Science Buzz Lunch in Mixer Room, Building 1, 6-1-2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Mixer Room, Building 1, 6-1-2012

Topics discussed included:

1) Interesting things learned this week in Kobe at The Joint Meeting of The Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists & The Japan Society for Cell Biology, including:

a)  the nature of "stem" spermatogonia and their differentiation in the mouse testis

b)  the physical mechanism by which cell packing is controlled by the dynamics of forces at the cell-population scale in the Drosophila wing model system

2) the key features  of "Dark-fly" reared in darkness for 57 years as revealed by whole-genome sequencing in the recent paper from this Graduate School of Science:

Genome Features of “Dark-Fly”, a Drosophila Line Reared Long-Term in a Dark Environment

by Minako Izutsu et al.

3)  the appearance of some of our students and faculty to introduce their lives as students and scientists and their studies on regeneration of lost body parts by various animals in an episode of the NHK variety show "Aho Suki"

4) roles of cell movement and adhesion in regeneration

5) the origin, practice, and special appeal of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2, 5-28-2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2,  5-28-2012

Topics discussed included:

1) A news article in this week's Nature about reports that will soon be released by 2 reputable international teams concluding that there are predicted to be "minimal health risks from radiation in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear disaster" at Fukushima last year. That's a great relief.

We also discussed whether attendees want the nuclear power plants in Japan now shut down for safety testing to go back online or not. There was pretty much a consensus that people living near the nuclear power plants should have a larger say in that matter than those of us living much further away.

2)  A visit made last week by one attendee to Cape Muroto in Shikoku Island (Kochi Prefecture). The information she gathered there about how samples for genetic and other analyses are gathered there from turtles accidently caught in fishing nets (a few are thus caught there nearly every day, and then released).

Also, the attempted nesting there by 2 loggerhead turtles during her visit. She found their tell-tale trails in the sand.

3) The capture (in good health) and return to the zoo last week of the Humbolt's Penguin who had escaped from a zoo in Tokyo 82 days before.

4)  The TV program "Megaquake" aired on NHK in April (and scheduled for rebroadcast in June) about why the Great East Japan Earthquake" last year was so severe, and the role of the rupture of a very long geological "asperity" in why the initial shaking due to that earthquake lasted so long (3 minutes compared to the more usual 1 minute or so of shaking caused by other major earthquakes).

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 1, Mixer Room, 5-25-2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 1, Mixer Room, 5-25-2012

Topics discussed included:

1) Mutations and mutant phenotypes of Dark-fly

2) Damage and repair of RNA in eukaryotic cells

3)  The strategy of answering questions effectively at a thesis defense versus at a scientific meeting

4)  Recent papers analyzing features and interactions of RNAs and proteins present in non-membrane-bound cytoplasmic RNA-protein granules

Science Buzz Lunch at Institute for Chemical Research, 5-24-2012

Science Buzz Lunch at Institute for Chemical Research, 5-24-2012

Topics discussed included:

1) The annular solar eclipse that occurred on 5-21-2012. Observations seeming to indicate that the behavior of birds in Kyoto was not affected by the eclipse, but the behavior of dogs (howling) might have been affected.

2)  Tests to screen the expression pattern of a gene whose overexpression causes severe mutant phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana

3)  Electrophysiology experiments to study the strength of long term potentiation in different parts of the hippocampus in rats

4) Root hair formation in Arabidopsis thaliana as a model for studying responses of organogenesis to environmental conditions

5)  Recent papers probing the mechanisms of RNA/protein  granule formation in a cell-free system: role of low complexity (LC) sequence domains in proteins in the granules

6) Nesting of Barn Swallows near human habitation: actions of people that could affect the Barn Swallows' nesting success

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2, 5-21-2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2, 5-21-2012

Topics discussed included:

1) Watching and photographing the annular eclipse this morning. The sky didn't turn as dark as most people expected. We were surprised to see the beautiful images of the eclpse cast onto buildings and sidewalks by "pinhole cameras" formed naturally by the leaves on trees.

