Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo and RIKEN have developed a mathematical framework that explains how resource limitations influence information processing in living systems. The study shows that organisms can switch abruptly between memoryless and memory-based estimation depending on energy availability and sensory uncertainty. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for understanding decision making in biological systems.

Japan's Okunoshima Island also known as "Rabbit Island," attracts thousands of visitors worldwide who come to interact with its free-roaming rabbits.  However, a recent study conducted at Fukushima University suggests that unregulated tourist feeding may be altering animal behavior and ecological relationships beyond the island's famous rabbits, influencing native wild boars and other wildlife. The findings highlight the need for better monitoring and management strategies that can balance wildlife tourism, animal welfare, and biodiversity.

Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a method to build stable, tubular hydrogel structures at the arteriole scale. Using a technique called meniscus-guided interfacial ring-by-ring assembly, UV light is used to form ring-shaped structures at an oil–hydrogel interface, which combine to form hollow tubes. Different tubes could be created with good stability, controlled sizes, complex shapes, and multi-component structures. These structures could help to create vascular networks for artificial tissue models.

Researchers have discovered that smooth septate junction proteins regulate intestinal stem cell proliferation by removing aPKC from the apical cortex of differentiating progenitor cells in the Drosophila intestine. This process preserves the Kibra activity and prevents excessive growth-promoting signaling. The findings uncover an unexpected signaling function for cell-cell adhesion proteins in maintaining tissue homeostasis and provide new insights into mechanisms that may be relevant to tissue regeneration and cancer development in higher organisms.

Archaic human parents had to look after helpless infants like modern day parents do, according to new research. Human babies are born less developed than those of other great apes, and so are unable to move as freely. A common result of this is deformational plagiocephaly, also called flat head syndrome. Professor Yousuke Kaifu at the University of Tokyo led a team which studied head shapes from scans of living infants, historical Japanese skeletal remains, fossilized specimens of Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis, and compared these to measurements of dry skulls from other great apes. Human head shapes across the ages, as well as the fossilized samples, exhibited a far wider range of deformation. The team sees this as evidence that archaic humans birthed helpless infants, with implications for childcare practices and potentially cooperative social behaviors dating back hundreds of thousands of years.

Spin waves, or magnons, have attracted attention as information carriers with potential applications in logic circuits, memory devices, and related technologies. Magnonic crystals (MCs) are important platforms for controlling magnon propagation and can be tailored for specific applications. However, general design rules for optimizing targeted properties in MCs remain unclear. In a new study, researchers developed an inverse-design framework to discover optimized MC structures based on target properties and help establish more effective design rules.

Nanocarbons are molecular-scale carbon structures considered to be the building blocks for next-generation materials. Until now, scientists have built them by fusing small, flat carbon molecules together at their edges. Modifying the inside of a molecule was considered challenging because inner bonds are locked into flat, rigid structures that resist change.

Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have shown that a chemical process focused on the interior of a molecular structure can create chiral nanocarbons. Like our hands, these molecules exist in mirror-image left- and right-handed forms. The method, known as skeletal editing, allowed the research team to cut and reform bonds inside common flat carbon molecules, such as small pieces of graphene. They could then build new chiral nanocarbons in various shapes, including molecules with 10-carbon rings and a double helix. 

These new molecules do surprising things. They all glow with light that spirals as it travels. Two can hold multiple electrical charges without breaking. One of them also keeps its handed shape even at 280 degrees Celsius. Another assembles into a porous crystal that can trap and release carbon dioxide, a property that could be useful for gas storage materials. The findings were published in Nature Communications.

Nanoporous material-based separation technology is vital in many applications due to its ability to precisely distinguish between and separate nearly identical chemical or biochemical molecules.

Previous research by Professor Susumu Kitagawa, from Kyoto University’s Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS), and colleagues, published in Nature, had applied this technology to the separation of two very similar types of water molecules—regular water (H₂O) and heavy water (D₂O), which have similar properties overall but slightly different masses. But the underlying mechanics of that separation weren’t well understood.

Now, a study led by Professor Shinji Saito from the Institute for Molecular Science in Japan and published in Nature Communications in July has provided the theoretical explanation for that phenomenon, using molecules of H₂O and D₂O to study nanopore behavior in a metal-organic framework.

When plastics are recycled, their strength gets weakened over time as the long molecular chains gradually break down under repeated exposure to heat and moisture. However, a research group has added a chain extender to the recycling process, allowing polymer chains to reconnect, and a plastic tensile strength to return to normal.

Maintaining and improving quality of life (QOL) and extending a healthy lifespan are among the most important objectives for an aging society. A research group led by Dr. Keiko Odera and Dr. Ryoya Takahashi (former professor) from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has reveal that lifelong supplementation of PQQ (BioPQQ, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc.) and its derivative IPQ in senescence accelerated mouse (SAM) P8 reduces mortality risk during midlife and delays the progression of aging and age-related decline in muscular function. Furthermore, PQQ and IPQ supplementations in middle age improve age‑related declines in muscular function. This study was published in the Food & Function on May 11, 2026 (Open Access Article).