Peer Reviewed

Researchers discuss whether a "brain organoid" should be treated as a person by law, and suggest the need for legal and social discussions uncoupled from debates on consciousness.

Certain types of fungi can communicate with each other via electrical signals. But much remains unknown about how and when they do so. A group of researchers recently headed to the forest to measure the electrical signals of Laccaria bicolor mushrooms, finding that their electrical signals increased following rainfall.

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, have developed a desktop charger with voltages high enough to replenish the electric charge on N95 and surgical masks, which is required for effective use

Singapore scientists find use of healthcare resources, absenteeism and reduced productivity due to mental health issues place a significant burden on Singapore’s economy.

An Osaka Metropolitan University scientist published a review article on numerous asymmetric reactions using arynes, organized by style, and detailed their outline and characteristics. Unresolved issues and prospects in this field were also described.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo find a new approach to successfully identify areas at risk of flooding that can be missed by historical hazard maps.

A research group at the Osaka Metropolitan University analyzed the relationship between diet, muscle mass, and liver fibrosis progression in 136 patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease attending the Osaka Metropolitan University Hospital. The research group found that the group with the highest Japanese diet score had less advanced liver fibrosis, and that the intake of soy products, seafood, and seaweed was important.

The Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr once said, “An expert is a (person) that has made all the mistakes that can be made in a narrow field.” This idea that to master a skill we must learn from our mistakes and avoid making them in future has long been recognized; however, the brain mechanisms and pathways that control this ability have been poorly understood. We revealed a specific brain pathway that allows us to identify and learn from our mistakes to guide better decision-making in future. Our work is an important step towards understanding how the brain controls our daily choices and behavior. The identification of these cells as ‘mistake signalers’ may also help to guide new treatments for mental health conditions associated with impaired decision-making ability.

Osaka Metropolitan University researcher demonstrates that social and educational indicators strongly affect the population decline rate. This indicates that municipalities that invest more in education for children tend to have lower population decline rates. Surprisingly, educational indicators have a greater influence than economic indicators, such as the financial strength index. Some Asian countries, such as South Korea and China, will experience population declines as a result of low birth rates and aging populations.

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo use isotopically purified graphite to study the phenomenon of heat flowing like a fluid, which can lead to new heat-sink devices for electronics.

Conclusive evidence of chicken breeding in the Yayoi period of Japan has been discovered from the Karako-Kagi site.

In the quantum world particles can instantaneously know about each other’s state, even when separated by large distances. This is known as nonlocality. Now, A research group has produced some interesting findings on the Hardy nonlocality that have important ramifications for understanding quantum mechanics and its potential applications in communications.

Researchers from SANKEN (The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research), at Osaka University designed a cellulose nanofiber paper (nanopaper) that can be used as a substrate for on-skin electronics. The porous structure of the nanopaper means that it can conform and adhere to the skin well enough for effective signal transfer and allows moisture to pass through for breathability and comfort. It is hoped that the nanopaper can soon be used to acquire electrophysiological data, such as ECGs in the clinic.

Transport relies heavily on steel. But steel is heavy, and scientists are turning to alternatives to lessen the transportation industry’s carbon emissions. Magnesium alloys are one such alternative. But developing bonding technology that bonds magnesium alloys with structural steels has been severely limited because magnesium and iron are immiscible. Yet, a research group from Tohoku University has established a dealloying bonding technology that obtains a strong mechanical bond between iron and magnesium.

We typically think of robots as metal objects, filled with motors and circuits. But the field of molecular robotics is starting to change that. Like the formation of complex living organisms, molecular robots derive their form and functionality from assembled molecules stored in a single unit, i.e., a body. Yet manufacturing this body at the microscopic level is an engineering nightmare. Now, a Tohoku University team has created a simple workaround.

A research group at Osaka Metropolitan University has succeeded in selectively recovering trace rare earth elements in synthetic seawater and environmental water, such as hot spring water, using baker’s yeast with a phosphate group added. The phosphorylated yeast is expected to be utilized as a material for recovering useful metals and removing toxic metals, thereby contributing to the realization of a metal resource-circulating society.

