Peer Reviewed

Summaries of newsworthy papers - Neuroscience: Chills of musical pleasure; Nature: A massive black hole in a nearby dwarf galaxy; Geoscience: Origin of lunar water; And finally…Chemical Biology: To screen and protect

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University will, through its partnership with Sichuan University in establishing China's first Training Institute on Disaster Management and Reconstruction, bring in its programmes and expertise to support the reconstruction and sustainable development of Sichuan province.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) School of Accounting and Finance hosted on 4-5 January the JCAE (Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics) Symposium 2011.

To identify the future direction of education and research, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) jointly organized a cross-discipline international forum.

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has recently won one Gold and three Silver Medals at the 62nd International Trade Fair "Ideas - Inventions – New Products" (IENA) of Nuremberg, Germany, for its innovations in health technology, novel use of optical fibres and digital image processing.

Singapore, 7 January 2011 - The Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) and Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd (ETPL), both units of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), have entered into a research and development (R&D) agreement with Huawei to co-develop new areas of infocomm technologies in Singapore.

Masao Ito, founder of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI), is famous as one of the pioneers in a research movement that has shed light on the deeper functions of the cerebellum. Ito recounts the story of this research in his own words.

Research at the Electron Microscope Laboratory is shedding light on the elegant mechanisms that control the push and shove of cells in living organisms

The first Japanese human genome sequence suggests that genetics researchers may be overlooking rare but potentially important variations

The ability of bacteria to change the body color of aphids has ecological consequences

The separation of proteins into relatively homogeneous groups and sizes has been very important in biopharmaceuticals and medicines. Researchers at NIMS have fabricated tight mosaic cage silica nanotubes inside anodic alumina membranes as a promising candidate nanofilter for high-speed size-exclusion separation of high concentration macromolecules.

The interaction of electrons in an unusual oxide reveals new ways to tune electrical conductivity

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report for the first time how animals' knowledge obtained through past experiences can subconsciously influence their behavior in new situations.

The design of social protection policies should take into account the complexity and diversity of family arrangements. Families have different needs and structures as well as various ways of reacting and adapting to changes in their economic environment.

The Institute of Microelectronics and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are joining hands to develop MEMS Capacitive Sensor Platform Technology for power-efficient and highly sensitive motion sensing applications that are relevant to consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace industries.

Summaries of newsworthy papers - Special: International Year of Chemistry 2011; Materials science: Polycrystalline graphene — the big (and small) picture; Chemistry: Large molecules from small templates; World View: Legal highs – the dark side of medicinal chemistry

Summaries of newsworthy papers - Chemical Biology: Cysteine naturally sweetened.

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Neuroscience: Social networks in the amygdala; Genetics: One type of chocolate genome sequenced; Genetics: Strawberry genome sequenced; Structural & Molecular Biology: Taming RNA toxicity; And finally… Chemical Biology: Hydrogen peroxide does a stem cell good.

The discovery that particles called antiprotons collide with molecules and atoms in different ways is contrary to theoretical expectations.

A newly characterized protein promotes embryonic brain formation by hiding a receptor with the potential to undermine this process.

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Get Attached, The pain of exclusion, Feeling blue about brainpower

Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology and Singapore’s Agency for Science Technology and Research announce the second Keystone Symposia conference on “Biofuels” in Singapore from 1-6 March 2011.

Researchers at NIMS have succeeded in the batch fabrication of suspended structures (cantilevers and bridges) of single crystal diamond for nano/micro electromechanical systems.

Researchers have succeeded in controlling the few-particle quantum state of a semiconductor quantum dot, and changing its correlation energies.

Summaries of newsworthy articles: Infectious Disease: Flu factories; Science Agenda: A political wish list; TechnoFiles: Don’t worry about who’s watching; Forum: Diplomacy’s meltdown; Computer Science: Rise of the robo scientists; And finally…The Science of Health: Curing the common cold.

Summary of newsworhty papers: Genomics: Digital DNA; Genetics: The genetics of impulsivity; Genomes: Functional elements on the fly

As expected, the Republican Party won the U.S. midterm elections by a landslide. No one is boasting foresight at this point, but it was obvious that the Republican Party would gain much momentum this time.　

This year marks the 1300th anniversary of the transfer of the national capital to Heijo-kyo in Nara. Also, the regular exhibition of Shosoin, the treasure storehouse built in the eighth century at Todai-ji Temple in Nara, was held at the Nara National Museum until November 11th.

On October 11, 2010, the computer shogi (Japanese chess) system Akara 2010 played a game against the then women’s Osho champion Ichiyo Shimizu with no handicap and defeated her in 86 moves.

The conservation of biodiversity calls for protecting precious living organisms. But it is difficult to explain the true significance of biodiversity conservation.