Chemists at Nagoya University cut a bond inside a flat carbon molecule and rebuilt it, producing figure-eight, bathtub and double-helix nanocarbons that emit spiraling light and trap carbon dioxide. Published in Nature Communications.
At a July 28, 2026 briefing, Kawasaki said its four-legged CORLEO has no steering or brakes planned. Force sensors in the stirrups become the controls, NVIDIA physics engines build a virtual off-road course, and the rider becomes part of the machine.
Tohoku University and Air Water went after the two bottlenecks that have kept photothermal cancer therapy in the lab for twenty years. IDP1, an artificial protein designed with AlphaFold, kept nanoparticles circulating for 150.5 minutes against 17.8 for PEG, and a 0.5 mm endoscope that fits inside a 16-gauge needle fired an 808 nm laser from inside the tumor at 28 percent less power. In mice, the tumors were gone within 14 days. How that compares with US trials already running in humans.
A bacterium at Okinawa's deep-sea vents grows on electric current alone, building itself from CO2. JAMSTEC has caught electrosynthesis happening in the wild.
Rubbing a sore spot really does help. Kyushu University researchers have identified the touch neurons behind it in mice, a subpopulation called Npy2r-Cre that dampens pain signals in the spinal cord. The PNAS study puts specific cells behind the 1965 gate control theory.
NAOJ puts NINJA on the Subaru Telescope this summer, a spectrograph that grabs 0.85 to 2.5 micrometers in one exposure. Why Japan bet on follow-up, not discovery.
Japan's first Formula E night race had Nissan racing as a works team and Yamaha building the powertrain inside another team's car. Those roles are converging.
NEC and Keio AI Center have developed a technique that turns ordinary smartphone video into a high-fidelity 3D model in as little as one minute. By pairing Gaussian splatting with its own AI, NEC cut generation time to one-tenth and taught the system to erase workers caught on camera. Commercial launch is targeted within fiscal 2027.
From mid-August 2026 SoftBank will fly a 65-metre helium airship from New Mexico across the Pacific and hold it about 20 km above Japan, testing voice, SMS and data from a flying base station that covers up to 200 km across. Commercial service is targeted from 2027. Here is how it differs from satellite direct-to-phone, why Loon died, and the business problem SoftBank has not solved.
LEAF, a deorbit device that drags dead small satellites out of orbit, was finished by space startup cosmobloom and Katsuragawa Seira, a Tokyo screw maker in business since 1938. How a town factory's eye ended up on a film thinner than kitchen wrap.
Keio University reports up to four years of follow-up on four patients given iPS-derived cells for spinal cord injury: no tumors, no serious harm. What it means, and how Japan's path compares to the US and Europe.