Makers who restore old scientific equipment sometimes end up pushing those machines into new roles. ProjectsInFlight fits that description after bringing a JEOL JSM-5200 scanning electron microscope back to life from a scrap pile.

Scanning electron microscopes work by zipping a narrow beam of electrons across the surface of a specimen. These electrons bounce off surface atoms and emit secondary electrons. Collecting all of those secondary electrons yields a highly detailed representation of the sample’s external form and roughness. However, the features you’re most interested in are often hidden beneath the surface. Transmission electron microscopes use electrons to penetrate ultra-thin materials. Any changes in density or material inside the sample affect how many electrons travel through, and a detector on the other end detects that pattern and translates it into an image of what’s going on inside.

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Building on a scanning electron microscope to increase transmission capacity can be very expensive. That’s why ProjectsInFlight decided to be creative and build his own adapter from scratch using only basic machine tools. The adapter is a bespoke component that fits into the microscope chamber and perfectly aligns the sample. Then, a conductive barrier surrounds it, preventing secondary electrons bouncing off the surface from reaching the detector. A small mirror beneath the sample collects any electrons that pass through. These electrons bounce off the mirror, creating a new signal that the microscope’s standard detector can detect.

One of the most difficult jobs was to fit everything into the microscope chamber’s limited space. The standard sample holders took up too much space, so we had to create a custom plate out of thin metal to free up 14mm. The remaining components, such as the adjustable mirror mount and shield, were turned and milled from aluminum and brass. The most challenging element was figuring out how to change the mirror angle without repeatedly venting the entire chamber. So he designed a unique configuration that allows you to alter the tilt even after the suction is activated.

His initial test specimens were gold nanoparticles affixed to a standard electron microscopy grid, but the results were inconsistent at initially because some surface-generated signal was still reaching the detector. He repaired it by significantly beefing up the shield. With the shield in place, he could see the nanoparticles as distinct dark spots in the image. Because they appeared flat, we concluded that the contrast was created by electrons flowing through the particles rather than merely bouncing off the surface. The next object was a mosquito wing, and the thin sections of the wing allowed enough electrons to create a high internal contrast image. He could see small structures inside the wing that would have been invisible with a surface scan, and the best part was that the thicker areas of the wing blocked more electrons, allowing him to identify where the material was thickening or thinning.

However, this improvised adapter is not a replacement for a genuine transmission electron microscope. Those instruments have all sorts of fancy lenses and so on to make them much more powerful, but our adapter provides useful internal contrast for samples that can live with a bit less resolution. The best part is you won’t have to spend another small cash on a completely new instrument.
[Source]

In an unusual misinformation campaign, fraudulent data breach disclosures were submitted to Maine’s official breach portal and publicly posted before their legitimacy could be verified, prompting companies to deny the claims.

A notice allegedly filed by multiplayer social virtual reality platform VRChat is the most recent entry in the state Attorney General’s breach disclosure database.

However, a company representative told BleepingComputer that the breach notification is fake and has been filed using the name of a fictitious employee.

VRChat is a multiplayer social virtual reality platform built on Unity and originally released for Windows and Oculus Rift in 2014, where users interact as customizable avatars in user-created virtual worlds.

The fake VRChat data breach entry notes that personal data of more than 2.4 million users was exposed to hackers after they gained access to the company’s cloud environment.

Whoever submitted the false information made the effort to draft a notification letter for affected individuals, which claimed that the hacking incident occurred between May 10 and 12 and impacted the following types of data:

• VRChat username
• Email address associated with a VRChat account
• VRChat+ subscription status
• Login history, including device, hardware identifiers, and IP addresses
• Steam or Meta user ID linked to a VRChat account

At a cursory look, the false letter appears legitimate, filled with details about unauthorized access, results of a forensic investigation, actions taken after detecting the hack, claims that steps have been taken to increase security, and what users should do to increase protection for their account.

Charles Tupper, Head of Community at VRChat, told BleepingComputer that the data breach notification in the database of the Maine Office of the Attorney General is fraudulent:

“VRChat did not submit this Notice of Data Incident, and the employee/email cited does not exist. We have no reason to believe that our data or systems have been compromised.”

Tupper added that the company is “in the process of contacting the Maine Attorney General’s office to have this removed.”

Graham Gaylor, the CEO and co-founder of VRChat, also confirmed the statement BleepingComputer received from Tupper.

The Maine Office of the Attorney General also responded to our request for comments and said that “the notice will be coming down” and that they were “not aware of another example of intentional misrepresentation of the notice filings.”

Earlier this week, the Maine Attorney General’s Office listed another suspicious data breach notification allegedly from Discord, which claimed that 10 million people were impacted by a data breach.

