Two research projects from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have been awarded the second-class award in the 2025 Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Natural Sciences and Engineering Technology) by the Ministry of Education. The accolades serve as recognition of the research teams’ breakthrough contributions in the frontier fields of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in bacteria and flexible electronics technology, affirming the University’s research strength in both fundamental research and technological innovation.Two research projects from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have been awarded the second-class award in the 2025 Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Natural Sciences and Engineering Technology) by the Ministry of Education. The accolades serve as recognition of the research teams’ breakthrough contributions in the frontier fields of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in bacteria and flexible electronics technology, affirming the University’s research strength in both fundamental research and technological innovation.

In an era when artificial intelligence (AI) is touted as a disruptor of education, a series of landmark studies from the Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Education, East China Normal University (ECNU), captures a more human-focused course. Published in a special issue of ECNU Review of Education, these four research projects, grounded in empirical data, deploys AI not to replace the human elements of teaching and learning, but to fundamentally understand and enhance them.

Speaking on 22 January at the “Novel approaches to accelerate cancer precision therapeutics—on both sides of the leash” discussion at the Frontiers Science House, the multi-platinum singer and songwriter Aloe Blacc challenged corporations and funders to open up their data to help accelerate science and its benefits. 

The University of Texas at Arlington, an R1 research institution, offers undergraduates direct access to high-level scientific work. That commitment was reflected last fall with the selection of three College of Science students to attend the National Symposium for Predoctoral Research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

When we assign work or chores in social units like our workplaces and households, feelings of unfairness are inevitable. While we hope to keep things fair, this can sometimes be difficult to achieve, and we often find ourselves caught in terrible dilemmas. Graduate School of Humanities Assistant Professor THAM Yukari Jessica has been conducting research on the “volunteer’s dilemma,” receiving awards such as the 12th JSPS Ikushi Prize and the 2025 Maenosono Memorial Award for Young Researchers for her paper on feelings of unfairness in work delegation. We asked her about the fundamentals of unfairness, how we can resolve these feelings, the relationship between fairness and well-being, as well as the results of her research and their implications for society.

An animal ecologist researching large marine animals such as whales and dolphins, Assistant Professor IWATA Takashi of the Graduate School of Maritime Sciences has performed surveys in oceans across the world. By using a method known as “biologging,” which involves attaching various recording instruments to animals in order to collect data, Iwata is working to elucidate the activity and surrounding environment of mysterious marine life. In recent years, he has also focused on surveying endangered finless porpoises native to nearby Osaka Bay. We sat down with Iwata to learn more about the current state of the oceans revealed through his research, as well as problems facing ecosystem conservation.

How do cutting-edge science and technology respond to ethical and legal issues when incorporated into society? These issues are known as ethical, legal and social issues, or “ELSI” for short, and research on these issues is being carried out both within Japan and around the world. In 2023, Kobe University launched KOBELSI, its university-wide research project on ELSI in life sciences and natural sciences. As revolutionary technology in fields such as medicine and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to pop up one after another, how has ELSI research advanced? We spoke with Professor CHATANI Naoto of the Graduate School of Humanities, leader of the project and an expert in ancient Greek philosophy and bioethics, about the current state of ELSI research and its future prospects.

The university is a place of research and knowledge. But have these things actually served to make people happy? Professor ISHIDA Tatsuro asked himself this question time and time again during his two-year-plus tenure as deputy director of Kobe University’s Office for Promoting Well-being. While performing research and diagnosing and treating patients as a physician, he also pondered their well-being. In addition, as part of a team effort to contribute to society with municipalities in Hyogo Prefecture, Ishida volunteers to provide medical care to the community. We asked Ishida, who currently serves as dean of the Graduate School of Health Sciences and who concurrently served as director of the Center for Advancement of Community Medicine through March 2025, about the current state and future outlook of well-being promotion at Kobe University, as well as his perspectives on research and medical settings.

Kobe, the international port city, has an over 150 year-long history since opening its port to foreign trade in the Meiji era. Once a foreign settlement that sprawled along the coastline, at the time of its reopening for Japanese residents, it was praised as being the most beautiful city in all the East. Kobe continues to both deepen and broaden its connections to the world to this day, and international charter flights from Kobe Airport commence service just in time for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. We asked Project Associate Professor KOSHIRO Kaoru of the Center for Computational Social Science and the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, an expert on the history of modern architecture and modern cities and who has organized walk events around Kobe as a part of his research, to speak about the origins of the city of Kobe, the history of the buildings scattered around the city, and its future.