Long COVID is a chronic condition that causes cognitive problems known as “brain fog,” but its biological mechanisms remain largely unclear. Now, researchers from Japan used a novel imaging technique to visualize AMPA receptors—key molecules for memory and learning—in the living brain. They discovered that higher AMPA receptor density in patients with Long COVID was closely tied to the severity of their symptoms, highlighting these molecules as potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

・First field-based evidence: Marimo face severe photoinhibition immediately after ice thaw due to low temperatures and intense light (LT-HL environment).

・Climate Change Risk: Earlier ice melt prolongs Marimo's exposure to damaging LT-HL conditions, threatening their long-term survival in Lake Akan.

・Astrobiological Significance: Marimo's resilience in extreme conditions offers insights into potential life strategies on icy extraterrestrial bodies and how life adapts to planetary environmental changes.

Quantum metals are metals where quantum effects—behaviors that normally only matter at atomic scales—become powerful enough to control the metal's macroscopic electrical properties. 

Researchers in Japan have explained how electricity behaves in a special group of quantum metals called kagome metals. The study is the first to show how weak magnetic fields reverse tiny loop electrical currents inside these metals. This switching changes the material's macroscopic electrical properties and reverses which direction has easier electrical flow, a property known as the diode effect, where current flows more easily in one direction than the other.  

Notably, the research team found that quantum geometric effects amplify this switching by about 100 times. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides the theoretical foundation that could eventually lead to new electronic devices controlled by simple magnets. 

Tokyo faces severe risks due to soil liquefaction, a phenomenon where the ground behaves like a liquid during strong seismic events. To improve existing hazard maps, researchers from Japan developed a new framework that combines extensive borehole data with artificial neural networks. Their model can accurately predict soil properties, producing high-resolution 3D liquefaction hazard maps, helping to improve earthquake risk management in Tokyo and other vulnerable megacities.

Aquaglyceroporin Aqp10, a protein channel for water and glycerol, selectively permeates urea and boric acid due to its unique structural features—report researchers from Japan.  By comparing and modeling molecular pore structures in fish species, the team discovered that bulky amino acid residues reduce the pore size of Aqp10—blocking the transport of certain molecules. This not only explains the mechanism of selective permeability but also provides a framework for predicting functions of uncharacterized aquaglyceroporins.

An ion channel called DmMSL10 functions as a high‑sensitivity touch sensor in the tactile sense of the Venus flytrap, enabling prey touch to be detected and to generate electrical and calcium ion (Ca²⁺) signals that are required for trap closure.