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The findings on the alarming acceleration of warming have enormous ramifications for ocean health, as rising temperatures impact everything from coral reefs to fisheries.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 28, 2025

Oceans are warming faster and faster as the Earth traps more energy

The alarming acceleration helps explain why 2023 and 2024 saw unprecedented ocean temperatures — and more extreme storms.
Heat haze permeates the skyline of Manama, Bahrain.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 10, 2023

How is climate change driving dangerous 'wet-bulb' temperatures?

Dubai, for example, is forecast to see air temperatures hover around 43 degrees Celsius. But climate experts say air temperature alone can be misleading.
A construction site in Dubai, where workers often face temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Aug 23, 2023

As temperatures climb, millions more people face food insecurity

A recent study shows that extreme heat leads to an impossible conundrum for many workers: Risk your health to earn a living, or go hungry.
One big challenge public health officials now face is how to restore trust so that people listen to future guidance on everything from flu shots to childhood vaccines.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2023

Not all COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ is equal — nor misinformation

Public health scientists have to figure out how to get back to the kind of nuanced, thoughtful discussions that were the pre-pandemic norm.
An iceberg in the Weddell Sea, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 26, 2023

Ancient landscape formed by rivers seen deep under Antarctic ice

Researchers say they have detected buried under the continent's ice sheet a vast ancient landscape, replete with valleys and ridges.
Cracks run through the partially dried-up river bed of the Gan River during a regional drought in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, China, in August last year.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Nov 3, 2023

Global warming will reach 1.5 C threshold this decade, report says

The new paper adds to evidence suggesting that the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 C is already out of reach.
Cooling towers at a coal-fired power plant in Germany. While surface temperatures might stabilize quickly after reaching net-zero, other shifting parts of the climate are harder to slow once set in motion.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science
Nov 17, 2023

Amid climate efforts, will net-zero emissions be enough?

A new study suggests uncertainty about how climate systems will respond after emissions stabilize is an argument for reducing them as quickly as possible.
A visitor to an American college fair at a Marriott Hotel in Beijing poses for a souvenir photo next to an eagle mascot on Sept. 23. Students have been traveling between China and the U.S. for generations, propelled by ambition, curiosity and a belief that their time abroad could help them better their and their countries’ futures.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 29, 2023

Can U.S.-China student exchanges survive geopolitics?

Official rhetoric belies obstacles both governments have continued to erect, driven by the same nationalism and concerns about national security.
An offshore wind turbine off the coast of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2013. Japan aims to increase its offshore wind power capacity to 10 GW by 2030.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET
Jan 21, 2024

As Japan makes major investments in wind power, some residents are pushing back

In a sense, the city of Ishikari represents the idealized, natural version of Hokkaido for many Japanese. Some residents say massive wind turbines will destroy that image.
The most relevant measure to gauge plastic bag use isn’t how many carriers get used, but how much material is consumed and how much pollution is produced in their making.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2024

Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one

Reusable plastic bags need to be used 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, according to a 2018 Danish study.
Studies have observed that patients eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis initially complain of common issues like anxiety, fatigue or bladder problems. Researcher may be on the road to developing a simple test that can definitively tell a patient if they have the disease.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2024

This multiple sclerosis discovery could be a breakthrough

Researchers have found evidence that neurons are being damaged years before the disease makes itself known.
Penny Sackett, a former director of the Australian National University’s Mount Stromlo Observatory, in the remains of the observatory, which was destroyed by a wildfire in 2003, just outside Canberra on May 6.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 14, 2024

Alarmed by climate change, astronomers train their sights on Earth

Seeing how climate change has impacted the earth, many astronomers have left science to become full-time activists.
A monk practices "zazen" (seated meditation), a practice that the monk Dogen said would help one cast aside the world in service of the Way.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
May 17, 2024

The joy of Zen — Part 1: Prose

The writings of the monks Eisai and Dogen sought to determine the proper way to live on this Earth, in harmony with the Way.

