NIKON

New 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II: ...“Holy Trinity” professional-grade zoom lenses...

The second generation of Nikon’s “Holy Trinity” professional-grade zoom lenses receives its second installment with the announcement of the new NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II lens. Faster, lighter, smaller, and more refined than its F- and Z-mount predecessors, this S-line workhorse is an S-tier choice for professional multimedia creators in a broad range of applications.

Nikon achieved this lens body recomp by rehauling the optical design, introducing thinner lens elements and new glass materials while reducing the number of moving groups and redesigning the front element. All told, Nikon claims the changes amount to a 26% weight reduction (about 12.7 oz) from the lens body, not to mention taking a half inch from the overall length.

The updated 18-element, 16-group optical design also benefits image quality. New specialized elements improve sharpness, color accuracy, and contrast, while Nikon has given special attention to the lens’s bokeh rendering, emphasizing dimensionality and smoothness as the lens renders outward from the zone of focus. An 11-blade rounded diaphragm gives the lens’s bokeh a more rounded appearance, while the optical design also yields significant reductions in ghosting and flare.

The lens also improves as a makeshift macro option, with reduced minimum focusing distances at both ends of the zoom range and a 0.3x maximum magnification at the wide end.

Sloughing off the weight and reducing the number of moving elements has also reaped benefits in autofocus. Nikon’s Silky Swift Voice Coil Motor system leverages magnets instead of gears to achieve improvements in speed, accuracy, and noise control. Aptly named, the autofocus system also benefits video production with reduced breathing when rack focusing.

Characteristic of its class, the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II also sports improved Vibration Reduction, compensating for six stops of camera shake and benefitting low-light shooting at the tele end of the zoom range.

The lens’s build quality lives up to the reputation of its S-line moniker, delivering advanced weather sealing, a host of customizable buttons and rings, a redesigned lens hood with a filter adjustment window, and an Arca-type tripod foot with a protective cover bayonet sleeve.

The 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II is also compatible with both the 1.4x and 2x Nikon Z-series teleconverters.

The new telephoto zoom lens joins the NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S II standard zoom lens as the latest in Nikon’s “trinity” lenses. The epithet refers to the professional-grade sets of zoom lenses— wide-angle, standard, and telephoto—that offer near-comprehensive focal length coverage with a fixed, wide maximum aperture throughout.

Nikon’s second-gen standard zoom lens was announced just six months ago in August 2025, opening the possibility that the company could complete the new trinity before the year’s end.

First Impressions of the Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 S II: The tripod thread is also compatible with Arca-Swiss type tripod heads for added convenience. It's important to note that this lens also accepts Nikkor teleconverters, and I used the 2x converter extensively during my tests. I did this because we couldn't fully test sharpness, as our test unit was pre-production, but at least I would have a good idea of ​​the details from the test photos. 

Furthermore, the wolfdogs are in their natural habitat and cannot be lured. The 400mm equivalent focal length achieved with the 2x converter was absolutely essential for getting most of the close-up shots.

This is definitely a professional-level lens, so everything is robust and fully weather-sealed. It has a smooth manual focus ring, several customizable buttons on the body, and the usual focus limiter and AF/MF controls are easy to locate. There's also a customizable control ring, which I found very useful as an aperture control ring.

The lens hood has a push-button locking mechanism, and there's now a window that allows you to rotate polarizing filters. You can mount any 77mm diameter filter on the front of the lens. The 70-200mm also includes six-stop rated image stabilization. All these features fit neatly into a body that still manages to be 12mm shorter than the previous model.

Nikon is applying a full range of lens coatings to this professional zoom lens, including Nano Crystal, ARNEO, and the latest Meso-Amorphous coating. Regardless of the technical jargon used, the reflection control is excellent. There is no significant loss of contrast when shooting at f/2.8, and ghosting is minimal at smaller apertures. This lens handles bright conditions and direct light sources well, without unwanted reflections or color saturation that compromise images. Longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) is also minimized, so you don't have to worry about color fringing in the out-of-focus areas of your images. Nikon is doing a great job of avoiding color issues with this new lens.

