked so well because, like electrons and photons, anyons “braid” – and this is good news for quantum computing, says researcher Mikael Rechtsman.

“Braiding is a topological phenomenon that has been traditionally associated with electronic devices.

We hope to show that a whole class of topological phenomena can be useful not only for electronic devices, but also photonic devices, such as lasers, medical imaging, telecommunications, and others.

We also expect that this new type of topological physics could be applied to quantum information systems, particularly those based on photons.”

With more particles in their toolkit, physicists are sure advances are to come – and we have the anyons to thank.

Who knew?

The post The Flat Particle That Could Be The Key to Unlocking Quantum Computing appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

The Flat Particle That Could Be The Key to Unlocking Quantum Computing

We don’t hear much on the news or in our daily lives about quantum computing per se, but the majority of the technological advances that have changed our lives over the past several decades are thanks to increased computer power.

Now, physicists have confirmed the existence of a particle they’re calling an anyon, and it could be the key to unlocking many more computing possibilities in the future, says Discover.

“These particle-like objects only arise in realms confined to two dimensions, and then only under certain circumstances – like at temperatures near absolute zero and in the presence of a strong magnetic field.”

Physicists have theorized that these anyons exist since the 1980s, but their nature has made them hard to pin down.

Those same qualities would make them very valuable to quantum research and computers, though, so scientists haven’t stopped trying to prove they exist.

Image Credit: YouTube

Purdue University talked about their many potential uses in a recent press release.

“Anyons have characteristics not seen in other subatomic particles, including exhibiting fractional charge and fractional statistics that maintain a ‘memory’ of their interactions with other quasiparticles by inducing quantum mechanical phase changes.

Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, professor of physics at MIT, gave these quasiparticles the tongue-in-cheek name ‘anyon’” due to their strange behavior because unlike other types of particles, they can adopt ‘any’ quantum phase when their positions are exchanged.”

Researchers were able to train a miniature particle accelerator to “sort” particles and notice anyons, then came up with a maze that would phase out all of the other particles in order to end up with only the mysterious particles they were searching for at the start.

Image Credit: Cornell Chronicle

What they found was that it worked so well because, like electrons and photons, anyons “braid” – and this is good news for quantum computing, says researcher Mikael Rechtsman.

“Braiding is a topological phenomenon that has been traditionally associated with electronic devices.

We hope to show that a whole class of topological phenomena can be useful not only for electronic devices, but also photonic devices, such as lasers, medical imaging, telecommunications, and others.

We also expect that this new type of topological physics could be applied to quantum information systems, particularly those based on photons.”

With more particles in their toolkit, physicists are sure advances are to come – and we have the anyons to thank.

Who knew?

The post The Flat Particle That Could Be The Key to Unlocking Quantum Computing appeared first on UberFacts.

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Nikola Tesla’s “Wireless Electricity” Is Now Reality in New Zealand

It’s kind of depressing when the things people dream up don’t come to be until after they’re gone, but I like to think that somehow they always knew it was a solid idea and it would eventually come to fruition.

That’s been the case with several of Nikola Tesla’s inventions, of course, and now an energy startup called Emrod is bringing wireless electricity to New Zealand.

It’s been nearly a hundred years since Tesla first demonstrated wireless electricity was possible, and now Emrod is doing it again, with only a clear line of sight as a prerequisite.

Their founder, Greg Kushnir, issued a statement that said New Zealand’s particular set of skills is what actually made it possible.

“We have an abundance of clean hydro, solar, and wind energy available around the world but there are costly challenges that come with delivering that energy using traditional methods, for example, offshore wind farms or the Cook Strait here in New Zealand requiring underwater cables which are expensive to install and maintain.”

Without the need for traditional copper wiring, Emrod plans to bring power over terrain that has proven difficult, and into homes and businesses that exist in places where physical infrastructure is lacking.

They believe this wireless option will also ease the demand on diesel generators, too, which will benefit the environment.

The company is still in the testing phases, working out the kinks while sending “a few watts” over a distance of just over a hundred feet.

“Energy is transmitted through electromagnetic waves over long distances using Emrod’s proprietary beam shaping, metamaterials and rectenna technology.”

Image Credit: Chetvorno

The “rectenna” is what turns magnetic waves into electricity. It’s a square element mounted on a pole acts as the pass-through point that keeps electricity moving, and a broader surface area that catches the entire wave.

