4. Higher-speed Martian communications
When NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reaches the Red Planet this month, it will immediately seek out areas where water once flowed, try to identify habitats where ancient life might have thrived, and start mapping the entire planet in unprecedented detail. But the orbiter's arrival at Mars will also set the stage for a new epoch in spacecraft telecommunications. Its onboard Electra UHF relay transceiver will serve as an engineering test bed for new communications and navigation technology that will be required for all future orbiters, landers, and rovers, to provide the faster data rates required for transfer of information from rovers and landers on the Martian surface to orbiters circling above.
See "Mars Gets Broadband Connection," by Barry E. DiGregorio: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb06/2810
5. Solving Sudokus for fun and mathematical profit
Millions of people around the world are tackling one of the hardest problems in computer science -- without even knowing it. The logic game Sudoku is a miniature version of a longstanding mathematical challenge, and it entices both puzzlers, who see it as an enjoyable plaything, and researchers, who see it as a laboratory for algorithm design. This is because the Sudoku is representative of a fundamental mathematical challenge known as P = NP, where, roughly speaking, P stands for tasks that can be solved efficiently, and NP stands for tasks whose solution can be verified efficiently.
See "Sudoku Science," by Lauren Anderson: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb06/2809
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