Testimonial from Dr. Franco Nori

Here at RIKEN, our research group is currently working hard to complete several projects. The journal Nature just accepted a long paper written by a researcher here and myself, and another high-impact journal has also accepted a very long manuscript, written by another former postdoc and myself. We continue our regular discussions, and spend our lunchtimes outdoors, under the sun and trees and surrounded by the cherry blossoms.

In short, after some unavoidable temporary disruptions and understandable delays immediately following the huge earthquake, life and work are resuming their normal pace and moving forward at RIKEN. To help with the recovery efforts, we have also reached out to researchers in Sendai affected by the earthquake and offered to host them in our group, or help them in any other way we can.

The avalanche of news around us can be distracting and overwhelming, but we feel that we need to move on and complete our projects. Radiation levels are confined to a region near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, a safe distance away from us here at RIKEN. While people are still concerned about aftershocks, radiation and general safety, these concerns are gradually receding, balanced by a desire to continue our work and maintain RIKEN's worldwide reputation for scientific excellence.

Testimonial by Dr. Piero Carninci

Here at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) in Yokohama, we have returned to our normal pace of work and have resumed all research activities. While we anticipate possible issues stemming from power shortages in mid-summer months, the requirement to cut down on power use has resulted in energy-saving measures which themselves are a positive development.

Fears about radiation, the topic of catastrophic reports in the foreign press, have meanwhile subsided. Background radiation in Yokohama is at a normal level, and any radiation from the Fukushima power plant is simply not detectable here. All of the non-Japanese colleagues of mine who left Japan at the onset of the crisis have since returned to their laboratories.

Many of these colleagues are actively contributing to Japan's recovery. Some have donated prize money awarded to them for their research to charity organizations, while others have gone so far as to spend weekends taking supplies to areas devastated by the tsunami. The OSC has been doing its part as well by offering to host students and scientists from areas affected by the disaster.

At our lab, it is life as usual: publishing papers, filing patents and working on various projects. My group is starting two mid-long term projects to understand the role of non-coding RNAs in cell programming and diseases, a project that is attracting scientists both from within Japan and from abroad.

Current conditions have put more emphasis than ever before on the significance of our research and on its impact on society. We are fully committed to work harder than ever before, through our research contributing to Japan's recovery and to maintaining RIKEN's high level of scientific output.