To stop it from zapping things like birds and cars, the beam is surrounded by a low-power laser fence, and they’ve got a contingency plan for outages, too.

There was initially some concern over the loss of signal or signal strength without any conducting materials, but Emrod claims their relay technology “refocuses the beam,” which allows them to lose almost no power over the distance.

“The efficiency of all the components we’ve developed are pretty good, close to 100 percent. Most of the loss is on the transmitting side. We’re using solid state for the transmitting side, and that’s essentially the same electronic elements you can find in any radar system, or even your microwave at home. Those are at the moment limited to around 70-percent efficiency. But there’s a lot of development going into it, mainly driven by communications, 5G and so on.”

Emrod seems like quite a company, yeah?

Emrod says on its site, referring to the New Zealand government’s “innovation agency,”

“The prototype received some government funding and was designed and built in Auckland in cooperation with Callaghan Innovation.

It has received a Royal Society Award nomination, and New Zealand’s second largest electricity distribution company, Powerco, will be the first to test Emrod technology. “

They hope to increase both the distance and kilowatts over time, and believe there is no upper limits to what they can achieve once they work out all of the kinks.

Thank you, Nikola Tesla.

Just think about all you could have accomplished if you’d had the idea for a rectenna, too.

The post Nikola Tesla’s “Wireless Electricity” Is Now Reality in New Zealand appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

Nikola Tesla’s “Wireless Electricity” Is Now Reality in New Zealand

It’s kind of depressing when the things people dream up don’t come to be until after they’re gone, but I like to think that somehow they always knew it was a solid idea and it would eventually come to fruition.

That’s been the case with several of Nikola Tesla’s inventions, of course, and now an energy startup called Emrod is bringing wireless electricity to New Zealand.

It’s been nearly a hundred years since Tesla first demonstrated wireless electricity was possible, and now Emrod is doing it again, with only a clear line of sight as a prerequisite.

Their founder, Greg Kushnir, issued a statement that said New Zealand’s particular set of skills is what actually made it possible.

“We have an abundance of clean hydro, solar, and wind energy available around the world but there are costly challenges that come with delivering that energy using traditional methods, for example, offshore wind farms or the Cook Strait here in New Zealand requiring underwater cables which are expensive to install and maintain.”

Without the need for traditional copper wiring, Emrod plans to bring power over terrain that has proven difficult, and into homes and businesses that exist in places where physical infrastructure is lacking.

They believe this wireless option will also ease the demand on diesel generators, too, which will benefit the environment.

The company is still in the testing phases, working out the kinks while sending “a few watts” over a distance of just over a hundred feet.

“Energy is transmitted through electromagnetic waves over long distances using Emrod’s proprietary beam shaping, metamaterials and rectenna technology.”

Image Credit: Chetvorno

The “rectenna” is what turns magnetic waves into electricity. It’s a square element mounted on a pole acts as the pass-through point that keeps electricity moving, and a broader surface area that catches the entire wave.

To stop it from zapping things like birds and cars, the beam is surrounded by a low-power laser fence, and they’ve got a contingency plan for outages, too.

There was initially some concern over the loss of signal or signal strength without any conducting materials, but Emrod claims their relay technology “refocuses the beam,” which allows them to lose almost no power over the distance.

“The efficiency of all the components we’ve developed are pretty good, close to 100 percent. Most of the loss is on the transmitting side. We’re using solid state for the transmitting side, and that’s essentially the same electronic elements you can find in any radar system, or even your microwave at home. Those are at the moment limited to around 70-percent efficiency. But there’s a lot of development going into it, mainly driven by communications, 5G and so on.”

Emrod seems like quite a company, yeah?

Emrod says on its site, referring to the New Zealand government’s “innovation agency,”

“The prototype received some government funding and was designed and built in Auckland in cooperation with Callaghan Innovation.

It has received a Royal Society Award nomination, and New Zealand’s second largest electricity distribution company, Powerco, will be the first to test Emrod technology. “

They hope to increase both the distance and kilowatts over time, and believe there is no upper limits to what they can achieve once they work out all of the kinks.

Thank you, Nikola Tesla.

Just think about all you could have accomplished if you’d had the idea for a rectenna, too.

The post Nikola Tesla’s “Wireless Electricity” Is Now Reality in New Zealand appeared first on UberFacts.

