Student makes cableless cable

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:18:02 -0400

Matthew DePetro '05 earned top honors for his senior design project, "Wireless Cable Television." The first-prize entry "untethers" standard cable TV and even eliminates the need for a wall outlet.

"All of the rooms that I have lived in at Harvard have such crummy standard TV reception that something as simple as watching the 11 o'clock news is an unfulfilling experience," says DePetro. "Unfortunately, cable television service suffers from the inherent shackles of a cable for signal distribution. In a typical dorm residence that means television sets must be located near a cable outlet in the wall."

Moreover, setting up cable for multiple sets in separate rooms requires adding extra wiring infrastructure within a building itself - no easy feat in older structures.

Atmospheric chemists fly high and low for novel carbon dioxide measurements

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:26 -0400

Political leaders throughout the world have taken notice of the increasing levels of carbon in the atmosphere and have begun negotiations on how to mitigate "greenhouse" gases through accords such as the Kyoto Protocol. One major problem with the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States rejected, was how to monitor compliance. Currently there is no good way to tell how much carbon is being emitted from - or taken up by - land on a country-sized scale. This makes accords such as the Kyoto Protocol, should they be agreed upon, nearly impossible to enforce. That's why researchers at Harvard University are developing novel methods to measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

all Steven C. Wofsy stories

Student makes cableless cable

Atmospheric chemists fly high and low for novel carbon dioxide measurements