The It Ain't Magic Science Blog

RIKEN Research Spring issue is here

Just a quick post to let you know that the Spring issue of RIKEN Research Magazine came out towards the end of March. This issue covers issues including the discovery of element 113, earth-friendly pesticides, and the secrets of a rice-killing fungal toxin. Enjoy!

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.

Massive filaments, galaxies, and supermassive black holes

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

Skipping fatty acids could be recipe for schizophrenia

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

Promising mouse model for Ngly1 deficiency

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

Understanding non-coding DNA: gene “enhancers”

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

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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

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.

Jan

27

New lab-grown retinal sheets almost ready for clinical trials

New lab-grown retinal sheets almost ready for clinical trials

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

The free-energy principle explains neural network behavior

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Jan

13

How does gravity affect antimatter?

How does gravity affect antimatter?

by jens wilkinson | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Dec

23

Super-thin wearable electronics just got more flexible

Super-thin wearable electronics just got more flexible

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Cassava engineered to produce healthier tapioca starch

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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?

Diazoxide pills for Alzheimer’s disease?

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

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

by admin | Hot Off the Press

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

Kleefstra syndrome in mice reversed after birth

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

A faster and more sensitive antibody test for COVID-19

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Opossums are the first genome edited marsupials

by masataka sasabe | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Jul

19

Methylation mutation directly linked to autism

Methylation mutation directly linked to autism

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Melatonin in mice, circadian rhythms, and daily torpor

by admin | Hot Off the Press

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

Why (mouse) mothers take risks to protect their infants

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Dietary amino acid linked to cancer in flies

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Cancer cells killed with artificial glycosylated metalloenzyme

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

H2AK119ub1: How you inherit acquired traits from your mom

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

COVID-19: Changing the way we do research

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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

Telework: a societal game-changer

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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

Decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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

Confronting a string of epidemics including COVID-19

by jens wilkinson | Interviews

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

Next stop: clinical hair regeneration

by adam phillips | Featured, Hot Off the Press

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

Godzilla-sized zooplankton for better aquafarming

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Electric rays to help us map the ocean floor

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Bacterial drug resistance studied by robotic E. coli evolution

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

New artificial skin helps avoid animal testing

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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?

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

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

FABP4: A preschool-aged biomarker for autism

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Microbial infections are a parasitic plant’s dream

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Gut bacteria double team worsens symptoms of multiple sclerosis

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Something smells fishy: categorizing odors in the brain

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Photosynthetic bacteria spin spider silk for the masses

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Blood cell mutations linked to leukemia are inevitable

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Organic nitrogen in soil helps crop growth

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

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

Consciousness, brain connections, and the claustrum

by admin | Hot Off the Press

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

A new imaging biomarker for the aging brain

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Sphingolipid S1P: Potential new target for schizophrenia treatment

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Staining that lights up whole organs and bodies

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

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

Smarter AI: machine learning without negative data

Scientists have developed a new method for machine learning that allows an AI to make better classifications without negative data.

Longevity in supercentenarians linked to cytotoxic T-cells

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

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.

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

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

Stable green hydrogen production in a PEM electrolyzer

A little structurally manipulated manganese goes a long way when using a PEM electrolyzer to make hydrogen from water.

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.

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.

Jul

8

RIKEN discovers new T cells related to immune disorders

RIKEN discovers new T cells related to immune disorders

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Immune-related diseases like multiple sclerosis associated with genetic variation in newly discovered, rare T cells.

Jul

2

Will the “love hormone” ever be used to treat a rare genetic disease?

Will the “love hormone” ever be used to treat a rare genetic disease?

by masataka sasabe | Drop of science, What's Up With Us

One of the pitfalls of researching an extremely rare disease: getting enough data to support clinical trials could be impossible.

Jun

27

Purple biomass makes a good crop fertilizer

Purple biomass makes a good crop fertilizer

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Biomass made from purple marine bacteria provides more than enough nitrogen to plants without harming the environment

Jun

20

Atlas of the aging lipidome highlights kidneys and gut bacteria

Atlas of the aging lipidome highlights kidneys and gut bacteria

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

The atlas revealed sex differences in the aging kidney lipidome and lipid byproducts of gut bacteria that accumulate throughout the body.

May

22

Root growth improved in soil contaminated with cesium

Root growth improved in soil contaminated with cesium

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Overactivating the ABA signaling pathway in plants prevented cesium in soil from blocking root growth in plants.

May

17

Japanese people are a mixture of three separate ancestral groups

Japanese people are a mixture of three separate ancestral groups

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

A new study shows that the current Japanese population is derived from 3 ancestral groups, one of which brought Denisovan DNA to the party.

May

13

Space Café Tokyo explains sus sci-fi media

Space Café Tokyo explains sus sci-fi media

by kelly | What's Up With Us

Our very own Kelly writes about how much fun she had at Space Café Tokyo. Softcore science and beer.

Opossums are the first genome edited marsupials

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

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.

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.

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.

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.