Peer Reviewed

Researchers are closer to understanding potential common features of sources of oxidative stress observed in several diseases, from Parkinson’s disease to cancer.

In a study published in Nature Energy this month, researchers led by Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) describe how nanodiamond-reinforced composite membranes can purify hydrogen from its humid mixtures, making the hydrogen generation processes vastly more efficient and cost-effective.

Okara, a soybean byproduct, can now be 3D printed without any additives, boosting food sustainability efforts.

Inspired by the ‘Game of Life’ SUTD researchers are applying cellular automation to efficiently model phase change materials with multiple optical phases for next-generation photonics devices.

Zika virus infection hijacks glucose metabolism for its own good and to the detriment of infected foetuses.

A prototype MRI machine that can be built at low cost and produces high quality neuroimaging is reported in Nature Communications. The machine can help provide access to MRI across low- and middle-income countries, as well as at the point of care.

Abundant, safe, and environmentally friendly, tin sulfide is predicted to be used in next generation solar cell panels. Now, a research group has used impurity doping to fabricate n-type conductive tin sulfide thin films, paving the way for their use in solar cells.

Biophysicists in Japan have found ways to make and manipulate capsule-like DNA structures that could be used in the development of artificial molecular systems. Such systems could function, for example, inside the human body.

Asthma sufferers generally find their condition gets worse at night. Now a research group may understand why. Melatonin, a sleep hormone that is sometimes prescribed to treat insomnia, exasperates the constriction of the bronchus - the pathway that moves air to and from your lungs.

A team of astronomers including Kavli IPMU's Ji-an Jiang has discovered the fastest optical flash of a Type Ia supernova.

A new saliva-based COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test (ART) technology co-developed by the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre and the National University of Singapore shows promise in early clinical testing, outperforming existing ARTs and delivering results in minutes, with nearly comparable sensitivity to the gold standard Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test.

Tohoku University researchers have dubbed a newly discovered phenomenon, where microbe-generated gas bubbles create granular fluctuations on the wet sandy floors of waterbodies, the microbial Brazil nut effect.

Scientists at Hokkaido University and Texas A&M University have identified a key mechanism used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to evade host immune systems.

Examination of Japanese cases of gynecological cancer offers a better understanding of the profile of a rare ovarian tumor and could change treatment guidelines.

Two-dimensional materials exhibit highly desirable properties for advanced technologies, such as flexibility, superconductivity and more. Yet the mechanism by which they become has eluded scientists for some time. Through a novel monitoring and analysis method, researchers have revealed a critical mechanism in the development of 2D monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide.

Researchers from the The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science use electron energy loss spectroscopy to understand local thermal behavior at grain boundaries in polycrystals

Despite significant advancements in computing technologies, they pale in comparison to the energy efficiency of human brains. Now, researchers from Tohoku University and the University of Gothenburg have developed a new spintronic technology for brain-inspired computing.

Synthesized microrobots that are capable of converting their mechanical motion into a means of self-propulsion in water have been developed by scientists at Hokkaido University.

In 2019, a new superconductor was discovered amongst the nickelates (nickel-based oxides), but only now have the underlying physical and chemical similarities with their Periodic-Table twin superconductors, the cuprates, been identified.

In a continuing effort to improve upon previous work, a research team at the Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, have applied their recently developed Bayesian phase difference estimation quantum algorithm to perform full configuration interaction (full-CI) calculations of atoms and molecules without simulating the time evolution of the wave function conditional on an ancillary qubit. Superior to conventional methods in terms of parallel execution of quantum gates during quantum computing, this new algorithm is expected to be much easier to implement in actual quantum computers.

Researchers from the Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine have shown in patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma who received cancer treatment that eliminating the hepatitis C virus with a direct-acting antiviral treatment reduces the risk of the liver cancer progression and increases overall patient survival.

Since the discovery of quasicrystals, solids that mimic crystals in their long-range order but lack periodicity, scientists have sought physical properties related to their peculiar structure. Now, an international group of researchers has reported a long-range magnetic order in QCs with icosahedral symmetry that turns ferromagnetism below certain temperatures.

Feeling unsure of yourself? Your brain’s background noise may be interfering with the long memory signals communicated by your neurons’ electrical chatter.

A new method for creating one of chemistry’s most widely used class of compounds could revolutionize industrial processes, making them cheaper, simpler and more environmentally friendly.

Researchers at The University of Tokyo use numerical simulations to model the process called devitrification during which glasses crystallize, which may help improve the long-term stability of glassy materials, like pharmaceuticals and smartphone screens.

Scientists are turning to genomics to better understand the epidemiology of malaria and to inform control and elimination interventions and strategies. In the Lake Victoria region of Kenya, malaria burden remains very high despite more than a decade of intense control activities. A team of researchers from Osaka City University, Nagasaki University, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Mount Kenya University generated whole Plasmodium falciparum genome sequences from the lake region. Their analyses revealed that malaria parasites from this region appear distinct from other parasites from East Africa, while frequencies of known drug resistance markers were similar to those in other East African parasite populations. Their findings will help to develop improved surveillance tools to determine parasite transmission routes and aid clinical disease management.

Japanese customers have higher expectations of restaurants selling traditional foods more when they display an older year of establishment.

We have clarified at the molecular level the mechanism by which a microenvironment, a so-called niche that surrounds cancer cells, is formed in which stromal cells and immune cells are attracted at an initiation stage of breast cancer onset. A molecule called FRS2β is found to be critical for creating this microenvironment. The present finding is expected to be beneficial in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancers at the initiation stage.

The diversity of threatened fish in estuaries increases when surrounded by forest cover, whereas estuaries surrounded by farmland show the opposite effect.

Malfunctioning of the so-called Hippo signalling pathway within animal cells leads to irregular activity of proteins that regulate genes involved in cell proliferation. Researchers have identified a key step in the process of this aberration, opening the door to new therapeutics for cancers such as head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma and lung adenocarcinoma.