Maine’s Attorney General Office confirmed to BleepingComputer that anyone can submit a breach notification form and have it added to the portal without verification.

“We don’t have any independent knowledge of the breaches, the submitting entity fills out the information and it goes directly onto the site. We will review the one you’ve flagged, thank you,” Maine Attorney General’s Office told BleepingComputer when asked about the validity of the Discord data breach submission.

Unlike most formal data breach notifications, the Discord entry did not include a notification letter from the company informing consumers about the breach, disclosing what happened and how those impacted can protect themselves.

Apart from the company address, the Discord entry included vague and unreliable information, starting with the name of the person submitting the notice, a Gmail contact, and a placeholder phone number.

Furthermore, the details about the breach occurring on July 9, 2024, and being discovered on August 8, 2025, along with an inconsistent consumer notification date of January 1st, 2000, are clear indications of a false submission.

Although a data breach did impact Discord in 2025, it occurred on September 20 and was due to a compromise of the company’s Zendesk support desk system.

At the time, the hackers told BleepingComputer that they had stolen data of 5.5 million users from 8.4 million tickets.

Despite being listed on an official portal, the validity of data disclosures is not to be taken for granted as inadequate vetting makes it easy for scammers to spread misinformation, potentially causing reputational harm and panic before companies even become aware that a false filing has been posted.

These fake filings highlight the need for journalists and consumers to independently verify breach notifications with affected companies before treating entries on public notification portals as legitimate incidents.

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OptiJuegos has delivered a working version of Minecraft to the original PlayStation 2, called OptiCraft. The port draws directly from Minecraft Pocket Edition version 0.6.1 and runs on real hardware released more than a decade before that mobile edition appeared. Players can generate worlds, break and place blocks, and engage with survival elements on a console many assumed could never handle the game.

Development focused on fitting the experience onto the PlayStation 2’s comparatively limited hardware, which only had 32 megabytes of main memory and a small amount of video memory to work with. OptiJuegos focused on specialized optimisations, making good use of the console’s VU1 vector unit for graphics and calculations. The end result is a frame rate of more than 30 per second, and the game runs smoothly even during normal play, unlike emulators, which stutter.

The gameplay loop basically follows the Pocket Edition’s original design. World generation creates a playable environment in which players may move around, harvest resources, and change the ground with blocks. Survival mode is all about keeping an eye on your basic needs and remaining vigilant for hazards. In addition, the Nether Reactor Core from version 0.6.1 reappears. The draw distance and active world size are lowered since there is just not enough memory to support all of the geometry, textures, lighting, and player activities. Even while the end result is a focused experience, you can still feel the excitement of seeing your construction come to life, as shown in the linked clip.

Controls translate directly to the DualShock 2. Camera movement and block interaction were sufficient for either cautious building or quick resource collection. People who tested the port on real consoles said that it performed well, with only the rare stutter during normal sessions. Certain players reported discovering console-specific peculiarities, such as lag on older platforms, although the essential gameplay remained consistent.

To get the port to work, you must consider a few things, which differ depending on the state of your console. If you have a modded PS2, you can use Open PS2 Loader to boot the executable by just placing it in the programs folder. If your PS2 is stock and one of the Slim variations, you can easily boot a burned disc image with FreeDVDBoot. World saves are now written to memory cards, however the developer has mentioned that they are working on adding USB storage capabilities, which would greatly simplify maintaining several worlds or huge projects.

This release is merely another example of the homebrew community’s ongoing story on the PlayStation 2. The console debuted in 2000 and has always been designed with fixed, pre-authored worlds in mind. However, efforts like this one show that with a little care and attention, the Emotion Engine and its processors can still provide new interactive experiences, even though official support ended years ago. It was a big challenge to remove or compress all of the pieces that would not fit while retaining the game’s core, which is what makes it so dynamic.
[Source]

The approach of a new school year conjures images of teachers preparing their classrooms and principals greeting students as they walk through the doors on the first day of classes.

But federal data shows that the education jobs that will see the most growth over a decade are supporting roles like substitute teachers, therapists and technologists.

The findings are bracketed by changes in student enrollment and the ending of federal school emergency funds, which are reshaping school districts’ staffing outlooks. School districts across the country continue to grapple with millions in budget deficits, leading to hundreds of job cuts in some cases.

Recent reports show that schools are likely to struggle to fill the most in-demand roles.

Highest-Growth Areas

Looking at 10 education roles that will gain the most net jobs by 2034, short-term substitute teachers top the overall rankings with an increase of more than 10,000.

