With rugged terrain and mobility centered on personal car ownership, bringing together the residents of Okinawa with convenient and eco-friendly transportation is no easy feat.

But sustainable transit is key to both decarbonization and inclusive regional mobility. And now, a new research project, dubbed SO-SMART (a proactive SOcial-based framework for SMART transportation), aims to find sustainable and accessible public transport means through an innovative approach built on citizen participation.

Ice nucleating particles as a kind of aerosols have a significant impact on the Arctic climate by promoting the formation of ice clouds at a temperature above ­–38˚C. Wildfires in mid-latitudinal areas are a major source of these aerosols. However, a direct observation of wildfire-emitted aerosols facilitating ice cloud formation has never been documented. Now, using field and climate data, scientists from Japan have linked aerosols emitted by Canadian wildfires in 2023 to the formation of ice clouds over the Arctic Ocean.

Dating key tectonic events in Japan's geological history has long been often challenging due to poor microfossil preservation from intense heat due to metamorphism. Researchers tackled this by using Re–Os isotope geochronology on Besshi-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits (Makimine and Shimokawa deposits) associated with sediment-covered mid-ocean ridges. Their findings revealed the timing of ridge subduction—when one tectonic plate was forced beneath another—a process that shaped Japan's landscape and provided new insights into its geological evolution.

The structural analysis of redox enzymes in their reduced and oxidized states is crucial for advancing bioelectronic devices like biosensors and biofuel cells. In a recent study, researchers from Tokyo University of Science, Japan, developed a novel method, electrochemical small-angle X-ray scattering, to study these structural differences. Their work on bilirubin oxidase (BOD) revealed that BOD adopts an open or closed state depending on its redox state, providing valuable insights for improving bioelectronics.

A prominent research group from Ehime University and its close partner at Kiel University have published their third collaborative paper detailing PEPPI-MS, their experimental protocol combining high-resolution protein fractionation using SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with the latest mass spectrometry technology to enable highly sensitive analysis of proteoforms, the diverse chemical structures of proteins. This protocol paper, published online in Nature Protocols, is expected to contribute to the development of disease diagnostics based on proteoform information.

An Osaka Metropolitan University research team developed a new experimental game to explore whether people avoid witnessing selfish behavior to evade punishing others or simply to avoid confronting unfairness. The study found that avoidance is driven by both the desire to not acknowledge inequality and the wish to prevent confrontation, suggesting that altruistic punishment may be less common in real-life situations than previously believed.

Researchers introduced a novel classification system for biomass-derived electrocatalysts (BDEs), categorizing them based on their roles in catalytic systems rather than feedstocks. This approach addresses limitations in traditional classifications, providing a foundation for a biomass-derived database to accelerate the development of tailored catalysts for sustainable energy technologies.

A group at Niigata University succeeded in the early diagnosis of leptomeningeal disease in H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline gliomas by the detection of circulating tumor DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid of these patients by liquid biopsy. In two cases, leptomeningeal disease was detected by liquid biopsy earlier than traditional methods such as MRI or cerebrospinal fluid cytology. Early diagnosis and treatment of leptomeningeal disease may lead to improved survival in this deadly disease.

Japan Sea element plants are generally thought to have evolved from closely related species on the Pacific side. Camellia japonica and Camellia rusticana were also believed to follow this pattern. However, our study revealed that their origins trace back to the Miocene, when the Japanese archipelago separated from the continent.