Hokkaido University

Scientists in Japan have made a fascinating discovery around muscle wasting, demonstrating how human muscle cells can be infused with serum from hibernating black bears to not just prevent atrophy, but actively promote an increase in mass.

A new study from scientists in Japan and the US has identified a form of inter-neuron communication as a key mechanism in the way inflammation spreads between joints in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.

Scientists have come up with a new tool to study the way cancerous cells can hide away in body tissues and spring back into action once the danger appears to have passed, with a new hydrogel that turns different cancer cells into cancer stem cells.

We have seen how gold nanoparticles can fight cancer in a number of ways, but they aren’t without their problems. Scientists in Japan have found a solution to one of these drawbacks, through the careful addition of a ring-shaped synthetic compound.

Our brains not only memorize things, they also forget them. While that may seem like a limitation, it's a quality that's been copied in a new hydrogel – and it may actually have some practical applications.

Earth is a famously watery planet, but where exactly it all came from is a mystery. Now researchers have suggested a new origin story, by showing that water and petroleum can form inside clouds of organic matter, at high temperatures and pressure.

An international team of scientists led by Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University suggests that a atmospheric equivalent of tidal waves may be responsible for the super-rotation of the atmosphere of Venus, which acts as a giant heat engine.

Hokkaido University’s ongoing research into hydrogels has borne fresh fruit: a new polymer-based material that, unlike other polymers, hardens when heated – by 1,800 times.

A new Japanese study simulated interstellar clouds of dust and gas, and managed to produce some of the building blocks of DNA.

You might think we'd have discovered of all the big animals by now, but Japanese scientists have found a previously-unknown whale species.

Livestock like sheep and cows are responsible for huge amounts of methane emissions. Now, an international team of researchers has analyzed the gut microbes of different sheep and found clues that may help us curb the problem.

If there is a subsurface sea on Pluto, why hasn't it frozen solid? According to computer simulations devised by researchers from Japan’s Hokkaido University and elsewhere, it may be that the hypothetical Plutonian sea may remain liquid thanks to an insulating gas layer keeping in the heat.