A joint research team from NIMS, the Institute of Science Tokyo, and Kochi University of Technology discovered high-performance catalysts capable of significantly reducing "boil-off losses," which had been a long-standing issue in liquid hydrogen storage and transportation. These composite catalysts, in which metallic nanoparticles, such as iron, are supported on silicon dioxide (silica) or other low-cost oxide, demonstrate significantly superior performance compared to conventional iron oxide-based catalysts. In this research, the team demonstrated a new mechanism where ortho to para hydrogen conversion is promoted, not by magnetism as in conventional mainstream mechanisms, but by an inhomogeneous electric field on the surface of the catalyst. This research result, which is expected to contribute to a hydrogen energy society, was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters on March 12, 2026.

Kyoto, Japan -- Almost all animal species -- including humans -- have blood cells, but between different species our blood tells different stories. The lineage and components of blood cells vary widely, and this variety is a testament to how animals have evolved to protect themselves from infectious diseases.

Thanks to advances in hematology and immunology, we now have detailed knowledge of the components and functions of both human and mouse blood cells. However, their evolutionary history has remained largely unknown. This inspired a team of researchers at Kyoto University to investigate when and how blood cells originated, and how they diversified.

The team began by developing a new analytic method to compare gene expression profiles across various cell lineages and animal species. With this they were able to construct phylogenetic trees of cell lineages and estimate the evolutionary history of these lineages in animals. They also included unicellular organisms in their comparison in order to trace the origin of blood cells back to possible single-celled ancestors.

Researchers from The University of Osaka discovered a mechanism that greatly improves the efficiency of endothermic singlet exciton fission. By combining singlet-fission molecules with quantum dots, the team created hybridized electronic states at the material interface that act as intermediate energy pathways. This allows one absorbed photon to generate two excited states with high efficiency, potentially allowing solar technologies to exceed current efficiency limits.

A researcher at The University of Osaka has proposed a thermodynamic framework for describing hysteresis in solids, a history-dependent phenomenon widely used in memory devices, energy conversion materials, and other technologies. The study shows that hysteresis can, in principle, be described within thermodynamics when the state of a solid is defined not only by conventional variables such as temperature and volume, but also by its atomic configuration. By identifying the time-averaged equilibrium positions of atoms as essential state variables, the work provides a more rigorous theoretical foundation for understanding and developing solid-state materials that rely on hysteresis.

Giant viruses that infect amoebas use different ways to reproduce, with some relying on the host cell’s nucleus. This supports the idea that the nucleus of complex cells may have originated from viruses. Researchers discovered a new virus, furtivovirus, which breaks the nuclear membrane but still replicates inside the nucleus. By analyzing its genome and behavior, they propose a new viral family and order, helping scientists better classify giant viruses and understand how they evolved.

Researchers at Toho University have uncovered a previously unrecognized mechanism controlling how dying cells release the inflammatory cytokine IL-33, a key driver of allergy, asthma, tissue inflammation, and cancer progression. The findings reveal that cells do not release IL-33 uniformly; instead, individual cells exhibit striking differences in release timing controlled by the membrane rupture protein NINJ1.