Gap lighting
All over the world, the sensors deployed on satellites, on planes, on earth and in water collect data from the earth’s atmosphere, continents and oceans which allow scientists to observe the heart rate of a whale, to calculate the forest cover and to measure the greenhouse gas emissions, among countless other capacities. However, many aspects of life on earth and its systems remain not observed and misunderstood.
“Biology offers us a series of novels on the functioning of the world, and yet we can only read one word a day,” said Jennifer Dionneprofessor of science of materials and engineering in the Stanford engineering school.
Dionne highlighted the need to collect more data with more speed and efficiency to improve environmental surveillance and human health. Its laboratory operates the properties of light to glean information on biological, chemical and environmental interactions which are invisible to the naked eye.
In relation: Oceans under a new light
Anuscheh Nawaz of the University of Washington Applied physics laboratory Noted how certain sensors such as ocean buoys are often unrealizable and therefore polluting. It urged participants to consider biodegradable materials in the construction of sensors.
Many detection technologies are also expensive and difficult to deploy, exploit and maintain, especially in distant places with limited or not infrastructure.
According to Ettore BiondiAssistant professor of geophysics that has come to the symposium, the solutions can hide at sight. Biondi has discussed how to use the optical properties of underground telecommunications fibers, which transmit data in the form of light signals over their length, can also allow monitoring of groundwater.
“We have fibers everywhere, even in the ocean,” said Biondi. “The beauty of this is that by connecting an instrument to existing fibers, you transform it into a system made up of thousands of channels.”