Goodbye gigabit, hello terabit

Thought gigabit internet was fast? Think again. The "fastest ever" broadband speeds have been achieved in a test in London, raising hopes of more efficient data transfer via existing infrastructure. Alcatel-Lucent and British Telecom said speeds of 1.4 terabits per second were achieved during their joint test - enough to send 44 uncompressed HD films a second. The test was conducted on a 410km link between the BT Tower in central London and Ipswich. This breakthrough is being seen as highly important for internet service providers (ISPs), as it means a greater amount of information can be sent through existing broadband infrastructure, reducing the need for costly upgrades. "BT and Alcatel-Lucent are making more from what they've got," explained Oliver Johnson, chief executive of broadband analyst firm Point Topic. "It allows them to increase their capacity without having to spend much more money." However, it may be many years before consumers notice any effect. While we're waiting for terabit speeds to become the norm worldwide (which might never happen), we can enjoy some purple tomatoes. You read that right - purple tomatoes. Their purple pigment is the result of the transfer of a gene from a snapdragon plant - the modification triggers a process within the tomato plant allowing anthocyanin to develop. Anthocyanin is an antioxidant which studies on animals show could help fight cancer, and give the tomatoes the same potential health benefits as fruit such as blueberries. Scientists say the new tomatoes could improve the nutritional value of everything from ketchup to pizza topping. And speaking of the top, India's top court has ordered the district judge of Birbhum in eastern West Bengal state to submit a fact-finding report on the horrific gang-rape of a tribal woman. A three-member panel of Supreme Court judges expressed shock over the "disturbing" incident and ordered that a report be filed by Monday after a visit to the village to ascertain the facts of the case. Meanwhile, lawyers and women's groups have criticised the police of Birbhum district for not seeking the remand of 13 villagers arrested for allegedly gang-raping the woman. The suspects - belonging to Labhpur village - were accused of raping the woman on January 21 on the orders of a council of village elders for having a relationship with a man outside their tribe. Seriously, who cares? If people were to marry and procreate solely within their tribe, the gene pool wouldn't be diverse enough to cater for everyone and in time, the birth defects associated with inbreeding would one day appear within the tribes in question. And on another note, punishing sex that may have taken place in the course of the undesired relationship with more sex is just stupid and wouldn't be a real solution to the supposed "problem".