Kyoto University

If you've wondered why you procrastinate with doing your taxes early or starting mundane jobs, it's not because you dislike them. New research has uncovered a specific pathway in the brain that slams the brakes on investing energy in these tasks.

Newly observed negative-phase waveforms in earthquake data has alerted scientists to a previously unrecognized feature of the "big ones" that occur when tectonic plates clash – and it may help us engineer safer structures in response to the movement.

Scientists who won a 2024 IgNobel Prize for "discovering that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus" have now completed a successful trial based on this, using a technique that gets oxygen into the blood via an unconventional route.

Researchers have uncovered a gut-diet link to postpartum depression, finding that eating a diet of soy, fermented foods, and seaweed may nurture beneficial gut bacteria and protect mothers’ mental health.

Scientists have developed a non-opioid oral painkiller known as ADRIANA, the world's first α2B-adrenoceptor antagonist – which hasn't been targeted for analgesics before. It's provided powerful pain relief without sedation or risk of addiction.

The world's first human trial of a drug that can regenerate teeth will begin in a few months, less than a year on from news of its success in animals. This paves the way for the medicine to be commercially available as early as 2030.

A recent study out of Japan has found that when exposed to pictures of stores and their merchandise, people with kleptomania exhibit similar brain activity to that of people with substance addictions exposed to images of drugs.

If you've ever wondered why the rabbits in your garden aren't as big as horses, wonder no more. According to a team of scientists led by Kyoto University, competition with larger, hoofed herbivores puts a cap on bunny size.

Panasonic has developed a new Medical Imaging Projection System that not only tracks changes in the shape and positions of organs in near real-time, but projects the images directly onto the patient as a guide for surgeons during complex operations.

Disposable diapers are not eco-friendly, not only because of their plastic outer shell, but also due to their petroleum-based absorbent inner layer. There could soon be a sustainable alternative to the latter, though, and it's made from wheat gluten.

While scientists have successfully produced various "organ-on-a-chip" models of body parts, the eye is particularly challenging, as a tear film is regularly moved across its surface as we blink. That action has recently been replicated, in a new device.

Researchers in Japan are making exciting progress on a way to potentially arrest the deterioration of motor skills in Parkinson's patients. They are now preparing to begin transplanting reprogrammed stem cells into human brains as part of a first-of-a-kind clinical trial.​​