Seeing farther: A new camera-based technique detects distant vehicles for safer roads
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Dec-2025 05:11 ET (21-Dec-2025 10:11 GMT/UTC)
Road accidents often stem from failing to notice vehicles. A recent study introduced a method for detecting distant vehicles with over twice the accuracy of existing systems. Instead of using road markings, it analyzes the motion of nearby vehicles to estimate the road’s trajectory and vanishing point, capturing distant road areas. By enlarging distant regions, the system can more accurately detect faraway vehicles, thereby enhancing safety by providing distant-vehicle information to drivers and pedestrians.
A new model predicts, minute by minute, how individual cells will fold, divide, and rearrange during a fruit fly’s earliest stage of growth. The method may help scientists predict the development of more complex tissues or identify early signs of diseases such as asthma and cancer.
EurekAlert Summary
Order from Chaos: Technion and SJTU Researchers Reveal Hidden Photon Behavior
A collaborative team from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University has identified a previously unknown physical phenomenon showing how order can emerge from complete disorder. Reported in Nature Materials, the study describes the discovery of photon “spin locking” generated by Brownian motion in nanometric systems.
The research was led by Prof. Erez Hasman of the Technion’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Helen Diller Quantum Center, together with Prof. Bo Wang, head of the Spin Nanophotonics Group at SJTU’s School of Physics and Astronomy and a former postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Hasman’s group.
The team uncovered a “spin-locking effect induced by Brownian motion,” demonstrating that photons scattered from randomly moving nanoparticles unexpectedly align into a specific spin state. This result overturns the long-standing assumption that Brownian motion produces fully chaotic, unpolarized scattering.
By illuminating nanoparticles suspended in a liquid, the researchers showed that sideways-scattered photons exhibit a locked spin state—an emergent form of order arising precisely from the particles’ random motion. The effect also enables characterization of particle size and material type, offering a new tool for nanoparticle identification.
“Our discovery beautifully illustrates the importance of experimental physics,” said Prof. Hasman. “It is often the most disordered systems that reveal the deepest order. We believe this phenomenon will open new avenues in nanoparticle characterization and future optical technologies.”
The study was supported by the National Science Foundations of Israel and China.
A new study from a research team at the Centre for Wireless Communications Network and Systems (CWC-NS) at the University of Oulu has introduced an approach using near-infrared (NIR) light beyond light therapy for facilitating simultaneous wireless power transfer and communication to electronic implantable medical devices (IMDs). Previously, the research team demonstrated that NIR light for wireless communication is feasible, and now the team made progress by involving wireless charging capabilities using the same light.
Featured in Optics Continuum, the research outlines an approach that promises to enhance the performance and durability of IMDs while providing more secure, safer, more private, and radio interference-free communication. The published paper, authored by Syifaul Fuada, Mariella Särestöniemi, and Marcos Katz at the CWC-NS, has demonstrated research merit as it was designated an Editor's Pick, highlighting articles of excellent scientific quality and representing the work occurring in a specific field. The paper is a part of Syifaul Fuada's doctoral research, which is funded by Infotech, University of Oulu, Finland.
Collagenase-like protease (Clp) enhances the toxic effect of Streptococcus suis serotype 2 (SS2). Clp increases the permeability of the blood–brain barrier by disrupting tight junctions and inducing apoptosis of brain endothelial cells. Clp triggers brain endothelial cell apoptosis through cell receptor ligand apoptosis and mitochondrial apoptosis pathways, partially dependent on its enzyme activity.