Tag - science

 
 

SCIENCE

A worker displays a handful of shredded hard drive pieces for e-waste processing at a facility in Festac, Nigeria, in 2020.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 21, 2025
Urban mining eases the critical minerals crunch 
Governments are waking up to the potential of e-waste recycling, and Japan is leading the way.
Female students are given a tour of U.S. chip giant Nvidia's office in Tokyo in July.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2025
Firms host female high school students to tout science and technology
Through company tours, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government hopes to encourage female students to pick science and technology when pursuing higher education.
Japan faces a demographic crisis that threatens its research talent and must build a more inclusive and welcoming society to attract and keep world-class scientists amid rising nationalism and economic challenges.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 7, 2025
Japan gets serious about attracting world-class researchers
The stakes are high: Without a cultural shift, even the best-funded policies may fail to secure Japan’s future.
Protesters hold a “Stand Up for Science” march in Sacramento, California, on March 7. Faced with deep budget cuts and political threats, scientists in the U.S. and Japan are realizing they must step out of the lab to defend science’s place in society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 21, 2025
Scientists can’t stay in their ivory tower
Now is the time for scientists to return to society — not just as experts, but as engaged members of the public.
Scientists say a recently published study could help explain why women are typically less prone to weight-related conditions. The research may lead to new therapies that target calorie-burning mechanisms.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 15, 2025
Japanese scientists discover clue to why women burn more fat than men
Scientists say their findings could help explain why women are typically less prone to weight-related conditions and may lead to new therapies.
President of Aix Marseille University Eric Berton (right) takes part in a news conference to welcome American scientists to the "Safe Place for Science" program at the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory in Marseille, southeastern France, on Thursday.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 28, 2025
'Science refugees': French university welcomes first U.S. researchers
The University of Aix-Marseille welcomed the scholars on Thursday, following the March launch of its "Safe Place for Science" initiative.
Five crew members re-create a log boat voyage from Taiwan to Yonaguni island, Okinawa Prefecture, in July 2019.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2025
Rowing from Taiwan to Japan was possible 30,000 years ago, says team
The voyage in a log boat, with no sails, was possible if all the rowers were highly skilled and adjusted their course with the fast Kuroshio current in mind.
A group of scientists have found an astonishing diversity of microorganisms in tiny pools of melted ice in Antarctica, suggesting that life could have ridden out several ice ages in similar ponds.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 21, 2025
How did life survive 'Snowball Earth'? In ponds, study suggests.
A group of scientists have found an astonishing diversity of microorganisms in tiny pools of melted ice in Antarctica.
The Neuralink device, called Blindsight, stimulated areas of a monkey’s brain associated with vision, said engineer Joseph O’Doherty.
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 16, 2025
Neuralink device helps monkey see something that’s not there
The device, called Blindsight, stimulated areas of a monkey’s brain associated with vision.
Under the new law, the Science Council of Japan will be positioned as a "representative organization for Japanese scientists at home and abroad," and the government will provide necessary financial support.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 12, 2025
Japan enacts law to turn Science Council into special entity
The new law for the council, which represents the country's scientific community, will come into effect in October 2026.
The executive order U.S. President Donald Trump signed imposing a “gold standard” in science appears to champion research integrity but is seen by experts as a political move to control which evidence is accepted.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2025
This isn’t how you ‘restore gold standard’ science
There’s widespread concern the executive order could allow government officials to flag almost anything as not up to their definition of "gold standard.”
DOPS Director Dr. Jim Tucker (back row, from left), David Acunzo, Marina Weiler, Philip Cozzolino (front row, from left) Marieta Pehlivanova and Elliot Gish, pose for a photo on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 15. Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the "beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025
Do you believe in life after death? These scientists study it.
Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the “beyond” possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
Institute of Science Tokyo's Chief Executive Officer Naoto Otake (right) and Chief Academic Officer Yujiro Tanaka at the university's campus in Tokyo's Meguro Ward on Tuesday
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2024
Institute of Science Tokyo launched after merger of two universities
The new university has 6,242 undergraduates and 7,116 postgraduates. Of them, 2,145 are foreign students.
Black Myth: Wukong has sold over 10 million copies in less than a week — by far the best launch of a Chinese-developed single-player game in history.
LIFE / Digital
Aug 27, 2024
With Black Myth: Wukong, China is now a force to reckon with in AAA games
Can China’s first AAA gaming hit bear the weight of the cultural baggage it’s being burdened with?
Technicians assemble a component of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN nuclear research facility in Cessy, France, in March 2007. International cooperation in science is essential for solving global challenges and maintaining innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2024
Geopolitics threatens science and societal progress
In this world, the prospect of greater controls or reduced international cooperation can only be damaging.
Tsuyoshi Ode, specially appointed professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, poses with a certificate for the school's hydrogen dueled ship during news conference on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jul 25, 2024
Japan certifies hydrogen-fueled ship for the first time
The ship requires three tanks of high-pressure hydrogen gas at room temperature and can sail some 75 kilometers in five hours at a speed of 8 knots per hour.
Oshoma watches the All Japan Championships at the Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2022.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Jun 26, 2024
Rising star Oshoma blends traditional background with unique approach
Despite his late arrival in sumo’s higher ranks, it would be wrong to dismiss Oshoma's impressive 10-win top-tier debut.
Naoto Ohtake, president-elect of the Institute of Science Tokyo, said it aims to have international students make up 30% of all undergraduate science and engineering majors by 2050.
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2024
Institute of Science Tokyo will reapply for grant from ¥10 trillion fund
Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, which will merge to form the new university, had jointly applied before but failed.
Muons can penetrate dense materials, even bedrock several kilometers thick, and therefore are used for internal inspections for volcanos and pyramids, as well as the reactors at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.
JAPAN
Jun 16, 2024
Japan team succeeds in muon reacceleration in major breakthrough
Muons have characteristics similar to those of electrons but have a mass some 200 times greater.
Parasitic paper mills producing fake studies are flourishing by helping scientists cheat to bolster their resumes, snag competitive academic jobs and impress funding agencies.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2024
Fake scientific studies are a problem that’s getting harder to solve
Publishing house Wiley announced it was dropping 19 journals that they said were infested with fake papers.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’