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Category: transportation

Versatile mechanophore detects structural damage without false alarms from heat or UV

A newly designed robust mechanophore provides early warning against mechanical failure while resisting heat and UV, report researchers from Institute of Science Tokyo. They combined computational chemistry techniques with thermal and photochemical testing to show that their mechanophore scaffold, called DAANAC, stays inert under environmental stress yet emits a clear yellow signal when mechanically activated. This could pave the way for smart, self-reporting materials in construction, transportation, and electronics.

High-performance polymers, such as plastics and elastomers, are essential materials in modern life that are present in everything from airplane parts to bridges and electronics. Because sudden failures in these sectors can be extremely dangerous and costly, ensuring the safety and longevity of high-performance polymers is a critical challenge.

Since damage is often invisible at the molecular level until it is too late, scientists have been actively developing compounds known as “mechanophores.” These molecular sensors, which can be embedded into the bulk of a polymeric material, serve as an early warning system by chemically reacting to mechanical stress and producing visible light via fluorescence or other phenomena.

Alternative wireless technology achieves stable outdoor data transmission

The approach addresses key challenges in visible light communication, including pulse distortion and sunlight interference.

Scientists have developed a low-cost visible light communication (VLC) system using commercially available hardware that enables stable data transmission even under strong ambient light.

The team achieved reliable outdoor VLC at data rates of up to 3.48 Mbit/s over distances of several meters by implementing a newly designed 8B13B coding scheme on an FPGA and interfacing it with a Raspberry Pi.

The approach addresses key challenges in VLC, including pulse distortion and sunlight interference, and offers a practical path toward intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications.

Cybercriminals Abuse Google Cloud Email Feature in Multi-Stage Phishing Campaign

In response to the findings, Google has blocked the phishing efforts that abuse the email notification feature within Google Cloud Application Integration, adding that it’s taking more steps to prevent further misuse.

Check Point’s analysis has revealed that the campaign has primarily targeted manufacturing, technology, financial, professional services, and retail sectors, although other industry verticals, including media, education, healthcare, energy, government, travel, and transportation, have been singled out.

“These sectors commonly rely on automated notifications, shared documents, and permission-based workflows, making Google-branded alerts especially convincing,” it added. “This campaign highlights how attackers can misuse legitimate cloud automation and workflow features to distribute phishing at scale without traditional spoofing.”

New AI-based technology offers real-time electric vehicle state estimation for safer driving

A research team led by Professor Kanghyun Nam from the Department of Robotics and Mechanical Engineering at DGIST has developed a physical AI-based vehicle state estimation technology that accurately estimates the driving state of electric vehicles in real time.

This technology is viewed as a key advancement that can improve the core control performance of electric vehicles and greatly enhance the safety of autonomous vehicles. The work was conducted through international joint research with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

The work is published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

Low-cost gelators nearly double the performance of aircraft anti-icing fluids, finds new study

Tiny molecules already used to thicken everyday products like lotions and adhesives may soon help keep aircraft safe in icy conditions. These molecules, known as low-molecular-weight gelators (LMWGs), can self-assemble into soft, gel-like structures and have long been used in industrial formulations.

In a study published in Langmuir, researchers report that adding just small amounts of these molecules can significantly improve the performance of aircraft anti-icing fluids.

The team modified commercial deicing and anti-icing fluids—which already contain polymers for protective coating—by incorporating LMWG molecules to produce a hybrid gel formulation. They tested three variants of a gelator, known as DBS (1,3:2,4-dibenzylidenesorbitol), at varying levels of aviation-grade agents used to remove existing ice and prevent new ice formation on aircraft surfaces during ground operations.

New sensor measures strain, strain rate and temperature with single material layer

Researchers from the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an innovative flexible sensor that can simultaneously detect strain, strain rate, and temperature using a single active material layer, representing a significant advance in multimodal sensing technology.

The study, published in Nature Communications, addresses the longstanding challenge of conventional sensors requiring complex multilayer designs that integrate different materials for distinct sensing functions. These traditional approaches often involve complicated signal acquisition and external power supplies, limiting their reliability in continuous monitoring applications.

Led by Prof. Tai Kaiping, the researchers designed the sensor based on a specially designed network of tilted tellurium nanowires (Te-NWs). Through material and structural engineering, they overcame a fundamental limitation where thermoelectric and piezoelectric signals could not be collected in the same direction within conventional materials. In this unique architecture, both signals are simultaneously detected and output in the out-of-plane direction.

Tesla Cybercab is changing the look of Austin’s roads, and it’s not even in production yet

Even before entering production, Tesla’s Cybercab is already transforming the appearance of Austin’s streets, with multiple prototypes spotted testing in downtown areas recently.

Videos and photos showed the sleek, two-seat autonomous vehicles navigating traffic. Interestingly enough, the vehicles were equipped with temporary steering wheels and human safety drivers.

Over the weekend, enthusiasts captured footage of two Cybercabs driving together in central Austin, their futuristic silhouettes standing out amid regular traffic. While the vehicles featured temporary steering wheels and side mirrors for now, they retained their futuristic, production-intent exterior design.

Boosting the Coherence of X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers

Mode locking—a laser technique that revolutionized optical physics—has been extended to x rays, producing stable trains of attosecond pulses with unprecedented phase coherence.

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have transformed the study of matter by delivering femtosecond and attosecond pulses at angstrom wavelengths, enabling direct observation of ultrafast structural and electronic dynamics. Despite these successes, XFELs have long lacked a capability central to precision optical science: stable temporal phase coherence. Most XFEL facilities operate in the self-amplified spontaneous-emission (SASE) regime, in which radiation originates from microscopic shot noise in an electron beam. This mechanism produces extremely bright pulses, but shot-to-shot fluctuations in their temporal structure limit their use in phase-sensitive experiments useful for metrology, interferometry, and ultrafast spectroscopy [1].

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