A new catalyst strategy may help unlock the full potential of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for advanced technologies. By combining iron (Fe) with scandium (Sc), the researchers extended catalyst lifetime to approximately 18 minutes at 900 °C—more than twice that achieved with comparable rare-earth cocatalysts. Sc helped maintain Fe in a stable oxidized state and suppressed catalyst degradation, enabling longer CNT growth under demanding conditions. The findings provide valuable new directions for future catalyst design.

Urban railways play a key role in sustainable transportation systems. However, achieving precise and energy-efficient train control under diverse operating conditions of urban railways remains a challenge. Researchers from Japan have now developed a recurrent reinforcement learning framework for urban railway speed control that combines expert-guided learning and safety filtering. The proposed method demonstrated stable, real-time operation and energy-saving performance, highlighting its potential for next-generation automatic train operation systems.

Researchers in Spain and Japan tested a broad range of pedestrians in varying group sizes to see whether there were any patterns to their turning behaviors, and what factors influence them if there are. It turns out that the vast majority of people have a preference for counterclockwise turning. Most factors such as culture or gender made little difference. Only age showed a noticeable but small change in that younger people followed this pattern more strongly. This area of research could impact our understanding of the brain, and fields like design, engineering and architecture. The original research, including the initial experiments and analysis, was conducted by the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Navarra in Spain, with additional comparative experiments later carried out in Japan in collaboration with the University of Tokyo team. 

A straightforward blood-based assessment developed at Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan, can help assess how effectively high-density lipoprotein (HDL) remove cholesterol from blood vessel walls, a function known as cholesterol efflux capacity (CEC). The study linked low CEC to a high-risk coronary plaque, supporting the broader clinical use of this method for predicting cardiovascular risk and improving preventive strategies.

Researchers innovated artificial photosynthesis technology by optimizing the electrolyzer part of the system. This tweak enables the continuous production of solar fuel, even with fluctuations in sunlight intensity.

New “GMBU” procedure reveals band structures in finite, curved nanomaterials, linking nano‑ARPES and theory for next‑generation device design.

The race to complete the human pangenome — which comprises all genetic information across the human species — has been underway since 2022, when the first complete reference human genome sequence was released by the international Telomere-to-Telomere Consortium. Now, a team led by scientists at the Research Organization of Information and Systems has made a significant contribution to a more complete understanding of human genetics with 20 near-complete variant groups located in disease- and immune-related regions from 10 Japanese males.

Physician-scientists at Kanazawa University have demonstrated, for the first time worldwide, the clinical efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy in patients with ultra-rare urachal cancer. Furthermore, their reverse translational research elucidated the mechanism by which the addition of immunotherapy enhances the efficacy of chemotherapy.

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) today announced a landmark gift from Ms. Setsuko Orita, eldest daughter of the founder of the Okinawa supermarket chain San-A.