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A groundbreaking innovation from ETH Zurich is set to transform medical training and reduce reliance on animal testing. Swiss Vascular, a spin-off from the university’s Multi-Scale Robotics Lab, has developed anatomically precise silicone models of cerebral blood vessels, offering a hyper-realistic platform for practicing complex medical procedures.

While studying different cross-linking structures in silicone, the research team stumbled upon the potential for electrical conductivity in a copolymer, which is a polymer chain containing two different types of repeating units—cage-structured and then linear silicones in this case.

The possibility for conductivity arises from the way electrons can move across Si—O—Si bonds with overlapping orbitals. Semiconductors have two main states: the ground state, which doesn’t conduct electricity, and a conducting state, which does. The conducting state, also known as an excited state, occurs when some electrons jump up to the next electron orbital, which is connected across the material like a metal.

Black Donuts Inc. has announced the launch of InTire Labs, a new independent material research center located in Tampere, Finland. The facility, officially open on July 16, 2025, is designed to accelerate the development of sustainable tire and rubber materials. It will serve as a neutral and confidential platform for research and development, supporting tire manufacturers, rubber product producers, and raw material suppliers worldwide.

Falken Tyre Europe GmbH announced the appointment of Hiroshi Hamada as its new Managing Director, Chairman & CEO.

Hamada has enjoyed 33 years at Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), initially joining the company back in 1992 – then named The Ohtsu Tire & Rubber Company. In 2018, Hamada became Vice President of SRI China and President of Dunlop Tire in China. From2024, Hamada continues to serve as Senior Executive Officer of SRI.

Bridgestone Corporation has announced its continued support for the 2025 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC), unveiling a new generation of sustainable tires featuring ENLITEN™ technology. These cutting-edge tires mark a milestone in eco-innovation, incorporating over 65% recycled and renewable materials—the highest ratio ever used by the company in motorsports.

Bridgestone Retail Operations (BSRO), a subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas, has donated $100,000 to Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) following a two-week campaign where the company made a financial gift for every My Firestone and Tires Plus app downloaded by store customers.

As part of the campaign, BSRO and WWP also hosted an injured veteran and their guest at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500, where they received exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the iconic race.  

Endurica, the developer and provider of the world’s most comprehensive CAE workflows for fatigue analysis of elastomers, is now an authorized distributor for Coreform, a leader in next-generation simulation technologies. Coreform Cubit’s pre-processing and hex-dominant meshing tools minimize the time spent on model preparation for FEA and CFD while maximizing control over mesh quality. The addition of Coreform to Endurica’s toolset enables rubber product manufacturers and tire makers to automate and streamline mesh creation which is the most time-consuming part of computer simulation modelling.