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Green Bank Observatory Inauguration
Four years after the National Science Foundation announced it would drop funding for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank effective Oct. 1, 2016, the Pocahontas County research center remains alive and well, and as of last week, proudly independent. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory sign at the entrance to the 60-year-old research center…
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The Atlantic: The Town Where High Tech Meets a 1950s Lifestyle
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National Geographic: Life in the Quiet Zone
The barrage of noise and distractions that are all but inescapable in most American communities is refreshingly absent in this unassuming hamlet, located in the wooded hills of Pocahontas County, four hours west of Washington, D.C. Here, no cell phones chirp or jingle, and local kids aren’t glued to the glowing screens of their mobile…
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Vice: Save The Last Great Telescope
The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope and the world’s largest land-based movable structure. It is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) site at Green Bank, West Virginia, USA. NRAO is located in the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000 mile zone where all radio transmissions are…
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NPR: Enter the Quiet Zone
There are no physical signs you’ve entered the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area that covers the eastern half of West Virginia. But the silence gives you a signal. Somewhere around the Virginia-West Virginia state line, the periodic buzzes and pings of our smartphones stopped. “Zero [service]. Searching,” said photographer John Poole, who traveled…
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ABC News10: Town full of people lives without cellphones, Wi-Fi to get signals from space
No cell phones, no Wi-Fi… not even a radio station. And that’s just how one town in West Virginia wants it. The town of Green Bank doesn’t use personal technology because it’s listening to something else. It’s in the middle of the national radio quiet zone, home to the World’s largest movable radio telescope. The…
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Discovery News: Why Does This U.S. Town Ban WiFi And Cell Phones?
Imagine living where Wi-Fi and cell-phones are banned. This [West] Virginian town, is a gem for space science and safe haven for many. Aired on Discovery News. View the video here.
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Pasadena News Now: Local High School Students Hunt for Pulsars
Hanaa is hunting for a blip in a vast set of data. Although she is only a high school student, she is searching for the signal of a pulsar — a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation like a lighthouse. Hanaa and 19 of her fellow students at Alverno Heights…