What kind of science do you want to know?

Question. You drive a car and go to trip. It's a time for lunch. You are hungry and want to eat a local and special food. Fortunatelly, two restaurants come along the road side.


Left side: with Japanese traditional noodle
Right side: with Chinese noodle, US beef steak, Indian curry, European omelet etc...

You are driving and do not have enough time for comparison. If you immediately decide today's lunch spot, which restaurant do you want to choose?

----
I will choose the left one: Japanese noodle restaurant. It is not because I'm Japanese. The right-side restaurant will be nice, but I wonder the cooks may serve the conventional food as we can eat everywhere, and they may have no local specialized food. On the other hand, the left-side restaurant concentrates to a kind of dishes and may contrive the menu for traveler with using the local dishes.

----
Let’s move to the scientific issue. I feel that scientists should also emphasize one nice outcome when they present their own research result to public (non experts to the scientific field). I know that a research yield many outcomes for society. However, if they present many aspects of their research outcomes, people may not judge the importance of their research such as the above restaurant case.

Not only for lunch, but also for scientific interest, many people love to get the special experiment. Also, they do not have enough time for hearing the detail. As a result, they want to know one of the great aspects of the scientific issue.

How do you feel? Which restaurant do you want to enter?

When You Wish upon a Star

Japanese people write their wishes on colorful sheets and hang them to banboo. The custom originally comes from a Chinese old tale.



The students in our laboratory also made the bamboo and ornaments. Now, some students study for examination to the graduated school. Therefore, most of hopes relates to its success.
Others are related to refinement of traffic jams around our university, growth of a company where a student will work from the next year, and so on.

By the way, do you know a similar decorated bamboo in space? Dr. Koichi Wakata, a Japanese astronauts, stays at the International Space Station (ISS) now. He also put a bamboo (actually paper craft of bamboo) and wrote his hope on a sheet. His hope is the completion of the Japanese space laboratory module, named "Kibo".
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/koichiwakata_blog/19429940.html

"Kibo" is a Japanese word meaning "hope". I feel the ISS is like a bamboo, and the "Kibo" module is like a sheet for wish. After the completion, many people will carry out their experiments in the module with their HOPE.

Other astronauts from US and Russia etc. pray the happiness and health of their families. Both of Japanese astronauts and students do not. Why? I think that our laboratory and the ISS are places of work, and Japanese students and the astronauts pray about their work. If they go to a temple or shrine, theywill pray for their families. Japanese people normally divide their style in and out of office.

Anyway, the bamboo in the ISS is so funny.
It should be called as "When You Wish in stars"!

(See also my Japanese blog: http://goto33.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2009-07-10)

Melon Bread

Do you know "melon bread" in Japan?
The "melon bread" does not include melon and any fruits, and
does not have the melon taste and smell.

The lower is a typical "melon bread".
Now, you can easily understand the reason.
The surface pattern is similar to the melon itself.

At first, the bread was not called as "melon bread" but "sunrise".
It simulated the shape of sun almost 100 years ago.
After several tens years had passed, the melon fruit become popular and
the name of "sunrise bread" was changed to "melon bread".

The upper bread in the photograph is also called as "melon bread".
It is the original version of the "melon bread" developed about 100 years ago
in Kobe and Kyoto. After the recent version of "melon bread", called as "sunrize"
originally, becomes popular, the original version becomes minor.

Why did Japanese people to make a melon-shaped bread?
About 100 years ago, the fruits of melon was quite rare in Japan.
Also the bread itself was rare. I think both of the melon fruit and bread
are kinds of symbol for "trendy goods" or "mode" at that time.
It is easily understood that a baker tried to combine these novel things
for his new item. This is my guess.


Finally, do you know a Japanese word of "bread".
"Pan".
For example, the "melon bread" is called as "melon pan" in Japanese.
It is not a saucepan made by melon :P

R/V Shigen

The Japanese research vessel (R/V) "Shigen" ("Resources" in Japanese) is used for energy resource explorations. She has ten streamer cables for seismic survey to image sub-seafloor structures with seismic reflection wave.

Cartoon is here.


Photograph. Very unique forme.



However, the streamer cables were cut by Japanese submarine unfortunately.
(Yahoo News Japan)
http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2009/06/20090618t23031.htm

Sevens of the cables were cut, and four have been lost.
(Press release from METI, Japan)
METI Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20090619002/20090619002.html
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20090619011/20090619011.html
http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20090623002/20090623002.html

Although R/V Shigen is not famous in Japan, the name is highlighted again since she was born in 2007. Too bad. Please be famous as your research results, Ms. Shigen!

I heard from a researcher who analyse the 3D seismic data obtained by R/V shigen that he have never get a permission for visiting the vessel.
Why? I cannot understand.

I recommend to make a event of open ship with R/V Shigen. Many people will understand her activity there.

Finally, I introduce websites with photos of R/V Shigen.
Have fun!

http://takaranoumi.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2008-08-02
http://takeuchiflo.kanagawa879.com/blog/2008/06/17/2019
http://karano.exblog.jp/4589496/

This blog is restarted.

I have left this blog with no modificatios.
Again, I'll start the introduction of my Japanese blog in English.

Have fun!

Difference in seismic intensity between US and Japan

Do you know the seismic intensitiy index is different between contries?

For example...


1) US uses the modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) scale.
The MMI consists from twelve steps (I - XII), decided from
dameges of buildings, bodily sensation of shaking and so on.


2) Japan uses the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) intensity scale.
The JMA intensity consists from ten steps (0-7),
decided from the seismometers (ground accelarations).







These two different intensity scale cannot be translated precisely,
however, I tried to translate it rougly. The process is detailed as follows.


1) Access to the web site "Earthquake Hazards Program" produced by USGS
(US Geological Survey). >> http://earthquake.usgs.gov/


2) Go to the ShakeMap. >> http://earthquake.usgs.gov/shakemap/


3) Watch a ShakeMap image.
For example, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/shakemap/global/shake/2008ryan/


4) See a color pallet table below the map,
and find the Estimated Intensity values with unit of PEAK ACC(%g).
Each value approximate represents ground accelaration for each MMI.


5) Modify the unit of PEAK ACC.
1%g=0.01*9.8*100cm/s^2=9.8cm/s^2


6) See the JMA web site. You can see the relationship between JMA intensity
and accelaration in the graph (Fig.3).
http://www.seisvol.kishou.go.jp/eq/kyoshin/kaisetsu/comp.htm
cf. written in Japanese.
Here, we assume the frequency of shaking as 0.5 seconds.
We can easily read the accelaration range for each JMA intensity from Fig.3.

Finally, on the basis of the above 5 and 6, we can make a traslation table
between MMI and JMA intensity as follows.

--------------
MMI:JMA
--------------
I : 0-1
II-III: 1-3
IV : 3
V : 4
VI : 5L
VII : 5H
VIII: 6L
IX : 6H-7
X+ : 7
--------------

Although the translation table is not precise,
you can rougly compare the MMI and JMA intensity quickly.

Try it.

* Original Japanese article
>> http://goto33.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2008-06-09-1

Put cool photos on your blog!

Although the clip arts appended to MS Office is very frexible and useful, someone may not have the Office softwaere.
How about the following another site?

- Flickr photos with a Creative Commons Attribution License

(Please use the search form with caption of "Creative Commons".)

Various photographs and illustrations created by various people are
presented here with the CC licence.

The "Attribution License" is the most frexible one in the CC licence.
Let's borrow a picture.

Earth Egg by azrainman (protected by CC Licence）

Oh, What is the CC licence?

...Continued to original entry (translated by Google)