Science

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, find that organic vapors can induce dissolution of molecular salts (i.e., organic deliquescence), similar to water vapor-induced deliquescence

Rie Makiura, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Metropolitan University has published a review article on the facile synthesis of nanosheet materials with precise regular nanoscale pores. In 2010, Professor Makiura’s research group succeeded in fabricating the world's first MOF (metal-organic framework) nanosheets on the surface of water using a simple low-energy process. The procedure, which involved adding drops of suitably chosen molecular components to the water surface took advantage of the same phenomenon that causes the formation of oil films and led to the creation of nanosheets of exceptional integrity and stability. In the present review article, Professor Makiura describes the MOF nanosheets developed by her group so far and provides a detailed description of their characteristics and comparison with other MOF nanosheets reported around the world. In addition, she describes the formation mechanism of the MOF nanosheets on the water surface.

A collaborative research group has discovered electrical brain-wave patterns given off during social interactions in mice. They also observed that mice showing signs of stress, depression, or autism lacked these brain waves. The results reveal more about the mechanics underlying brain activity when socializing.

Understanding the structural origin of the anomalous properties of SiO2 liquid and glass is of great interest in a wide range of scientific fields. The fraction of the S state with tetrahedral symmetry structure is considered to be the controlling parameter of the anomalous properties of SiO2 liquid in theoretical studies. However, it has not been well identified in experiments. In this work, we find experimental evidence of tetrahedral symmetry breaking in SiO2 glass under pressure.

New dinosaur species used claws to graze along the coast, More accurate rainfall predictions, Magnetism helps futuristic cell research, Do compression garments facilitate muscle recovery? Science journalism and why it matters for democracy and our Image of the month. Read all in the June's Editor's Choice and this month's Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - Lessons from the dead.

An international team led by Osaka University used experimental measurements and theoretical modeling to better understand the shape formed by the protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus of calcium-40. They found that destructive interference affects the mixture of elongated and spherical states. This research may help shed light on the reasons for the relative stability of atomic nuclei and how they are formed.

Resilient Education Information Infrastructure for the New Normal (REIINN) project broke ground for the second LokaLTE Base Station on 14 June 2022, commencing the tower's construction in Looc Integrated School, Castillejos, Zambales.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows to visualize the dynamics of single biomolecules during their functional activity. All observations are, however, restricted to regions accessible by a fairly big probing tip during scanning. Hence, AFM images only the biomolecular surface with limited spatial resolution, missing important information required for a detailed understanding of the observed phenomena.

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists detected, for the first time, collective resonance at remarkably high and broad frequency bands. In a magnetic superstructure called a chiral spin soliton lattice (CSL), they found that resonance could occur at such frequencies with small changes in magnetic field strength. The findings suggest CSL-hosting chiral helimagnets as promising materials for future communication technologies.

Researchers at Kanazawa University report in Biophysics and Physicobiology how to optimize high-speed atomic force microscopy experiments on live cell membranes, so that moving objects like molecules can be properly followed from frame to frame.

The molecule is unusual and has ‘great potential’ in catalysis, conduction and other applications.

A research group led by Professor Yoshio Teki of the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering has succeeded in developing a new pentacene derivative that is more than 100 times more photostable than TIPS-pentacene, a photostable pentacene derivative. Additionally, the team has further clarified the ultrafast excited state dynamics in this system. In the pentacene moiety of this system, we were able to demonstrate that the transition from the excited singlet state to the excited triplet state occurs ultrafast in the time region of a 10-13 seconds. In purely organic materials without heavy atoms such as rare metals, such intersystem crossing usually occurs on time scales longer than 10-9 seconds. The empirical results of this study are expected to be applied as a method for stabilizing and developing light-unstable materials in the future.

Scientists have revealed the genetic structure and diversity, and inferred the population history, of the wild house mouse across Europe and Asia.

