Six Degrees of Separation: Urban myth or Fact?

It’s a small world – no, it really is; and it keeps getting better at getting smaller. Today the world is more interconnected than it has ever been (I mean, hey, you could find my blog!). Information technology has brought us ever closer to everyone else, and nomophobia (mobile phone separation anxiety) is increasingly a thing these days. If you’re a “glass half-full” kind of guy, all of these have been for the best, and boy do they hold incredible opportunities as well. And just like that we’re all set to talk about the six degrees of separation.

Heard this story of a little boy on a farm, miles away from any civilization, who had a tall dream to reach the queen, in the 20^th century you’d probably say "NOT A CHANCE" – and for good reasons too.

Six degrees of separation as a theory says we are connected to everyone else by no more than six intermediaries. That would mean we’re connected to everyone on the planet in at most six links in a chain of friend of friends. – And you better believe that… or not yet!

So how accurate is this claim? Is it another academic urban myth? Well, for one thing, it’s no hard science. There are dozens of experiments out there which corroborate the claim and even as many which haven’t, but it depends on how the tests are carried out. Notable of these tests was The Small world problem experiment by Stanley Milgram in 1967, where he randomly selected people to send packages to a stranger. The senders knew the recipient's name, occupation, and a general location. They were instructed to send the package to a person they knew personally who they thought was most likely, out of all their friends, to know the target recipient personally. That person would also do the same, and so on, until the package was personally delivered to its target recipient.

Although the participants expected the chain to include so many intermediaries, it only took (on average) between five and seven intermediaries to get each package delivered. This shed light on how closely we’re all connected as against what was originally thought.

Duncan Watts, a professor at Columbia University, in 2001 recreated Milgram's experiment on the Internet. He used an e-mail message as the "package" to be delivered, and surprisingly, after reviewing the data collected by 48,000 senders and 19 targets (in 157 countries), found that the average number of intermediaries was indeed, six. So what does it all mean for us and why should you even care?

New areas of study related to six degrees of separation in diverse areas of network theory such as power grid analysis, disease transmission, graph theory, corporate communication, and computer circuitry have sprung up following the compelling evidence from research and the advent of the computer age.

When the first social networking site launched in 1997, it was aptly named Six Degrees. Today, sites like Facebook and Twitter have considerably lowered the number of intermediaries in the chain below six. And as for that little boy on a farm, while the story may be urban myth, what today isn’t is his tall dream; come to think of it, there are no really good reasons today for which you could say "NOT A CHANCE".

Big Data Analytics: The future now

We are witnessing today what can be safely referred to as data explosion – no pun intended. Every second, servers around the world are inundated with so much data. To put that in context for you; everyday, we create 2.5 Exabyte (10¹⁸) of data, so much that 90% of the world’s data today has been created in just the last two years alone, according to an IDC finding. Today, one in every 5 people in the world own a Smartphone, 3 billion people worldwide have access to the internet, thanks to a growing middle class around the world, increased connectivity of smart devices culminating in what’s being called the Internet of Things (IoT), and much more, all contributing to the enormous amount of data flooding our cyberspace, server farms and storage devices around the clock. So what exactly is Big Data, and why should you care?

Big Data for the most part is a catch phrase, or buzzword if you like, to describe the huge volume of structured and unstructured data, too large (volume), too fast moving (velocity), and too complicated (variety), to be processed using the traditional database management systems and software techniques. The idea here is basically to analyze all those data as a whole, as opposed to just doing so in separate smaller sets, to derive additional information allowing correlations to be found.

If you’re still wondering where all that data is coming from, consider that there are over 800 million active Facebook users, typically posting around 90 pieces of content per month; everyday, over 500 million tweets are sent out by Twitter users; every single minute, 48 hours of new YouTube videos are uploaded and 571 new websites are created. These figures, as stratospheric as they are now, will double in the next 18 months. That kind of gives you a sense of what we’re up against. It is in fact a very positive thing that the world as we know is it is becoming ever more connected, also given that world’s capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s, we’re finding it less difficult to store data, however more difficult to make sense of all of them. The ordinary database software techniques that have served in the past are no good for this new deluge, which is where Big Data analytics comes in.

Instead of just sitting there in storage receptacles, these piles of data available to enterprises can actually be analyzed for actionable insights and future projections. With the right big data analytics platforms in place, businesses can boost sales, reduce cost, increase efficiency, and improve operations, customer experience and risk management.  

