Tag Archives: employ

Methods Car Thieves Employ to Steal Vehicles Without Keys (and How to Prevent It)

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Should I store my car keys in a Faraday box? Perhaps. With the advent of keyless entry, you can unlock your car just by approaching it, which is particularly handy when you’re carrying shopping and need to access the trunk.

However, depending on electromagnetic signals for locking and unlocking your vehicle—rather than using a traditional key—means there’s a risk. With the right technology, someone could intercept and misuse that digital communication.

In the UK, there were almost 130,000 vehicles stolen from April 2023 to March 2024. Furthermore, more than half of these incidents involved thieves manipulating the signal from the car key without ever having physical access to it.

This problem mainly affects vehicles with passive keyless entry systems, which enable you to unlock the door just by being within a certain range of the car without pressing any buttons. These systems work by emitting a signal detectable by nearby cars.

The distance at which this works varies by manufacturer, but theoretically, if your keys are inside the house and your car is in the driveway, the keys and the car are far enough apart that no signal should reach them.

Nevertheless, thieves may use devices to extend the key’s signal range, executing what’s known as a relay attack, which typically involves multiple devices.

The first thief situates themselves outside the house within range of the keys and captures the signal to relay it to a second accomplice positioned next to your vehicle.

While keyless cars offer convenience, they also present potential security vulnerabilities – Credit: Getty

They utilize their devices to capture the exact data contained within the signal, which is then relayed to their accomplice with a second device near your car. The vehicle recognizes the key-specific signals and unlocks as if the key were present.

To prevent this scenario, apart from switching to a lower-tech vehicle, ensure that your key doesn’t emit any signals when you don’t need to unlock your car.

Some manufacturers are offering “sleeping fobs” in newer models that employ motion-sensor technology to halt signal transmission when the key is not likely to be needed.

Additionally, some companies are developing keys that operate on bandwidths much more difficult to relay.

One day, we may eliminate keys entirely, replacing them with biometric technologies like fingerprint or facial recognition for car access.

For now, if your vehicle employs keyless entry and a sleep mode isn’t available, it’s advisable to find alternative ways to block the signal.

This is where a Faraday box or pouch becomes useful. These containers are lined with conductive material to prevent signals from entering or exiting.

You might also wrap the key in aluminum foil or store it in a microwave or refrigerator—just ensure the latter is turned off.

This article addresses the query (submitted by Radhika Bhatia): “Should I keep my car keys in a Faraday box?”

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Nocturnal Spiders Employ Captured Fireflies as Luminous Lures to Entice Prey

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Sheet Web Spider Psechrus Clavis is known to utilize the coloration and web of its own body as visual cues to effectively capture and consume insects. Interestingly, it doesn’t immediately eat the male fireflies, referred to as Daifan Lampaloid; instead, these spiders retain them on the web, allowing the fireflies to continue emitting bioluminescent signals for up to an hour. This observation has raised intriguing questions among a research team from Tunghai University, the University of New South Wales, the Sydney Institute of Technology, and the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Taiwan.

Sheet web spider with fireflies caught in the web. Image credit: Tunghai University Spider.

Researcher I-Min TSO and colleagues at Tunghai University documented Psechrus Clavis retaining fireflies on the web while these insects continued to emit bioluminescent light for up to an hour.

They noted that the spiders periodically check for the captured fireflies.

Fascinated by this peculiar behavior, the researchers designed an experiment to see if it serves as a hunting strategy.

The experiment involved placing firefly-like LEDs on the actual sheet spider web, using other webs as controls.

The results indicated that the web with LEDs attracted three times as many prey compared to the control web.

This figure increased to ten times more prey when actual fireflies were visible.

The findings affirm that the presence of captured fireflies enhances the spider’s hunting success.

Researchers also discovered that the majority of captured fireflies are male and likely mistaken for potential mates.

“Our findings underscore the previously unrecognized interaction where Firefly Signals, intended for sexual communication, also benefit spiders,” remarked Dr. TSO.