Malia Hite says that Utah is among the states that will see an increase in jobs for teacher assistants and paraeducators, who will specifically support student behavior and early literacy, thanks to an infusion of state and federal funds. Hite serves as the Utah State Board of Education’s executive coordinator of education licensing.

She adds the caveat that it’s tough to attract candidates to those roles, particularly in early childhood education — a problem felt strongly around the country.

“However, I will say that those positions, because those positions are typically an entry-level position with a low wage or part-time, they’re hard positions to fill,” Hite says. “Even in the current job market, [where] it’s hard to find positions, we’re still seeing openings in our paraeducator job market statewide. Some of them are making $9 an hour, so why would I do that when I can go somewhere else and make $15 in an entry-level position?”

Hite is cautious when talking about education growth overall because it’s not equal among sectors. Increased demand is expected for non-teacher and non-administrator staff like speech language pathologists, social workers and occupational therapists, she says.

“This is now our second year that we’ve seen a decrease of student enrollment, and so that means we need fewer teachers, there’s less funding, and so we’re seeing a lot of things like schools close,” she explains. “So in that way, there’s no way that education jobs are going to grow.”

A report from the Consortium for School Networking, a professional organization for K-12 tech leaders, found that schools struggle to retain IT staff across all specialities and levels. Among school leaders that it polled, 16 percent said they were in danger of losing IT staff due to the winding down of federal relief money that was allocated to schools during the pandemic.

Health Workers In Demand

The rest of the list, however, is filled by health therapy roles and technology roles. A recent analysis by staffing company ProTherapy predicts physical therapist assistants, speech-language pathologists and physical therapists will be the most in-demand education jobs of 2026 and continue to see double-digit percentage growth.

Schools employ physical therapists and assistants to ensure that students with disabilities can participate in school activities to the fullest extent, while speech language pathologists help students with communication disorders.

Dakota Long, who headed ProTherapy’s 2026 School Workforce Demand Index, says these jobs are growing in demand because schools are aiming to identify students with disabilities and set up interventions as early as possible, as early as age 3 in some schools.

But another factor in the demand for these specialists – physical therapist assistants, in particular – is the job market they are graduating into.

While teacher graduates are overwhelmingly likely to work in the classroom, newly minted health care workers can be wooed by jobs in hospitals, clinics and home health agencies in addition to schools.

“From my perspective in working with schools, they’re wanting to identify those things early on,” Long says, “that way they can provide the best services for these kiddos before it gets to age 7, 8, and then they realize, ‘Oh gosh, we could have been supplying these services earlier.’ So you have early intervention, more kiddos needing these services, but then employees that could be taking on these roles have a lot of different options, as well.”

Hite says that while non-teacher jobs are expected to increase in Utah, though realistically not by as much as ProTherapy’s projections, some nuance is required when looking at what the growth rates mean.

“If I look at the subsector of audiologist, we had two [full-time employees] six years ago, and now we have 11,” she says, an increase of more than five-fold. “We’re talking about 10 people.”

Fluoroscopy is probably the best-known method of X-ray imaging: an X-ray beam passes through the subject to be imaged, and the transmitted X-rays illuminate a phosphor screen. Dense objects, such as metal or bone, cast a shadow on the screen, which provides a real-time image of the subject’s interior. Already having access to X-ray sources, [MarcellF]’s next step was to investigate common phosphor materials, then synthesize his own.

Most common materials that fluoresce under ultraviolet light showed no activity under X-rays: fluorescein, quinine, UV fluorescent paint, and common fluorescent minerals emitted no noticeable glow under 80 kV X-ray stimulation. However, strontium aluminate phosphors did fluoresce well, with a strong afterglow, as did the phosphors in a fluorescent light bulb, some LEDs, and an electroluminescent panel. The electroluminescent panel, which used a zinc sulfide phosphor, was almost as bright as the gadolinium oxysulfide screen from a CT scanner’s detector and had no noticeable afterglow.

One well-known X-ray phosphor is scheelite (calcium tungstate), which [MarcellF] next synthesized. He had previously tested a sample of natural scheelite without success, probably due to impurities. The first step of the synthesis was to melt together potassium nitrate and sodium carbonate, in which [MarcellF] dissolved broken pieces of a tungsten TIG welding rod. This formed sodium and potassium tungstates, which were dissolved and reacted with a calcium chloride solution. This precipitated calcium tungstate, which [MarcellF] annealed to make fluorescent. This produced a blue glow under X-ray stimulation, and doping with lead atoms made it significantly brighter.

We’ve covered several methods of X-ray detection before; most modern fluoroscopes now use a phosphor screen in conjunction with a camera, or sometimes with a photomultiplier tube.

