Geobacter sulfurreducens derives energy from elemental sulfur, but the molecular mechanism has remained unknown. Researchers at Ritsumeikan University identified MccSep, a novel selenium-containing multiheme enzyme that functions as a polysulfide reductase. Through genetic, structural, and biochemical analyses, they proposed a unique selenium–sulfur–heme catalytic mechanism underlying sulfur respiration. The findings advance understanding of microbial sulfur metabolism and may inspire environmental biocatalysts while revealing the potential of recoded bacterial stop codons to uncover novel enzymes. 

Paper-based sensors offer a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to conventional polymer-based wearables, but designing customized devices for different body shapes remains challenging. Now, researchers have developed a paper-based wearable sensor platform that transforms flat sheets of paper into self-folding helical structures that conform to the body. By integrating copper tape electrodes, the device measures biosignals with performance comparable to conventional strap-based sensors. The approach enables low-cost fabrication of disposable wearables for sensing applications.

Enzymes emerged before the last universal common ancestor, making comparative genetic analyses insufficient to understand the earliest stages of enzyme evolution. Researchers at Science Tokyo have combined protein fold structure data and metabolic reaction networks to create a predictive model called enzyme-gated network expansion. The model predicts that the earliest enzymes were predominantly α/β folds, suggesting that the origin of enzyme-mediated metabolic reactions may have been sparked by a single enzyme structure type.

The Southern Ocean is one of Earth's most important climate regulators, yet the clouds covering this remote region remain among the least understood features in atmospheric science. Their influence on the planet's energy balance makes accurate cloud representation essential for reliable weather forecasts and climate projections. A new study combines observations from an Antarctic expedition with advanced atmospheric datasets and climate models to investigate the processes behind this long-standing challenge in climate science.

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo and collaborating institutions found that manipulating the spin of hydrogen atoms can affect how the atoms react with a magnetic nickel surface. By controlling spin orientation with a magnetic field, the team was able to change hydrogen adsorption and chemical reaction rates, suggesting a new way to control surface chemistry.

Weather forecasts rely on many and various kinds of data, including temperature, humidity and wind data. For the first time, researchers including those at the University of Tokyo demonstrate that a long-theorized improvement to weather models by adding data on water isotopes in the atmosphere does in fact work. They showed that incorporating satellite measurements of water vapor isotopes into weather models improves forecasts of atmospheric conditions for up to five days, including better predictions of heavy rainfall in many regions.  

A new computation-guided framework for exploring aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens has been developed by researchers from Japan. Quantum chemical calculations, organic synthesis, and advanced spectroscopy revealed how the introduction of donor and acceptor groups and their substitution positions shape excited-state dynamics in bridged stilbene derivatives. AIE behavior can be predicted from a small number of computational descriptors, offering a rational strategy for designing luminescent AIE materials for applications such as OLEDs, bioimaging, and sensors.

In environments with similar objects, autonomous robots must determine whether a detected object is a known landmark or a newly encountered one while mapping. To mitigate associated limitations, a research team developed BPDA-GMM, a Bayesian framework, that handles both data association and landmark creation simultaneously using accumulated evidence. Tests demonstrate that the approach enhances trajectory accuracy and object mapping while maintaining real-time performance on embedded hardware. 

Simulating how heat moves through rods when they are heated simultaneously and influence each other is a difficult task, but researchers at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Information Sciences found a mathematical solution. 

Researchers at Nagoya University have built a graphene nanoribbon that can switch which way it twists using a natural solvent. Graphene nanoribbons are thin ribbon-shaped structures made of fused carbon rings. Twisted or helical versions of these ribbons show promise for advanced light and electronic devices. However, no graphene nanoribbon could switch that twist on demand, until now.

Scientists have worked out how to switch between a right-handed and left-handed twist (chirality) by changing the solvent around it. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, opens opportunities for new optical switches, chemical sensors, and spintronic components that adapt to changing environments.