8th Young Scientist Award Commemorative Lecture

"Making a metal wall comparable to ultra-high temperature plasma" Masayuki Tokiya (National Institute for Fusion Science Associate Professor)

Advanced brazing joining of metals to control microstructure

In the future nuclear fusion power generation, using the power of the magnetic field, so confining to float the ultra-high-temperature plasma of more than 100 million degrees in the air, but do not touch directly on the wall surrounding the around, one Department for the plasma flows out , It leads to the equipment installed in a specific location. Therefore, this device is required to have high heat removal ability as "super heat flow plasma facing device". The equipment structure that is currently expected is to use high-melting point and damage-resistant "tungsten" on the surface in contact with plasma, and join the "copper alloy" cooling plate with good thermal conductivity right behind it. In general, a “braze bonding method” is used in which a substance called an adhesive called a “brazing material” is sandwiched and melted at high temperature for bonding. However, since both materials which characteristics are different, in the conventional brazing method tough joint Department was difficult to make a.
In my research, by using a combination of anyone come up no brazing material and the heat treatment process ever found a way to control the microstructure of the metallic material, tough joint Department has succeeded in obtaining. We named this method "advanced brazing method". Microstructure control in this case is a physical mechanism called “anchor effect” that creates a microscale welding-like state at the interface between tungsten and copper alloy instantaneously, and as a result intermeshes the fine irregularities of the surfaces. It is tissue control to make it adhere well. In the lecture, we will introduce the forefront of the development of high performance ultra-high heat flow plasma facing devices using this method.

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『Investigate the mechanism by which a large number of sperm can be continuously producedProf. Hokuto (Assistant Professor National Institute for Basic Biology)

What strategies did creatures take to connect life to the next generation?

This is our beginning when the sperm of the father and the egg of the mother are fertilized to become one. Spermatozoa and eggs in our grown bodies are special cells that can become children of the next generation, and they can be said to be life-long batons.
Mammal males, including humans, continue to make sperm for life. So how do you keep making it? The answer is that sperm stem cells that produce sperm continue to divide. So how many sperm stem cells are there and how are their numbers regulated? It is a very simple question, but surprisingly it remains unsolved, and it is also a problem that researchers in the world pay attention to. In order to answer this question, I will talk about the discovery that "sperm stem cells keep their numbers constant by competing with each other", which has been studied and clarified with mice.

『Self and others in the brainNoritake Atsushi (Assistant Professor National Institute for Physiological Sciences)

"The next lawn looks blue" Brain mechanism

"The grass next to you looks blue" is a parable that "others look better than you". Underlying that, there is an irresistible urge to bother others and compare themselves with others. If you care about other people, the consequences for you will not change, but it is the nature of the person. So, what kind of mechanism of the brain is such a working of the mind? If this can be clarified, our research group thinks that it may be possible to approach the mechanism of human-like complex emotions such as jealousy and a sense of inequality.
In this talk, as a clue influence the "reward" our emotions and motivation, information of self and others inside the brain Department or be processed how in, introduced through the research that was carried out using a monkey To do. I would like to think with you about what self is and what others are.

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『Chemical Chemistry of Liquids Viewed by Soft X-RaysMasan Nagasaka (Assistant Professor Institute for Molecular Science)

Establishment of a new spectroscopic method to examine liquids for different elements

Many chemical reactions proceed in a liquid state, just as it is the test tubes and beakers that come to mind in chemistry classes. In order to understand this reaction mechanism, it is necessary to investigate how a substance behaves in a liquid. Irradiating matter to light and measuring the amount of light absorption Molecular spectroscopy is the foundational study in chemistry that can investigate the state of matter nondestructively. There are various types of light (infrared, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-ray, etc.), and spectroscopy is established for each light. The soft X-ray I am studying is in the wavelength range between UV and X-ray, and I can examine the state of matter for different elements such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. However, because soft x-rays are strongly absorbed by the atmosphere and liquids, it has been difficult to measure soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy of liquids.

In this talk, we introduce the measurement method of soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy of the liquid we developed, and introduce the new liquid chemistry that is beginning to be visible by soft X-ray.

“Development of new eyes to explore the invisible universe” Alvaro Gonzalez (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Associate Professor)

From the birth of planets and galaxies to the chemical diversity of the universe-a new instrument for radio astronomy that explores our roots in space

Radio astronomy is a new discipline that explores the universe invisible to the human eye. Radio waves are used in mobile phones and televisions, but in order to catch weak radio waves coming from space, various cutting-edges such as ultra-high-precision antennas, high-sensitivity radio receivers using superconducting technology, and ultra-high-speed computers I need technology. Among them, I especially, the radio wave that has been collected in a large antenna heart of the receiver Department has been conducting research and development of a mechanism for guiding the "optical system". Through this research and development, the Alma telescope can achieve world-class high performance, and has achieved breakthrough results in various fields such as the birth of planets and stars, the birth of galaxies, and interstellar chemistry. In other words, my research is to create the observation equipment that is necessary for astronomers around the world to make observations that rewrite textbooks.