The close-up functionality really enhances the overall versatility of this lens. You can get quite close in the 200mm range with a wide working distance and still achieve a macro ratio of approximately 1:4. At the 70mm end, you can get a little closer with a ratio of about 1:3.3, at the cost of a slightly shorter working distance. For occasional detail shots or close-up portraits, this new lens perfectly meets your needs.

by mundophone

TECH

Waste water to clean energy: Japanese engineers harness the power of osmosis

A Japanese water plant is harnessing the natural process of osmosis to generate renewable energy that could one day become a common power source.

The possibility of generating power from osmosis—when water molecules pass from a less salty solution to a more salty one—has long been known.

But actually generating energy from that has proved more complicated, in part due to the difficulty of designing the membrane through which the molecules pass.

Engineers in the city of Fukuoka and their private partners think they might have cracked it, and have opened what is only the world's second osmotic power plant.

It generates power from the transfer of molecules between treated sewage water and concentrated seawater, a waste product from a desalination plant in the city.

"If osmotic power generation technology advances to the point where it can be practically used with ordinary seawater... this, in turn, would represent a major contribution to efforts against global warming," said Kenji Hirokawa, manager at Sea Water Desalination Plant.

                    Infographic explainer showing how an osmotic power station works---© 2026 AFP

Osmosis is familiar to most people. It is the process that, for example, causes water to seep out of a cucumber or eggplant when sprinkled with salt.

Water molecules move across membranes from an area of low solution concentration to an area of higher concentrated solution.

At scale, that movement can be significant enough to turn a turbine and thereby generate electricity.

Desalination solution...Fukuoka is particularly well-placed to benefit from the technology because it has a readily available source of extremely salty water—the brine leftover from desalination.

With no major rivers to sufficiently source its water, the city and wider Fukuoka region of 2.6 million people have relied on a major desalination plant to produce drinking water since 2005.

That left the city with large quantities of concentrated saline waste water to deal with.

Ordinarily it is diluted and released back to the sea. Previous attempts to find alternatives, including salt making, failed to gain traction.

Then engineering firm Kyowakiden Industry approached the city about harnessing the salty wastewater for osmotic power.

"When our company rolls this out as a business, we aim to build plants roughly five to 10 times the scale of this current facility," said Tetsuro Ueyama, research and development manager at the Nagasaki-based company.

In Fukuoka's system, a generator is attached to a local desalination plant located near a sewage treatment facility.

It draws in highly saline waste water from the desalination plant and receives treated sewage.

The two separate streams of liquid go through a number of chambers separated by semi-permeable membranes through which water molecules travel from the treated sewage toward the salty water.

That process increases the volume, pressure, and speed of the saline water flow, spinning a turbine that generates electricity before the now-diluted mixture is discharged to sea.

Fukuoka is particularly well-placed to benefit from the technology because it has a readily available source of extremely salty water -- the brine leftover from desalination(image above)---© 2026 AFP

The 700-million-yen ($4.4 million) power generation system came online last August, and once running at full capacity, it should generate up to 880,000 kilowatts annually, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 300 households.

However it will remain devoted to supplying the power-thirsty facility, although it covers just a tiny fraction of its energy needs.

Not "a pipe dream"...The engineers involved, however, are dreaming big. The system will go through a five-year test to monitor its performance, including costs and maintenance, particularly for the membrane and other parts exposed to salt.

Financial details of the project have not been disclosed, but engineers admitted that for now the system's power costs "a lot more" than either fossil fuel or renewable energy.

Pumping the water into the system also uses energy itself, and scaling up osmotic power for grid-level energy production has not yet been done anywhere in the world.

Still, officials and experts believe the power source has a future, noting that unlike solar and wind, it is not dependent on weather or light.

And the current high costs are partly because the company had to build a one-of-a-kind power plant, Ueyama said.

Osmotic power has often been seen as primarily useful for estuary areas, where freshwater river flows meet the salty ocean.

But Ueyama said the technique being used in Japan could be useful for countries with large desalination facilities like Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations.