2) Polar bears must now swim long distances to cross parts of the ocean to reach suitable bits of habitat due to melting of much of the glacier edges they used to inhabit.

3) A student's new job as a guide at a biology museum. The visitors' interests. The overall theme of the museum. Popular exhibits in the museum, and visitors' questions about them.

4) The generally faster speed of biology experiments when a cell culture system can be used rather than experiments in intact animals.

Science Buzz Lunch in Mixer Room, Building 1, 5-17-2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Mixer Room, Building 1, 5-17-2012

Topics discussed included:

1)The upcoming Science Festival for high school students in Fukuyama, in Hiroshima Prefecture

2) Good opportunities for postdoctoral research in zoology in Europe (especially in Germany)

3)  The recent paper:

Cell-free Formation of RNA Granules: Low Complexity Sequence Domains Form Dynamic Fibers within Hydrogels

Masato Kato et al.

Cell 149, 768–779, May 11, 2012

http://www.cell.com/fulltext/S0092-8674(12)00514-4

Insights from this paper might guide us in studying the formation and function of chromatoid bodies in planarian neoblasts.




4)  Recently hatched chicks of Tree Sparrows, Barn Swallows, and Carrion Crows have been seen this week on or near the university's campus






Please join us next Friday if you have time.

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2, May 14th, 2012

Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2, May 14th, 2012

Topics discussed included:

1) Safe ways to view the upcoming solar eclipse on May 21st, including special glasses and projections though a pinhole

2) A science opinion piece stating that people usually work to protect beautiful or cute species, which is not the the criterion we should be using to protect biodiversity

3) A newspaper article published yesterday reporting that the order in which multiple roosters in a flock crow successively in the morning is correlated with their social rank in the flock

4) Experiments to study how the spacing of sponge spicules is determined

5) The repertoire of words a pet 8-year-old parakeet can say now. He used to be able to say far more words when he was younger....  

6) A recent paper about unexpected features of Drosophila circadian rhythms under natural conditions (in contrast to the features under laboratory conditions)

7) Good websites for listening to the voices and other sounds (wing beats, etc.) of birds

Please join us next Monday if you can!

First Science Buzz Lunch in Building 1, Mixer Room, 5-11-12

Today we held the Science Buzz Lunch in Building 1, Mixer Room, for the first time.

Topics discussed included:

1) The functional importance of the black eye stripes in various birds: their contribution to success in hunting while facing into the sun.

2) Procedures and equipment needed to isolate +36 GFP

3) Catching and rearing insects to be used as food for Sclegel's Green Tree Frogs

4) Possible functional differences between normal nucleic acids and nucleic acids with altered sugars produced by synthetic biology

5) Experiments attempting to immunostain sponge proteins with antibodies prepared against conserved human and mouse antigens

6) Speculations about the evolutionary origin of the amnion and placenta


Please join us next time if you can!

First Science Buzz Lunch in Building 2: May 7th, 2012

Topics discussed included:

1)  Plans to view the solar annular eclipse on 21st, May (7:00 - 7:30 am). The next chance for people in Japan to observe an annular eclipse will be in 2041.


2) Hopes  to study possible recent changes of the northern limits of coral reefs and the Green Turtle near Tsushima Island off the coast of Kyushu


3)  The motivation a blogger gets from the fact that readers from around the world read the blogger's simple check-lists of birds seen by the blogger during the spring migration of birds in Japan 


Please join us next time!

Science Buzz Lunch Schedule for May, 2012

Science Buzz Lunch Schedule for May, 2012

Science Buzz Lunch:

What: Free discussion (in English) about what’s new (“the buzz”) in

your science ‐‐‐ all students and post‐docs are welcome

When & Where:

Monday, May 14, 21, 28; Building 2, Room 107; 12:00‐13:00

Friday, May 11, 18, 25; Bldg 1, Room 214 (Mixer Room); 12:00‐13:00

Thursday, May 24, Institute for Chemical Research, 12:00 – 13:00