Salt stress is a major factor that impairs plant growth and yield. In a breakthrough, researchers from Waseda University have revealed that Arabidopsis thaliana myosin XI-1—a member of the motor protein myosin XI—significantly regulates adaptation to salt stress via intracellular sodium ion (Na⁺) homeostasis. It can thus serve as a promising molecular target for the development of salt-tolerant crops, contributing to sustainable farming in saline-affected regions.

In organic synthesis, replacing lithium with sodium would be a significant achievement because it is >1000 times more abundant and its extraction from seawater is sustainable and inexpensive. This research demonstrates the first environmental-friendly organosodium methodology that could sustainably replace lithium in modern day organic synthesis. These findings are published in Nature Synthesis on December 8, 2025.

A research group led by Drs. Shusuke Tada and Takashi Tsuyama at the Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Toho University, has demonstrated that overexpression of Cdc10-dependent transcript 1 (CDT1), a key regulator of DNA replication initiation, induces DNA damage and potentially results in genetic mutations. Although previous studies have linked CDT1 overexpression to cellular transformation and tumorigenesis, the underlying mechanism has remained unclear. The findings not only reveal the impact of CDT1 overexpression on DNA replication progression post initiation but also provide molecular insights into its role in cancer development.

Brain development during the initial years is critical, shaped by both environment and caregiver behaviors. To clarify the causal relationship between maternal psychological distress and neuropsychiatric developmental delays, researchers in Japan analyzed data from over 82,000 mother–child pairs in a large-scale nationwide cohort. They found that distress within 1 year postpartum had stronger effects on the toddler’s neurodevelopment than prenatal distress, emphasizing the importance of continuous maternal mental health support before and after childbirth.

An Osaka Metropolitan University researcher quantitatively evaluated the optimal approach for a tomato harvesting robot using image recognition and statistical analysis to maximize the success rate of fruit picking.

Insect pupae hiss like snakes for defense. A Kobe University team now reveals the mechanisms, opening the door to further studies involving predator reactions to defensive sounds.

Why does plastic turn brittle and paint fade when exposed to the sun for long periods? Scientists have long known that such organic photodegradation occurs due to the sun’s energy generating free radicals: molecules that have lost an electron to sunlight-induced ionization and have been left with an unpaired one, making them very eager to react with other molecules in the environment. However, the exact mechanisms for how and why the energy from the sun’s photons get stored and released in the materials over very long periods have eluded empirical evidence.  

The problem lies in the timeframe. While scientists have access to extremely sophisticated spectroscopy equipment capable of measuring the energy levels of individual electrons at femtosecond to millisecond scales in organic materials, they have paid little attention to time scales beyond seconds – and these are processes that can take years.  

As such, slow, transient charge accumulation has presented a disappointing data gap in both applied and theoretical optics. But now, researchers from the Organic Optoelectronics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have addressed this challenge with a new methodology that detects these faint signals. Their findings are published in Science Advances.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogel undergoes significant but precise changes in size between 20 and 40 °C, making it an excellent candidate for use in variable-size deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) array devices. Researchers from Science Tokyo have built a tunable DLD cell-sorting platform and verified its ability to sort cancer cells of defined sizes from blood samples. This platform could offer high-resolution size-based cell sorting for a wide variety of biomedical applications

Game meat has traditionally been shunned by the Japanese population, Despite it being a sustainable food resource, vast amounts go to waste each year. A research team has dived deeper into the psychological barriers to game meat in Japan in an attempt to better market this underutilized resource.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers investigated the causes of acute mountain sickness at the Mount Fuji Summit Hut.