Kyowakiden is also working on technology that could generate similar power levels from less salty regular seawater.

"First we want to popularize this technology from Fukuoka to the rest of Japan. In order for us to do that, we want to further upgrade our technology to create osmotic power generation that can use ordinary ocean water to generate electricity," he said.

"We don't think this is a pipe dream."

© 2026 AFP

 

XEROX

Xerox has announced the Proficio™ PX300 and Proficio™ PX500

Xerox announced the strengthening of its production ecosystem with the launch of next-generation printers and new software solutions, betting on automation, artificial intelligence, and workflow integration to make printing environments more efficient and connected.

The new Xerox Proficio PX300 is a compact digital color printer designed for smaller operations that require ultra HD image quality and versatility. It offers an optional fifth color station, allowing for higher value-added jobs without requiring large infrastructures.

The Xerox Proficio PX500 is positioned at a higher level, with high volume and advanced automation. Equipped with an optional fifth color station and robust support for various media types, the PX500 is designed for growing operations looking to expand into premium printing applications.

Xerox has announced the Proficio™ PX300 and Proficio™ PX500 Production Presses, a new generation of production devices designed to support the evolving needs of commercial printers and graphic arts providers.

A production press designed around progress...Rather than simply increasing speed or adding features, Xerox designed the Proficio Production Series to help print providers adapt to changing customer demands. From automation to intelligent controls, the PX300 and PX500 are built to reduce manual intervention, maintain consistent output, and support a wider range of applications.

Why print providers are paying attention...Today’s production environments demand more than just speed. Printers are looking for technology that allows them to:

-Deliver consistent colour across long and repeat jobs

-Reduce setup time and operator dependency

-Take on higher‑value work without increasing complexity

-Scale production confidently as volumes grow

The Proficio PX300 and PX500 were built with these exact challenges in mind.

Performance that supports everyday production...The PX300 and PX500 are mid‑production colour sheetfed presses designed for reliability and predictability — not just peak performance.

PX300: Up to 85 pages per minute

PX500: Up to 100 pages per minute

Ultra HD print resolution ensures sharp text, smooth gradients, and professional image quality

More importantly, these presses are designed to maintain quality at speed, helping operators avoid constant adjustments and reprints.

More ways to differentiate with fifth‑colour capability...One of the standout benefits of the Proficio line is the optional fifth colour station, which allows print providers to expand beyond traditional CMYK jobs.

With options such as clear varnish, satin varnish, and fluorescent pink, printers can:

-Add premium finishes without outsourcing

-Create high‑impact marketing pieces

-Offer specialty applications that command higher margins

-This flexibility allows print shops to differentiate their services while making better use of existing production capacity.

Automation that reduces complexity...The Proficio PX300 and PX500 are built on a unified platform that incorporates automation and intelligent controls to support consistent output.

Key benefits include:

-Automatic adjustment of colour density and registration

-Real‑time performance monitoring without slowing production

-Improved handling of specialty and synthetic papers

-The result is a smoother production experience with less operator intervention and fewer production issues.

A modern controller for modern workflows...Both presses are powered by a newly developed Fiery‑based print controller, designed specifically for the Proficio platform.

For print providers, this means:

-Faster file processing

-Improved colour consistency

-Easier integration into digital and hybrid workflows

-These improvements support shorter turnaround times and more predictable production schedules.

mundophone

TECH

Artemis 2 enters unknown area of ​​earth's magnetic field

Launched on Wednesday (1), NASA's Artemis 2 mission is heading towards the Moon. The Orion crew capsule left Earth's orbit on Thursday (2), after a translunar injection burn of approximately six minutes. With this, the crew surpassed the protection of Earth's magnetic field, and NASA intensified monitoring of solar activity.

Now, the spacecraft is in a little-explored region of Earth's magnetosphere: the so-called magnetotail. This is an extension of the planet's magnetic field, similar to a comet, that extends for millions of kilometers, formed by the solar wind that compresses and stretches the magnetic field.

