Peer Reviewed

With focus on Jatropa, sweet sorghum and cassava, biofuel research and development is fast gaining momentum in the Philippines. Just recently, the drive to produce diesel fuel from renewable and non-food biodiesel feedstock such as microalgae has gotten a big boost.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Genome scan uncovers genetic risks of testis cancer, Genetic variation influences adverse reaction to common antibiotic, Replay of neural patterns during sleep, Let the right pollen in, Dynamic ferroelectric memory, Suppressing suppressors, Why does high-throughput screening work?, Smells right

A well-tuned sense of taste is about far more than being able to enjoy a fancy dinner—it represents a key survival mechanism, helping animals to rapidly identify potential food sources as tasty or toxic. A combination of computational and experimental techniques helps researchers to identify a gene involved in taste bud development

Immature mice father faster medical research via an assisted reproduction technique that speeds up the production of mouse models

If all dendritic projections and axons in the whole brain were joined together in a line, they would extend for 100,000 kilometers. This article describes RIKEN's work on elucidating the huge complexity of the brain’s neural network.

This year Maeda and his colleagues discovered a gene that is closely associated with the development of diabetes in East Asians, including Japanese. Now research is progressing rapidly with the aim of conquering diabetes

Lasing of the XFEL is set to commence by 2010. Starting from 2011, XFEL will serve as a common-use facility for researchers from Japan and from overseas, enabling them to carry out a wide range of new cutting-edge experiments.

The creative flair and design talent of the graduating students from PolyU's Institute of Textiles and Clothing have won big rounds of applause from the industry at their Knitwear Fashion Show held today at The Mira Hong Kong.

Themed "Innovative Cloths", the inspiring exhibition showcasing 26 pieces of the innovative textile works of Mr Junichi Arai, a renowned contemporary textile designer, is now staged at the Institute of Textiles & Clothing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

In China, there is a major economic gap between family registration in farming villages and in cities. If women can become teachers, they can escape from the registration in farming villages and obtain registration in cities, thus obtaining a social status which enables them to receive a fixed income. This is a revolutionary change in their lives.

While gloomy topics have been prevailing since last fall, there were also some events bearing a sign of optimism. One example is “toshikoshi haken-mura,” a camp for providing food and beds to unemployed temporary workers around the New Year’s Day.

The 2nd World Baseball Classic excited everyone in Japan. The Japanese team, withstood the pressure of being the returning champions, and won the championship again. The article discusses the diplomatic role of baseball including being hosted by Major League Baseball, the idea of a baseball FIFA, The Japan-Korea matches and The Netherlands team.

Sazae-san, a four-frame manga popular throughout Japan, originally started in the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in 1951, and it continues today as a TV animation program.

The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) has recently organized a group of biotechnologists and chemical engineers to conduct scientific investigations in a bid to produce ethanol from so-called 3rd generation biofuel feedstocks.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Exoplanetary phases seen, Rethinking the war on cancer, Natural selection at the group level?, Super states, Mantle mixing model and Ancient immunity underestimated

In an exclusive News story this week, Nature reporter Geoff Brumfiel describes how ITER, the multi-billion-euro international fusion reactor, is likely to be far less ambitious in its early stages than scientists had hoped.

A transgenic line of monkeys carrying a gene encoding green fluorescent protein fully integrated into their DNA has been created for the first time. The research, published in Nature this week, marks the first such feat in non-human primates and paves the way for developing new models of human diseases.

The winning research include Multi-potent Drug removing Arginine from the blood and kill cancer cells; Life-cycle Health Monitoring of Massive Infrastructure; Energy-saving High Brightness LED Lighting; Ultrasonic Semiconductor Thin-die Bonding Platform; Smart Pressure Monitored Suit - Rebuild Body Contour

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) won 6 gold medals, during the 20th Invention, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (ITEX) in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The research by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) students has the potential to replace fractured or cracked human bone to 16 times the strength of the material that is currently available in the market.

This book will be of interest to researchers, decision-makers, policy advisors, and educators in science, technology, and innovation studies, as well as to development practitioners and professionals around the world.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include A mushroom mystery solved, Candida genome sequenced, No role for Snowball Earth in ancient extinction, Initiator of allergic responses, How do inhibitors activate kinases? and Targeting muscle disorders

Environmental conditions may determine which particular process plants will use to build an essential hormone

Enhancements to an experimental technique reveal novel magnetic materials

RIKEN researchers proposed a new pathway map for the differentiation of blood cells.

What is the mechanism that controls the growth of living organisms? Hiroshi Sasaki at RIKEN is attempting to probe the mechanism by focusing on special groups of cells called ‘signaling centers,’ which control the differentiation, proliferation, and migration of surrounding cells.

Part of the 6,500 hectare land grant property of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) straddling the provinces of Laguna and Quezon is currently being developed into tree farms for biofuel, timber and agroforestry enterprises.

Summaries of newsworthy papers include Early Mars cold and wet?, Are you in charge of your weight?, Optical device records in 5D, Early microbes took some battering, How Down’s syndrome protects, DNA genie bottle assembles itself

Prof. Albert Chan of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU)'s Department of Building and Real Estate has been bestowed with the Innovation Achievers Award of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)'s International Innovation & Research Awards 2008/9.

The problem of disposing of plastics which is a major environmental issue will soon be resolved with the discovery that plastics can be recycled and turned into fuel.