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This is Why You Should Embrace the New Normal of Always Texting Before You Call

As a child of the 1980s, I can tell you that I do, in fact, remember growing up during a time when, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to actually call the on the phone. At their house. Where their parents might answer.

I know. The horror.

While there are many things about that sunlight, technology-free youth that I miss, I have to admit, I’ve totally embraced the “text don’t call” attitude that has followed the placement of a cell phone in the majority of hands.

Image Credit: iStock

Society has evolved quickly, along with technology, and most people now feel like calling without texting first, or without trying a less intrusive manner of communication, feels entitled and demanding of someone’s time.

Like, drop what you’re doing right now and talk to me.

Not only do most people not enjoy an unscheduled phone call, one that’s missed is also less likely to be returned than a text message that’s waiting there in black and white, suggesting gently that you remember to reply.

Image Credit: iStock

If someone waits to reply to a message until they have the time to focus on it, you’re also likely to get a more well thought out response, rather than something they say to you in a harried moment if you’ve called and snagged them at a bad time.

You probably have contacts you don’t follow these rules – your parents, your kids, your siblings, and close friends probably enjoy hearing your voice, and are also close enough to you to tell you they just don’t have time to chat.

Also, emergencies and perhaps illness or deaths in the family, other conversations that feel too impersonal to share over text, warrant a call.

Image Credit: iStock

Except for those few circumstances, though, you’re going to want to start texting – your relationships will be healthier, you’ll be happier, and there will be less stress all around.

And if that doesn’t sound like the ideal world, I don’t know what does!

The post This is Why You Should Embrace the New Normal of Always Texting Before You Call appeared first on UberFacts.

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A General Suggests We Should Let Drones Do More Work the Military

Perhaps you got a toy drone in a White Elephant exchange at work. Or a neighborhood kid crashed one in your backyard. Maybe you’ve used one yourself to take wedding or real estate photos. It feels like something out of Asimov or Jules Verne, but it’s 2021 and the hot topic in the military is what to do about drones.

Specifically: swarms of them.

In a recent article for Forbes, David Hambling, the author of of Swarm Troopers: How small drones will conquer the world, lays out this military conundrum for the lay-reader.

Image credit: Indian Army via Forbes

The problem is both simple and complex.

Simply: The more outnumbered humans become in battle, the harder time they will have reacting to threats. In the future, humans won’t be able to keep up.

We get tired. We can be distracted. We have consciences, most of the time.

But just how much autonomy do we want to hand over to machines? We all know about The Terminator and I, Robot, right?

Image credit: U.S. Navy via Forbes

That is exactly the question military leaders around the world are grappling with.

General John Murray, who leads the U.S. Army Futures Command, believes it’s time to turn over some, but not all, of the control.

These require meaningful human control over any lethal system, though that may be in a supervisory role rather than direct control – termed ‘human-on-the-loop’ rather than ‘human-in-the-loop’ … Pentagon leaders need to lead a discussion on how much human control of AI is needed to be safe but still effective, especially in the context of countering new threats such as drone swarms.

Such a move, to allow humans to supervise but not fully control drones, would require the government to change current rules around their use and deployment.

Image credit: U.S. Army via Military.com

But General Murray thinks this is going to be necessary because:

Faced with large numbers of incoming threats, many of which may be decoys, human gunners are likely to be overtaxed.

Unsurprisingly computers are just faster and better.

It seems our humanity gets in the way. Research shows:

Human operators kept wanting to interfere with the robots’ actions. Attempts to micromanage the machines degraded their performance.

Then there’s the brain versus microchip processing speeds.

“If you have to transmit an image of the target, let the human look at it, and wait for the human to hit the “fire” button, that is an eternity at machine speed,” said one scientist, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If we slow the AI to human speed …we’re going to lose.”

The threat that governments are most concerned about, massive drone swarms, is already very real.

Military swarms of a few hundred drones have already been demonstrated, in future we are likely to see swarms of thousands, or more. One U.S. Navy project envisages having to counter up to a million drones at once.

China is known to have a drone swarm launcher ready to go, and other nations may not be far behind.

Image credit: CETC via Forbes

Drone swarms present a clear and present danger, a new kind of weapon of mass destruction.

Analysts can use computer-generated swarming algorithms based on swarming and flocking patterns of birds and insects to anticipate attacks and design counter measures.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

And billions is being spent on new technology to combat the drones, including an anti-aircraft vehicle called IM-SHORAD, but without machines to control our defenses, it may not be enough.