Two exclusive MacBook Air deals are in effect on M4 13-inch and 15-inch models, dropping prices to as low as $899 while supplies last.

The first exclusive deal is on Apple’s closeout M4 MacBook Air 13-inch. This upgraded model, which is discounted to $899* in Sky Blue, has a 10-core GPU for enhanced performance. It also has 16GB of unified memory and 512GB of storage.

Buy M4 13″ MacBook Air for $899

Originally retailing for $1,199, the blowout $899 price at B&H can be activated by shopping through the special pricing links in this post or in our M4 MacBook Air 13-inch Price Guide.

If you prefer the larger screen size, B&H is also offering substantial savings on the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air. Pick up the M4/16GB/256GB model in the sleek Midnight finish for just $969*.

Buy M4 15″ MacBook Air for $969

Both MacBook Air deals include free 2-day shipping within the contiguous U.S. for Father’s Day gift-giving (or to start using the laptop yourself right away).

To put the blowout savings into perspective, it would cost at least $180 more to pick up the cheapest 2026 M5 15-inch MacBook Air, albeit the starting model comes with 512GB of storage.

The exclusive offers are valid now through June 28, but supply is limited to stock on hand and inventory may sell out at any time.

personal tech

MPs told that while concerns over handsets and social media grows, evidence they’re changing children’s brains is limited

MPs looking for proof that smartphones and social media are rotting children’s brains got a less satisfying answer from neuroscientists on Wednesday: nobody can really prove it.

Appearing before the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee this week, three researchers spent much of the session explaining that concern and evidence are not quite the same thing. 

Asked what evidence exists on the impact of digital devices on infants and young children, Professor Denis Mareschal, director of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, replied: “There is very little, if any, causal research in the early years. Almost everything is correlational.”

MPs kept coming back to the question – and the experts kept coming back to the same answer.

When questioned about social media’s impact on adolescents, Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore of the University of Cambridge was equally cautious. “What evidence do we have of the impact of digital devices or social media on the adolescent brain?” she asked. “Almost nothing. There are a few small studies, but they haven’t been replicated, and they’re purely correlational.”

However, that didn’t stop the witnesses from expressing concern. Blakemore noted that adolescence is a period when reward systems in the brain are highly active while regions involved in self-control are still developing. “Even as adults, it’s really hard to put our phones down if we’re seeing constantly interesting things, but as a child or an adolescent whose prefrontal cortex is developing, it’s even harder,” she said.

For Dr Dusana Dorjee, a senior lecturer in psychology in education at the University of York, the bigger concern was displacement. Children learn self-regulation through conversation, play, sport, and social interaction, she said, which can be crowded out by excessive screen use.

“What would children do if they were not on their devices?” she asked. “They would interact with others, they would play, they would have multi-sensory input that digital devices can’t provide.”

The researchers were also reluctant to throw every screen into the same bucket. Mareschal pointed to evidence that video calls can help families stay connected, while Dorjee drew a distinction between educational apps and endlessly scrolling whatever an algorithm decides comes next.

MPs also wanted to know whether neuroscience could settle one of the liveliest arguments in the debate: how old a child should be before they’re allowed onto social media.

“What neuroscience can’t do is pinpoint a precise age,” Blakemore said. “The individual differences in brain development are vast.”

AI companions also got their turn in the hot seat, and the answers were even fuzzier than they were for social media.

“We don’t really have any evidence, and that’s one area where I think we really urgently need new evidence,” Blakemore said. “We need to think about, and this is the research question, how children and young people are interpreting AI chatbots, and whether they’re interpreting them just like they would be interpreting a friend’s behavior and suggestions and mental states.”

If there was a takeaway from the hearing, it was that concern about digital childhood is running well ahead of the evidence needed to settle the argument. ®

Cast iron skillets from the kitchen rarely meet bullets outside fiction. The team at Yee Yee Life set out to change that on their private range in Texas. They lined up fresh pans in a row and fired round after round to find out exactly how many it takes to stop each type of ammunition. Slow motion cameras rolled while safety gear stayed on and results stayed unpredictable.

The tests began with the lightest choice, a Ruger Mark IV sending a.22 long rifle bullets were placed directly into the first skillet. The bullet struck the curved surface, showering a silver mist outwards, leaving just a faint mark. However, none of the pans shattered, and the round was nothing near breaking through. Handgun rounds followed, with a Glock 19 firing a 9mm round into the center of the first pan. Fragments flew out the opposite side and bounced off the second skillet. While the margins of the second pan were severely damaged, the round remained intact; just one pan cracked under pressure.

