The secret behind the hi-tech future of sushi lies in an unremarkable building in the backstreets of Osaka. Inside, empty plastic cups and plates adorned with scrunched-up wet paper – to replicate the weight and texture of scallops – make their way along a conveyer belt. To one side, concealed behind a plastic screen, technicians monitor data on computer screens, the specifics of their work deemed off-limits to the Observer and a small group of journalists granted rare access to the development "studio" belonging to Sushiro, the leading force in Japan's multimillion dollar sushi train industry. This is where developers make incremental improvements to the restaurant chain's ability to deliver plates of freshly-made sushi to diners' tables with lightning speed, and stay one step ahead of the competition in a sector estimated to be worth 740bn yen (about £4bn). "In the past, diners used to take what they fancied from a free-for-all conveyer belt, but these days most people want to order their favourite sushi," said Masato Sugihara, deputy manager in the IT department at Sushiro's parent company, Food and Life.

Scientists in Japan have created mini-brains with functional neural networks. These so-called mini brains, known more formally as cerebral organoids, may not be conscious, but their use in the lab could provide key insight to the processes by which information is encoded, scientists say. The organoids are essentially a simplified version of the human brain which have been grown artificially using 3D tissue cultures. Scientists in Japan have created mini-brains with functional neural networks. They lack more supporting structures such as blood vessels and the surrounding tissues, and cannot'think.'

Scientists growing miniature brains in a lab have created neural networks that act like those in the human brain. They hope the discovery will enable cheaper and easier research into brain diseases and drug development. In recent years researchers have been working on creating small, three-dimensional human brains, or cerebral organoids. The hope is that they will eventually replace animal models, imaging techniques and autopsies as tools for understanding the brain. These simplified organoids have some of the architecture of the brain's cerebral cortex – which is responsible for many of the features that make us human, such as thinking, perceiving, memory and language.

Tsubasa Sakaguchi is beaming at two Bafta awards arranged neatly on a table in front of him. The ingenious mashup of video game and cardboard scooped the family and game innovation categories at last week's Bafta games awards. "It was a very great honour to receive two awards," he says. "And especially to receive awards in completely different categories. That made me very happy … We always wanted to make a widely accepted game, but at the same time something new, something which has never been seen. Innovative games often exist on the fringes of popular culture, exploring challenging themes, testing game design convention, or prodding mischievously at the definition of what a video game is. But for Sakaguchi, Labo's ambition is to deliver this kind of innovation to the living rooms of young families. "At the end of last year, sales of the Labo kits reached 1.4m," he says. "We think that this product isn't something that you play with for a while and then forget about.