The explosive 2025 wildfire season in Central Canada reflects an increasing trend of large-scale burning driven by climate change. Using satellite and population data, we assessed the human consequences, revealing a significant international smoke event that exposed over 117 million people in the United States to heavy smoke on a single day. These fires, exacerbated by anomalously warm and dry conditions, underscore the urgent need for a paradigm shift to manage the cascading cross-border health and safety impacts of wildfires.

A new molecule that lets energy hop around quickly within its structure makes the upcycling of light more efficient and tunable. The Kobe University development lays out a design strategy for better solar power harnessing as well as medical and sensor applications.

A new study reveals striking international differences in how doctors approach the sensitive issue of tracheostomy invasive ventilation (TIV) for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Cultural norms and healthcare systems appear to significantly influence physician attitudes and, consequently, patient choices regarding this life-sustaining treatment.

The Kaiser effect, which is known as a stress memory effect, predicts that seismic events occur only when the previous maximum stress is exceeded. However, the Kaiser effect has only been tested at room temperature in laboratories. Here, we performed deformation experiments on natural olivine at high pressures and high temperatures. We have successfully confirmed a stress memory effect in strongly deformed olivine at high pressures and high temperatures.

Tomoki Matsuzawa (then an undergraduate) and Associate Professor Junji Konuma from Toho University’s Department of Biology conducted the first quantitative study of female earwig forceps. Using morphometric analysis on the maritime earwigs Anisolabis maritima, they found that female forceps also display positive allometry—suggesting that they, too, may have evolved through sexual selection.

To allow studying the genetic causes of autism spectrum disorder, a Kobe University research team created a bank of 63 mouse embryonic stem cell lines containing the mutations most strongly associated with the disorder. The achievement was made possible by developing a new and more efficient method for changing the genome of embryonic stem cells.

Researchers at University of Tsukuba discovered a new species of unicellular organism, Glissandra oviformis, belonging to the CRuMs clade in a sample collected from a marine lake in the Republic of Palau. Electron microscopic observation revealed a few common morphological characteristics between G. oviformis and other CRuMs members.

Moved by how Hiroshima’s memorials transformed unspeakable loss into a global call for peace, a Hiroshima University historian turns his gaze to Southeast Asia—unpacking what stories their war monuments enshrine, what they leave out, and what that means for peace and justice, as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing this year.