Forget 3G and 4G. In fact, forget about the gigahertz frequency altogether—a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh say they've managed to devise a means of transmitting data thousands of times faster.

The team led by Hrvoje Petek, a physics and chemistry professor in Pitt's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, successfully created what they call a "frequency comb" that "spans more than 100 terahertz (THz) of bandwidth by exciting a coherent collective of atomic motions in a semiconductor silicon crystal."

This same frequency comb technology will also be a boon in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. To read more, click here.