All modern means of communication rely on glass, from the Gorilla Glass on our phones to the infotainment screens in our cars. Most of the time, the glass is right in front of us, but when it comes to the internet — whether it’s 5G, Starlink satellites, or Wi-Fi — it’s easy to miss the 750,000 miles of fiber optic cables currently running under our oceans.
These tiny strands of glass carry our photos, emails, and video chats from our phones to data centers to friends and family all across the world. It’s through these hair-thin strands of fiber that we are able to instantly communicate to almost anyone, anywhere, and it all relies on a 5,000-year-old technology: glass.
Image: Alix Diaconis / The Verge