English news for Monday, October 5, 2026

A company in Japan has made a new kind of disaster drill^*1. It uses ideas from theater and escape games^*2. The company is called Playing, and it is in Sakai, a city in Osaka in western Japan. It announced the plan on April 30, 2026.

The company said it would test the drill on May 20 at Grand Green Osaka. This is a place with a park and buildings in Umeda, a busy part of the city of Osaka.

In the drill, people start as shoppers. Then an emergency alert^*3 sounds, and they are suddenly in the middle of a disaster^*4. Actors around them shout and talk in a confused way.

The people in the drill have to make hard choices. Should they go back to get their smartphone? How should they help a pregnant^*5 woman or a visitor from another country? These questions have no right answer.

The people also say lines^*6, like actors in a play. They really walk from the park into a building.

In many drills, people only do what they are told. The company wants people to decide for themselves.

The company plans to work with local governments^*7, shopping centers and schools. It plans to hold the drill in many parts of Japan.

1. *1 disaster drill: a time when people practice what to do if something very bad happens, like an earthquake or a big fire
2. *2 escape games: games where players answer questions and find things so they can get out of a room
3. *3 emergency alert: a loud sound from phones that tells people about danger
4. *4 disaster: something very bad that happens suddenly, like an earthquake or a flood
5. *5 pregnant: going to have a baby
6. *6 lines: the words that an actor says in a play
7. *7 local governments: the groups that run cities and towns

Kurihama Medical and Addiction^*1 Center is a national hospital in Japan. On its website, it shows a short test about social media^*2. The test is called the Social Media Disorder Scale, or SMDS. People can use it to check their own social media use. It shows if a person may have a social media addiction.

The test has nine questions. They ask about how the person has used social media in the past year. The person answers "yes" or "no" to each question.

Eight questions are the same for everyone. The ninth question changes with the person's age. People under 18 are asked about fights with their relatives^*3. People who are 18 or older are asked about fights with a partner^*4, family or friends.

Each "yes" is one point, and each "no" is zero points. Then the person adds up the points. If the total is five points or more, the person may have a social media addiction.

1. *1 addiction: a problem where a person cannot stop doing something, even when it is bad for them
2. *2 social media: websites and apps where people share messages, photos and videos with others
3. *3 relatives: people in your family
4. *4 partner: a husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend

On October 5, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced the winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The prize goes to three scientists from the United States and Germany. They built a new kind of science called optogenetics^*1.

The winners are Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel. Professor Deisseroth is 54 years old and works at Stanford University in the United States. Professor Hegemann is 71 and works at Frankfurt University in Germany. Professor Nagel is 73 and works at the University of Würzburg in Germany.

Professor Hegemann and Professor Nagel studied very small algae^*2 called Chlamydomonas^*3. Each one has only one cell^*4. Inside these algae, the two scientists found a special protein^*5.

In 2007, Professor Deisseroth used blue light to control nerve cells^*6 in the brain of a living mouse.

Today, doctors are testing this science on patients. Some people have lost their sight because of an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa^*7. The tests are trying to help these people see again.

Scientists also hope that optogenetics will help them understand other diseases better. These are depression^*8, Alzheimer's disease^*9, schizophrenia^*10 and Parkinson's disease^*11.

The prize money is 12 million Swedish kronor^*12, which is about 190 million yen^*13. The three winners will share it equally. The prize ceremony^*14 will be held on December 10.

1. *1 optogenetics: a way to turn cells in the body on and off by using light
2. *2 algae: very simple living things, like plants, that usually live in water
3. *3 Chlamydomonas: a kind of very small green living thing that lives in water
4. *4 cell: the smallest living part of a plant, an animal or a person
5. *5 protein: a very small part inside living things that does a job in the body
6. *6 nerve cells: very small parts of the brain and body that send messages
7. *7 retinitis pigmentosa: an eye disease that slowly takes away a person's sight
8. *8 depression: an illness that makes a person feel very sad for a long time
9. *9 Alzheimer's disease: a brain disease that makes people, often old people, forget things
10. *10 schizophrenia: an illness of the mind that changes how a person thinks and sees the world
11. *11 Parkinson's disease: a brain disease that makes the body shake and move slowly
12. *12 kronor: the money used in Sweden
13. *13 yen: the money used in Japan
14. *14 ceremony: a special event where something important is done, like giving a prize