Vol.3 No.1 2010

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Round-table talk : Synthesiology on the Second Anniversary−100−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.3 No.1 (2010) Synthesiology listens to social wishes(Yoshikawa)That story is really important. When the American military personnel said, “We need something strong”, he was expressing what I call the “social wish”. Such things exist outside research, and the researchers are often not aware of them. A social wish and scientific ability meet, and I call that “chance meeting”. How would they meet? In the 19th and the 20th century, “synthesiology” was suited in areas where new discovery produced new functions. Now, the social wish is greater, and there is a sense of risk that unless we invent such-and-such a thing the earth will be destroyed, or in other words, the expectations for some power that will enable overcoming the risks spur research.(Akamatsu)The people who were involved in the carbon fiber research were trying to look at the property of carbon fiber from various aspects, and recognized its potential when “strength” was mentioned. The reason of its success was the presence of a social wish. There are many elemental properties to be investigated. Therefore, when the researchers are left to decide for themselves which property of carbon fiber they should study deeply, they may jump right in, and they may end up nitpicking the corners.(Yoshikawa)When they start nitpicking, it means they do research that’s easy to write out as a paper. The motivation to do research is that the researchers must do something that has never been done before, and if they find a corner that has never been explored, they will dig deeper there. In contrast, it is not easy to write a Synthesiology paper, but they will move in that direction because there is a social wish.Expansion of Product Realization Research in industry(Ono)There are many people who regard Synthesiology as the “study of synthesiology”, and we are getting submissions of such papers. People who are engaged in “research that stretch across various disciplines”, or those who are trying to do new research based on such results are becoming interested. In addition, I would like to see submissions from industry.(Akamatsu)I also want more submissions from industry, so I am considering the “Product Realization Research paper (tentative title)”. I am thinking about making a collection of case studies of product realizations by having industry submit papers of actual product realizations that are valuable for “synthesiology”.(Yoshikawa)When a company develops a product, aside from the actual product to be sold, they also produce an invisible product called the thinking methodology, but it is discarded. While it remain in the head of the researcher and may remain as skills and experiences, it cannot be seen by a third party.(Ono)That part vanishes into air, but I think that is the source of corporate power. The “Technical Reports” published by companies present some aspects, as they show which items were successful along with scientific backgrounds, but I wish they would write what lies underneath. I think sharing this knowledge in depth will further strengthen the Japanese companies.Educational material at the Innovation School(Ono)We train young, post-doctorate researchers at the AIST Innovation School. The students were divided into groups of ten to take turns doing paper reports of Synthesiology. Some commented, “It captures the social trend and presents the total picture, and it helps me see where I stand.” Many post-docs felt fresh surprise, and it gave them quite an impact. Dr. Akamatsu was also a moderator of the School. What did you think?(Akamatsu)At the paper reports session, I provided supplemental explanations, and the post-docs were able to read from the perspective of “What is “synthesiology”?” There were six moderators, and one of them said, “The students really thought it through, and now I finally understood what Synthesiology is from their reports.” Some papers state, “It is important to occasionally return to Type 1 Basic Research when doing Type 2 Basic Research”, and the students were happy to see that perspective. When one is deeply involved in a topic, one may unconsciously create a sanctuary. It seems that the students learned the importance of looking at the big picture, drawing a scenario, and going forward without getting entangled in something immediately in front of their eyes.Dr. Akira Ono

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