Okayama University e-Bulletin: Towards an International Hub for Educational Sustainable Development (ESD)

OKAYAMA, Japan, March 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- This issue includes a feature on 'Towards an International Hub for ESD: International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development is held at Okayama University'. Other contents include news on 'Two students from Okayama University participated in 'One Young World Summit 2019: The Global Forum for Young Leaders', representing Japan'; and research highlights including 'Rapid wheat improvement by genome editing' recently published in Cell Reports.

Okayama University, Japan publishes the March 2020 issue of 'Okayama University e-Bulletin'

http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/

Okayama University e-Bulletin highlights news and views from one of Japan's largest comprehensive universities internationally recognized for its dynamic and innovative approach to interdisciplinary scientific research and pioneering educational programs.

Feature

Towards an International Hub for ESD: International Conference on Education for Sustainable Development is held at Okayama University

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/feature/vol27/feature_001.html

News

Honorary doctorate awarded to Professor Charles Hopkins from York University, Canada

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/news/vol27/news_001.html

Two students from Okayama University participated in 'One Young World Summit 2019: The Global Forum for Young Leaders' representing Japan'

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/news/vol27/news_002.html

Okayama University Women's Ice Hockey Club Takes Second Place for the Second Consecutive Year at the Japan Student Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/news/vol27/news_003.html

Research Highlights

Rapid wheat improvement by genome editing

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/research_highlights/vol27/highlights_001.html

Kazuhiro Sato at IPSR Okayama University and colleagues have shown that a new highly efficient genome editing method could knockout the function of three related wheat genes.

• Cell Reports 94, 1362-1369.e4 (2019).
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.06.090
• Journal website: http://cellreports.cell.com

Discovery of fully-gapped topological superconductors with potential applications in quantum computing

www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/research_highlights/vol27/highlights_002.html

A research group at Okayama University led by Guo-qing Zheng, working in collaboration with researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered that copper-intercalated Bi₂Se₃ (Cu_xBi₂Se₃)—that does not usually conduct electricity before doping— is a class of topological superconductors, where the energy gap is fully opened when the copper concentration x exceeds 0.46. This finding paves the way for applications to fault-tolerant quantum computers using bulk topological superconductors.

• NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 11, 235 (2020).
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1038/s41467-019-14126-w

Journal website: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14126-w

Mechanism of photosynthetic water oxidation revealed by intermediate state structures analyzed by an X-ray free electron laser

http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/research_highlights/vol27/highlights_003.html

Michihiro Suga, Fusamichi Akita, Jian-Ren Shen at Okayama University, and colleagues from RIKEN have obtained the structure of the S₃-state at a higher resolution and also analyzed the structure of the S₂-state by a combination of pump-probe and fixed-target serial crystallography methods using femtosecond X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) at SACLA, Japan. In this approach, the S₂ and S₃-intermediate states were generated by one or two laser pulses at room temperature, and the excited PSII microcrystals were frozen in liquid nitrogen and used for X-ray data collection.

• Science 366, 334-338 (2019)
• Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1126/science.aax6998
• Journal website: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6463/334.long

About Okayama University

Okayama University is one of the largest comprehensive universities in Japan with roots going back to the Medical Training Place sponsored by the Lord of Okayama and established in 1870. Now with 1,300 faculty and 14,000 students, the University offers courses in specialties ranging from medicine and pharmacy to humanities and physical sciences. Okayama University is located in the heart of Japan approximately 3 hours west of Tokyo by Shinkansen.

Website: http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/index_e.html

Further information :
Okayama University
1-1-1 Tsushima-naka , Kita-ku ,
Okayama 700-8530, Japan
Public Relations and Information Strategy Division
E-mail: www-adm@adm.okayama-u.ac.jp