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Is it dangerous to slurp oysters straight from the shell? Japan’s Ministry of Health weighs in

It can go two ways: a fun time or a lot of time in the toilet.

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Anime featuring anthropomorphized blood cells confirmed, actually looks cooler than it sounds

Turns out your white blood cells are awesome cold-blooded killers.

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Research from Japanese university claims kissing pets can cause stomach cancer

Who doesn’t love animals? They’re cute, funny, and sometimes you can even use their poop to keep your skin clean!

But now, thanks to a study by a Japanese university, we may want to re-think that last one a bit. According to their research, contact with pets’ bodily fluids, either by kitty kisses or scooping up puppy poops, can significantly increase your risk of stomach cancer.

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Do you have the guts for sushi?

Ask a Westerner what their favorite Japanese food is and there’s a high chance that the answer will be sushi. The widespread popularity of the delicately crafted delicacy has made it almost synonymous with the word “Japan”, even though there now exist dozens of different varieties made by people from all over the world.

Many of you reading this will have had sushi, some of you might even love it more than your mom’s cooking, but even so, that doesn’t guarantee that you have the guts for sushi. We’re not talking about the courage needed to put raw fish in your mouth, but rather, the genes required to properly digest seaweed.

Confused? Here’s the science behind it.

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Anyone who has ever worked in a library could probably tell you that wiping down the covers of the books in the children’s section is one of the most grimy and disgusting tasks you could ever be assigned. I’d personally rather clean the toilets with a wet wipe to be quite honest! Thankfully, in order to counteract at least the living layer of grime found on these and other books, many libraries in Japan have installed a Bacteria Elimination Box to kill off any harmful little microbes that previous patrons might have left behind. It’s the perfect piece of equipment for bibliophilic germaphobes exploring the stacks!

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It seems that some of life’s simplest yet most widespread problems never have solutions.  Millions of men worldwide have to watch their hair fade away with no reliable cure.  Or how about that man or woman who somehow manages to sit next you on the subway or bus making your eyes water with their biological curse of body odor, better known by bacteriologists by its scientific name: “pit stank.”

Pit stank doesn’t discriminate.  The victims are our fathers, sisters, children, and spouses. However, thanks to the pioneering efforts of a legal rep for an NPO in Sendai working with Tohoku University’s New Industry Creation Center the world is one step closer to a cure for this socially scorned affliction.

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