How do we forget? Using C. elegans, researchers have found the molecular and neuronal pathways that cause them to actively forget specific odors. They found that AWC neurons release the neuropeptide NLP-47, which activates the GNRR-1 receptor on AIZ neurons. The AIZ neurons then release glutamate to activate the GLR-4 receptor on AWA neurons, the neurons that house the odor memory. This leads to the selective forgetting of the specific odor memory.

A research team led by Associate Professor Yasuo Murayama of Kanazawa University has identified important longitudinal associations among loneliness, depressive symptoms, and social behaviors in children affected by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

The study followed 634 students in grades 3 through 9 (303 boys and 331 girls) in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was severely affected by the earthquake. Surveys were conducted in July and October 2024 and February 2025. Using a cross-lagged panel model, the researchers examined the longitudinal relationships among loneliness, depressive symptoms, aggressive behavior, and prosocial behavior.

The findings revealed that higher levels of depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior were associated with greater loneliness at subsequent time points. Bidirectional associations were also observed between loneliness and depressive symptoms, with depressive symptoms showing a stronger and more consistent association with later loneliness than the reverse pathway. Aggressive behavior was also associated with lower subsequent prosocial behavior.

A robotics competition-based education program at Okayama University of Science in Japan has received a 2024 Engineering Education Award from the Japanese Society for Engineering Education. Developed over more than 15 years, the program uses hands-on engineering challenges and project-based learning to help students develop essential professional skills, including teamwork, problem-solving, and the ability to learn from setbacks.

Heat transfer from a heated wall depends on the behavior of the thin layer of air rising along its surface. Researchers from the National Institute of Technology, Hachinohe College, Shibaura Institute of Technology and The University of Tokyo, Japan, used mirror-assisted three-dimensional background-oriented schlieren imaging to reconstruct changes in air density over 33 milliseconds. They observed smooth, sheet-like structures breaking into tilted, fragmented patterns farther downstream. The findings provide experimental insight into near-wall flow transition.

Overtourism has attracted considerable attention in popular city centers, but less is known about tourism risks in under-visited suburban areas. A new study examined how tourism practitioners in suburban Tokyo assessed the risk of overtourism. Although practitioners considered overtourism unlikely, the perception was partially inconsistent with statistical evidence. The findings highlight the importance of combining local knowledge with visitor data to better understand tourism risks.

Diamond’s exceptional properties make it attractive for various emerging technologies, but its extreme hardness makes it difficult to process into thin substrates. In a recent study, researchers from Japan investigated how lab-grown diamonds respond to ultrashort laser pulses and used their findings to develop an innovative slicing strategy. Using this strategy, they sliced an 8 mm × 8 mm single-crystal diamond along its most useful crystallographic plane, demonstrating a potential route toward larger diamond substrates.

Poorly crystalline material may help explain how early Solar System chemistry survived alteration by water

Green insurance gives electric vehicle (EV) owners opportunities to make environmentally conscious choices throughout ownership. But what drives customers to purchase these policies? Surveying EV owners in China, researchers from Sophia University, Japan, found that purchase intentions were shaped by customers’ overall perceptions of green insurance, including trust in environmental claims, perceived benefits, and attitudes. The findings highlight the importance of clearly communicating environmental benefits to help consumers assess the value of these policies.

Researchers at The University of Osaka developed an automated robotic system that monitors perovskite film formation in real time while tracking environmental and processing conditions. By combining these measurements with automated characterization and machine learning, the system identifies factors affecting film quality and optimizes antisolvent coating. The approach produced a perovskite solar cell with 24.4% efficiency, demonstrating its potential for faster, more reproducible photovoltaic research.

A research team wanted to better understand how the forces between particles inside a material change. They discovered that by confining one-dimensional classical spin chains inside a mirror box cavity with light they could force these magnetic particles to organize and undergo a phase transition. Their work provides the simplest exactly solvable examples showing that light can create new phase transitions with materials.