The It Ain't Magic Science Blog

Toward human hibernation: cold-resistant mouse stem cells

Cold-resistant stem cells from “deep torpor” mice are a big step toward understanding why tissue survives hibernation.

Superfly flight simulator helps unravel navigation in the brain

Optical imaging neural activity in flies as they use a flight simulator can help us understand how the brain codes navigation.

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Diagnosing fetal heart disease benefits from explanatory AI

Diagnosis accuracy improved when doctors used explanatory AI to help diagnose congenital heart disease from fetal ultrasound videos.

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New mechanism allows lower energy requirement for OLED displays

Scientists have found a way to significantly reduce the amount of energy required by organic light emitting diodes (OLED) displays.

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Protons are lighter than previously thought

A new and most precise measurement of protons shows that they are lighter than previously thought.

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The joys of computational mass spectrometry

Scientists have developed a new automated computational mass spectrometry system that can search an organism’s entire metabolome for as-yet-unknown metabolites (potential drugs).

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Latest research animations

Self-assembly of spider silk

This gut microbe might protect against diabetes and reduce insulin resistance

NEW: One-way hydrogel guides motion of tiny worms!

Latest Posts

Jan

Geostationary satellite enables better precipitation and flood predictions

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Data from the Himawari-8 geosynchronous satellite was used in weather simulations to improve forecasts of sudden precipitation and tropical storm development.

Jan

Clean and green: a moss that removes lead (Pb) from water

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists show that the moss Funaria hygrometrica can remove harmful lead from water when in the protonema stage of development.

Jan

The brain’s GPS has a buddy system

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

In addition to encoding self location, brain cells in the rat hippocampus act like a GPS that encodes the location of other rats.

Dec

Leaky plants bad for drought resistance

by adam phillips | Research in Depth

The KAI2 receptor for compounds found in smoke helps plants retain water and survive during drought.

Dec

Helping the body clock keep its cool

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Two parallel temperature-responsive mechanisms ensure that circadian rhythms are not skewed by changes in temperature

Dec

The stars align

by amanda alvarez | Drop of science

The stars align. That’s what you say, when things work out perfectly. In the case of an eclipse, of course, it’s not stars that align but rather the moon and sun.

Dec

What’s that smell? The advantage of sniffing

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Rhythmic sniffing boosts phase-coded neuronal signals in the mouse olfactory bulb that allow odors to be identified.

Nov

Quantum dots light up cancer with a little help

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Researchers have found a small connecting protein that can help make quantum dot-based probes for biomedical imaging.

Nov

Most precise measurement ever of proton magnetic moment

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Using a sophisticated setup, scientists have made the most precise measurement to date of the proton magnetic moment.

Nov

Proton and antiproton still seem identical

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Using a novel two-particle measurement method, scientists have measured the magnetic moment of the antiproton at a precision 350 times higher than any previous measurement.

Nov

Microcolumns: elementary neuronal units that carpet the (mouse) brain

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

A hexagonal lattice organizes major cell types in the cerebral cortex, with similar cells synchronizing their activity in microcolumns.

Oct

Jupiter’s volcano-powered auroral lights

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

A collaborative effort used data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft to explain the transient auroras found on Jupiter.

Oct

Hepatoma (liver cancer) blocked by a sugar look-a-like

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A sugar (fucose) analog can prevent liver cancer (hepatoma) from invading healthy liver cells.

Oct

Random movements help color-detecting cells form the proper pattern

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Scientists have used a mathematical model to explain why zebrafish cone cells in the eye are arranged in a specific pattern in all individuals.

Sep

Visualizing chick-brain morphogenesis

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

A new statistical-based method provides insight into the morphogenesis of developing organs.

Sep

Skin-like wearable electronics

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Sensors made from stretchable nanomesh allow skin to breathe naturally while continuously monitoring patient health.

Sep

Solar cells you can put in the wash

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Scientists have developed ultra-thin photovoltaic solar cells that can be incorporated into fabric and even washed.

Sep

Learning and unlearning to fear: The two faces of noradrenaline

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Fear association and unlearning fear association require different populations of noradrenaline neurons in the locus coeruleus.

Sep

ּּּBigger oocytes = more mistakes

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

The large size of mouse oocytes is shown to create errors when chromosomes divide between daughter cells.

Sep

Superfly flight simulator helps unravel navigation in the brain

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Optical imaging neural activity in flies as they use a flight simulator can help us understand how the brain codes navigation.

Sep

Skipping fatty acids could be recipe for schizophrenia

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Prenatal lack of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids linked to epigenetic changes that lead to schizophrenic symptoms in mice.

Aug

A gut-wrenching defense against parasitic worms

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Mast cells in the gut help fight off parasitic worms in the early stages of infection.

Aug

Memory retrieval needs a neuronal connecting flight

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists use optogenetics to discover a part of the brain necessary for retrieving memories of personal experiences.

Aug

From egg to embryo

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

A newly discovered gene turns off an egg’s egginess, allowing it to become an embryo.

Aug

This nickel catalyst bats from both sides of the plate

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Scientists discover that a nickel catalyst acts as both a acid and a base during molecule assembly.

Jul

New info about how chromosomes form

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Fewer components are needed for chromosome assembly during cell division than previously supposed.

Jul

Tracking how stars grow up in a virtual playground

by amanda alvarez | Research Highlight

Amanda Alvarez writes about Steven Rieder and his research in modeling clusters of growing new stars.

Jul

Protons are lighter than previously thought

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

A new and most precise measurement of protons shows that they are lighter than previously thought.

Jul

Untangling depression in Huntington’s disease

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

New research implicates clumps of insoluble, misfolded proteins in the development of mental illness in people with Huntington’s disease

Jul

Imaging whole-body cancer metastasis at the single-cell level

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new optical clearing method allows imaging of cancer metastasis at incredibly high resolution.