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have developed a theory to experimentally determine differences in nuclear structure. Using this method to assess carbon and oxygen nuclei revealed that they contain more components in their cluster structure than in their shell structure. This enables visualization of nuclear structures without large-scale numerical calculations, which are expected to be applied to heavier nuclei in the future. This suggests that the method could be used to solve the ultimate question in nuclear physics: where did the elements we see around us come from?”

To survive, all organisms must regulate their appetite. Hormones and small proteins called neuropeptides perform this process, stimulating feelings of hunger and fullness. When researchers noted the similarities between GAWamide, a neuropeptide that regulates feeding in the Cladonema jellyfish, and myoinhibitory peptide, a neuropeptide that regulates feeding in fruit flies, they decided to test whether they could exchange the two. Their success in doing so highlights the deep evolutionary origins of feeding regulation.

With many countries enacting strict lockdowns in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, economists have begun looking at the wider implications of such policies. Typically, they employ a cost-benefit analysis, but this has certain limitations. To overcome these limitations, a Tohoku University professor has turned to a surprising source: physics

Nitrogen is such a crucial nutrient for plants that vast quantities of nitrogen-containing fertilizers are spread on farmlands worldwide. However, excess nitrogen in the soil and in drainage run-off into lakes and rivers causes serious ecological imbalances. A recent study has uncovered the regulatory mechanisms at work when plants utilize nitrogenous fertilizers in their roots, a positive step in the quest to generate crops that require less fertilizer while still producing the yields needed to feed the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us more aware of the aerosols that hang around in the air and spread certain infectious diseases. Common dental procedures can be potentially hazardous in this regard. Therefore, it is crucial for researchers to be able to measure how aerosols spread so they can reduce them. A recent study harnessed a high-sensitivity camera and a high intensity LED light source, along with a mannequin and dental air turbine, to measure the spread of aerosols and the effectiveness of various means to reduce them.

A tiny platform empowers scientists to examine how gut and liver cells interact in health and disease.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, find that a deep-learning model that simultaneously learns to classify satellite data as rain/no-rain while determining rain intensity outperforms other models.

Ferroptosis is a recently discovered type of cell death associated with certain neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Whilst scientists have understood that accumulated iron and degenerated lipids trigger ferroptosis, the actual mechanisms at play have remained a mystery. A team of researchers from Tohoku University has identified where in the cells these accumulations take place, and what gets targeted as ferroptosis occurs.

Researchers from Osaka University found that the COMMD3/8 complex is implicated in the progression of the autoimmune response in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis. They identified celastrol, the active compound of a medicinal herb, as an inhibitor of the COMMD3/8 complex. Celastrol blocked the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Thus, celastrol is a potential lead for developing treatments against rheumatoid arthritis.

Marine predators have expanded their ranges into the Arctic waters over the last twenty years, driven by climate change and associated increases in productivity.

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists analyzed each element of the neutrino mass matrix belonging to leptons and showed theoretically that the intergenerational mixing of lepton flavors is large. Furthermore, by using the mathematics of random matrix theory, the research team was able to prove, as much as is possible at this stage, why the calculation of the squared difference of the neutrino masses are in close agreement with the experimental results in the case of the seesaw model with the random Dirac and Majorana matrices. The results of this research are expected to contribute to the further development of particle theory research, which largely remains a mystery.

Asexual, or vegetative, reproduction in plants is controlled by environmental conditions, but the molecular signaling pathways that control this process are poorly understood. Recent research suggests that the KAI2-ligand (KL) hormone is responsible for initiating and terminating the production of gemmae, or genetically identical plantlets, on liverwort plants based on the presence or absence of specific environmental factors.

- The effect of the cycle of G proteins in real time on the two-step structural change of cell membrane receptors has been investigated - This study is expected to be applied to pathologies related to G protein-coupled receptors and on research for their treatments

- Research teams led by Professor Hongsoo Choi and Professor Yongseok Oh from DGIST joined the research team led by Dr. Jongcheol Rah from Korea Brain Research Institute to develop the technology for delivering a microrobot to a target point of a hippocampus in an in-vitro environment, connecting neural networks, and measuring neural signals - The research findings are expected to contribute to neural network research and the verification and analysis of cell therapy products