Japanese researchers have developed a compact tool to read amino acids’ molecular handedness through tiny electrical currents, which could help future space missions search for clues to life.

Nine years of tracking tsunami-strewn sticklebacks have revealed how quickly most marine ancestry disappeared from a freshwater population, a rare view of evolution unfolding in the wild.

Japanese researchers have demonstrated an early step toward replacing a vital hormone-producing tissue, with the goal of reducing patients’ reliance on lifelong medication.

Another Jetsons prediction rings true? Researchers have tested a capsule robot that collects microbes from the intestinal lining, an early step toward sampling hard-to-reach regions of the gut.

Japanese researchers use knot theory to design a knitting pattern that confines unraveling to a small hole, offering a route to run-resistant fabrics.

Individual salty ice grains blasted from Saturn’s ocean moon could make the search for extraterrestrial life easier, but not in the way we’ve been thinking.

By creating a false sense of security, modern river barriers have allowed settlements to surge into historic floodplains, turning engineered protection into a hidden hazard when rain comes calling.

Japanese researchers detected exceptionally early pancreatic cancers by looking for changes in gene activity in blood cells rather than conventional tumor markers, offering hope for early treatment.

Japanese researchers have moved extreme-temperature electronics closer to reality by scaling their silicon-carbide transistor technology to a six-inch wafer in a commercial semiconductor plant.

Japanese researchers have found a new way to control where 'quantum vortices' flow, an advance that could open new possibilities for managing energy and heat in future superconducting devices.

Mystery solved? New simulations trace the mysterious objects seen by the Webb telescope from the birth of massive black hole seeds to some of the biggest black holes in the early universe.

Japanese researchers have turned a marine bacterium into a nitrogen-rich fertilizer that grew broccoli as well as conventional alternatives while producing less of a potent greenhouse gas.

Researchers in Japan are using AI to read subtle patterns in light scattered by individual cells, revealing signs of cancer that conventional microscopy may miss.

Researchers in Japan turned evolution loose on the seemingly impossible, a pair of zero-thickness wings, to discover shapes that could help tiny drones fly more efficiently on Earth and Mars.

Researchers in Japan have coaxed normally rigid crystals into microscopic springs that expand and contract as molecules move in and out, a surprising first for this class of porous materials.

Researchers in Japan have found a faster way to count individual particles of light, an advance that could help with the development of photonic quantum computing.

On a remote volcanic island in Japan, scientists are getting a rare chance to watch an ecosystem repeatedly build itself from scratch, only to have the volcano wipe the slate clean.

Scientists in Japan created living human heart tissue that mimics a difficult-to-treat form of heart failure, opening a new way to study the disease and test potential treatments.

FOLLOW THAT STORY: Five months ago researchers demonstrated a way to print lasting color without pigments. Now they’re back with a glossy, ultralight coating that can cover three-dimensional objects.

Inspired by snow and other structures in nature, researchers in Japan have found a way to make polymers brilliantly white and even water-repellent without conventional pigments or chemical coatings.

Researchers in Japan have mapped how thorium-229 nuclei behave inside a crystal, helping clear a path toward a new generation of ultra-utlra-ultraprecise timekeepers.

Researchers find that the natural rush grass woven into traditional tatami floor mats may reduce anxiety, improve concentration, and even help regulate indoor humidity.

Researchers in Japan have discovered that inhibitory neurons in the brain can suppress the growth of adult gliomas, a family of tumors that includes the especially deadly glioblastoma.

Japanese researchers have turned ordinary laser-printed toner and plastic into a touch-sensitive interface that can recognize finger movements, commands, and even individual users.

Researchers have created the first graphene nano-ribbon whose molecular handedness can be reversibly switched, a step toward materials that can change their optical and electronic behavior on demand.

In the early universe, the dots line up…and perhaps merge, offering a possible clue to how supermassive black holes grew so big, so fast.

In a novel discovery in the world of biology, Japanese researchers find that genes stolen by parasitic plants can continue evolving within their new owners while retaining their original function.

Japanese and U.S. researchers have found that a bacterial peptide called corisin can promote lung scarring associated with deadly idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, offering a possible path to treatment.

Japanese researchers are testing magnetic fields that could help spacecraft slow down upon descent while shielding them from the tremendous heat of atmospheric reentry.

Researchers found that nanoscale holes can make nickel lighter while doubling its resistance to fatigue cracks caused by repeated stress, a boon for lightweight materials in airplanes and turbines.

Researchers have shrunk a famous physics experiment to the atomic scale, making an interferometer that can measure how neighboring atoms vibrate, which will have implications for semiconductor design.

Historic gardens maintained for centuries for their beauty and cultural significance also provide unexpected refuges for amphibians in an increasingly urban landscape, a lesson for city planners.

Supercentenarians harbor unusually large numbers of rare killer T cells that remain active rather than exhausted, potentially helping them fend off cancer and other threats of extreme old age.

Robotically controlled, sensor-equipped roaches could scurry through disaster zones in search of people trapped beyond the reach of human rescuers.

RIKEN researchers in Japan have created an unusually ordered, electrically polarized hydrogel that could lead to more sophisticated artificial muscles, biosensors, and drug-delivery systems.

The Japanese XRISM satellite finds a quasar stirring gas across 300,000 light-years with energies never before observed, enough to help explain the outsized role black holes play in cosmic evolution.

A new method developed in Japan reconstructs the hidden connections within food webs, potentially giving conservationists a better map of which species depend on which.

Two studies from Japan show how inflammatory signals can reshape a tumor's immune neighborhood in opposite ways—one making cancer more vulnerable to attack, the other helping it hide.

Japanese researchers have gained submicrometer control over nanotube orientation with a wonderfully destructive approach: blast away the ones pointing the wrong way.

Japanese researchers designed fibers that carry 'excitons' hundreds of nanometers through an organic semiconductor, potentially overcoming a longstanding limitation of flexible optoelectronics.

Japanese researchers have turned roughly 1,200 Starlink satellites into an unlikely atmospheric observatory, using data from their orbital decline to map the wispy reaches of Earth's upper atmosphere.

Physicists have found that the erratic movements of yellow crazy ants can be reproduced with simple mathematical rules, offering a new way to understand how animals explore their surroundings.

Scientists have uncovered a key step that turns allergic inflammation in the skin into a body-wide immune response. The discovery pinpoints an unexpected group of immune cells carrying the message.

How many Japanese researchers does it take to fix a light bulb? In the world of LED and OLED research, quite a lot. And that’s a good thing.

Japanese researchers have developed smart food packaging that changes color as meat spoils, while also helping keep the food fresh longer.

Japanese physicists have shown that the famous Smith hat tile, created to solve a half-century-old mathematical puzzle, also manipulates light in entirely unexpected ways.

A study in Japan suggests that chronic traffic noise can alter the anatomy of a grasshopper's sound-producing organs, expanding the known effects of noise pollution beyond changes in animal behavior.

Japanese researchers have developed a protective coating that helps healthy mitochondria survive long enough to enter cells, an advance that could move mitochondrial transplantation closer to reality.

Researchers have developed a new strategy for discovering catalysts and chemical reactions simultaneously, an approach that could accelerate sustainable manufacturing and carbon-neutral technologies.

Japanese chemists have developed a new way to reshape complex carbon molecules by breaking and rebuilding their internal skeletons, opening a route to previously unattainable nanocarbons.