With typical Big Data flooding in their thousands of Terabytes, making sense of them is vital to modern businesses, governments and organizations seeking to gain some form of comparative advantage in a fast evolving digital age. Even though current algorithms are still a long way from making accurate predictions beyond real-time (what you may see as some art of digital fortune- telling), there is however no doubt we're having a slice of the future now.

The Most Technologically Advanced World Cup Yet

It's been seven years in the making. From the moment FIFA announced that the 2014 world cup will be staged in Brazil for the first time since 1950, football faithfuls the world over have waited with bated breath; and as the games kick-off on football's grandest stage, viewers may observe that they are in fact getting quite more than they bargained for.
We take a look now at how soccer and the latest in technology have fused to make for an unforgettable experience at this year’s world cup. Feel invited.


    1.    The new match ball: Nicknamed “Brazuca” by popular vote, the new Adidas match ball is the most tested football in history. Much has been upgraded over the Jabulani ball of the previous world cup. Its manufacturer claims it offers superior grip, touch, stability and aerodynamics. The Brazuca has also passed NASA’s aerodynamic tests.

 

2.    Goal-line technology: After bitter controversies in past competitions, FIFA this time around is getting it right. Accurate calls will be made on goal matters, thanks to GLT (GoalControl) at this year’s world cup. 14 cameras mounted on the stadium roof/catwalk, each capable of taking 500 shots per second, capture 3D image of the ball and in a split second alert the referee when the entire ball crosses the goal line.

 

3.    Vanishing spray: Players have often overstepped boundaries seeking a bit of unfair advantage, and quite frankly you can't blame them for trying; well, not any longer. For the first time ever at the world cup the vanishing white foam will be used to delineate where the walls form. It’s actually biodegradable and vanishes after one minute, so no worries.

4.    4K Filming Technology: As is tradition since 1954, FIFA releases an official documentary of the world cup once the last goals are scored and the last medals handed out. The official 2010 FIFA world cup film was recorded in 3D. This time around it’s stepping up a notch. FIFA is partnering with Sony to produce ultra-high definition films of the world cup in Brazil. Content for 4K have been few and far between. In addition, high cost of these UHD capable screens haven’t afforded this new technology a chance with much of the general public just yet.

 

5.    Scouting app for iPad: Developed by the English FA’s scouting department, this scouting app is specially designed and tailored to each member of the squad's needs. It allows each player to access personal data and footage of their direct opponents for effective preparation. The user not only gets to study their opponent’s quirks and abilities, but also get acclimatization techniques as well. So don’t be surprised when you see players or coaches fiddling with iPads on the sidelines.

     Special mention also must be made of the high tech jerseys and boots the players are sporting. Whether it's a Nike, Adidas, or Puma outfitted team, considerable R&D goes into each piece for optimum performance -- although, one can argue there's a fine line between real technology and fashion masquerading as technology.    

     With world cup generated traffic on the social media already going through the roof, there is no doubt this, in addition to being the most technologically advanced, is also the most connected tournament in history. And for a sport that has remained almost unchanged in its long history, it's amazing how much the technology employed keeps changing so quickly. Makes you wonder, ''what's to be expected in Russia 2018?" -- or doesn't it?

 

Nanotech to Solve Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals

About one in nine people worldwide lack access to clean water; over 3.4 million deaths each year from water, sanitation and hygiene related causes, according to water.org. In fact, goal 7, target 10 of the MDGs aims at halving, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. One of the overarching engineering challenges today is developing some technology that will solve the world’s water woes – in other words, turn polluted water to potable water.

Actually, the problem is not that of insufficient water (71% of our planet's surface is water, 97% of it in seas and oceans) but of clean, potable water. Much of the available water is either bacteria ridden or just too salty, either way, unsafe for consumption. Quite a number of solutions are already mainstream, all with the intent of solving the world’s water problems (I wouldn’t suppose they have done so amazing given those horrifying statistics staring us dead in the face) perhaps most notable of those are the desalination (by reverse osmosis)  and water reclamation (recycled water) processes. Some regions of the world with no or limited surface or groundwater have seen desalination and waste water treatment become a major source of potable water (Saudi Arabia is a shining example), however unconventional that may be. The problem here is that these technologies are very energy intensive (in Almeria province, Southeastern Spain, one-third of all the power produced in that region go into a desalination plant) and expensive (typically costing hundreds of millions of dollars), making it beyond the reach of most of the developing world, who by all indications need it most. So can we actually have an efficient, affordable water purification technology that can make clean water available to more people than ever before? You're set to find out.

