Autonomous vehicles promise greener, smoother urban travel, yet their environmental pros and cons are far more complicated than many assume. This new analysis from Engineering breaks down dual carbon trade-offs: AVs cut traffic emissions via platooning and shared fleets, but heavier electric trucks and repeated vehicle platoons speed up road wear and raise infrastructure carbon costs. It also outlines targeted vehicle, road and policy fixes to balance efficiency gains and infrastructure burdens for sustainable automated mobility.

This study, published in Eye & ENT Research, compared LASIK surgery and contact lenses for myopia correction through a systematic review and meta-analysis of four studies with 2,141 participants. The key findings show that LASIK users report much higher satisfaction (88% vs. 54%) and have fewer complications (6.7%–9.5% vs. 19.9%) than contact lens wearers. However, LASIK causes more acute dry eye after surgery, while contact lenses lead to more chronic dry eye over time. Quality of life results were unclear due to differences in how studies measured it.

Analysis of 115 NASA photographs from 13 astronauts, published in Eye & ENT Research, showed that spaceflight consistently elevates the lower eyelid, reducing MRD2 (margin reflex distance 2) by a mean of 1.0 mm (p < 0.001). All astronauts exhibited this “reverse ptosis,” with 62% showing a clinically significant change (≥ 1 mm). The effect appears to occur rapidly and persist throughout missions, likely driven by cephalad fluid shift and elastic recoil of facial tissues. The study was retrospective and limited by image quality and lack of symptom data; future research with standardized imaging is needed to explore mechanisms and potential impacts on ocular health during long-duration spaceflight.

Want to test soil fertility instantly on farmland without sending samples to labs? This new Engineering commentary breaks down four mainstream field sensors tracking soil nutrients, from portable colorimetric kits to laser and γ-ray detectors. Each tool carries unique flaws: model failure across farmlands, air element interference and heavy calibration needs. Scientists now turn to AI to boost sensor performance, targeting simple, buryable detectors that measure crop-absorbable nitrogen on-site for smarter precision farming.

With the long-term on-orbit operation of space stations, extravehicular status monitoring and surface inspection tasks have imposed higher demands on the motion planning capabilities of manipulators. Space redundant manipulators, when performing visual monitoring tasks, must simultaneously satisfy multiple complex constraints including kinematics, dynamics, obstacle avoidance, and end-effector line-of-sight, making this a typical nonlinear non-convex optimal control problem. Although sampling-based methods can rapidly generate collision-free paths, they struggle to guarantee dynamic feasibility in high-dimensional systems and often yield poor-quality paths. Optimization-based methods, while capable of directly generating high-quality trajectories, are highly sensitive to initial solutions and lack effective warm-start mechanisms. Therefore, how to merge the rapid search capability of sampling-based methods with the precise solving advantage of optimization-based methods to plan high-quality executable trajectories under complex constraints for space manipulators has become a key challenge in advancing the intelligent development of space robotics.

Using in vivo mouse models and primary in vitro alveolar epithelial cell cultures, researchers found influenza A virus (H1N1) preferentially infects alveolar type 2 (AT2) cells in the early stage of lung alveolar infection. Compared to alveolar type 1 (AT1) cells, AT2 cells exhibit significantly delayed production of type I/III interferons, interferon-stimulated genes and chemokines, which drives elevated viral replication and higher infection susceptibility.

Photodetectors are the “eyes” of modern electronic systems, playing a vital role in fields ranging from optical communication and imaging to sensing. As technology advances, there is a growing demand for photodetectors that are not only highly sensitive but also capable of detecting a broad spectrum of light, responding rapidly, and distinguishing complex optical information. However, traditional photodetectors often face inherent limitations, such as low light absorption efficiency in thin materials, slow response speeds due to carrier trapping, and limited spectral ranges dictated by material bandgaps.

PCOS is a common endocrine disorder in women of reproductive age, imposing substantial health and economic burdens worldwide. In a recent large-scale study involving more than 14 million pregnant women across Chinese Mainland, researchers explored how the prevalence of PCOS has increased since the implementation of the universal two-child policy. The article discusses how pregnant women with PCOS face higher risks of various adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, highlighting the need for targeted obstetric management.