Jun

Meet the editors: the growing pains of scientific publishing

by amanda alvarez | What's Up With Us

Amanda Alvarez writes about the recent seminars at RIKEN by Philip Campbell and Emilie Marcus, the editors-in-chief of Nature and Cell.

May

Carbon nanotubes, what are they good for?

by kylius wilkins | Interviews, What's Up With Us

Kylius Wilkins talks to Urs Frey and his recent success manufacturing carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

May

Finding real rewards in a virtual world

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new study shows that mice who learn to find goals in virtual reality use their hippocampus the same was as in the real world.

Apr

RIKEN is looking for you

by adam phillips | What's Up With Us

RIKEN is looking for you. Check out our new introductory videos! learn about exotic nuclei and much much more.

Apr

Promising mouse model for Ngly1 deficiency

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A recent study of Ngly1 deficient mice used a secondary knockout to create double knockouts with symptoms similar to human NGLY1 deficiency.

Apr

Nihonium walk of fame

by jens wilkinson | Drop of science, What's Up With Us

A nihonium walk of fame is being built to commemorate the discovery of the 113th element

Apr

New rice fights off drought

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Researchers have created drought resistant transgenic rice using a gene from a small Eurasian flowering plant

Apr

Centennial RIKEN Research

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

???This Spring we’ve put together a special centennial issue of RIKEN Research ???

Mar

Don’t know anything about RIKEN?

by adam phillips | What's Up With Us

Don’t know anything about RIKEN? We’ve made a new RIKEN booklet that should help!

Researchers create a functional salivary gland organoid ?

Scientists have succeeded in growing three-dimensional salivary gland tissue that produced saliva like normal glands when implanted into mice.

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Stolen genes used for parasitic mind control

Parasitic horsehair worms evolved to control their praying mantis hosts by stealing their genes (horizontal gene transfer).

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New treatment assembles cancer drug inside the body

Cancer drugs assembled inside the body on cancer cells should reduce harmful side effects to other tissue.

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Tape and vermilion: ingredients for mapping artifact origins

Vermilion samples taken from ancient artifacts with sulfur-free tape can tell us about trade patterns 3000 years ago.

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The sound of molecules: NMR-inspired music

Science & art: how NMR works and how NMR spectra have been used to compose music based on molecular structures.

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Cubes of brain tissue allow drug discovery without animals

Modeling the blood-brain-barrier with brains-in-a-cube allows drug testing without the need for animals.

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Aug

Marsupial heart regeneration ability given to mice

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Regeneration of mouse hearts ? ?? after birth achieved by figuring out how it’s possible in opossums.

Aug

How an herbal medicine protects against inflamed bowels

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A Japanese herbal medicine promotes good bacteria and innate immune cells in the gut, which protects against intestinal inflammation.

Jul

Robotic AI helps efficient growth of replacement organs

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Humans team-up with a robotic AI to speed up experiments to find the best way to regrow damaged eye tissue from stem cells.

Jun

Extra “eye” movements are the key to better self-driving cars

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

If self-driving cars make saccades like people, they might make fewer mistakes identifying important features of the road.

May

Palaeospondylus: mystery of vertebrate evolution solved

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Micro-CT scans using synchrotron radiation X-rays reveal Palaeospondylus morphology, finally allowing its placement on the evolutionary tree.

Apr

Xist knockout rescues miscarriages in mice

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Xist knockout rescues miscarriages in mice whose egg cells lack H3K27me3 epigenetic instructions.

Apr

A new type of cell death discovered in fly guts

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

A completely unknown type of cell death called “erebosis” has been discovered in the guts of the common fruit fly.

Apr

Diagnosing fetal heart disease benefits from explanatory AI

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Diagnosis accuracy improved when doctors used explanatory AI to help diagnose congenital heart disease from fetal ultrasound videos.

Apr

Chaos theory provides hints for controlling the weather

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Computer simulations were used to show that small adjustments to certain variables in the weather system could modify weather phenomena such as sudden downpours.

Introducing Nikola, the emotional android boy

A new android named Nikola will help researchers study facial expressions, emotions, and social interactions.

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Why (mouse) mothers take risks to protect their infants

The calcitonin receptor and its ligand amylin act in the brain to motivate mouse mothers to protect their pups, even in risky/dangerous situations.

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Eating a high fat diet without getting obese?

Scientists discover that without innate immune cells in the intestines, eating a high fat diet does not lead to obesity in mice.

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H2AK119ub1: How you inherit acquired traits from your mom

H2AK119ub1. Say that three times really fast! But seriously, it allows maternally acquired traits to be inherited.

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Jun

Simple but revolutionary modular organoids

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

A new way to construct complex 3D organoids without using elaborate techniques! The trick using modular cubes with hydrogel layers.

Continue!

May

Thoughts on the genetics of medicinal licorice

by jens wilkinson | Drop of science

Jens talks about licorice and a recent RIKEN study that finally mapped its genome.

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Apr

Pathogenic genetic variation linked to H. pylori-related stomach cancer

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Researchers find that the risk of stomach cancer due to infection withH. Pylori bacteria increases with specific genetic variations.

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Mar

ERRg predicts atrial fibrillation and hidden comorbidity

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Polygenic risk scores based on the genetic data from more that a million people predicted atrial fibrillation, stroke, and mortality.

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Dec

Memories are made of this ?? – (Part 2)

by adam phillips | Interviews

Thomas McHugh from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science continues his discussion about memories, emotions, the brain, and life.

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Dec

Replicating opossum heart regeneration to help fight cardiovascular disease

by adam phillips | Research Animation

Animated research highlight: Opossum hearts hint at new ways of fighting cardiovascular disease

Continue!

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