The It Ain't Magic Science Blog

Memory retrieval needs a neuronal connecting flight

Scientists use optogenetics to discover a part of the brain necessary for retrieving memories of personal experiences.

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.

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Locating social memories in the brain

Scientists have identified where social memories are stored in the brains of mice. Mice are forgotten because memories cannot be retrieved.

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Diazoxide pills for Alzheimer’s disease?

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

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Black smokers and electroecosystems

Black smokers are deep-sea hydrothermal vents found in the ocean. Now scientists believe that they may host electroecosystems in which the primary producers use electric currents as their energy source.

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Root growth improved in soil contaminated with cesium

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

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Topics

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

Skipping fatty acids could be recipe for schizophrenia

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Aug

A gut-wrenching defense against parasitic worms

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Mast cells in the gut help fight off parasitic worms in the early stages of infection.

Aug

Memory retrieval needs a neuronal connecting flight

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists use optogenetics to discover a part of the brain necessary for retrieving memories of personal experiences.

Aug

From egg to embryo

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

A newly discovered gene turns off an egg’s egginess, allowing it to become an embryo.

Aug

This nickel catalyst bats from both sides of the plate

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Scientists discover that a nickel catalyst acts as both a acid and a base during molecule assembly.

Jul

New info about how chromosomes form

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

Fewer components are needed for chromosome assembly during cell division than previously supposed.

Jul

Tracking how stars grow up in a virtual playground

by amanda alvarez | Research Highlight

Amanda Alvarez writes about Steven Rieder and his research in modeling clusters of growing new stars.

Jul

Protons are lighter than previously thought

by jens wilkinson | Hot Off the Press

A new and most precise measurement of protons shows that they are lighter than previously thought.

Jul

Untangling depression in Huntington’s disease

by riken research highlights | Research Highlight

New research implicates clumps of insoluble, misfolded proteins in the development of mental illness in people with Huntington’s disease

Jul

Imaging whole-body cancer metastasis at the single-cell level

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A new optical clearing method allows imaging of cancer metastasis at incredibly high resolution.

Jun

Meet the editors: the growing pains of scientific publishing

by amanda alvarez | What's Up With Us

Amanda Alvarez writes about the recent seminars at RIKEN by Philip Campbell and Emilie Marcus, the editors-in-chief of Nature and Cell.

May

Carbon nanotubes, what are they good for?

by kylius wilkins | Interviews, What's Up With Us

Kylius Wilkins talks to Urs Frey and his recent success manufacturing carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

May

Finding real rewards in a virtual world

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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.

Apr

RIKEN is looking for you

by adam phillips | What's Up With Us

RIKEN is looking for you. Check out our new introductory videos! learn about exotic nuclei and much much more.

Apr

Promising mouse model for Ngly1 deficiency

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Apr

Nihonium walk of fame

by jens wilkinson | Drop of science, What's Up With Us

A nihonium walk of fame is being built to commemorate the discovery of the 113th element

Apr

New rice fights off drought

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Researchers have created drought resistant transgenic rice using a gene from a small Eurasian flowering plant

Apr

Centennial RIKEN Research

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

???This Spring we’ve put together a special centennial issue of RIKEN Research ???

Mar

Don’t know anything about RIKEN?

by adam phillips | What's Up With Us

Don’t know anything about RIKEN? We’ve made a new RIKEN booklet that should help!

Jan

Blocking obesity with a protein-sugar combination

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Discovery of an enzyme that prevents obesity in mice through glycosylation of a protein involved fat-cell differentiation.

Dec

Robotic researcher to the rescue

by kylius wilkins | Drop of science, Interviews

Masaki Watabe talks about automated robotic researchers, future robot rule, and scientific philosophy.

Dec

RIKEN Research Winter Issue

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

It’s almost the end of the year and a here’s an early holiday present! The winter issue of RIKEN Research is here, covering plant parasites, depression, atomic clocks, and more! Enjoy!

Dec

The geometry of consciousness is a multi-dimensional math trip

by amanda alvarez | Research Highlight

Amanda Alvarez writes about how neuroscientists are studying consciousness with mathematics

Oct

RIKEN Research Fall Issue

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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

Sep

Locating social memories in the brain

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

Scientists have identified where social memories are stored in the brains of mice. Mice are forgotten because memories cannot be retrieved.

Sep

Big news in iPS cell transplants

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

iPS cell-derived retinal cells have been successfully transplanted from one monkey to another without need of immunosuppressant drugs.

Aug

In Japan, women in science seek allies, resources in push for gender equality

by amanda alvarez | What's Up With Us

neuroamanda talks about gender equality for female scientists is Japan.

Aug

Measuring altitude — with clocks?

by jens wilkinson | Drop of science

Measuring altitude using atomic clocks seems like a crazy idea, but it’s already being done at RIKEN in Japan

Aug

The sound of molecules: NMR-inspired music

by adam phillips | Research in Depth, Science Heavy

Science & art: how NMR works and how NMR spectra have been used to compose music based on molecular structures.

Aug

Eve Marder: freeing knowledge, crashing neurons

by amanda alvarez | Interviews

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.

Aug

RIKEN Research Summer issue

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

A quick post to let you know that the Summer issue of RIKEN Research Magazine came out towards the end of June. This issue covers brain evolution, regenerating skin, super-clear synapses, and much much more! Enjoy!

Aug

ESOF and the gimungous telescope

by adam phillips | What's Up With Us

Highlights from the recent EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) conference held in Manchester (actually, pre-ESOF). Science was everywhere, even out by the sheep

Jun

Call for science-inspired art

by adam phillips | Drop of science, What's Up With Us

A rant about right-brain/left-brain pseudoscience and a call for science-inspired art. Scientists can be artists (and artists can be scientists)!

Jun

Why “nihonium”?

by jens wilkinson | Research Highlight

Kosuke Morita and Kouji Morimoto talked to reporters on Thursday morning about how they came up with name “nihonium” for element 113.

Jun

Nerd Nite comes to Tokyo

by jens wilkinson | What's Up With Us

Jens checks out Nerd Nite in Tokyo — swords and physics and brains oh my!

Jun

RIKEN Research Spring issue is here

by adam phillips | Hot Off the Press

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!

Jun

Organ regeneration in the lab

by jens wilkinson | Interviews, What's Up With Us

Interview with Takashi Tsuji, team leader of the Laboratory for Organ Regeneration at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology

May

Of mice and NREM: In this brain circuit, memories depend on sleep

by amanda alvarez | Research Highlight

The parts of the brain responsible for creating a memory must be re-activated during a specific part of the sleep cycle for mice to remember.

Apr

Dear RIKEN: Can you bring frozen animals back to life?

by jens wilkinson | Dear RIKEN

Today we post our first Dear RIKEN question and answer.

Bacterial drug resistance studied by robotic E. coli evolution

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

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Cubes of brain tissue allow drug discovery without animals

Modeling the blood-brain-barrier with brains-in-a-cube allows drug testing without the need for animals.

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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.

Read on

Evolution of the inner ear: insights from jawless fish

A new story for inner ear evolution based on the developmental patterning found in hagfish, one of two extant jawless vertebrates and a link to the last common ancestor of modern jawed vertebrates.

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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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The free-energy principle explains neural network behavior

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

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Apr

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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Social contact-seeking behavior and loneliness in the brain

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.

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H2AK119ub1: How you inherit acquired traits from your mom

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

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How does gravity affect antimatter?

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

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Nov

Stolen genes used for parasitic mind control

by masataka sasabe | Hot Off the Press

Parasitic horsehair worms evolved to control their praying mantis hosts by stealing their genes (horizontal gene transfer).

Sep

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.