The COVID-19 pandemic presented several challenges, leaving the specific impact of class closures on student performance unclear. To address this, researchers examined the effect of pre-pandemic class closures due to influenza outbreaks on students’ test scores in Japan. They found that class closures adversely affected the math scores of elementary school boys from low-income households, likely due to lost instructional time and unhealthy behaviors. Fortunately, high-quality teachers could help students recover from the learning loss.

A novel spectroscopic method developed at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, enables highly sensitive analysis of molecules at material interfaces, using a combination of conventional ATR-IR, precise gap-control and advanced data processing. The technique offers a low-cost alternative to conventional interfacial spectroscopy and has potential applications in material sciences, nanotechnology, and biological sciences.

A spinel-type sulfide semiconductor that can emit light from violet to orange at room temperature has been developed by researchers at Science Tokyo, overcoming the efficiency limitations of current LED and solar cell materials. The material, (Zn,Mg)Sc₂S₄, can be chemically tuned to switch between n-type and p-type conduction, leading to future pn homojunction devices. This versatile semiconductor offers a practical path toward the development of more efficient LEDs and solar cells.

Harnessing quantum states that avoid thermalization enables energy harvesters to surpass traditional thermodynamic limits such as Carnot efficiency, report researchers from Japan. The team developed a new approach using a non-thermal Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid to convert waste heat into electricity with higher efficiency than conventional approaches. These findings pave the way for more sustainable low-power electronics and quantum computing.  

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a novel method for controlling the optical rotation of conductive polymer polythiophene in a magnetic field at low voltage. This method combines the "Faraday rotation" phenomenon, in which a polarizing plane rotates in response to a magnetic field, with the electrochemical oxidation and reduction of conductive polymers. This method has potential applications in magnetic field sensors and optical communication devices.

With so many environmental issues arising, how can we even begin trying to solve them all? Perhaps, we can start by asking AI. This study highlights how AI can pinpoint viable action plans for these issues.

A research team led by Osaka Metropolitan University explored the association between blood vitamin D metabolites and cognitive function.

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) disposal is a major environmental concern. While defluorination presents an environmentally friendly approach for recycling PTFE, traditional defluorination methods are energy-intensive, require extreme conditions, and ignore fluorine recovery. Now, an international research team has developed an approach that enables room-temperature defluorination with high fluorine recovery yield under optimal conditions using sodium dispersion. The method is useful for recycling not only PTFE but also other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Dark energy, which drives the accelerated expansion of the Universe, is assumed to be constant since the Universe began by today’s leading model. Researchers from Japan, Spain, and the U.S. explored the possibility of time-varying dark energy by conducting one of the largest cosmological simulations to date. Their results show that while dark energy variations have modest effects alone, variations in other parameters like matter density significantly alter galaxy formation and cosmic structure, aligning closely with the latest observations.