Asian Scientist Magazine

Feeding silkworms a tiny amount of plant-based fiber makes their silk 50% stronger and far less likely to shrink when washed, according to a study from Japan. Read more: bit.ly/4z5MXBh

Four Japanese researchers won 2026 Lasker Awards: 🏅 Masashi Yanagisawa for discovering orexin, the brain peptide behind narcolepsy 🏅 Kunihiro Hattori, Takehisa Kitazawa & Tomoyuki Igawa for a breakthrough antibody treatment for hemophilia A See more: bit.ly/4cUNsp3

A magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Sumatra in 2004. Over 20 years later, land up to 600 km away is still sinking a few mm each year, possibly speeding up sea-level rise. Read more: bit.ly/4hfDv85

Himalayan rivers are shifting course faster as climate change melts glaciers and thaws frozen ground, new 40-year satellite research shows. Read more: bit.ly/3T6d77q

Bumblebees make "yum" and "eww" faces after tasting food, and the reaction tracks whether they liked it, a new study finds. 🐝 Read more: bit.ly/4qZkDxp

Bat moms in Japan can find their own pups in total darkness, using a mix of sound and touch, a new study reveals. 🦇 Learn more: bit.ly/3UwPuVY

Scientists in Japan built a portable plasma device that turns air into fertilizer, using it to grow rice in simulated lunar soil. 🌕🌾 Learn more: bit.ly/46gPhsv

Feeling overwhelmed by modern life? Researchers in Singapore say the problem may not be you, but a mismatch between our ancient brains and today's hyperconnected world. 🧠 Read more: bit.ly/4iqwEcU

A new biodegradable film made with pumpkin peel by researchers in Japan could help keep food fresher for longer, and cut down on plastic packaging. 🎃 Learn more: bit.ly/45K8wus

Ageing muscles lose their power to fight cancer, but a new study by researchers from Singapore and the UK suggests exercise may help restore it. 💪 Learn more: bit.ly/4wvL1QH

Feeling constantly drained despite enough sleep? 😴 Japanese researchers found that higher levels of a biomarker linked to vitamin B deficiency were tied to greater fatigue and lower motivation. Read more: bit.ly/4qz1jHj

AFib affects more people across Asia Pacific than any other region in the world. A new Boston Scientific report finds physicians are increasingly confident in pulsed field ablation, but patient access still lags behind. 🫀 Read more: bit.ly/3SbZOlr #sponsoredfeature

Japan's invasive raccoons may be helping spread E. albertii, a bacterium linked to severe food poisoning, through river water. 🦝 Read more: bit.ly/4fZ2RW6

Chest X-rays for lungs, and now, hidden osteoporosis risk? AI can spot low bone density in routine chest scans, catching cases standard screening misses. Learn more about this new research from Taiwan: bit.ly/4wSxROD

Asia is home to over half the world's population, yet remains underrepresented in genomic databases. Twist Bioscience's next-gen sequencing tools aim to change that. 🧬 Read more: bit.ly/4z7q6pJ #sponsoredfeature

The better we cool our homes, the less we back cooling our cities. A new study from Singapore finds heavy AC users are less likely to support climate action. 🥶 Read more: bit.ly/4xmjPVj

Alzheimer's research has long focused on plaques and tangles—protein abnormalities in brain. Now scientists link memory loss to dopamine deficiency, and restoring it reversed deficits in mice. 🧠 Read more: bit.ly/4fz08Cv

A wheat breeder can see a variety yields well or resists drought, but not which cells make that happen. A new global consortium—supported by MGI's Stereo-seq technology—is mapping it, gene by gene, cell by cell. 🌾Read more: bit.ly/4fsW0Ux #sponsoredfeature

Herbal cigarettes are marketed as a safer smoke. A new study from India found their emissions matched or exceeded tobacco cigarettes in harmful particles and oxidative stress, with leaf-wrapped variants the worst of all. 🚬 Read more: bit.ly/45dtrFQ

A new AI tool called PanMETAI reads chemical patterns in blood to detect pancreatic cancer earlier and more accurately than current tests.🩸 Read more about this tool that was developed in Taiwan and validated across two countries: bit.ly/4fezdwW