Beyond the halfway point...The spacecraft passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon this Saturday, a milestone that makes the four Artemis 2 astronauts the first humans to leave Earth's orbit since the Apollo 17 crew traveled to the Moon in 1972.

Unlike that mission, Artemis 2 will not land on the Moon, but will reach the satellite's orbit before returning to Earth, in a total journey of ten days.

Current situation(04/04): The crew is traveling toward lunar orbit to perform a flyby, with an expected time to circle the far side of the Moon around April 6.

Speed ​​and position: The spacecraft is traveling at approximately 6,000 km/h, positioned more than 170,000 km from Earth and rapidly approaching lunar gravitational influence.

After leaving Earth's orbit, the spacecraft is on a "free return" trajectory, which allows Orion to use the Moon's gravity to orbit it before returning to Earth without propulsion.

In summary:

Artemis 2 left Earth's orbit;

The spacecraft entered Earth's magnetotail;

It's like a comet's tail;

Solar storms can make it dangerous;

Artemis will be able to explore this unprecedented region.

Magnetotail offers risks and protection...According to the space weather and climatology platform Spaceweather.com, the magnetotail is dynamic and unstable. It oscillates with the solar wind, offering some protection to the crew while they are inside it, but none outside this field. During extreme storms, the internal magnetic fields can become entangled and release energy violently, in a phenomenon called "magnetic reconnection."

A profile view of Earth's magnetosphere. The Artemis 2 mission is passing through a region of Earth's magnetic field never before traversed by humans (image above) – Credit: NASA

In addition, the Moon crosses the magnetosphere every month for five or six days. During this period, especially during the full moon phase, lunar dust can become electrified and be ejected from the surface, generating the so-called "lunar dust wind" near the line that separates day and night.

Artemis 2 advances where no one has gone before...Artemis 2 will be able to observe these effects up close. Previous missions, such as some Apollo missions, approached the magnetosphere, but never remained inside it for very long. This makes Artemis a pioneer in the exploration of this mysterious region of space.

The mission is on track to explore the Moon. During this journey, the crew will have direct contact with the effects of Earth's extended magnetic field, providing unprecedented data about this area of ​​space.

As of early April 2026, the NASA Artemis II mission is traveling beyond the protective influence of Earth's dense magnetic field, entering the deep space environment. The Orion capsule, carrying four astronauts, is venturing into regions of space not visited by humans since the Apollo era, exposing the crew to higher levels of cosmic radiation and solar particles outside the Earth's protective magnetosphere.

Key aspects of the journey(below):

Leaving protection: Artemis II marks the first time in over 50 years that humans are leaving the Earth's main magnetic field.

Radiation safety: The crew and Orion spacecraft are outfitted with radiation trackers as ground teams monitor solar eruptions 24/7. In the event of a significant solar particle event, the crew is prepared to create a "pillow fort" of protective shielding inside the cabin.

Magnetic anomaly monitoring: While not directly landing in one, the mission occurs against a backdrop of increasing concern about the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), a growing region of lower magnetic intensity that NASA is closely watching, which can affect satellite instruments.

Scientific opportunity: The mission's journey, which includes passing around the far side of the Moon (up to 4,600 miles beyond it), allows for scientific studies on how deep space radiation impacts the human body, as well as testing of spacecraft shielding.

Aurora imaging: The crew has already captured unprecedented images of auroras from both hemispheres, aided by a strong geomagnetic storm that makes these features easier to observe, demonstrating the unique viewpoints available from their trajectory. 

Artemis II is scheduled for a 10-day mission, with a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean in April 2026, testing the systems required for future sustained lunar and Martian exploration

This experience will help to understand how the magnetotail affects astronauts and equipment under real flight conditions. The information will be used to plan future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, ensuring greater safety and knowledge about unexplored regions of space.

Details of the crossing and objectives:

Unprecedented area for humans: The Orion spacecraft is crossing the magnetotail, an extension of Earth's magnetic field that is "stretched" by the solar wind.

Radiation and Space Weather: One of the great mysteries is how the interaction between the magnetic field and electrified lunar dust (the "lunar dust wind") can impact the safety of astronauts.

