Confronting a string of epidemics including COVID-19


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

Finding real rewards in a virtual world


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.

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


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

Eve Marder: freeing knowledge, crashing neurons


None of us would get on a plane that had its parts changed in mid-air, says Eve Marder, who has spent her career probing a very specific cluster of crustacean nerve cells. Yet we are all walking around undergoing a constant turnover of cellular parts, and so are the lobsters and crabs Marder studies.

Cyborg cockroaches to the rescue!


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

Physiological origami and proper body development in flies


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

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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.

Schizophrenia biomarker (hydrogen sulfide) in human hair


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

CAPON links Alzheimer’s plaques to neurodegeneration


CAPON was found to link Aβ plaques and hippocampal neurodegeneration in mice, explaining how these two hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease are related.

Xist knockout rescues miscarriages in mice


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

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.

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).

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.

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.

How does gravity affect antimatter?


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