Scientist Send Text Message Using Vodka

Researchers at York University have managed to send a text message which read “O Canada” using Vodka, or as I prefer to think, they’ve found a great way to thinly disguise one of their drinking games as research. Using a sprayer, a fan and a sensor the team were able to send a message encoded in a mist of Vodka over a range of four meters, measuring the rate of change in concentration of alcohol molecules. Hardly the most useful method of communication but certainly a fun one.

 “We believe we have sent the world’s first text message to be transmitted entirely with molecular communication, controlling concentration levels of the alcohol molecules to encode the alphabet, with single spray representing bits and no spray representing the bit zero.” Said Nariman Farsad, a doctoral candidate at York University who led the experiment.

By controlling the concentrations of Vodka, they were able to encode the alphabet by representing bits of data, ones and zeros, with a single spray representing bits, and no spray representing zero bits. It’s an interesting method and a great concept for communication using chemical analysis and sensors, but again it’s not exactly practical.