At this point, we have 2 options: we can try to pass a treaty along the lines of the nuclear proliferation treaty that limits the creation and use of nuclear weapons, or we can try to fight like with like.

The European Parliament supports a full out ban.

“The decision to select a target and take lethal action using an autonomous weapon system must always be made by a human exercising meaningful control and judgement, in line with the principles of proportionality and necessity.”

The other line of thought is that these machines could actually be more ethical in the long-term, due to their lower margin of error.

So outlawing them altogether may not be the right answer.

Unlike with nuclear weapons, where a lot of people have them stored but know that using them would result in retaliation, AI is a bit of a gray area. It can be built and programmed and owned without its very nature being destructive, which makes it harder to control.

If AI-controlled weapons can defeat those operated by humans, then whoever has the AIs will win and failing to deploy them means accepting defeat.

Image credit: YouTube via Forbes

The argument over what to do has dragged on for years, but the technology is here now, without a clear answer.

At this rate, large-scale AI-powered swarm weapons may be used in action before the debate is concluded. The big question is which nations will have them first.

The whole debate reminds me of the brilliant 1985 sci-fi novel novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (which sadly was not done justice by the 2013 film of the same name).

The time to make a decision and prepare for these types of attacks is now. And it sounds like unless we’re going to train up a super-genius army of video-game playing children to counter other countries drone attacks, we might need to let out the leash a bit on the machines.

The post A General Suggests We Should Let Drones Do More Work the Military appeared first on UberFacts.

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This is How You Can Delete Each of Your Social Media Accounts Forever

A lot of us enjoy social media, or at least aspects of it. We might not be on every platform, and we might not like them all equally, but in this day and age it’s a popular way to pass the time.

Some folks, though, decided somewhere along the way that the benefits don’t outweigh the risks. Whether something is going on in their personal life that makes having an online presence less desirable, they’re feeling addicted, or they’re looking to live a simpler way, it’s important to be able to delete your profiles on these apps if you want or need to.

Here’s how to deactivate or delete your accounts on these popular social networks.

Facebook

Image Credit: Pexels

Facebook gives you two options if you’re feeling like you want off the site – deactivation or deletion.

When you deactivate your account, you’re hiding your information from searches and from your friends, but if you decide you want to activate it again, you’ll come back to a page that looks exactly as you left it.

If you’re just wanting a trial separation, go into your settings on Facebook and click Settings and Privacy, then Your Facebook Information. From there, click Deactivation and Deletion and choose Deactivate Account.

It will verify that’s what you want to do, and then give you some additional instructions to follow.

If you’re ready to break things off forever, you’ll want to request to delete your account altogether. From the Deactivation and Deletion menu, choose Delete Account, then Continue to Account Deletion. Enter your password, click Continue, and then Delete Account.

It will take a couple of days to complete it, and Facebook will cancel the request if you try to log in at all, so just take a few deep breaths and leave it be.

You can download all of the data on your account before deleting it, if you’re nervous. Go to Settings, then Your Facebook Information and then Download Your Information. Facebook will send you a link down download, but make sure you store it in a safe place once you do.

Instagram

Image Credit: Pexels

You have to log into your IG account via the web in order to delete it, and your settings menu will only give you the option to temporarily disable your account, which will hide your profile, photos, likes, and comments, but they won’t go away entirely.

To delete your IG forever, enter the URL https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent into your browser, then click Permanently Delete My Account.

Done!

TikTok

Image Credit: Pexels

There are plenty of reasons to be worried about the privacy settings on this app, and if you’re ready to chuck it for good, deleting it is easy.

Open the app, click on the Me section on the bottom right, then choose Manage My Account, then Delete My Account.

Confirm your choice and move on with your life!

Twitter

Image Credit: Pexels

Twitter makes it easy for you to fly free, but before you leave the nest, you might want to download your archive – that’s all of your tweets in a chronological order.

Click your profile icon, to to Settings, then Account, and Your Twitter Data.

Once you’re ready to go, head back to Account Settings, then choose Deactivate My Account at the bottom of the list.

It takes 30 days for all of your data to be deleted, which gives you an opportunity for second thoughts if you have them.

Snapchat

Image Credit: Pexels

Snapchat has kind of fallen out of popularity with a rise in Instagram and TikTok use, and if you’re one of those who aren’t using it like you used to, here’s how to delete your account.