Giants in History: Hideki Yukawa (23 January 1907 – 8 September 1981) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1949 for predicting the existence of the pi meson subatomic particle

Potential of a novel therapeutic strategy for rheumatoid arthritis by UHRF1 stabilization We identified an epigenetic regulator UHRF1 that suppresses various pathogeneses in rheumatoid arthritis. The UHRF1 expression level in synovium showed a negative correlation with the severity of pathogenesis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and mouse arthritis models. In addition, stabilization of the UHRF1 expression achieved improvement of the arthritis pathology. Our results indicate that the stabilization of the UHRF1 protein is a potential therapeutic strategy for rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo studied the anomalous properties of amorphous solids, including glasses, using computer simulations, and found a common vibrational mechanism underlying them, which may help control the glass properties

An international team of researchers, led by Changfang Zhao, from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, has developed a novel lightweight, high toughness auxetic structure made from plastic composite laminates. The auxetic structure may be used for constructing primary structures in the transport industry, such as electric vehicles, to maximize fuel efficiency.

Scientists have revealed two enzymes that regulate protein degradation of proteins in the cell membrane of plants, and established the roles they play in plant growth and development.

Giants in History: Known for her pioneering contributions to bio-organic chemistry, Darshan Ranganathan (4 June 1941 – 4 June 2001) is considered India’s most prolific chemist.

Scientists have described the youngest therizinosaur fossil from Japan and the first in Asia to have been found in marine sediments.

Dr. Nishikawa at Osaka Metropolitan University focused on the Kondo effect on minimal ferrimagnetism and attempted to elucidate it theoretically. As a result, they found that the Kondo effect occurred via multiple "quantum entangled states" depending on temperature and other factors. They also found that the Kondo effect suppressed electrical conductivity through minimal ferrimagnetism, when usually it is amplified in many other cases.

Giants in History: Known as Mr. Natural Rubber, chemist and researcher B. C. Shekhar (17 November 1929 – 6 September 2006) introduced a number of technical innovations that helped put Malaysia’s natural rubber industry on the world map.

Researchers at Kanazawa University in collaboration with teams from Toyama Prefectural University and BioSeeds Corporation report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces the identification of a molecule with enhanced antiproliferative activity in cancer cells. The underlying biomolecular mechanism is the inhibition of an enzyme that is overproduced in several types of cancer.

Researchers in Japan demonstrated the benefits of a new non-radioactive, neutral negative staining reagent by imaging viruses at nanometer-scale.

Tetraphenylammonium, with all four hydrogens of ammonium (NH4+) replaced with benzene rings, has neither been discovered in nature nor chemically synthesized, calling into question whether it could exist. Here, we succeeded in synthesizing tetraphenylammonium for the first time, demonstrating its stable existence. The synthetic strategy used in this study, radical coupling, may be applicable to the synthesis of various related ammoniums with high structural novelty.

Scientists have synthesized the first belt-shaped molecular nanocarbon with a twisted Möbius band topology—a Möbius carbon nanobelt—that paves the way for the development of nanocarbon materials with complex topological structures.

Structural color printing creates new pathways for medical diagnostics and miniaturized sensors

Giants in History: Palaeontologist Yichun Hao (1920 – 2001) co-authored the first Chinese textbooks on palaeontology and micropalaeontology.

Researchers from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Engineering have successfully developed a new technique allowing them to observe gas molecules packing into metal-organic frameworks (MOF) using infrared spectroscopy. Their innovation was to measure polarized light absorption of guest molecules in a MOF film to deduce molecule alignment using this common piece of lab equipment. This method is the first to show guest alignment and does so in real-time, while using an accessible and easily adoptable experimental setup. A short video (4 min) recreating their spectrometer modifications can be found in the Reference section.

The new multi-tasking weather sensor simultaneously measures rain volume and wind speed. Incorporating machine learning to analyze the output data, a single sensor can provide localized weather data in a timely manner, improving disaster preparedness.