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.

Oct

2

Social novelty in the brain: haven’t I seen you someplace before?

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Social novelty and contextual novelty are segregated in the SuM region of the hypothalamus and in projections to the hippocampus, allowing memories of meeting new people to be formed separately from memories of new places.

Sep

11

FABP4: A preschool-aged biomarker for autism

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Reduced FABP4 was found in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder, making it a potential new biomarker for the condition.

Sep

3

Microbial infections are a parasitic plant’s dream

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Parasitic plants use quinones produced by their host to attack. Now we know that crops produce quinones as an immune response against microbial infection. How can we protect crops from both kinds of attack?

Aug

27

Gut bacteria double team worsens symptoms of multiple sclerosis

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Joint activity of two gut bacteria leads to excessive MOG-specific T-cell activity and demyelination of neurons in the spinal cord of a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

Aug

19

Something smells fishy: categorizing odors in the brain

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Calcium imaging and mathematical model explain how categories and mixtures of odors are represented in the fly brain and consistent across individual flies.

Jul

8

Photosynthetic bacteria spin spider silk for the masses

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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A little genetic engineering and a special recipe allows photosynthetic bacteria to mass-produce super lightweight spider silk for use in manufacturing.

Jun

25

Blood cell mutations linked to leukemia are inevitable

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Researchers show that blood cell mutations increase with age identify risk factors for developing leukemia in Japanese and European populations.

Jun

10

Organic nitrogen in soil helps crop growth

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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Scientists used a multi-omics analysis to show that soil solarization helps crops grow because it increases organic nitrogen in the soil.

May

12

Consciousness, brain connections, and the claustrum

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

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Research shows that the claustrum acts as a ‘consciousness conductor’ that synchronizes and connects areas within the mouse brain.

May

7

A new imaging biomarker for the aging brain

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Enlarged ventricles is a sign of an aging brain. New research shows that this phenomenon can be predicted by lagging brain circulation that is detected by MRI.

Apr

29

Sphingolipid S1P: Potential new target for schizophrenia treatment

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Sphingolipid S1P is reduced in brain white matter of people with schizophrenia, making S1P receptors a good target for new treatments.

Apr

27

Staining that lights up whole organs and bodies

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Apr

23

Artificial gravity protects the immune system of mice in space

by adam phillips | Featured, Research News

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Mice who experienced artificial gravity on the ISS suffered less damage to their immune system (thymus) than weightless mice did.

Apr

14

Ultraprecise clocks and the Tokyo Skytree verify Einstein’s theory of relativity

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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Time measured at the top and bottom of the Tokyo Skytree with ultraprecise clocks has verified the time dilation effect predicted by Einstein.

Mar

20

Low-protein diet changes sperm and health of future offspring

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Low-protein diets in male mice alter sperm and result in offspring that have metabolic problems like diabetes in adulthood.

Mar

13

Physiological origami and proper body development in flies

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Genetics and mechanical origami in the fly embryo helps proper body development by fighting off “noisy” fluctuations is the environment.

Mar

11

Efficient and durable ultra-thin solar cells

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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Ultra-thin, flexible, organic solar cells that degrade less than 5 percent after 3,000 hours and an energy conversion ratio of 13%.

Mar

9

Tape and vermilion: ingredients for mapping artifact origins

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Jan

29

Are you “at risk” of being a habitual coffee drinker?

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are related to dietary habits, including coffee, tea, tofu, and yogurt consumption.

Jan

24

Astrocytes powered by norepinephrine during fear-memory formation

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

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Norepinephrine released in the locus coeruleus during fear learning is accompanied by increased calcium and cAMP levels in nearby astrocytes.

Dec

19

Brain wave synchrony can predict memory age

by amanda alvarez | Hot Off the Press

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The degree of neuronal synchrony between the anterior cingulate cortex and the hippocampus during recall is an indication of memory age (in mice).

Dec

18

AI identifies features associated with cancer recurrence

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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Artificial intelligence has successfully identified features relevant to cancer prognosis that were not previously noted by pathologists

Nov

15

Longevity in supercentenarians linked to cytotoxic T-cells

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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Blood analysis in supercentenarians showed that they have many more cytotoxic CD4 T-cells than people with average life spans.

Oct

29

Schizophrenia biomarker (hydrogen sulfide) in human hair

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Not only is hydrogen sulfide a good biomarker for schizophrenia, it’s also the culprit and a new starting point for drug discovery.

Oct

10

Brain tissue kept alive for weeks with new microfluidic device

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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A new microfluidic device can keep tissue cultures functional for weeks on an artificial membrane

Oct

4

Massive filaments, galaxies, and supermassive black holes

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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Big telescopes yield big data! Detailed observations gas filaments connecting galaxies in a distant proto-cluster in the early Universe.

Oct

3

Understanding non-coding DNA: gene “enhancers”

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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NETCAGE is a newly developed technique for determining the structure of portions of the non-coding genome called ‘enhancers.’

Aug

9

Implantable blastocyst‐like cysts grown from stem cells

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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Embryo Organoids?! Blastocyst‐like cysts grown from pluripotent mouse stem cells were similar to natural blastocysts (early embryos).

Jul

16

Talking science Illustration with Misaki Ouchida

by adam phillips | Featured, Interviews, What's Up With Us

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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.