Constant monitoring: The crew and capsule are equipped with high-resolution radiation trackers, such as the M-42 EXT sensor, to measure exposure to heavy ions, which are particularly dangerous.

Preparation for Mars: The data collected in this magnetic "shadow zone" are fundamental to understanding the radiation risks of long-duration journeys, such as a future mission to Mars.

mundophone

 

DIGITAL LIFE

'Moltbook' risks: The dangers of AI-to-AI interactions in health care

A new report examines the emerging risks of autonomous AI systems interacting within clinical environments. The article, "Emerging Risks of AI-to-AI Interactions in Health Care: Lessons From Moltbook," appears in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The work explores a critical new frontier: as high-risk AI agents begin to communicate directly with one another to manage triage and scheduling, they create a "digital ecosystem" that can operate beyond active human oversight.

Authored by Tejas S. Athni, the report uses the 2026 "Moltbook" experiment—a social network designed for AI-to-AI interaction—as a powerful proof-of-concept for the health care sector. The analysis warns that while these interconnected systems can improve efficiency, they also introduce a lethal trifecta of risks including the rapid propagation of errors, accelerated data leaks, and the spontaneous development of unintended hierarchies.

The hidden hazards of interconnected medical AI...The analysis points to several significant hurdles that arise when autonomous AI agents share data and decisions without a human in the loop, including:

The propagation of errors: In a networked system, a single misinterpretation by a diagnostic AI (e.g., mislabeling a fracture) can be blindly accepted and amplified by downstream agents responsible for bed allocation and triage, leading to systemic medical errors.

Accelerated data leaks: Interconnected agents often share or withhold data in ways unanticipated by their creators. Adversarial actors could exploit these "agentic" pathways to execute model inversion or membership inference attacks, compromising protected health information (PHI) at unprecedented speeds.

Emergent hierarchies: Observations from Moltbook suggest that AI agents can spontaneously develop dominant or subordinate roles. In a hospital, an AI responsible for ICU allocation might begin to override diagnostic agents, creating de facto priorities that conflict with ethical standards and clinical protocols.

Toward preventive digital health design...The article argues for a proactive shift in how medical AI is built, moving away from reactive patching toward "preventive design." Experts suggest that as autonomous systems become integrated into health care, the focus must remain on transparency and robust safeguards.

To bridge this gap, the report calls for:

Human-centric guardrails: Reinforcing requirements for human validation (e.g., a radiologist reviewing an AI's classification) before any autonomous decision is finalized.

Aggressive stress-testing: Utilizing red-teaming to uncover vulnerabilities in AI-to-AI communication protocols before they are deployed in live clinical settings.

Decision audit trails: Maintaining clear, trackable records of every interaction and decision made by autonomous agents to ensure accountability.

"The risks of AI-to-AI interactions must be taken seriously as autonomous systems become integrated into health care," the report concludes. "The Moltbook experiment offers a critical lens to ensure these digital dangers do not translate into real-world patient harm."

Provided by JMIR Publications

 

DIGITAL LIFE

Is writing still human? How the explosion of AI-generated texts could 'standardize' language

A text generated by artificial intelligence is grammatically correct, usually has some clarity, and, for better or worse, is efficient. It also saves time and effort for the human behind it. With just a few words (which can even be sent via audio), it's possible to generate a polite email, a "viral" LinkedIn post, a work presentation, or a declaration of love.

There is no textual task that an AI cannot undertake. Putting words together based on probability and making the result sound human and coherent is, after all, what these systems were designed to do. This includes reviewing, editing, suggesting, researching, or creating from scratch. The result is that more and more texts circulating in the world, whether on social media, in scientific publications, or in e-books on Amazon, have a certain "voice" of AI.

The less human intervention, the more evident the origin. Some argumentative formats are already as common as they are tiresome. There are also expressions that robots constantly use: a "silent" change, an "invisible" process, and a problem that is always "hidden." Not to mention the insistence on certain stylistic devices—the beloved dash has gotten a bad reputation, but it's not the only one.

