English news for Friday, September 4, 2026

Scientists in Japan have solved a plant puzzle that was 30 years old. They found out what a small "gate" in plants does. The gate is called AKT5^*1. Its gene^*2 was found 30 years ago, but for all that time nobody knew what it carried or what its job was.

The study was led by Professor Nobuyuki Uozumi and Assistant Professor Yuki Muraoka of Tohoku University, a university in the north of Japan. Scientists from other groups in Japan and in other countries worked with them.

Plants need potassium^*3 to grow. It is one of their three main nutrients^*4, together with nitrogen^*5 and phosphorus^*6. Plants take in potassium through small gates in their cells^*7 and move it around their bodies. Arabidopsis^*8, a small plant that scientists often study, has nine of these gates. AKT5 is one of them.

The team found that AKT5 does not work alone. An enzyme^*9 has to switch it on. After that, AKT5 lets potassium pass through. The team also used a cryo-electron microscope^*10 to see the shape of AKT5. This showed them how the switch works.

The team looked at where AKT5 is in the plant. It is found mostly in the thin stems that hold the leaves. The scientists then grew plants without AKT5. These plants had shorter leaf stems. When they were planted close together, they did not grow well.

The team thinks that AKT5 is a very important part of the plant. It helps the plant live in places where many other plants grow close to it. If scientists learn more about how AKT5 works, farmers may one day be able to plant crops^*11 closer together without getting a smaller harvest^*12.

The study was published on September 3, 2026, in Science Advances, an American science magazine.

1. *1 AKT5: The name of one of the gates that carry potassium in a plant
2. *2 gene: A part inside a living thing that carries information about how the living thing is made
3. *3 potassium: A kind of mineral that plants need to grow
4. *4 nutrients: Things in food that living things need to grow and stay healthy
5. *5 nitrogen: A kind of matter that plants need to grow
6. *6 phosphorus: A kind of matter that plants need to grow
7. *7 cells: The very small parts that all living things are made of
8. *8 Arabidopsis: A small plant that scientists often use in their studies
9. *9 enzyme: A thing inside a living body that helps the body do its work
10. *10 cryo-electron microscope: A special tool for seeing very, very small things
11. *11 crops: Plants that farmers grow for food
12. *12 harvest: The amount of food that farmers get from their plants

A study from 1977 on how to blow your nose has won the 36th Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine^*1. Asahikawa Medical University, a university in Japan, announced the news on September 4, 2026.

The main writer of the study was Tokuji Unno. He was the first professor at the university for diseases of the ear, nose, and throat. He wrote the study with Yajima, a doctor who was then at Wakayama Medical University, another university in Japan. The study was printed in 1977 in a Japanese medical journal^*2 for ear, nose, and throat doctors.

In the study, 15 boys and men helped the researchers^*3. They were between 14 and 48 years old. The researchers used two machines that measure moving air. The machines measured how fast the air came out of each side of the nose, how much air came out, and how long it took. The researchers also measured how the pressure^*4 changed inside the ear.

The study found four things. First, it is better to blow one side of the nose at a time. Second, blowing hard does not directly make an infection^*5 of the middle ear^*6 worse, so it is fine to blow with force. Third, it works best to breathe in a little first and then blow slowly. Fourth, blowing your nose also helps to clear mucus^*7 from the lower airways^*8, toward the lungs.

Tokuji Unno was born in March 1933. He studied medicine at Chiba University. In October 1976, he became the first professor for ear, nose, and throat diseases at Asahikawa Medical University. He retired in March 1998 and became an honorary professor^*9 the next month. He died in August 2022. He was 89 years old.

The prize ceremony^*10 was held at the Kongresshaus Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 3 at 7 p.m. In Japan, it was 2 a.m. on September 4. Because Tokuji Unno has died, Miki Takahara went to the ceremony in his place. Miki Takahara is now the professor for ear, nose, and throat diseases at Asahikawa Medical University. He is the third person to hold that job.

1. *1 medicine: the study of health and sickness, and how to help sick people
2. *2 journal: a magazine where scientists print their studies
3. *3 researchers: people who study something carefully to learn new things
4. *4 pressure: how hard the air pushes on something
5. *5 infection: a sickness caused by very small living things getting into the body
6. *6 middle ear: the small space inside the ear, behind the eardrum
7. *7 mucus: the wet, sticky stuff that comes out of your nose
8. *8 airways: the tubes that carry air to the lungs
9. *9 honorary professor: a title a university gives to a professor after he or she retires
10. *10 ceremony: a special event, for example when a prize is given