Just head to the company’s Accounts Portal, then type in your username and password to delete. Like with Twitter, you’ll have 30 days to change your mind before it’s gone forever.

There you have it! I don’t think I’m brave enough yet to go social media free, but I admire people who can!

Are you off many social networks? How is it going? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post This is How You Can Delete Each of Your Social Media Accounts Forever appeared first on UberFacts.

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Plant-Based “Stem Cells” Could Possibly Drive an Environmental Revolution

For the last couple of years, my family has been making a conscious effort to buy less plastic.

Certainly we try to avoid single-use plastics, but even for things that we’ll use again and again we try to find more durable, organic or metal alternatives.

But of course, there’s often an environmental cost to wooden items, too. It presents a conundrum.

Until now. Are you ready to have your mind blown? Lab. Grown. Furniture.

I warned you.

Image credit: Goashape via Unsplash

Wooden furniture is gorgeous, and plant fibers are supremely useful for other everyday items too, like clothing.

That’s why bamboo has become so popular–it grows quickly, with less environmental impact.

But now a PhD candidate at MIT, Ashley Beckwith, and her co-author, Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, have a brilliant plan to reduce waste and environmental impacts even further by growing wood in useful shapes (like 2 by 4’s) right in a lab.

The MIT research team has been working with zinnia tissue, and they published their findings recently in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

As Fast Company reports, their goal is to:

…quickly produce in a lab what would take decades to grow in nature. From there, they could even coax wood tissue to grow into fully-formed shapes—like, say, a table—in order to mitigate the environmental harm of the logging and construction industries.

It’s not a completely new concept. Velásquez-García, a scientist in the university’s Microsystems Technology Lab, explains it in pretty simple terms.

“The plant cells are similar to stem cells. They have the potential to be many things.”

And it’s not just human stem cells. Other scientists have had similar success with lab grown meat products.

So isolating the ability to reduce plants down to a version of a stem cell is just the first step.

Like the meat manufactures who want to grow only the most desirable parts of the animal, Beckwith and team have similar plans for their saplings.

“Trees grow in tall cylindrical poles, and we rarely use tall cylindrical poles in industrial applications.

So you end up shaving off a bunch of material that you spent 20 years growing and that ends up being a waste product.”

Rather than stopping with just growing trees, the team could grow planks, or, rather like 3D printing, they could even guide the development of the plant fiber into the exact shape for its intended purpose.

Of course not every manufacturer has a noble drive to safe the planet.

That’s why this new process is so exciting. It’s so easy, that when compared with the cost of logging, transportation, and everything that goes into cutting down trees to shape them into boards, lab grown trees could actually come out on top, at a lower cost!

Image credit: Lukasz Szmigiel via Unsplash

If the idea of lab-grown veggies freaks you out though, don’t worry. The folks in charge don’t see this being a process that is used to grow food. More like the kinds of plants used to make clothes and industrial materials. There are so many things that could be made from biodegradable plant fibers! Deforestation could become a thing of the past! At least due to human consumption.

How’s that for exciting? Did it blow your mind?

Tell us what you think in the comments!

The post Plant-Based “Stem Cells” Could Possibly Drive an Environmental Revolution appeared first on UberFacts.

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This is How Lava Lamps Are Protecting You from Hackers

Everyone worries about data encryption and cybersecurity. I’m certainly no stranger to the concept.

I think my credit card has now been skimmed 3 times in 2 years, but 2020 was 5 years long, so I may have lost count.

That’s where cybersecurity companies like San Francisco based Cloudflare come in, bringing a very unique perspective to data encryption.

As Atlas Obscura reports:

Cloudflare covers about 10 percent of international web traffic, including the websites for Uber, OKCupid, or FitBit.

I’m betting most readers have used at least 2 out of 3 of these sites at some point.

So it’s fascinating to learn that Cloudflare has a pretty unique method for generating random encryption code to protect those sites: a wall of lava lamps.

Posted by Cloudflare on Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Yes, you read that right.

The wall features over 100 lava lamps, spanning a variety of colors, and its random patterns deter hackers from accessing data.

It feels like the most hipster thing ever, but we all know the feeling of zoning out in front of a randomly swirling blob of light and color, right?