Want an example? The phrase right below this title (in journalistic jargon, the subheading). This is a human attempt to demonstrate the "pure essence" of AI: "It's not just about using artificial intelligence to write. It's about the impact of this on how we express ourselves—even without realizing it. And with silent consequences." If it sounds familiar, it's no coincidence.

The ‘AI’ pattern of writing...In March, a Nature publication with some scientific research on the subject suggested that we might be facing a “standardization” or “pasteurization” of human writing, which also influences those who do not use AI. The logic is that repetition makes certain expressions and patterns socially accepted and common. The tendency of people, then, would be to reproduce them.

One of the studies cited mapped words that AI repeats most when reviewing English texts. Then, it tracked them in more than 360,000 videos and 771,000 podcasts, and compared their incidence before and after 2022 (that is, pre- and post-ChatGPT). The result is that more people have adopted terms that are part of the “AI Anglophone dictionary,” but which were not so common before.

In the English language, one of the best-known cases is the word “delve.” In scientific articles in the medical field, the presence of the expression, which is one of ChatGPT's favorites, has increased. 1,500% between 2022 and 2024.

Raquel Freitag, a sociolinguistics professor at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), points out that AI often reproduces formulas it has learned from humans. This is the case with argumentation by inclusion (it's not just X, it's also Y) and by contrast (it's not X, it's Y). That's why LinkedIn sometimes looks like a "big package of college entrance exam essays," she jokes.

— For those who are proficient in writing and reading, AI can expand capabilities. The big bottleneck is for those who are not fluent. People stagnate when they don't have the tool— says Freitag, who believes there is a tendency towards "pasteurization," but in an uneven way.

Whose text is this?...Besides the more direct way of copying and pasting a text completely generated by AI, production with these tools takes on varied formats. There is the text that is made by artificial intelligence from some commands and then edited and adapted by the user, And also the opposite — the human draft that is polished by AI.

Diogo Cortiz, professor at PUC-SP and researcher at NIC.br, points out that more customizable tools, capable of mimicking each user's writing style, tend to make it more difficult to separate what is a text written with artificial intelligence from what is not. For him, this is one of the reasons why AI detection tools tend to become obsolete:

— This is a ship that has already sailed. We will have to accept that we will not be able to say for sure whether a text is from AI or not. With personalization, this will only become more difficult. I think the bigger issue is discussing authorship, what the act of writing is — suggests the researcher.

Last week, a case in the United Kingdom exposed this impasse. After raising suspicions among readers due to its strange metaphors and repetitive phrases, the horror novel "Shy Girl" was evaluated using detectors that indicated 78% of the work had been generated by AI. The publisher withdrew the book from circulation while the author denied using any artificial tools and claimed that any AI interventions could have been made by an editor.

Writing is human...In "Writing is Human: How to Give Life to Your Writing in the Age of Robots" (Companhia das Letras), writer and journalist Sérgio Rodrigues defines the production of machines as anti-literature, the opposite of art made with words. Even if artificial intelligence is capable of producing summaries, captions, reports, manuals, synopses, or dissertations.

— AI doesn't write. It copies and rattles off a language folder. Is that writing? No, that's producing a text. Writing is about expressing yourself, discovering things, interacting with the world, taking responsibility for an idea, spreading that idea, having an intention — he says.

Since launching the book, the writer has maintained the assessment that machines do not produce art, even if novels made with robots deceive less demanding readers and AIs are more efficient at imitating humans. Outside of literature, in utilitarian contexts, he sees a lost battle:

— It is a victory for AI that seems to me undeniable and inevitable. More and more people are outsourcing. What was not possible to see at that time (when the book was written) is how much this will cause atrophy in our species, with cognitive activities that until now were human being done by artificial intelligence.

In a recent article in The New York Times, the professor of computer science at Georgetown University, Cal Newport, calls the current moment a "cognitive crisis," which began with constant interruptions from emails and messages, deteriorated with social networks, and is now deepening with AI. The result is that we are increasingly unable to think deeply and maintain concentration on anything.

