University of Tokyo

(Newser) - Researchers in Japan say they have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, marking a potential milestone in the fight against ocean pollution. Scientists at the Riken Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo recently showcased the material, which disappears from a container of...

(Newser) - Math lovers, rejoice, for today is Pi Day, celebrated in classrooms around the country—preferably at 1:59, which, on 3/14, nearly matches 3.14159, the famed irrational number’s first six digits. “What’s fun about pi is that everyone knows the number,” a math professor tells...

(Newser) - Japanese scientists have modified mouse genes to make rodents unafraid of cats in a dramatic experiment that offers insight into the origins of terror. The breakthrough shows that fear is largely genetically hardwired rather than learned through painful experience, researchers say. Some of the mice, whose nasal cells were altered...