Science

Hokkaido University is pleased to announce that Dr. Benjamin List, a Professor of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung and a Specially Appointed Professor of Hokkaido University, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

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Researchers in Japan have found an energy-efficient way to convert the chief greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful chemicals. Using the method, CO2 is transformed into structures called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), suggesting a new and simpler route to dispose of the greenhouse gas to help tackle global warming.

Researchers from DGIST explain how DNA is compacted to a million-times its full length in sperm cell nuclei

Researchers at Kanazawa University describe in Chemical Society Reviews how large cyclic molecules can be used for the synthesis of big metallic complexes with two or more metal atoms.

Tohoku University researchers, collaborating with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, have discovered the working mechanism of an important class of drug target receptor proteins.

Novel design of brain chip implant allows for measuring neuronal activity while simultaneously delivering drugs to the implant site

Researchers develop a composite film that can be used in nanogenerators to generate electricity from mechanical motion

Paris, 29 September — UNESCO and the L'Oréal Foundation are unveiling the winners of this year’s International Prize for Women in Science, which honours five eminent women scientists with exceptional careers from the five regions of the world, as it has done annually since 1998.

A research team led by scientists at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has developed a novel cell sensor with a barcode-like micro-channel structure that enables rapid and low-cost screening of drug-resistant bacteria. The invention could potentially be used on a large-scale in resource-limited situations such as frequent safety screenings of water, food and public facilities, as well as urgent surveys of massive samples during an infectious disease outbreak, particularly in developing countries.

Researchers at Kanazawa University report in Science Advances a new method for distinguishing between enantiomers, molecules that are mirror images of each other. The procedure, relevant for the pharmaceutical industry, involves the chemical reaction of target enantiomers with color indicator compounds consisting of one-handed helical polymers, leading to solutions showing different colors in specific solvents between the enantiomers.

Giants in History: Rajeshwari Chatterjee (24 January 1922 – 3 September 2010) was the first female engineer from Karnataka in India. Chatterjee earned a Master’s degree and doctoral degree from the University of Michigan on a scholarship awarded by the Delhi government

Dell Technologies Malaysia (Dell) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) have signed a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a milestone industry-academia move to produce more industry-ready graduates. The MoU provides a platform for Dell and USM to work hand-in-hand to groom and equip USM undergraduates to be highly employable graduates under the USM LIFE Programme, a new academic initiative that advocates creative and experiential learning.

The missing link isn’t a not-yet-discovered fossil, after all. It’s a tiny, self-replicating globule called a coacervate droplet, developed by two researchers in Japan to represent the evolution of chemistry into biology.

The Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) of Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong has developed the CREW Wheelchair Control System which intelligently predicts a carer’s intentions so as to better control a wheelchair, improving the safety of both wheelchair users and carers. The research team recently won the Gold award at the international MUSE Design Awards, and has already filed patent applications in Hong Kong and Mainland for this ground-breaking system.

An algorithm that detects events occurring across different time and geographical scales on social media could enable a more timely response to emerging events.

Single cell analyses reveal hidden turgor-associated metabolic changes and water flow across the flesh in watercored apples

Inspired by a kind of tree leaf, scientists at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) discovered that the spreading direction of different liquids deposited on the same surface can be steered, solving a challenge that has remained for over two centuries. This breakthrough could ignite a new wave of using 3D surface structures for intelligent liquid manipulation with profound implications for various scientific and industrial applications, such as fluidics design and heat transfer enhancement.

A new approach leads to the long-awaited formation of rings made of three pyrroles, which could be used to produce compounds with a host of interesting properties, and explains why they have not been observed before.

Using the lamprey, researchers from Japan analyzed the photosensory mechanism of the pineal organ, also called the pineal gland, in non-mammalian vertebrates and discovered a novel mechanism of pineal color discrimination (two-cell system) in which two types of photoreceptor cells, each containing two different opsins, are used to detect color. This discovery may provide insight into the evolution of color detection in other animals, including color vision in humans.

New research published in Stem Cell Reports has found elevated cholesterol supply from astrocytes to neurons in the model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains, suggesting that modulating brain cholesterol could be explored in the search of treatment options for the devastating, degenerative disease.

Researchers from The University of Tokyo assimilated satellite observations of water vapor isotopes into a weather forecasting model and found that forecast accuracy was improved by several percentage points

When it comes to cancer, clarity is key. The ability to visualize cancerous tumors and metastatic tissue three dimensionally (3D) can help clinicians diagnose the precise type and stage of cancer, while also informing the best treatment methods. To obtain an even clearer tissue for imaging, a research team based in Japan has tested the effectiveness of specialized hydrogels. Acting as a 3D molecular network, these hydrogels can rapidly remove fats from tissues, which are a factor in tissue opacification, without losing their structure. The material is used in several biomedical devices, including contact lenses.

The Lingnan Entrepreneurship Initiative (LEI) of Lingnan University has received two Gold awards at the MUSE Design Award in the category Conceptual Design for their “CREW Wheelchair Control System” and “12° Mask” respectively.

Magnetic patterns in meteorites, Treating mitochondrial diseases, underwater sensors and a broad COVID-19 vaccine in the September Editor's Choice. Plus, what's it like to communicate vaccine research in a pandemic and Asia Research News 2022.

Researchers succeed in the direct bonding of diamond and gallium nitride (GaN) at room temperature and demonstrate that the bond can withstand heat treatments of 1,000℃, making it ideal for the high temperature fabrication process of GaN-based devices. GaN-on-diamond semiconductor material will allow for the next generation of high power, high frequency devices.

Recreating major pathological features of Parkinson’s disease in a lab-grown, human mini-brain will help researchers to explore new treatments. This is the first time that Lewy bodies, a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease in patients’ brains, have been produced in the laboratory, offering new insights into the disease.

A synthetic CDK4/6 inhibitor exerts antitumor effects by forcing RB1 tumor-suppressor into an active status, but its single administration is not sufficiently effective. We find its combinatorial administration with an IKKβ inhibitor is significantly more effective in hepatocellular carcinoma treatment. Also, blockage of the IKK-NF-κB or AKT pathway enhances its effects on RB1-intact K-Ras mutated lung and colon cancers. CDK4/6 inhibitors have potential to treat various RB1-intact cancers when combined with an appropriate kinase inhibitor.

Professor Toshifumi Satoh of Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Engineering has taken up the challenge to create “Smart synthetic method.” Satoh and his colleagues proposed the idea of “Smart synthesis,” which aims to minimize the use of harmful chemicals and solvents for cleaner and more sustainable polymeric synthesis.

Neuroscientists develop a new approach to better understand the neural mechanism underlying deductive and inductive reasoning