The It Ain't Magic Science Blog

RIKEN Research Fall Issue

Fall is here, and with it comes the latest issue of RIKEN Research. This issue covers tactile learning during sleep, supercomputers and simulations, solar cells, fly olfaction, tumor vaccines, and more

Electrolithoautotrophs

Learn what electrolithoautotrophs are and how the scientists proved that A. ferrooxidans can use electric potential to fuel growth.

Simple but revolutionary modular organoids

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

Flies use fecal deposits as pheromones

Bioluminescence imaging of fly brains reveals neurons sensitive to fly poo laced with pheromones (you can see the fecal “landmark” in the dotted circle). Need we say more?

Melatonin in mice, circadian rhythms, and daily torpor

A new breed of lab mouse allows the study of naturally occurring melatonin. These mice will adjust better to jetlag than regular lab mice and experience daily torpor.

A researcher’s journey part 2: emotional memory and being human

Joshua Johansen from RIKEN CBS explains emotional memory, what his lab is doing, and what makes a good researcher.

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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

Sep

27

Machine learning contributes to better quantum error correction

Machine learning contributes to better quantum error correction

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

Researchers have developed an autonomous method for handling error correction in quantum computing. This will help quantum computers maintain their advantages over standard computers.

Sep

20

Laser melting ice-core sampler for studying climate change

Laser melting ice-core sampler for studying climate change

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

This laser melting ice core sampler can determine temperature changes thousands of years ago on very fine timescale.

Aug

31

Gut bacteria reduces insulin resistance, protects against diabetes

Gut bacteria reduces insulin resistance, protects against diabetes

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists discover gut bacteria that reduce insulin resistance in your body and sugar in your poo.

Aug

23

Scary places burned into our minds by constant memory replay

Scary places burned into our minds by constant memory replay

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Researchers discover the mechanism through which places associated with negative experiences are burned into our memories.

Aug

18

Toward human hibernation: cold-resistant mouse stem cells

Toward human hibernation: cold-resistant mouse stem cells

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Aug

15

A researcher’s journey part 2: emotional memory and being human

A researcher’s journey part 2: emotional memory and being human

by adam phillips | Interviews

Joshua Johansen from RIKEN CBS explains emotional memory, what his lab is doing, and what makes a good researcher.

Aug

8

Mathematical model predicts self-organized learning in real neurons

Mathematical model predicts self-organized learning in real neurons

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

The free energy principle predicted how real neural connections changed as neurons “learned” in a dish.

Aug

7

Deadly fungi beaten with fatty acid synthase inhibitor

Deadly fungi beaten with fatty acid synthase inhibitor

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new approach to attacking fungi involves inhibiting a gene needed for making fatty acids.

Jul

12

A new and improved way to store hydrogen

A new and improved way to store hydrogen

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

A simple chemical reaction allows hydrogen-carrying ammonia to be stored and retrieved cheaply and easily.

Jun

29

A new alpha-particle treatment for multiple cancers

A new alpha-particle treatment for multiple cancers

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new type of alpha-particle therapy allows selective targeting of tumors in multiple cancers.

Jun

28

A researcher’s journey part 2: emotional memory and being human

A researcher’s journey: from surfing to studying pain

by adam phillips | Interviews

Joshua Johansen from RIKEN CBS tells us about his journey from surfer to pain researcher and beyond. Stay tuned for part II …

Jun

15

The first drug treatment for brain aneurysms (in mice)

The first drug treatment for brain aneurysms (in mice)

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists discover that most aneurysms result from mutations. A mouse model shows they can be treated with drugs.

Jun

12

Simple but revolutionary modular organoids

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.

May

19

Thoughts on the genetics of medicinal licorice

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.

Apr

24

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

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.

Mar

29

ERRg predicts atrial fibrillation and hidden comorbidity

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.

Dec

27

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

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.

Dec

26

Replicating opossum heart regeneration to help fight cardiovascular disease

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

Dec

26

Spacey, nerdy nights in Tokyo

Spacey, nerdy nights in Tokyo

by kelly | What's Up With Us

Kelly, our new It Ain’t Magic contributor, writes about her nerdy nighttime experiences in Tokyo.

Dec

16

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

Memories are made of this ? ? – (Part 1)

by adam phillips | Interviews

Brain science ’round midnight episode 8: Thomas McHugh from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science discusses memories and the brain

Nov

18

Hibernation-like state can protect kidneys during heart surgery

Hibernation-like state can protect kidneys during heart surgery

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Activating Q-neurons in the mouse brain led to a hibernation-like state that protected kidneys during heart surgery.

Sep

14

Crying baby? Science says walk, then sit

Crying baby? Science says walk, then sit

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Recipe for success: Walk 5 min, sit 8 min, lay no-longer-crying baby down. Now you can relax.

Sep

6

Cyborg cockroaches to the rescue!

Cyborg cockroaches to the rescue!

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

The key to this remote-controllable cyborg cockroach is a solar-cell rechargeable battery and an ultrathin flexible backpack.

Aug

25

Ethanol pretreated soil protects plants from drought

Ethanol pretreated soil protects plants from drought

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Pretreating soil with ethanol protected plants, including wheat and rice, from the adverse effects of water deprivation.

Aug

22

Marsupial heart regeneration ability given to mice

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

19

How an herbal medicine protects against inflamed bowels

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

7

Robotic AI helps efficient growth of replacement organs

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

20

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

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

26

Palaeospondylus: mystery of vertebrate evolution solved

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

28

Xist knockout rescues miscarriages in mice

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

27

A new type of cell death discovered in fly guts

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

6

Diagnosing fetal heart disease benefits from explanatory AI

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

5

Chaos theory provides hints for controlling the weather

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.

