Vol.2 No.2 2009

96/98

−176 Synthesiology - English edition Vol.2 No.2 (2009) Letter from the editorI am glad we were able to publish Synthesiology Volume 2, Issue 2, although slightly behind schedule. In this issue, there are six original papers of diverse contents including topics in materials, sensors, measurement standards, geology, manufacturing technology, systems, and research management. I was reminded of the fact that the synthetic approach in researches that incorporate various factors are now being conducted in various scenes and at various scales, and they are forming somewhat of a fractal structure. Dr. Nakamura’s paper describes the activities of researchers and research organizations spanning a period of 30 years. Dr. Sangawa’s paper introduces archaeology to address a subject in the time frame of one thousand years. By obtaining knowledge that could not be gained by conventional methods, earthquake prediction, a synthetic approach, can be more precise. They are papers of grand scale from the perspectives of organizational management as well as of a life work of a researcher. One of the points common to these synthetic approaches is the stance that any means will be taken to achieve the end.Using the opportunity of the visit by Dr. Ohno of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA, we held a three-cornered talk involving editors Ono and Tanaka. Dr. Ohno has his roots in a Japanese electric company, and is a researcher who is well versed in the process from basic research to product realization. To promote synthetic approach, it is necessary to have the sponsors understand the impact the research will ultimately have on society. Dr. Ohno uses the lighting demonstration very nicely. In the three-cornered talk, there is a story about poor presentation of red color, and he shows how the red looks bad by using slices of tuna of sushi. Japanese food probably contributed in promoting synthetic approach in research in the United States.As educational training at AIST, we established the Innovation School for post-doctorates. At this School, we used Synthesiology as an important text in presentations with free discussions. In these sessions, the students presented the content of the paper and what they learned as Synthesiology, and then all participants joined in the discussion. The students of the School all are engaging in research in their respective fields, but some people selected papers that were outside of their fields. In the discussions, the students understood the main points of the papers even though the subjects were not within their specialty, and some made astute comments on the papers. I felt one of the good points of Synthesiology papers is people can comment on researches of non-specialty areas. I also strongly felt that it is very important to see through the eyes of different fields to advance synthetic approach. Although this was our first School attempt, it was worth the while to learn that Synthesiology could serve as an excellent textbook for people engaged in a wide range of R&D, as well as for management of technology studies. I hope some of the readers will consider using Synthesiology as educational material.We started out by asking the AIST researchers to submit their original papers, but now we have voluntary submissions as well as submissions from outside AIST. I believe there are many people who have their own thoughts and comments about synthetic approach in research. I hope there will be further active submissions from various places that will allow us to accumulate the knowledge of Synthesiology.Executive EditorMotoyuki Akamatsu−

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