Kyoto, Japan -- The fuzzy and adorable otter has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years. These aquatic mammals are friendly, playful, and make cute cooing sounds, so their social media stardom seems only natural.

Sadly, this enthusiasm for otters has a dark side: they are targets for smuggling. In Japan, their popularity has raised demand for them as pets and as featured species at exotic animal cafés, making Japan one of the most prominent destinations for captive otters with ambiguous origins.

Asian small-clawed otters -- the species most common at Japanese zoos and cafés -- are native to South and Southeast Asia. They are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red list and their international trade for commercial purposes is prohibited. Yet they continue to be captured and smuggled into Japan, with Thailand as the main source of this illegal trade.

While elicited imitation (EI) tests can effectively measure language proficiency by having learners repeat complex sentences, they require time-consuming human scoring. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a fully automated system by combining EI for speech recognition with a computational scoring metric. Their study showed that the automated system produced nearly identical overall scores to human raters, suggesting that this approach could enable efficient, large-scale language assessment and potentially transform educational practices.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led team found that BOR1 is expressed in the tapetal cells of young anthers in unopened buds, showing polar localization toward the locule where microspores develop.

Earth’s rocky layers are mysteriously low in nitrogen compared with carbon and argon. A scientific team explored our planet’s molten youth using advanced quantum mechanical simulations, revealing nitrogen’s secret: under extreme pressure, it chose to hide in the iron core 100 times more than the mantle. This solved why Earth’s volatile ratios involving nitrogen look odd. The findings suggest the necessary ingredients for developing a habitable world may have been settled in the early Earth.

Neurons migrate through complex brain tissue using distinct strategies, but how they choose remains unclear. A recent study from Japan found that neurons switch migration modes based on their environment. Researchers identified PIEZO1, a mechanosensitive protein, as crucial to this process, helping neurons adapt in confined spaces. These findings enhance our understanding of brain development and may inform therapies for brain injuries and cancer metastasis, offering new insights into neuronal movement and mechanobiology.

 An international research team from Japan, Taiwan, and Denmark investigated the ancient protein sequences of Taiwan's oldest hominin fossil and discovered that it was derived from a male Denisovan individual. The discovery of the Denisovan fossil from Taiwan has revealed that Denisovans were widely distributed in Asia, as far as southeastern Asia, and their distinctly robust jaws and teeth. This finding is reported in Science.

A team at Nagoya University in Japan has revealed new insights into the motion of massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a small galaxy neighboring the Milky Way. Their findings suggest that the gravitational pull of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the SMC’s larger companion, may be tearing the smaller one apart. This discovery reveals a new pattern in the motion of these stars that could transform our understanding of galaxy evolution and interactions.

Numerous widely used chemicals induce genetic and epigenetic alterations implicated in various diseases, including cancer. Safety assessment of potential carcinogens is necessary to minimize their hazardous impact. While genotoxicity assays are widely used to evaluate genetic changes, quantification of epigenetic changes requires advanced and expensive sequencing techniques. Researchers from Japan have developed a simple and cost-effective cell-based reporter assay that can quantify chemical-induced epigenetic effects, and enhance the safety evaluation of environmental chemicals.

A research team from Nagoya University in Japan has discovered a new tissue in plants that plays an essential role in seed formation by regulating the flow of nutrients into the seed. The team used their findings to increase the yields of important crop plants, including rice. Their findings represent the first new plant tissue identified in 160 years, opening a new field for research.