Male infertility is a major issue worldwide and its causes remain unclear. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have now discovered a key structure in the germ cells of male mice that, when disturbed, leads to abnormal sperm tails and infertility. The discovery was made possible by the first observation of the mouse flagellar base structure using ultrastructure expansion microscopy and could explain some forms of infertility in human men. 

Iron is essential for rice plants, and its proper distribution to young leaves and developing grains depends on precise transport through the plant’s nodes. In a recent study, researchers from Japan identified and characterized OsIET1, an iron efflux transporter that directs iron into the vascular structures. Their findings shed light on the mechanisms by which plants distribute iron, paving the way for more resilient crops and strategies to manage iron deficiency. 

Researchers at Okayama University have developed a novel photochemical macrolactonization that converts hydroxyaldehydes into macrolactones (ring sizes 7–21) using in-situ generated acyl bromide intermediates under purple LED light. This radical light-driven method bypasses conventional activating agents and opens a versatile, efficient pathway for constructing complex natural product frameworks—a promising advance for drug discovery and macrolide synthesis.

A researcher from the University of Tokyo and a U.S.-based structural engineer developed a new computational form-finding method that could change how architects and engineers design lightweight and free-form structures covering large spaces. The technique specifically helps create gridshells, thin, curved surfaces whose members form a networked grid. The method makes use of NURBS surfaces, a widely used surface representation format in computer-aided design (CAD). It also drastically reduces computation cost — a task that previously took 90 hours on a high-end GPU completes in about 90 minutes on a standard CPU.

Silicon anodes can greatly boost the energy density of all-solid-state batteries, but their large volume changes often cause contact loss with solid electrolytes. Using operando synchrotron X-ray micro- and nano-computed tomography, researchers at Ritsumeikan University directly visualized the 3D evolution of the silicon–electrolyte interface during charge and discharge cycling. They found that even as silicon expands and shrinks, the thin, solid-electrolyte layers remain adhered, preserving partial ion pathways and enabling stable operation.

New in Nature Communications, an international team of researchers overcomes limitations of working with individual atoms with careful design. Through on-surface synthesis enabled by atomic-resolution scanning probe microscopy techniques, the scientists made one-dimensional organic polymers capable of selectively binding metal atoms at well-defined coordination sites. It is the first time that such a polymer-based architecture has been achieved, using periodic side extensions that are carefully designed to provide tunable active sites.  The platform marks a major advance in single atom catalysis, paving the way towards more efficient and sustainable next-generation catalysts.

Kyoto, Japan -- Shisei Tei claims he is clumsy with technology and doesn't even own a smartphone, yet he has found himself thinking a lot about what we call generative AI.

Tei is cautiously optimistic about AI. As a researcher, he uses it to help with analyzing psychiatric data, and outside work it helps him plan personalized hikes. But Tei is concerned that AI will change how we think about death, which he discusses in a chapter he wrote for the book SecondDeath: Experiences of Death Across Technologies.

"Today, I often see how AI reframes grief and remembrance," says Tei. Though he thinks mental health chatbots have the potential to lower barriers to care, maladaptive use of chatbots that reconstruct deceased individuals can distort our perceptions of death and existence.

Rechargeable batteries get a supercharged boost from newly developed RAMOFs that don’t break down in water, which was previously a major problem for this material.

An Osaka Metropolitan University-led research team found that patients with knee osteoarthritis show a weaker human-body advantage during mental rotation of humanized objects.

An international team of researchers has used knowledge of historical geography to reexamine the earliest datable total solar eclipse record known to the scientific community, enabling accurate measurements of Earth's variable rotation speed from 709 BCE. The researchers calculated how the Sun would have appeared from Qufu, the ancient Chinese capital of the Lu Duchy, during the total solar eclipse. Using this information, they analyzed the ancient description of what has been considered the solar corona—the dim outer atmosphere of the Sun visible to the naked eye only during total eclipses—and found that its morphology supports recent solar cycle reconstructions for the 8th century BCE.