RIKEN CDB Graduate School Guidance

On May 26th, RIKEN CDB in Kobe, Japan, will hold the first annual guidance session for students who want to start developmental biology research for master or doctor program.

Because targeted participants are probably already in Japan, I paste below the official advertisement written in Japanese. I will also join this event and introduce my unit.

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神戸にある理研 発生・再生総合研究センター（CDB）では、５月２６日（土曜午後）に連携大学院説明会を開くことになりました。http://www.cdb.riken.jp/daigakuin/

この説明会は、理研 発生・再生総合研究センター（CDB）中で、大学院の講座として、大学院生も行ける研究室を紹介しようというもので、今年が初めての試みです。遠隔地からも参加してもらえるよう、午後１２時５０分から開始します。CDBを代表するサイエンティストのレクチャーや連携大学院の教員を兼ねているラボの訪問の機会ももうけてあります（プラス懇親会）。

大学院を決めようとしている学部学生（４年）と修士の学生に広くこの説明会の存在を知ってもらいたいので、mailing list, twitter、facebookを使っている方、あるいは、みなさんのラボの後輩や、そのまた後輩の学部学生に、この情報を伝えていただければ大変ありがたく思います。

ぜひよろしくお願いします。

'Currywurst' in Japan

Today I had a lunch at a small restaurant in Kobe serving "Currywurst" which is famous among German people.There seemed no German employee.

Meeting on Advances in Cyclostome Research

I am writing about a scientific meeting focusing on cyclostome development and evolution which was held in January 2008 at RIKEN CDB in Kobe, Japan.

I wonder if this was the first scientific meeting dedicated to cyclostomes, namely extant jawless vertebrates. We really expect the second meeting with the same scope.

I contributed to this meeting with one oral and one poster presentations. Because this meeting was held about 10 months after I moved from Kobe to Germany, I remember well that I felt very awkward to guide non-Japanese participants out to the town which I knew well but left some time ago.

Later, participants' contributions were compiled into a proceeding publication, in the form of a special issue of the journal, Zoological Science, the journal affiliated with the Zoological Society of Japan.

In fact, the original picture which became the cover of this special journal issue was taken by one of my former colleague from Kobe, based on my idea. To take the picture, we had lamprey and hagfish in the same aquarium tank in the lab (for the first time in vertebrate evolution?).

Please guess which the tank had inside, freshwater or salt water.