Mr. Isao Karube, Director of Laboratory of Advanced Bioelectronics received International Biosensor Award for his outstanding achievements in the field of biosensor and bioelectronics. The awarding ceremony was held during the 7th World Congress of Biosensors from 15th to 18th May, 2002.

Dr. Karube has engaged in the research of biosensors for over 30 years and invented microbial biosensors. Their application to environmental monitoring is the world first achievement. With his flexible, creative mind-set, he has successfully developed a number of novel biosensors and translated them into practical applications.

Out of his inventions the followings stand out: the sensors for fish freshness, human tiredness, E-coli, toxic agents, blood sugar level, dioxin and so on. Some are directly linked to our everyday life including a toilet sensor for health check, biotips for human DNA and protein materials.

Mr. Phan Giakhiem, Vice Premier of Vietnam visited AIST Tsukuba center on 22nd May 2002. The Vice Premier received a presentation made by Mr. Hiraishi, vice-president of AIST on an outline of the organization and activities of AIST, followed by the tour of three research units.

Firstly, at the Gene Discovery Research Center, Mr. Taira, deputy director lectured on "Ribozime and Gene Discovery" and then there was an explanation on Mule, "Multilingual Data Processing and Information on Security" at Information Technology Research Institute by Mr. Handa, senior research scientist. Lastly, Mr. Haruta, Director of Research Institute for Green Technology presented
on the recent research of exhaust gas from diesel engine.

The Vice Premier was very attentive and eagerly asked a number of questions.

The plant fossil catalogue registering about 3,600 specimens of 4th ed. was published from the Geological Museum of the Geological Survey of Japan, AIST as CD-ROM (Matsue and Onoe, 2002).

The contents of the 4th ed. is composed of a list of plant taxonomy, a list classified by the locality of registered specimens, an index of plant taxonomy, an index of genus name of species names, an index of geologic age, maps of locality, photographs of samples, and references.

As the files in the CD-ROM are changed into PDF, these are accessible with both Windows and Macintosh.