Researchers studying the ant Formica japonica found that rice straw biochar applied at moderate levels, especially 2.5% to 5%, improved several colony behaviors linked to soil health. Ants in moderately amended soils showed stronger habitat preference, built larger and more complex nests, found food more quickly, and maintained more effective social recognition. However, when the biochar dose reached 10%, the benefits declined and ant survival dropped sharply.

Japanese Manga stories might be better comprehended when read on paper rather than on digital devices, per experiment which also revealed differences in brain region activation patterns

The first large-sized bovines grew to up to half a ton 4 million years ago in the European Early Pliocene, an early step toward our modern diversity of large-bodied buffalo and cattle, according to a study published June 3, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Leonardo Sorbelli of the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Germany, and colleagues.

A new study suggests that, for modern Japanese speakers, two traditional, patriarchal words for “husband” (“shujin,” literally meaning “master”) and “wife” (“kanai,” “inside-the-house”) may be losing their original meanings, though men in the study evaluated both traditional and neutral words for “husband” more positively than words for “wife.” Ri Nin and Kazuo Mori of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan, present these findings in the open access journal PLOS One on June 3, 2026.

A new study by researchers at the University of Tokyo explores whether reading manga on paper or on a tablet changes how the brain understands and remembers stories. Participants first read the opening half of a two-part manga story either on paper or on a tablet. Later, while inside an MRI scanner, they read the second half through LCD goggles and answered questions about the story. Brain scans taken during the reading and questioning showed differences in activity depending on which medium they had just read. People who first read the opening half of the stories on a tablet took longer to answer more demanding questions that required combining information from both halves than those who first read it on paper. This research could impact educational decisions or even hardware and software related to digital reading.