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Research paper : Innovative electron microscope for light-element atom visualization (Y.Sato et al.)−182−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.4 No.3 (2012) sensitivity is realized by using low-voltage electron microscopes, it should have not only a great impact on the researchers in this field but also considerable ramifications on other fields such as material and life sciences. From the results presented here, it seems that the first low-voltage microscope of this project can immediately be applied to practical use even at the present state. I think the status of this project as Full Research would be more clearly shown, if you mention the processes to realize practical use of the microscopes and to solve the existing problems.Answer (Yuta Sato)Our first microscope has stably exhibited excellent performance at the present stage of the project, convincing us that its practical use will be realized in the near future. At the same time, we recognize that some factors of the microscope can affect its performance more seriously than expected by disturbing the observation or limiting the spatial resolution. It is essential to solve such problems for future application of the microscope, so we have inserted subchapter 5.3 into the revised manuscript to state the current problems and measures we are taking to solve them.of such damages and improvement of sensitivity by newly developing low-voltage microscopes, which enable EELS analysis of single carbon atoms, for example. Performance of our low-voltage microscopes in respect of spatial resolution has already been improved to a high level as we originally aimed. Our project now enters the next stage, where the microscopes are applied to observation of soft matter to further examine the effect of reducing beam damages. At this stage, it is quite important to elucidate irradiation-induced damages on soft matter and their unknown mechanisms based on the observed data, and to optimize operation condition of the microscopes such as acceleration voltage and beam current. This final stage is essential to promote practical use of low-voltage microscopes, and we recognize that it is our duty, especially of AIST team, to contribute from both standpoints of developers and users.4 Practical use of low-voltage microscopesQuestion (Toshimi Shimizu)Once the observation of various soft matters with high

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