ＭＲＳ-J NEWS　Vol.17 No.4 November 2005

■What Japanese Engineers can Learn from the World War…p.1

Prof. Dr. Kozo ISHIZAKI, Nagaoka Gijyutsu Kagaku University

　Many Japanese may consider “information” as free merchandise. This is very similar to the fact that Japanese soldiers did not pay too much attention on the importance of “information.” Valuable information has often been lost without receiving proper cost.

　Numerous Japanese submarines could not make any military gains, though the engineering quality of the submarines was the best of the moment. Exactly similar failure has happened to Japanese semiconductor industries. The cause of those facts is based upon the narrow view points of Japanese engineers.

　When a person feels a sense of mission, normally people works hard with faith in something. Japanese technocrats think themselves they have strong mission to develop Japan for her benefits, but do not have any confirm faith for the mission. Their faith changes depend on the atmosphere of the situation. Each Japanese ministry has totally different views to develop Japan. This fact is quite similar to what happened to Japanese navy and Japanese army, who could not have cooperation in their strategy.

　Hoping Japan will not face the national failure for the second time, the author wrote this essay.

■Fundamental Electronics Research Institute, Osaka Electro-Communication University…p.3

Director,Prof.Dr.TakanoriKOSHIKAWA,FundamentalElectronicsResearch Institute

　The institute was established in December 1987 in order to carry out research and development of new materials and electronic devices and their characterization on the atomic scale. Research and development have intensively progressed and the high activity of the institute enables us to approve several big projects supported by the central government in the last decade.

■Fracture Behavior of Glass…p.5

Prof. Dr. Jun MATSUOKA, Department of Material Science, Shiga Prefectural University

　Recent studies about the fracture behavior of glass, i.e., crack initiation, crush-induced structural change, and slow crack growth, are widely reviewed. In aluminosilicate glasses, increase of the alumina, which increases the Young’s modulus, decreases the resistance to crack initiation. Composition dependence of the resistance to crack initiation in scratch process is different from that of indentation process. Crushing of glass causes the densification of glass, with its magnitude depending on the composition. Slow crack growth free from the existence of corrosive molecules is widely observed in many oxide glasses.

■Report of the ICMAT 2005 and IUMRS-ICAM 2005…p.6

　The ICMAT2005 and IUMRS-ICAM2005 was held during July 3 to 8, 2005 at Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Singapore. The conference, consisting of 25 symposia, saw about 2020 participants gathering from 58 countries. The conference started every morning with plenary lectures given by Nobel laureates or suitably qualified scientists to audience consisting of 400 to 500 people. The Nobel laureates’ Public lectures were also held at the University Cultural Centre on the campus of the National University of Singapore. Two posters were selected from each of the symposia for the Best Poster Award. Two Japanese posters, one from Symposium O and the other from Q, were rewarded the Award. The conference was also memorable; during the conference, terrorists attacked London the next day London was selected in Singapore to host the Olympic 2012.