Well it turns out:

As the lava lamps bubble and swirl, a video camera on the ceiling monitors their unpredictable changes and connects the footage to a computer, which converts the randomness into a virtually unhackable code.

Posted by Cloudflare on Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Who knew that kind of magic was even possible?

Someone smarter than me, that’s who.

Cloudflare might have taken it to a whole new level, but they didn’t actually invent the “LavaRand” concept, which was patented for a few years by another company in the ’90s.

As Cloudflare explains on their blog:

In cryptography, the term random means unpredictable. That is, a process for generating random bits is secure if an attacker is unable to predict the next bit with greater than 50% accuracy (in other words, no better than random chance).

True randomness, they explain, only exists in the natural, physical world. Most encryption companies rely on pseudorandomness, or the generation of random data.

Pseudorandomness is generated through the use of a deterministic algorithm that takes as input some other random value called a seed and produces a larger amount of random output (these algorithms are called cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators, or CSPRNGs)

The lava lamp system, it seems, may be a little bit of both, which is kind of mind boggling all on its own.

They’ve withstood the test of academic analysis, years of being used in production, attacks by resourced adversaries, and so on.

Be sure to check out this video from Tom Scott about the lamps:

And if you ever find yourself in the Bay Area, you can go see the futuristic cybersecurity in action for yourself.

Since any kind of external disturbance affects the lamps, increasing the randomness of their patterns, the company has no problem with visitors coming to gawk.

Simply enter the lobby of Cloudflare’s San Francisco headquarters and ask to see the lava lamp display.

I definitely want to check that out.

Did this story blow your mind as much as it did mine? Let us know in the comments!

The post This is How Lava Lamps Are Protecting You from Hackers appeared first on UberFacts.

Posted on

This is How Lava Lamps Are Protecting You from Hackers

Everyone worries about data encryption and cybersecurity. I’m certainly no stranger to the concept.

I think my credit card has now been skimmed 3 times in 2 years, but 2020 was 5 years long, so I may have lost count.

That’s where cybersecurity companies like San Francisco based Cloudflare come in, bringing a very unique perspective to data encryption.

As Atlas Obscura reports:

Cloudflare covers about 10 percent of international web traffic, including the websites for Uber, OKCupid, or FitBit.

I’m betting most readers have used at least 2 out of 3 of these sites at some point.

So it’s fascinating to learn that Cloudflare has a pretty unique method for generating random encryption code to protect those sites: a wall of lava lamps.

Posted by Cloudflare on Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Yes, you read that right.

The wall features over 100 lava lamps, spanning a variety of colors, and its random patterns deter hackers from accessing data.

It feels like the most hipster thing ever, but we all know the feeling of zoning out in front of a randomly swirling blob of light and color, right?

Well it turns out:

As the lava lamps bubble and swirl, a video camera on the ceiling monitors their unpredictable changes and connects the footage to a computer, which converts the randomness into a virtually unhackable code.

Posted by Cloudflare on Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Who knew that kind of magic was even possible?

Someone smarter than me, that’s who.

Cloudflare might have taken it to a whole new level, but they didn’t actually invent the “LavaRand” concept, which was patented for a few years by another company in the ’90s.

As Cloudflare explains on their blog:

In cryptography, the term random means unpredictable. That is, a process for generating random bits is secure if an attacker is unable to predict the next bit with greater than 50% accuracy (in other words, no better than random chance).

True randomness, they explain, only exists in the natural, physical world. Most encryption companies rely on pseudorandomness, or the generation of random data.

Pseudorandomness is generated through the use of a deterministic algorithm that takes as input some other random value called a seed and produces a larger amount of random output (these algorithms are called cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators, or CSPRNGs)

The lava lamp system, it seems, may be a little bit of both, which is kind of mind boggling all on its own.

They’ve withstood the test of academic analysis, years of being used in production, attacks by resourced adversaries, and so on.

Be sure to check out this video from Tom Scott about the lamps:

And if you ever find yourself in the Bay Area, you can go see the futuristic cybersecurity in action for yourself.

Since any kind of external disturbance affects the lamps, increasing the randomness of their patterns, the company has no problem with visitors coming to gawk.

Simply enter the lobby of Cloudflare’s San Francisco headquarters and ask to see the lava lamp display.

I definitely want to check that out.

Did this story blow your mind as much as it did mine? Let us know in the comments!

The post This is How Lava Lamps Are Protecting You from Hackers appeared first on UberFacts.