Aug

19

How an herbal medicine protects against inflamed bowels

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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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

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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

Feb

25

Nanocarrier spray: better crops without genetic modification

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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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

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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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

by masataka sasabe | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Jan

27

New lab-grown retinal sheets almost ready for clinical trials

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Jan

17

The free-energy principle explains neural network behavior

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Scientists show that the free-energy principle can explain how neural networks work.

Jan

13

How does gravity affect antimatter?

by jens wilkinson | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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Scientists find that antimatter reacts to gravity the same way that regular matter does.

Dec

23

Super-thin wearable electronics just got more flexible

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Dec

17

Cassava engineered to produce healthier tapioca starch

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Reducing the amount of starch branching enzymes in cassava plants made more resistant and thus healthier tapioca starch.

Dec

10

Diazoxide pills for Alzheimer’s disease?

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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Drug therapy with with diazoxide relieved symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in the brains of mice and improved memory.

Oct

8

Zebrafish imagine a danger-free future to avoid threats in virtual reality

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

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By imaging the brain while zebrafish “swim” in virtual reality, scientists have learned that even fish can create internal models to predict future outcomes.

Sep

22

Kleefstra syndrome in mice reversed after birth

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Researchers used a postnatal supply of GLP to reverse neural and behavioral symptoms of Kleefstra syndrome in mice!

Sep

10

A faster and more sensitive antibody test for COVID-19

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Fast and sensitive: A new antibody test for the COVID-19 virus. Just a pinprick of blood and results in 30 minutes.

Jul

26

Opossums are the first genome edited marsupials

by masataka sasabe | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Jul

19

Methylation mutation directly linked to autism

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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A mutation in a gene needed for H3K9 methylation is directly linked to autism spectrum disorders and early neurodevelopment.

Jun

25

Melatonin in mice, circadian rhythms, and daily torpor

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

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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.

Jun

2

Why (mouse) mothers take risks to protect their infants

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

May

26

Dietary amino acid linked to cancer in flies

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Researchers have found a dietary amino acid linked to oncogene expression / tumor formation; reduced consumption reduced cancer in flies.

Apr

30

Cancer cells killed with artificial glycosylated metalloenzyme

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Scientists have developed two cancer therapies that use an artificial glycosylated metalloenzyme to specifically target cancer cells in mice.

Apr

9

H2AK119ub1: How you inherit acquired traits from your mom

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Apr

8

COVID-19: Changing the way we do research

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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COVID-19 series — Part #4: Team Leader Aki Minoda from RIKEN IMS talks about how the pandemic has affected the way we work.

Mar

26

Telework: a societal game-changer

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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COVID-19 series — installment #3: Team Leader Osamu Sakura (@RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project) talks about how the pandemic has affected society through the need for telework.

Mar

18

Decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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COVID-19 series — installment #2: RIKEN CBS Unit Leader Rei Akaishi talks about government decision-making during the pandemic.

Mar

5

Confronting a string of epidemics including COVID-19

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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COVID-19 series — installment #1: RIKEN Executive Director Shigeo Koyasu talks about epidemics and what a good response looks like.

Feb

19

Next stop: clinical hair regeneration

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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A new recipe for continuous cyclical hair regeneration in mice. This means that the hair will continue to fall out and regrow like normal hair.

Jan

22

Godzilla-sized zooplankton for better aquafarming

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Scientists have created extra large zooplankton to help feed the fish in aquafarms. The new plankton were created using an ion beam to generate mutations.

Dec

10

Electric rays to help us map the ocean floor

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Electric rays and sting rays could map the ocean floor through their natural behavior, helping us find resources and collect data on other ocean life.

Nov

26

Bacterial drug resistance studied by robotic E. coli evolution

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Experimentally evolving E. coli under pressure from a large number of antibiotics was able to identify constraints underlying evolved drug resistance.

Nov

9

New artificial skin helps avoid animal testing

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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A new artificial skin that reproduces proper tension can be used to research skin function and disease while reducing the need to experiment on animals.