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2024

America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them

A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
An earthquake-damaged area in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, in May 2023. The Noto Peninsula has been experiencing an ongoing “seismic swarm” since late 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Jun 3, 2024

How rain and snow play a role in Noto’s ‘seismic swarm’

The seismic activity in the region is synchronized with changes in underground pressure, which is influenced by seasonal patterns of precipitation.
A study found that long-term caregivers who were age 16 were 2.51 times likelier to engage in self-harm compared with noncaregivers.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 11, 2024

Young long-term caregivers likelier to have mental health issues

A joint study by the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science found that the risk is particularly high for those between 14 and 16.
Posters of hostages kidnapped during Hamas' deadly attack on Oct. 7 last year in Tel Aviv on Sunday
WORLD
Aug 12, 2024

Addictions on the rise in wartime Israel

Health professionals have reported a surge in drug and alcohol abuse as well as other addictive behaviors since Israel's war with Hamas began.
U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2024

Britons don't pay enough to go to university

U.K. university tuition fees for domestic students are set to rise for the first time in seven years due to a financial crisis in higher education.
The education ministry plans to boost support for hiring more assistants to help truant students.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 10, 2024

Japan to enhance support for truant children

As the number of truant students continues to rise, the Education Ministry aims to secure more support personnel.
The New Delhi skyline engulfed in heavy smog on Nov. 17
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Nov 24, 2024

Mounting economic costs of India's killer smog

Smog in New Delhi this month contains more than 50 times the World Health Organization's recommended limit of fine particulate matter.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Jan 12, 2025

Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change

The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at a camp within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North controlled area in Boram County, Sudan, on June 22, 2024.
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 4, 2025

Millions of malnourished children face lifelong health woes

Famines and other food crises can leave an entire generation with physical and cognitive deficits, experts warn.
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
JAPAN / Politics
May 9, 2025

Who could become Japan's next prime minister?

Regardless of the outcome of July's Upper House election, the bar will be high for anyone seeking to unseat incumbent Shigeru Ishiba.
A woman attends the World AI Conference in Shanghai in July 2023. Although AI models are showing more deceptive and self-protective behavior, some governments are scaling back safety efforts just as oversight is becoming most critical.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2025

AI sometimes deceives to survive. But is there anybody who cares?

AI is showing some bright red flags: behavior described by researchers as self-preserving and deceptive.
An elephant walks through the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 20, 2025

Humans adapted to diverse habitats before trekking out of Africa

Homo sapiens acquired an adaptability useful for tackling the wide range of conditions awaiting beyond the continent.
A street in Suttsu, Hokkaido, with a sign put up by an anti-nuclear organization. The small community is considering hosting a facility that would hold nuclear waste.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jul 6, 2025

Ainu land rights in crosshairs as Hokkaido communities debate nuclear waste

Some scholars and activists are raising concerns that Indigenous voices are not being heard amid the debate over whether to host nuclear waste storage facilities.
Green marks the spot where a fissure formed, then fused back together in this artistic rendering of nanoscale self-healing in metal. Red arrows indicate the direction of the pulling force that unexpectedly triggered the phenomenon.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 21, 2023

Self-healing metal? It's not just the stuff of science fiction

Scientists have witnessed pieces of pure platinum and copper spontaneously heal cracks caused by metal fatigue during nanoscale experiments.
As synonymous with summer as fireworks and sweltering temperatures, mosquitoes are ubiquitous in Japan. However, will rising temperatures lead more dangerous species of the bug to call Japan home?
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Aug 7, 2023

The mosquito: Summer’s unwelcome little bloodsucker

An outbreak of dengue in Yoyogi Park nine years ago could be a sign of things to come if the wrong mosquito makes it into Japan.
Emperor penguins need stable sea ice that’s firmly attached to the shore to breed and nurture their young.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Aug 25, 2023

Penguins die as record low Antarctic ice stokes extinction risk

The findings back predictions that 90% of this species "will be quasi-extinct” by the end of the century under the current global warming trajectory.
This undated handout photo provided by the Michigan Technological University shows a M93, "Old Gray Guy," the larger and lighter colored wolf in the front and center.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife
Sep 1, 2023

How a lone 'immigrant' wolf revived a forest ecosystem

By the 1980s, the wolves were in trouble due to the arrival of canine parvovirus which drove their numbers down from a high of 50 to around 12.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji