High-speed internet brings boffins closer together

The growth in high-speed internet access around the world has changed the way business and academics collaborate, and led to a "globalisation of innovation", according to a department head at Cern.

David Foster, head of communications and networks at Cern, claimed that the scientific community is as much affected as business.

"What we are seeing is a globalisation of innovation," he said. "From our own perspective, the availability of high-packet network broadband is causing major changes in business models. This is also true of science."

Foster added that his facility's research had been enhanced by its use of grid computing, where information is distributed between academics around the world.

"Communications now means that you can actually do global research without storing sections of your papers in one location," he said.

"We can see that the grid and the overall object of this globalisation of innovation match rather well."

Foster estimated that 15 petabytes of data is analysed by Cern's research community every year.