The 1911, loaded with.45 ACP ammo, came next. This cartridge created a much wider hole in the first skillet, and a piece of the bullet lodged in the second pan without going completely through. To be fair, the damage appeared significant, yet it still required two pans to stop it. Then came magnum strength, which, combined with a.44 Magnum round, sent the first two pans flying cleanly, but only barely cleared the third, leaving a tiny bulge with no crack or exit evident. The round ended with three pans, which was the magic number.

A Desert Eagle chambered in .50 AE replicated the two-pan penetration approach, with the bullet escaping the second skillet and bouncing off the third while spinning rapidly. In tests using stainless steel pans, we saw the same round pass clear through the first three layers, but the cast iron ones proved to be much tougher. The hosts noticed this right away, as these pans were far more durable than their steel counterparts.

Shotgun slugs had a minor impact on the game, as one 12 gauge slug burst through the first three pans, leaving a trail of flames around the entry point and a wider hole on the third pan. Shrapnel flew everywhere, and a handful of pans were damaged because this round had significantly more penetrating power than the.44 Magnum or The.50 AE, but it took four pans to bring it to a stop.

Rifle bullets slipped into the mix, with an AR platform firing 5.56 NATO green tip ammo, striking little holes in the first two pans and ejecting clouds of dust and smoke as it approached the third, leaving a terrible divot and fracture. However, the round came to a sudden end with only two pans removed. It was over after three pans. Next up was an AK-47 chambered in 7.62×39 ammo, which easily cleared three pans before shattering apart on the fourth, sending pan parts and bullets flying everywhere. A gold SCAR in.308 followed the same course, striking three pans before coming to a standstill on the fourth. Then comes a bolt-action rifle.30-06 appeared and opened up, emitting smoke, sparks, and fire as it traveled through three pans before coming to a halt on the fourth tier. All three rounds ended with three pans pierced.

Then, in the big leagues, he used a.50 BMG rifle, his most powerful hitter. Nine brand new cast iron pans were lined up in a row, waiting to see what would happen, and it soared perfectly through, entering the first pan without a hitch and leaving a wonderful large hole in the second. By the third pan, it was turning slightly sideways, and by the fifth, it was still clearly on a roll. The sixth pan eventually halted it dead in its tracks. We must emphasize that no other round in the entire test progressed past the third pan. Five pans fell down, and six pans finally brought everything to a halt.

The French government revealed that a recent breach of its Tchap encrypted messaging platform affects the accounts of over 73,000 employees in the French public sector.

DINUM, the French government’s digital affairs directorate, disclosed on Monday that a threat actor gained access to the Tchap platform using a compromised user account and notified France’s data protection authority (CNIL) due to the potential exposure of personal data shared by some users.

While it initially shared almost no details about what was exposed and how many people were affected by this breach, the DINUM disclosed in a subsequent update that the attackers may have accessed information shared by around 9% of all registered users on the platform.

DINUM explained that while private conversations are encrypted and their content protected, the attacker was able to steal all the data shared in public chat rooms, which are not encrypted. This allowed them to collect the users’ names and email addresses, as well as their avatar images and the public sector organization they work for.

“Of the more than 825,000 registered agents, 73,467 agents would be affected by this incident, or less than 9% of registered users. These forums, by design, are open to all users and their messages are not encrypted. Officers’ private conversations remain protected,” it said.

“At this point, the account behind the malicious requests has been identified. It was immediately blocked in order to remove the attacker’s persistent access and allow in-depth analysis of the data he was able to access. Potentially exposed data from user accounts concerns at least: last name, first name, email address, belonging entity and avatar.”

Although DINUM has yet to attribute this breach, a threat actor claimed responsibility for the attack over the weekend and shared a sample of stolen files, saying they gained access to the platform following a social engineering attack.

​The threat actor claimed to have scraped nearly 650,000 messages and information from more than 73,000 accounts, including their email addresses, meeting links, organization information, as well as account and device metadata.

​They’ve also allegedly stolen over 13.5GB of documents and media files shared by public servants using the Tchap service, as well as hardcoded LDAP credentials leaked via a PowerShell script.

Developed by DINUM in collaboration with ANSSI (the French Cybersecurity Agency) in 2018, Tchap is a decentralized collaboration tool and instant messaging platform for the French public sector, based on the Matrix protocol.

After becoming the default app for work communications for all civil servants in early August 2025, Tchap has reached over 300,000 monthly users and now has over 500,000 downloads on Google’s Play Store.

In May, French authorities also arrested a 15-year-old suspected of selling data stolen in an April cyberattack on ANTS (Agence nationale des titres sécurisés), the country’s agency for issuing and managing official identity and registration documents.

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