Against this, one of his proposals is: write. Producing clear text is equivalent to mental training, says Newport, not a problem to be eliminated.

mundophone

TECH

New fiber optic data transmission speed record

A new data transmission speed record of 450 terabits per second using an existing, commercially installed optical fiber link has been set by a team of engineers involving UCL researchers. The achievement was presented at the annual OFC optical fiber conference in March in Los Angeles, California, and breaks the existing record set by the same team in November by 50%.

A typical household internet connection provides internet speeds at about 80 to 100 megabits per second. This new record is approximately 4 million times faster.

Senior author Professor Polina Bayvel (UCL Electronic & Electrical Engineering) said, "This new record shows the potential, unused capacity of existing optical fiber networks. Being able to adapt and expand our existing infrastructure to support more data capacity than it was initially designed for will be essential to support growing data demands including for future AI-enabled networks and AI infrastructure."

The team sent a data transmission from the UCL Roberts Building in Bloomsbury, London to the Telehouse North datacenter near Canary Wharf in London, 19.5 kilometers away where the data then looped around and returned back to the Roberts Building, for a total travel distance of 39 kilometers.

Fiber optic cables transmit information over great distances by bouncing encoded infrared light pulses along flexible glass fibers. Individual wavelengths carry different channels of data and can be sent along at the same time as other wavelengths without interfering, allowing numerous channels of data to be sent at a time. These wavelengths are grouped together into various "bands" that span dozens or even hundreds of different wavelengths.

To broaden the bandwidth of data sent over the fiber optic cables, the research team greatly expanded the number of frequency bands transmitting data. Each new frequency range contains hundreds of individual frequency channels to the transmission, dramatically increasing the amount of data that could be sent.

Typical commercial fiber optics transmit data using the "C-Band" (or conventional band) of infrared light (between 1530 and 1565 nanometers wavelength) and the "L-Band" (between 1565 and 1625 nanometers wavelength). They contain 134 and 163 individual channels, respectively.

The researchers used additional frequency bands of data transmission to include the O, E and S-bands as well. The O-Band spans 1260 nm to 1360 nm and contains 493 channels, the E-Band spans 1360 nm to 1460 nm and contains 258 channels, and the S-Band spans 1460 nm to 1530 nm containing 225 channels. With nearly 1,000 additional channels to transmit data, the team was able to send data vastly faster than conventional fiber optic services.

They were able to add these additional frequency ranges by installing newly developed optical transmitters to send the wider-band signal, and receivers that can similarly receive the additional channels.

This new record is an important proof of concept that shows it's possible to send data using all five frequency bands over an existing, real-world installed optical fiber, rather than just in a lab demo.

Though not likely to boost home internet speeds any time soon, this technology has major implications for connecting together the large data centers and servers that make up the infrastructure of the modern Internet. The ever-increasing demand for high-speed transmission of vast quantities of data is fueled in large part by the rapid growth of cloud computing and AI services. Technologies like this would make it possible to get the best performance out of existing physical infrastructure with only limited modifications.

The researchers estimate that the commercial adoption of this technology to connect data centers and other internet infrastructure could happen in about three to five years' time.

Lead author Dr. Ruben Luis of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan, said, "Being able to demonstrate these kinds of data speeds on existing, installed fiber optic networks shows the practicality of this technology. It's our hope that we can lay the groundwork to develop better, faster data networks that form the backbone of the Internet."

The work was carried out in partnership with the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Japan as part of an international collaboration that brings partners to the UK to use UCL's advanced experimental capability to carry out these experiments.

The research was accepted as a post-deadline research submission for the Optical Fiber Conference 2026 held in March in Los Angeles, which recognizes a very limited number of significant papers often highlighting a "first" or record-breaking demonstration.

In November, the same team set a transmission speed record of 300.28 terabits per second using four signal bands. This new work added an additional signal band, the "E" band, to the data transmission system, increasing the transmission speed by 50%.

In October 2024, members of the same research group demonstrated record wireless transmission speeds.

Provided by University College London