Femtosecond laser-induced periodic surface structures can be used to control thermal conductivity in thin film solids, report researchers from Japan. Their innovative method, which leverages high-speed laser ablation, produces parallel nanoscale grooves with unprecedented throughput that is 1,000 times stronger than conventional approaches, strategically altering phonon scattering in the material. This scalable and semiconductor-ready approach could make it possible to mass-produce thermal engineering structures while maintaining laboratory-level precision.

In a new Nature Physics study, researchers created particle-like so-called “vortex knots” inside chiral nematic liquid crystals, a twisted fluid similar to those used in LCD screens. For the first time, these knots are stable and could be reversibly switched between different knotted forms, using electric pulses to fuse and split them.

Aluminum is prized for being lightweight and strong, but at high temperatures it loses strength. This has limited its use in engines, turbines, and other applications where parts must stay strong under high temperature conditions. Researchers at Nagoya University have developed a method that uses metal 3D printing to create a new aluminum alloy series optimized for high strength and heat resistance. All new alloys use low-cost, abundant elements, and are recycling-friendly, with one variant staying both strong and flexible at 300°C. The study was published in Nature Communications.

【Key Research Achievements】

Demonstration that natural bacteria isolated from amphibian and reptile intestines achieve complete tumor elimination with single administration

Combines direct bacterial killing of cancer cells with immune system activation for comprehensive tumor destruction

Outperforms existing chemotherapy and immunotherapy with no adverse effects on normal tissues

Expected applications across diverse solid tumor types, opening new avenues for cancer treatment

The first exoplanet ever discovered in 1995 was what we now call a “hot Jupiter”, a planet as massive as Jupiter with an orbital period of just a few days. Today, hot Jupiters are thought to have formed far from their stars—similar to Jupiter in our Solar System—and later migrated inward. Two main mechanisms have been proposed for this migration: (1) high-eccentricity migration, in which a planet’s orbit is disturbed by the gravity of other celestial bodies and subsequently circularized by tidal forces near the star; and (2) disk migration, in which the planet moves gradually inward within the protoplanetary disk.

However, it is not straightforward to distinguish the mechanism a particular hot Jupiter experienced from observations alone. In the case of high-eccentricity migration, the gravitational perturbations can tilt the planet’s orbital axis relative to the star’s rotational axis, resulting in a measurable misalignment. However, tidal forces can realign these axes over time, meaning that an aligned orbit does not necessarily imply disk migration. As a result, there has long been no reliable observational method to identify planets that formed through disk migration.

To address this challenge, a research group led by PhD student Yugo Kawai and Assistant Professor Akihiko Fukui at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, proposed a new observational method that takes advantage of the timescale of high-eccentricity migration itself.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers enhanced Saccharomyces cerevisiae to increase its tolerance for high 2,3-butanediol concentrations. This was achieved by introducing mutations into the genomic DNA and successfully obtaining a mutant strain that proliferates 122 times more than the parent strain.

Kyoto, Japan -- What if we could peer into the brain and watch how it organizes information as we act, perceive, or make decisions? A new study has introduced a method that does exactly this -- not just by looking at fine-grained neuronal spiking activity, but by characterizing its collective dynamics using principles from thermodynamics.

A team from Kyoto University and Hokkaido University developed a new statistical framework capable of tracing directional, nonequilibrium neural dynamics directly from large-scale spike recordings, enabling them to show how neurons dissipate entropy as they compute. Their findings reveal how neurons dynamically reshape their interactions during behavior and how the brain’s internal "temporal asymmetry" shifts during task engagement, shedding light on how efficient computation arises.

Traditional approaches to temporal asymmetry often assume that brain signals are relatively steady over time -- a convenient assumption, but one that fails to capture the brain's ever-changing computations. "Real neurons never sit still," says first author Ken Ishihara of Hokkaido University. "Their firing rates and interactions fluctuate from moment to moment. To capture their nonequilibrium behavior, we needed a new kind of model."

Companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) track records performed better than their peers after being required to adopt more rigorous auditing standards. This is according to a new study from researchers at Nagoya University in Japan, which is the first to examine the connection between the implementation of “key audit matters” (KAMs) and firms’ sustainability practices.

Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have re-engineered the popular Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM) for simulating the flow of fluids and heat, making it lighter and more stable than the state-of-the-art. By formulating the algorithm with a few extra inputs, they successfully got around the need to store certain data, some of which span the millions of points over which a simulation is run. Their findings might overcome a key bottleneck in LBM: memory usage.