Mar

29

Robotic exoskeleton learns to help people stand up

Robotic exoskeleton learns to help people stand up

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

This new robotic exoskeleton uses machine learning to know when users want help standing up.

Feb

25

Nanocarrier spray: better crops without genetic modification

Nanocarrier spray: better crops without genetic modification

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Gene expression, but not genomes, altered in plants and crops with a spray containing bioactive molecules tethered to nanocarrier peptides

Feb

16

Introducing Nikola, the emotional android boy

Introducing Nikola, the emotional android boy

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Feb

15

Green hydrogen production for fuel cells and fertilizers

Green hydrogen production for fuel cells and fertilizers

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

A new method of water electrolysis avoids rare metals, making hydrogen production green and sustainable.

Feb

9

Social contact-seeking behavior and loneliness in the brain

Social contact-seeking behavior and loneliness in the brain

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

Levels of the peptide amylin in the brain are related to loneliness; activating amylin neurons in the MPOA drives isolated mice to seek social contact.

Feb

4

New treatment assembles cancer drug inside the body

New treatment assembles cancer drug inside the body

by masataka sasabe | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Staining that lights up whole organs and bodies

Scientists have developed a staining procedure that makes see-through tissue, organs, and bodies useful.

Super-thin wearable electronics just got more flexible

A method for making super-flexible and ultra-thin wearable electronics uses water-vapor plasma to create gold-gold bonds.

A researcher’s journey part 2: emotional memory and being human

Joshua Johansen from RIKEN CBS explains emotional memory, what his lab is doing, and what makes a good researcher.

A self-powered heart monitor taped to the skin

A group of scientists have developed a human-friendly, ultra-flexible organic sensor powered by sunlight, which acts as a self-powered heart monitor.

Learning and unlearning to fear: The two faces of noradrenaline

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

Random movements help color-detecting cells form the proper pattern

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

Jan

23

Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is fully ocean-degradable

Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is fully ocean-degradable

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new bioplastic that dissolves in saltwater — no more pesky microplastics!

Dec

6

Scientists develop new and improved quantum gates

Scientists develop new and improved quantum gates

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

High-fidelity, low error quantum gates allow more reliable and accurate quantum computations, making the future of quantum computers more promising.

Dec

5

Nanopores in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the origin of life

Nanopores in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the origin of life

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

“Naturally occurring selective nanopore ion channels in deep-sea hydrothermal vents are similar to ion channels found in cells and could help explain the origin of life.

Dec

4

Albumin drops medicine off at cancer site then leaves the body

Albumin drops medicine off at cancer site then leaves the body

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

By changing albumin’s identity, drugs can carried to their targets and then removed from the body after being used.

Oct

16

Protein antigens in meat, milk, and other foods suppress gut tumors

Protein antigens in meat, milk, and other foods suppress gut tumors

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Food antigens were found to prevent small intestinal tumors in gut-tumor prone mice by making ensuring we have enough T cells for defense.

Oct

2

Stem cell exhaustion and proliferation: An aging fly’s tale

Stem cell exhaustion and proliferation: An aging fly’s tale

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Blocking the gene ced-6 led to stem cell exhaustion in aging fruit flies and prevented repair of damaged intestines.

Aug

30

Chromosome copying errors pinpointed in developing embryos

Chromosome copying errors pinpointed in developing embryos

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

The DNA duplication process changes during embryogenesis and chromosome copying errors increase during the transition.

Aug

20

Predictive grid cells help self navigation in the brain

Predictive grid cells help self navigation in the brain

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists have discovered grid cells in the brain that map an animal’s (or human’s) future position in space.

Aug

7

Dopamine reduces beta-amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease

Dopamine reduces beta-amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Increasing dopamine in the brains of AD model mice led to increased neprilysin, which broke down amyloid-beta plaques and improved memory.

Opossums are the first genome edited marsupials

A new piezoelectronic microinjection method has allowed the first successful genome editing in marsupials: albino opossums.

Transgenic plants ??on acid survive without water

Scientists designed transgenic plants that survive drought-like conditions by bumping up acetic acid production only when water is scarce.

Talking science Illustration with Misaki Ouchida

Whether it’s bird anatomy or science cartoons, Masaki Ouchida can do it all. She spoke with us about her career in science illustration, from the US to Japan.

New lab-grown retinal sheets almost ready for clinical trials

A new retinal transplant technique works by preventing bipolar cells from maturing in lab-grown retinal sheets.

Jun

6

How group size affects cooperation: Insights from brain science

How group size affects cooperation: Insights from brain science

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Using the prisoners dilemma game, brain scientists showed that larger group size reduces cooperation.

May

22

Strong emotions plus non-REM sleep equals longer-lasting perceptual memories

Strong emotions plus non-REM sleep equals longer-lasting perceptual memories

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Perceptual memories linked to positive emotions, such as joy or happiness, are strengthened during sleep, specifically during periods of deep non-REM sleep.

Feb

20

Gut bacteria in babies predict childhood food allergies

Gut bacteria in babies predict childhood food allergies

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists found that one-month-old infants with certain gut bacteria were less likely to develop food sensitivities and food allergies later in childhood.

Jan

23

Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is fully ocean-degradable

Bye-bye microplastics: new plastic is fully ocean-degradable

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new bioplastic that dissolves in saltwater — no more pesky microplastics!

Dec

6

Scientists develop new and improved quantum gates

Scientists develop new and improved quantum gates

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

High-fidelity, low error quantum gates allow more reliable and accurate quantum computations, making the future of quantum computers more promising.

Dec

5

Nanopores in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the origin of life

Nanopores in deep-sea hydrothermal vents and the origin of life

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

“Naturally occurring selective nanopore ion channels in deep-sea hydrothermal vents are similar to ion channels found in cells and could help explain the origin of life.