"Incredible": Wits University Achieves World-First Breakthrough in Optical Communication Technology
- Wits University researchers, working with the University of Bordeaux, achieved a world-first breakthrough in optical communication
- The team showed that information encoded in light can survive real-world atmospheric turbulence without distortion correction
- The discovery could reshape how wireless data is transmitted across long distances
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Wits University has made history. Researchers at the Johannesburg institution, working alongside scientists from the University of Bordeaux in France, have demonstrated something the scientific community had long considered a major obstacle: light-encoded information can travel through real-world atmospheric turbulence and remain intact, without any need to correct for distortion.
Source: UGC
The breakthrough, announced on 26 August 2026, centres on the topology of light. Rather than trying to shield a signal from the chaos of the atmosphere or fix it after the fact, the Wits-led team found a way to encode information in a property of light that is naturally resistant to those disturbances. The result is a signal that holds its structure even when conditions are far from ideal.
Current free-space optical communication, which transmits data through light beamed across open air rather than through physical cables, has always been limited by the environment. Weather events like fog, rain, or atmospheric turbulence can scatter or distort a beam enough to make it unreadable. That vulnerability has kept the technology from reaching its full potential, particularly for applications like satellite-to-satellite communication in low Earth orbit.
What makes the Wits discovery significant is that it sidesteps that problem entirely. By using light's topology as the carrier of information, the researchers demonstrated that the data survives turbulence not because the beam is corrected, but because the relevant property of the light is inherently stable. See a post about the achievement below:
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SA reacts to Wits University achievements
The post from @WitsUniversity drew strong responses online, with many people recognising the scale of what had been achieved:
@ProphetOfKings_ wrote:
"So essentially fibre optic cable but beamed through a wireless medium"
@ncontsi noted:
"Free-space optics never really took off (excuse the pun in reference to its use in LEO satellite-to-satellite comms), partly because the technical challenges in the real world mean that optimum conditions are still required. For example, fog or rain could render it unusable."
@MathobelaSondi said:
"Wow! Incredible."
@tmupakati1 added:
"This is massive"
Other Briefly News stories about strides in science
- Two young South African pupils achieved remarkable success at the 2024 Taiwan International Science Fair, taking home prestigious awards for their innovative scientific projects.
- Seven Western Cape learners made history as the first South African and African team to compete at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
- South African scientist Dr. Sandile Ngcobo and his revolutionary invention, the world's first digital laser, has significantly impacted the $20 billion laser technology industry.
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Source: Briefly News
