Research Highlights
RIKEN is one of Japan’s largest research organizations, with more than 3,000 scientists involved in leading research in centers and institutes across Japan and around the world. Each week, RIKEN RESEARCH highlights the very best of this research from among the thousands of articles published every year by RIKEN researchers in all fields of science and technology, from chemistry, physics, materials and nanotechnology, to genetics, biotechnology, plant science and pharmaceutical research. The Research Highlights are timely and readable summaries of primary research, capturing the most important and significant aspects of the work and written in a style that is accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike. Concise, engaging, and informative, RIKEN RESEARCH highlights introduce readers to world-class scientific discoveries and the researchers who made them.
Weekly Research Highlights
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Gold atoms caught in the act
Published in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Femtosecond ‘snapshots’ reveal a dramatic bond tightening in photo-excited gold complexes
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Bringing life into focus
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
Technical improvements provide major enhancements to the resolution and exploratory power of confocal microscopy in three-dimensional imaging of living tissues
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The solution to natural cell imaging
Published in Physical Review Letters
Scientists at RIKEN use X-ray diffraction to image whole, hydrated cells in their natural state for the first time
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Tiny genes orchestrate plant shape
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
A subset of short genes hidden inside plant genomes may be important in setting plant growth patterns
Highlight of the MonthMay 2013
Cancer cells get the cold shoulder
Published in Advanced Materials
A temperature-responsive nanomaterial efficiently captures trace quantities of tumor cells from blood samples and releases them on demand for further study