“This study provides new insights into how sit-and-wait predators can adapt to attract prey, revealing the intricate complexities of predator-prey interactions.”

“This behavior may have evolved in sheet web spiders as a way to avoid the energy costs associated with producing their own bioluminescence, similar to anglerfish.”

“Instead, spiders can leverage the allure of their prey’s glow to attract their own targets.”

Video recordings taken during the experiments show sheet web spiders employing various tactics when interacting with different prey species.

The spider swiftly consumes a moth caught in the web but takes its time with the trapped fireflies.

“The varying treatment of prey suggests that spiders may use specific cues to differentiate between prey species and adjust their responses accordingly,” explained Dr. TSO.

“We hypothesize that the bioluminescent signals of fireflies help spiders to fine-tune their handling behavior towards different types of prey.”

This study was published in Journal of Animal Ecology.

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Ho Yin Yip et al. Visual seduction through bioluminescence of prey seduces waiting predators. Journal of Animal Ecology Published online on August 27th, 2025. doi:10.1111/1365-2656.70102

Source: www.sci.news

Humpback whales employ unique tools for their tasks

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Humpback whale (Megaptera novaegangliae) Whales build so-called “bubble nets” as tools to hunt, but researchers from the University of Hawaii and the Alaska Whale Foundation have found that these marine animals not only build bubble nets, but also manipulate these unique tools in a variety of ways to maximize food intake in their Alaskan feeding grounds. This novel study sheds light on a behavior critical to whale survival and makes a compelling case for including humpback whales among the rare animals that manufacture and use unique tools.

Although some animal species use tools to forage, only a few manufacture or modify tools. Humpback whales are one of these rare species, as they manufacture bubble net tools while foraging. Using animal tags and unmanned aerial system technology, Sabo others. Investigating the bubble nets made by solitary humpback whales (Megaptera novaegangliae) while feeding on krill in the Pacific Ocean, whale nets in southeast Alaska. They demonstrate that the nets are composed of internal tangential loops, suggesting that the whales actively control the number of loops, the size and depth of the net, and the horizontal spacing of adjacent bubbles. They argue that the whales adjust structural elements of the net to increase the amount of prey they catch in a single lunge by an average of seven-fold. Image credit: Szabo others., doi: 10.1098/rsos.240328.

“Many animals use tools to find food, but few actually make or modify their own tools,” says Lars Bader, a professor at the University of Hawaii.

“We discovered that solitary humpback whales in southeast Alaska build complex bubble webs to capture krill.”

“These whales expertly blow bubbles in patterns that form nets with internal loops, actively controlling details such as the number of loops, the size and depth of the net, and the spacing of the bubbles.”

“This method allows them to catch up to seven times as many prey in one feeding dive without expending any extra energy.”

“This impressive behaviour puts humpback whales in a rare group of animals that make and use their own tools to hunt.”

The marine mammals known as cetaceans include whales, dolphins and porpoises and are notoriously difficult to study.

Advances in research tools are making it easier to track and understand whale behaviour, and in this case, Professor Bader and his colleagues used specialised tags and drones to study the whale's movements from above and below the water.

“We attached non-invasive suction cup tags to whales in southeast Alaska and flew drones over humpback whales as they hunted alone in bubble nets to collect data on their underwater movements,” said Dr William Goff, also from the University of Hawaii.

“The tools are great, but it takes practice to hone them.”

“Whales are a difficult group to study and successful tracking with tags and drones requires skill and precision.”

“This little-studied foraging behavior is unique to humpback whales.”

“It's really amazing to see these animals in their natural habitat, doing things that only a handful of people get to see.”

“And then it's rewarding to be able to go back to the lab and look at the data and find out what they're doing underwater after they're out of sight.”

a paper The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

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A. Sabo others2024. Solitary humpback whales manufacture bubble nets as a tool to enhance prey intake. R. Soc. Open Science 11(8):240328;doi: 10.1098/rsos.240328

This article is based on a press release provided by the University of Hawaii.

Source: www.sci.news