A research team led by Associate Professor Koji Iwano at Okayama University of Science has been awarded the 2025 MEXT Award for Science and Technology for groundbreaking work in improving typhoon forecasting and climate change prediction. By constructing Japan’s only large-scale indoor typhoon simulation tank, the team succeeded in precisely measuring momentum, heat, and CO₂ exchanges at the air-sea interface under extreme wind conditions. Their findings reveal how these transfers shift dramatically beyond wind speeds of 30 m/s, offering critical insights for refining global climate models and developing future typhoon mitigation strategies.

A radical new approach to display screen technology could halve production costs, reduce harmful waste, and deliver brighter, more energy-efficient screens for our smartphones, smartwatches, and even certain medical devices, say researchers at the University of Surrey. 

A three-dimensional varifocal meta-device using cascaded metasurfaces with Moiré and Fresnel lens phase profiles enables dynamic manipulation of the focus point in three-dimensional space. The relative rotation between the metasurfaces precisely controls the focal point position. This work showcases the application of the proposed meta-device integrated into an AR display system. It addresses the VAC problem and demonstrates its capability for pupil steering to enlarge the eyebox.

The researchers from the Lab of Advanced Actuation Technologies (LAAT) at Harbin Institute of Technology propose performance enhancement strategies for TNAs to address the critical demand for high-performance actuators. These approaches enable the simultaneous realization of large deformation and high output force, significantly improving the actuation performance. The novel high-performance TNAs demonstrate strong application potential in soft robots.