Just like litter is a big problem on Earth, space junk is cluttering up outer space. To dispose of this junk, a Tohoku University researcher demonstrated the utility of a special plasma thruster.

Scientists have confirmed that East Antarctica's interior is warming faster than its coastal areas and identified the cause. A 30-year study, published in Nature Communications and led by Nagoya University’s Naoyuki Kurita, has traced this warming to increased warm air flow triggered by temperature changes in the Southern Indian Ocean. Previously considered an observation "blind spot," East Antarctica contains most of the world’s glacial ice. This newly identified warming mechanism indicates that current predictions may underestimate the rate of future Antarctic ice loss.  

Okayama University of Science (OUS) has successfully commercialized a premium flounder, “Matsukawa,” cultivated using its unique “Third Water” system—an innovative closed recirculating aquaculture technology that enables both seawater and freshwater species to coexist. As of July 25, the fish is served as nigiri-zushi at Kurasushi’s Osaka Expo 2025 branch, marking the second OUS aquaculture product to reach consumers following its eel in 2023. This achievement highlights the university’s advanced research capabilities and contributions to sustainable aquaculture and global food culture.

Kyoto, Japan -- Giving birth is hard enough; postpartum depression can make adjusting to parenthood all the more difficult. A healthy diet is essential for new mothers to build strength after such a taxing ordeal, but what if what they eat could also lower the risk of baby blues?

While studies in Western countries have linked gut microbiota to depressive symptoms, little is known about this association in healthy postpartum mothers, particularly in Japan, where cultural barriers often prevent mothers from seeking psychiatric help.

This inspired a team of researchers at Kyoto University to design a cross-sectional study of 344 women from across Japan raising young children. The team assessed participants' depressive and physical symptoms as well as their dietary habits, and analyzed their stool samples.

Magnetic resonance imaging often yields inconsistent results when assessing the brain’s structural characteristics in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To address this, scientists from Japan have used a harmonization method called traveling-subject (TS) to reduce measurement bias in brain imaging datasets from multiple sites. The TS harmonized datasets showed significant reductions in measurement bias and revealed apparent volumetric changes in specific brain regions, indicating promise for developing a more robust diagnosis for ADHD.

Soft magnetic materials are key components of electrical power devices. Excess eddy current loss is the main energy loss that occurs in these materials at high frequencies. However, the mechanisms of these losses is not clearly understood due to limitations of existing measurement systems. In a new study, researchers developed a wide-band, high-sensitivity Magnetic Barkhausen noise measurement system that enabled them to clarify the origin of excess eddy current loss in metallic NANOMET® ribbons.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba examined how twin organisms can emerge from a single fertilized egg by studying sea urchin embryos. Their findings revealed that when an early-stage embryo is split in half, each portion is able to regenerate its own developmental plan. The team uncovered the dynamic cellular processes and genetic programs that allow each fragment to reorganize and grow into a complete individual.

Singers appearing in opera singing competitions are typically ranked based on an overall score assigned by the judges. However, it has remained unclear exactly what elements in the singer’s voice contribute to these scores. In a new study, researchers analyzed opera singing recordings to identify the impact of various vocal characteristics and acoustic features on the scores assigned by the judges. Their findings could provide a scientific basis for future vocal training and education.

Did you know eels are one of the few vertebrates capable of swimming even when their spinal cords are completely severed? How they do this has long puzzled scientists. Thanks to a new neural circuitry model developed by an international research group, researchers have discovered that stretch and pressure feedback loops are pivotal to eels’ remarkable locomotive abilities. Their findings could inspire future robot designs.

Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo created a new material platform for non-volatile memories using covalent organic frameworks (COFs), which are crystalline solids with high thermal stability. The researchers successfully installed electric-field-responsive dipolar rotors into COFs. Owing to the unique structure of the COFs, the dipolar rotors can flip in response to an electric field without being hampered by a steric hindrance from the surroundings, and their orientation can be held at ambient temperature for a long time, which are necessary conditions for non-volatile memories.