Researchers from Japan have unveiled a comprehensive dataset detailing the psychological and social responses of Japanese adults to the COVID-19 pandemic. Spanning 30 survey waves from January 2020 to March 2024, the open dataset captures how Japanese adults’ risk perception, preventive behaviors, policy attitudes, views toward foreigners, and psychological distress evolved over more than four years of uncertainty. Published as a data paper in Data in Brief, this resource is now openly accessible to the global community.

The Nov. 5, 2025, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience features for the first time a cover concept that is not about what neuroscientists have done, but rather what neuroscience can do for humanity’s future. In their article titled “Neuroscience Needs Behavioral ‘Wind Tunnels’ for Real-Life Translation”, lead authors Mohammad Shehata, Charles Yokoyama and Michael Platt propose that the future of neuroscience depends on creating behavioral “wind tunnels”: controlled research spaces embedded in real-world environments that can generate the ecological, scalable data the field currently lacks. This new paradigm aims to accelerate both scientific progress and societal impact, enabling neuroscience to advance beyond its current bottlenecks.

White oval squid (Sepioteuthis lessoniana sp. 2), known locally as shiro-ika, are medium-sized squids naturally distributed in the Indian and western Pacific oceans, flittering in and out of a wide range of different habitats – from shallow seagrass beds, over coral reefs, to depths of 100m along coastal environments. In such biodiverse zones, the squids encounter predators of all sizes and shapes, from seabirds flying overhead to sharks, tuna, and other cephalopods prowling under the sea.

Such a variety of threats calls for a large repertoire of survival strategies. Researchers from the Okinawan Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have previously discovered how shiro-ika change color when moving between different shades of substrate – and now, the same team has painted a full picture of how the cephalopod employs a sophisticated range of camouflaging strategies to adapt to different environments and threats. “The wide variety of visual strategies used by the squid is surprisingly complex, especially considering that squid have traditionally been regarded as spending most of their lives in the open water column,” explains former OIST Visiting Researcher Dr. Ryuta Nakajima, “This discovery suggests that squid have a deeper behavioral relationship with the ocean floor than previously thought.”

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have revealed how a catalyst in a promising chemical reaction for industry helps make ammonia, a major ingredient in fertilizer. Copper oxide is a key catalyst in the electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction, a greener alternative to the existing Haber-Bosch process. They discovered that copper particles are created mid-reaction, helping convert nitrite ions to ammonia. This insight into the underlying mechanisms promises leaps forward in developing new industrial chemistry.

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have precisely quantified “quantum tunneling” of hydrogen atoms in palladium at low temperatures, motion that is impossible for classical particles. Channeling nuclear reaction analysis revealed hydrogen hopping in palladium from less stable tetrahedral sites to more stable octahedral sites. The tunneling rate exhibited slight positive and negative temperature dependences, showing that phonons and electrons in palladium facilitated the tunneling process, respectively.

A joint research team from NIMS and Toyo Tanso has developed a carbon electrode that enables stable operation of a 1-Wh-class stacked lithium-air battery, achieving higher output, longer life and scalability simultaneously. The team created this electrode by combining manufacturing technology that Toyo Tanso developed for its “CNovel™” porous carbon product with proprietary technology NIMS developed to fabricate self-standing carbon membranes. This combination made it possible to scale up the battery cell size—a significant step toward practical, industrial-scale lithium-air batteries. The research was published online in Cell Reports Physical Science on September 18, 2025.

Current antibody-based treatments for Alzheimer’s disease remain costly and carry significant side effects, highlighting the need for safer alternatives. In a new study, researchers from Kindai University report that oral administration of arginine suppresses amyloid-β aggregation and related neurotoxicity in fruit fly and mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings demonstrate arginine’s potential as a safe, inexpensive, and readily available repositioned drug candidate for preventing or mitigating Alzheimer’s pathology.

Excessive screen use among school-aged children has been linked to sleep disturbances and behavioral problems, but its effects on brain development have remained unclear. Now, researchers from Japan have examined data from over 11,000 children to explore the relationship between screen time, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and brain structure. Their findings reveal that longer daily screen exposure is linked to increased ADHD symptoms and measurable changes in brain development.