Dogs come in all shapes and sizes: from giant fluffy Newfoundlands to tiny short-haired Chihuahuas. And many furry companions like to spend their days inside near their humans. An initial study published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology reports that dogs — both big and small — impact indoor air quality. The researchers found that small active dogs produced more airborne particles, but larger animals released more microbes into the air than people did.

As members of the public increasingly turn to AI chatbots to understand their world, even subtle latent biases in the underlying models could affect public understanding of the present—and past. Daniel Karell and colleagues explored the effects of both unintentional and intentional political biases in LLMs by asking 1,912 research participants to read GPT-4o and Wikipedia summaries of two 20th century historical events: the 1919 Seattle General Strike and the 1968 Third World Liberation Front student protests calling for greater ethnic minority representation in academia, which led the establishment of Ethnic Studies departments. 

MediaTek, a global leader in wireless communications and semiconductors, has established a joint research laboratory with the Singapore University of Technology and Design to advance communications and connectivity through AI-powered, satellite-connected, and greener wireless networks. The partnership, MediaTek’s first in Singapore, represents a total investment of over S$34 million to accelerate 6G research and prototype development.

Diastereomers are molecules with identical structures that are not mirror images of each other, described as anti or syn for molecules without rings. Researchers at the University of Osaka developed a strategy for using a rigid cage-like molecule to produce an anti-diastereomer in high yield. This diastereomer can only be obtained as a minor byproduct by traditional methods. The strategy is expected to become a key technology for making medicines and other bioactive substances.

A research group led by Associate Professor Tetsuya Muramoto from the Faculty of Science, Toho University, has established a CRISPR genome editing technique that enables comparative analysis of the evolution of multicellularity across different species of social amoebas (cellular slime molds). Until now, genetic studies had been largely restricted to a single model species, limiting cross-species comparisons.These findings were published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports on February 5, 2026.

With the speed at which technology advances, there is little room for suboptimal performance and out-of-date tech. Precise positioning is a field where advancement is needed, as many conventional applications feature tools that are much larger than the objects being worked upon, making high precision a difficult task. Additionally, those that are highly precise have a limited range of motion. Researchers did not want to compromise, and instead set out to create a highly precise machine with a wide range of motion, and were able to do so by developing a palm-sized, precise positioning robot making use of piezoelectric actuators.

Results were published in Advanced Intelligence Systems in January 2026.

This study builds upon previous research by establishing a synergistic model that links oxidative stress, membrane permeability, and energy metabolism to elucidate the mechanism of DIBP-induced ARG conjugation. These findings further expand our understanding of PAE specificity in promoting ARG dissemination, highlighting the distinct role of branched-chain isomers compared to their straight-chain counterparts.