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Dueling reporting: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/23/laser_beams_set_to_replace_fibreoptic_cables/
http://tinyurl.com/kwuflh3
If you make enough hot air, it'll act as a waveguide for optical signals and behave something like an optical fibre. Don't, however, stick your eye in the beam. To create the “air waveguide” described in this paper at Arxiv, the boffins from the University of Maryland were letting loose at least enough heat to burn paper, …