Easier listening

Fighting hard to protect their radiotelescopes from being swamped by
commercial radio services, astronomers last week won protection for a new chunk
of spectrum at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul—their
first new allocation since 1979. The WRC added another 90 gigahertz to the 44
gigahertz already allocated in the millimetre-wave band. Some unused satellite
channels were shifted to leave clear windows through the atmosphere for radio
astronomers.