Just as Paris was poised to welcome the world for the Olympic Games, chaos erupted on the city's rail network. Hours before the opening ceremony, a series of deliberate sabotage acts targeted signal boxes and fiber optic cables on the high-speed rail system, causing fires and disrupting services for around 800,000 people. This wasn't just a random act of vandalism; it was a meticulously planned operation that left the city reeling.
Imagine a world where downloading an entire game in under a thousandth of a second is possible. Sounds like science fiction? Think again. Japanese researchers have shattered previous records by achieving a mind-blowing download speed of 402 terabits per second using standard fiber optic cables. But what does this mean for us, and how did they do it? Let's dive in.