RIKEN

Rice is the world's third-largest crop after wheat and maize, so the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) is developing new transgenic strains of rice incorporating a gene from the weed thale cress to make them more drought-resistant.

A team at Japan's RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) has used a genetic matching technique to overcome the problems of rejection and the use of immunosuppressant drugs when transplanting retinal pigment cells derived from the stem cells of one monkey into the eyes of other monkeys.

Four new elements recently added to the periodic table have finally been given names suitable to their discovery and scientific field of relevance. Now the final decision as to whether these names become permanent has been opened to pubic comment.

There's been a lot of talk about the most eco-friendly ways to generate electric power, and now researchers from RIKEN may have just figured out the most natural way of all – straight from a fish known as an electric ray or torpedo fish.

Researchers at Japan's RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have created skin tissue complete with sebaceous glands as well as hair follicles. They started with mouse gums.​

Time to re-write the textbooks. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has confirmed the existence of four new elements with the atomic numbers 113, 115, 117, and 118.

A team of scientists in Japan is working on growing multiple, fully-functional teeth and implanting them in mice.

Working with a new magnetic insulator material with unusual atomic properties, scientists at Stanford University have observed electrical conduction in a non-conductive material that may lead to superior magnetic memory devices.

Scientists have developed a new hydrogel that stretches and contracts just like an artificial muscle. The team created an L-shaped object made out of the hydrogel and immersed it in a water bath. When the water’s temperature was varied, it slowly "walked" forward.

Orbital debris is increasingly becoming a hazard to satellites and other spacecraft. That's why an international group of scientists is developing a system that could shoot smaller bits of it down with a laser.

Japan is facing an aging population in the coming decades and that means more people requiring care, and less people to provide it. In an effort to meet the shortfall, RIKEN and Sumitomo Riko Company Limited have developed Robear, an experimental nursing care robot.

Japanese researchers have found a way to turn tissue transparent in mice, allowing them to see cellular networks and gain a better understanding of biological systems. This technique may ultimately lead to deeper comprehension of autoimmune and psychiatric diseases.