Annual RIKEN Open Days held at Yokohama and Kobe Campuses

Dec. 28, 2023

The arrival of autumn signals the season for Open Days at the RIKEN Yokohama and Kobe campuses, the largest event of the year where the general public is invited to come meet and talk with RIKEN researchers, to find out about the latest research being conducted at RIKEN, to tour facilities that are normally not open to the public as well as participate in hands-on experiments and other activities. This year, the RIKEN Open Day was held on Saturday, October 21 at the Yokohama Campus, and on Friday, November 3, at the Kobe Campus, with both days being blessed with sunshine and unusually warm weather for the fall season.

RIKEN Yokohama Campus Open Day

The RIKEN Yokohama Campus Open Day, which is held jointly with the neighboring Yokohama City University, was held as an onsite event this year, with visitors being asked to register in advance to participate. A total of 1,300 people came out to visit the Yokohama Campus, many using the free shuttle bus service that was running specially for the event between the main bus terminal in front of JR/Keikyu Tsurumi station and the Yokohama Campus to access the premises.

The BDR laboratories situated at the Yokohama Campus jointly organized a hands-on experimental program for elementary school age children and tours to large scale facilities managed by BDR. For the hands-on experimental program, the participants were able to do a simple experiment mixing luciferin and the enzyme luciferase to produce bioluminescence, which is what makes the tails of fireflies glow. Sounds of awe could be heard around the room when the lights were turned off and the participants were able to see their mixture glowing in the dark. The participants were also treated to a demonstration experiment showing how biofuel cells powered by sugars in various beverages that can be found in one’s home such as cola, juices, and milk, can generate electricity to operate a small fan. Another popular event was the tours were organized to visit the cryo-electron microscopy facility and the NMR complex. The tours were guided by researchers and staff from BDR labs who work with these large-scale instruments that are used for investigating three dimensional structures of biomolecules, such as proteins and enzymes, at the atomic level. Tour participants were able to get a closeup view of some of the state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopy systems and NMR spectrometers at the Yokohama campus and ask questions directly to the researchers. BDR senior scientist Atsushi Yamagata of the Lab for Protein Functional and Structural Biology also gave a short scientific lecture entitled, “Understanding Protein Structure and Function using Electron Microscopy.” All the events were supported by student volunteers from the Yokohama Science Frontier Junior and Senior High School.

RIKEN Kobe Campus Open Day

The RIKEN Open Day in Kobe, held two weeks after the Open Day in Yokohama, also returned to a fully onsite, in-person format for the first time in four years, with events being organized by RIKEN BDR and the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS). About 4,000 people visited the BDR and R-CCS on that day. The RIKEN Open Day in Kobe was held on the same day as the open house events organized by other organizations within the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster, where the RIKEN Kobe Campus is located.

The events organized by BDR were held in the Developmental Biology Buildings and the Integrated Innovation Building, and featured a range of programs from open labs, laboratory tours, experience-based programs, poster exhibits and science handicrafts, catering to a wide range of age groups. The open labs and laboratory tours gave visitors to walk around the lab and learn about the research being carried out by the research team through short movies, listening to explanations given by researchers, and looking at movies and samples on display under the microscope. There were challenging quiz games for some of the experience-based events, which required participants to hone their observations skills and interview skills to find the answer the questions. At the poster exhibits, visitors were seen listening intently to researchers explaining their research as well as model organisms they work with. Science handicrafts included a coloring area where visitors could sit down and contribute to coloring in a large print out of the Mosquito coloring page, the newest addition to the Ikimon coloring page collection, as well as an origami corner where participants could try their hand at folding origami paper into different animals, such as a turtle and mouse. The science button badge workshop run with the support of student interns from Osaka Kyoiku University was also another popular event on Open Day, with many people lining up to create a badge featuring an image related to BDR research.

The RIKEN Open Day events are held on different dates at all RIKEN campuses.

RIKEN Yokohama Open Day website (Japanese only)

RIKEN Kobe Campus Open Day website

Annual RIKEN Open Days held at Yokohama and Kobe Campuses

RIKEN Yokohama Campus Open Day

RIKEN Kobe Campus Open Day

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