It seems the ultimate answer lies somewhere we can’t even see, the microscopic world…or should I say, nanoscopic world The key ingredient here is something called graphene (a form of carbon only one-atom thick!). MIT associate professor, Jeffrey C. Grossman, and his graduate students David Cohen-Tanugi and Shreya Dave are developing a filtration material made of a sheet of nanoporous graphene. The holes in the graphene are small enough to block salt ions, but large enough to allow water molecules to pass through. In fact, researches on graphene have been on-going for quite a while but only now being looked at for water applications. Unlike the energy intensive reverse osmosis (RO) technique of desalination (happens to be the most efficient desalination process available today) which rely on semipermeable membranes for separating salt from water and require large pressure to force the salt water through them; nanoporous graphene are much thinner, more porous, stronger and provide a well-defined channel that can filter salt water faster than the rather slow RO process, even while requiring lower pressure.

From simulations, nanoporous graphene have been shown to outperform RO membranes. The few challenges however are, achieving a narrow pore distribution size, and mechanical stability under applied pressure the scientists say; although rapid experimental progress is being made with regard to tackling those issues. So far, results are so promising that it won’t be long before graphene membranes are put to the test in desalination and decontamination, and whoosh…we’re one step closer to realizing one MDG ahead of 2015. Gotta love science!

Nanoporous graphene in desalination

Li-Fi Technology: Meet the new Wi-Fi

Wherever there is an LED light bulb there is an internet signal? That may not be far from the truth today as “Li-Fi” technology is making this a reality.

Li-Fi (or Light Fidelity if you were wondering) is more of a marketing name coined by lead researcher Prof Harald Haas. Actually, the more general term for it is VLC (Visible Light Communication). It is an emerging wireless communications system that uses light as a medium of transmitting information. This is in contrast to the traditional radio frequencies (RF) widely used today; in Wi-Fi for instance. So, we’re basically saying instead of using radio frequency waves in the EM wave spectrum, Li-Fi uses the visible light spectrum as a means to the same end as any other before it – connectivity.

Li-Fi edges out RF based communications techs in more than just a few aspects. To justify this, we take a look at the inherent properties of light juxtaposed with that of radio waves.

Light cannot penetrate opaque materials (that’s a no-brainer), take a block wall for instance. This property becomes advantageous in the security of the system – now, who needs some creepy looking password to lock their wireless network from savvy opportunists next door?

If you ever visited an offshore oil rig, or a nuclear power plant, or even flew a commercial airliner, you most likely did not have your mobile phone or any other wireless electronic device in your possession while in these places – yes, I can imagine not being able to call home or post on your Facebook timeline – that is because of interference which occurs with RF waves. With Li-Fi, you needn’t worry about any of that anymore. Seamless connectivity wherever, whenever? You could be right you know.

LEDs are different from other kind of lamps (for goodness sake they’re semiconductors), they are capable of switching on and off within a billionth of a second (don’t bother, that’s faster than we can come to grasp). Using a digital modulation technique called Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiplexing (OFDM); LED light bulbs are made to handle millions of fast on/off changes (binary data as series of ones and zeros) per second. In fact, Li-Fi at its “slowest” is still so many times faster than the best broadband connection available anywhere. This, in part, is because the bandwidth of visible light in the EM spectrum is 10,000 times bigger than the radio frequency spectrum used in existing communication systems. Only recently, researchers achieved data transmission speeds of 10Gbits/s in lab conditions.

LED light bulbs saves up to 50% of electricity used by fluorescent ones. They can have a lifetime of 50,000 hours or more, and depending on use can last anywhere from 6 years to 20 and even as long as 30 years. They’re also incredibly cheap. Li-Fi as a result promises cheaper and more energy-efficient mobile connectivity than wireless radio system solutions.  

What’s more, Li-Fi technology is also a green technology – we needn’t worry about electromagnetic pollution in the form of insidious radiation or the like. It is hoped that as Li-Fi technology evolves, we will see LED bulbs retrofitted and turned into hotspots and access points for broadband networks in homes and offices. With growing demand for mobile connectivity, we can as well think turning all 14 billion lamps worldwide into mobile internet masts so they have internet signal in them somewhere for us.

Finally, while it may seem as though this technology is only in the beta stages of research, it took quite a remarkable step forward when a group of Chinese scientists this past October successfully produced internet signals using microchip embedded LED bulbs, with data rates as fast as 150 Mbps. One of such LED light bulbs connected four different computers to the internet – that is the Li-Fi technology we have been talking about these whole while.