Researchers at the University of Osaka found that Bofutsushosan, a Kampo medicine used for obesity, reduced fibrosis-related changes in fat tissue and the liver of aged male mice. Cell experiments suggested that Bofutsushosan also had a direct effect on fibrosis-related signals, partly through the TGF-β/SMAD2/3 pathway. Four ingredients showed particularly strong anti-fibrotic activity, while some mineral ingredients showed the opposite effect under cell-culture conditions. Adjusting the formula strengthened the suppression of some fibrosis-related markers in cultured cells. However, the modified formulas have not been tested in animals or people, and further research is required before the findings can guide treatment.

Three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions are essential information for the development of nanoscale devices and novel functional materials. Until now, however, there has been no method for observing them directly. In this study, the researchers developed an atom-holography microscope that measures a hologram from the region irradiated with a finely focused electron beam and performs holographic reconstruction to directly visualize the three-dimensional atomic arrangement. Because the microscope enables three-dimensional atomic arrangements in nanoscale regions to be measured anywhere, it is expected to be useful in the analysis of nanoscale devices and the development of novel functional materials.

Oligonucleotide synthesis is fundamental to genetic analysis, biological research, and nucleic acid therapeutics. However, current methods rely on moisture-sensitive building blocks and require a dedicated oxidation step with each chain elongation, making it operationally complex. To address this, researchers from Japan have developed a new approach using phosphorofluoridate building blocks, enabling efficient oxidation-free oligonucleotide synthesis. This advance simplifies the synthetic workflow, offering a faster and more reliable platform for nucleotide chemistry.

To improve carbon recycling and reduce emissions, researchers at Science Tokyo developed iron-substituted calcium titanate (Fe-doped CaTiO₃) as an environmentally friendly support material for chemical looping, a process that converts carbon dioxide (CO₂) into carbon monoxide for fuel and chemical production. By substituting iron into CaTiO₃, the material gained oxygen vacancies and improved ion and electron transport, accelerating CO₂ conversion.  Built from widely available, low-cost elements, the material could help enable scalable carbon recycling. 

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo experimentally realized an aperiodic optical structure based on the recently discovered Smith hat monotile associated with the Einstein problem. They observed the first experimental evidence of chiral optical diffraction arising from the structure’s unusual symmetry, establishing a new class of quasiperiodic systems that combine long-range order with chirality.

Researchers at the University of Osaka have developed a new mathematical framework that helps identify optimization problems that can be solved efficiently using optical computing hardware. The approach allows complex, high-dimensional problems to be transformed into forms compatible with spatial photonic Ising machines and can also accelerate computation using fast Fourier transforms. These findings could broaden the applications of optical computing to areas such as logistics, data analysis, and infrastructure optimization.

Despite our knowledge of supermassive blackholes far from complete, astronomers have long known that they produce violent winds. But a recent discovery has shown that these winds are more powerful than previously thought, 100 times more powerful, to be precise. High-precision observations of gas surrounding a black hole 3.4 billion light-years from Earth showed that the winds carry energy across distances of approximately 300,000 light-years, impacting surrounding galaxies. 

Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo and RIKEN have developed a mathematical framework that explains how resource limitations influence information processing in living systems. The study shows that organisms can switch abruptly between memoryless and memory-based estimation depending on energy availability and sensory uncertainty. The findings provide a theoretical foundation for understanding decision making in biological systems.