Science

- Synergy between student-led planning and technical and personnel support from promising AI companies, including Upstage, Lablup, and UNIVA - “Learning about AI that may feel overwhelming by tackling it together”: One-stop program featuring lectures on the latest AI trends, mentoring, and a campus problem-solving hackathon

- Brain Engineering Convergence Research Center and Robotics & Mechatronics Research Institute Celebrate Joint Selection for 2025 Glocal Lab Project - Full-Scale Launch of Fusion Research Linking “Neuro-Replica” Digital Brain Twins and “TransHuman Robotics” Beyond Human Limits - A Total Investment of KRW 27.9 Billion Over Nine Years to Leap Forward as a World-Class Hub for Brain–Robotics Fusion Research

Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a new mathematical framework that helps identify optimization problems that can be solved efficiently using optical computing hardware. The approach allows complex, high-dimensional problems to be transformed into forms compatible with spatial photonic Ising machines and can also accelerate computation using fast Fourier transforms. These findings could broaden the applications of optical computing to areas such as logistics, data analysis, and infrastructure optimization.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo experimentally demonstrate unique optical behavior from a long-sought aperiodic pattern

Despite our knowledge of supermassive blackholes far from complete, astronomers have long known that they produce violent winds. But a recent discovery has shown that these winds are more powerful than previously thought, 100 times more powerful, to be precise. High-precision observations of gas surrounding a black hole 3.4 billion light-years from Earth showed that the winds carry energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years, impacting surrounding galaxies.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo reveal how limited resources can cause sudden changes in the way organisms process information

When plastics are recycled, their strength gets weakened over time as the long molecular chains gradually break down under repeated exposure to heat and moisture. However, a research group has added a chain extender to the recycling process, allowing polymer chains to reconnect, and a plastic tensile strength to return to normal.

Researchers find that fluctuations in nanopore structure are the key factor influencing their performance

Have you ever felt strangely exhausted after waking up from a dream? Researchers took a look at how the brain allocates energy during sleep to explain this “paradoxical sleep.”

New imaging technique visualizes and measures plasmonic waves in device structures designed for practical uses

The Chinese bahaba (Bahaba taipingensis), a marine fish species endemic to the Chinese coast and known as the “Panda of the Sea”, is a critically endangered species and one of the few marine fish listed as a first-class protected wild animal in China. Collaborative research led by the Division of Science at Lingnan University has now developed a cost-effective environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring qPCR approach specifically designed for the Chinese bahaba. Using the new technology, the research has detected traces of the species in western Hong Kong SAR waters, marking the first scientific discovery of the fish in the city in over a decade. The researcher highlights that the technology enables experts to monitor the species non-invasively and to evaluate conservation outcomes without capturing or disturbing rare marine animals, thus providing important scientific evidence to assist in marine conservation planning in China.

- A local financial institution and a university join forces to enhance educational and cultural environments - Hyeonpung Nonghyup expands the scope of its community contributions to the university, establishing a virtuous cycle model

- ESG Partnership to Nurture “K-Science Talent”… Setting a New Benchmark for Financial Institutions’ Social Contribution

Researchers find dormant pigment cells in vitiligo patches, suggesting a new treatment strategy

First-ever ISCA Best Paper Award for a Korean university, recognizing a breakthrough that improves the reliability and efficiency of High Bandwidth Memory

Researchers developed a scalable method for preparing high-purity chiral mechanically interlocked molecules using a removable chiral auxiliary that can be recovered and reused. The strategy makes difficult interlocked molecular architectures more accessible and provides a practical platform for future applications in catalysis, molecular recognition, and chiroptical materials.

AI learns from captains instead of calculations in Japan’s trickiest sea

An accelerator of the highest-energy protons in our galaxy has been identified; it could help scientists better understand the nature of these fast-moving particles that fill the space between stars.

A conventional robotic hand is equipped with multiple motors or peripheral devices for grasping a wide variety of objects. This study presents a robotic hand equipped with multiple grippers that are driven by a single motor with the transmission of motor power switched via a mechanism using gravity (Magnetic and Gravity-based Driving mechanism). Thus, it provides design guidelines for a new robotic hand capable of accommodating diverse grasping actions while maintaining a relatively simple structure.

Graphene revolutionized materials science after its discovery in 2004. Its list of potential applications is long, but its use in high-temperature superconductors has been stymied by weak electron interactions. Researchers from Tohoku University have recently created a stable version of boron graphene on the surface of a three-dimensional crystal, potentially overcoming this limitation and opening a pathway toward more energy-efficient electronic devices.

You are what you eat! Researchers discovered that a small change to the diet of silkworms improves the quality of silk they produce.

Researchers from the University of Osaka found that localization of the CLK1 kinase to nuclear stress bodies during thermal stress and recovery is regulated by PP1-mediated dephosphorylation and RIOK2-mediated rephosphorylation. This mechanism, which controls pre-mRNA splicing under stress conditions, could provide new insight into stress-related diseases.

Researchers at Tohoku University have made an interesting discovery that provides a boost to the immune system of birds. They found that B-cell development, which forms part of the immune system, occurs outside the bursa of Fabricius, the organ where scientists previously thought B-cell development exclusively occurred. The findings paint a clearer picture of the birds’ immune system at a time when antimicrobial resistance has affected livestock and poultry production across the globe.

A preliminary mouse study suggests that mimecan helps regulate how tendons gain strength and stiffness during maturation.

Early rice gets the flower, Exercising against cancer, Efficient artificial photosynthesis, New “living pink rocks”, Unlocking megathrust earthquakes, Longevity protein demystified and Death gene paradox. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.

Using a simple physical model, researchers at the University of Osaka, The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), RIKEN, and the Institute of Science Tokyo revealed how superionic conduction emerges when mobile ions undergo sublattice melting while the surrounding crystal framework remains intact. Near this transition, ions move cooperatively in spatially heterogeneous, string-like patterns, aided by anharmonic lattice motion. The findings identify general physical principles connecting lattice softness and collective transport, potentially guiding more efficient development of solid electrolytes for batteries and energy-conversion technologies.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have developed ultrathin wearable sensors that blend seamlessly into skin, reducing discomfort and distraction

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo reveal how crystal symmetry determines whether hydrogen follows the rules of quantum or classical physics

Researchers at Kanazawa University report the blood-based gene expression tests may enable early pancreatic cancer screening and improve long-term survival.

Prof Song Yongduan, Dean of the School of Data Science and Henry Y. W. Fong Chair Professor of Industrial Data Science at Lingnan University, attended the induction ceremony for International Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in Beijing on 9 July, where he officially received his member plaque. The professor is one of five scientists with Hong Kong affiliations among the recently elected International Members of the CAE.