While the concept of communication generally presupposes mutual exchange of information between relevant actors, the concept of science communication implies a certain unique asymmetry in terms of the information respective actors possess. Actors from the science community, and in some cases those from a communicator group, are believed to be 'superior' to those from the lay public in terms of scientific knowledge. This is the main reason why most prevailing science communication activities are organized, initiated or facilitated by a pro-science group of people. If science communication activities are to succeed at communication in its authentic meaning (the mutual exchange of information), much more effort should be expanded to encourage the development of 'counter-activities' in science communication initiated and driven by consumers of scientific and technological knowledge, that is, the lay public. When these counter-activities are developed and publicized in addition to the pro-science group's activities, science communication might achieve an authentic communication status. In this paper, the author argues for the possibility of developing alternative science communication activities that would be driven by an indifferent public.

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A survey of five textbooks of high school chemistry revealed eight candidates for CG visualization of chemical reactions. CG visualization with animation of esterification of acetic acid and ethyl alcohol based on quantum chemical calculations was produced. The CG demonstrated the reaction profiles of both non-catalytic and catalytic reactions on screen. This CG is applicable not only to the subject of organic reaction in high school chemistry but also to the subject of catalysis that includes the abstract concepts of both kinetics and equilibrium from the standpoint of energy concept.

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The present study focuses on e-mail, which is the most common communication media used in CMC. The study was designed to investigate the effects of senders' self-disclosure and styles of writing messages on recipients' emotional aspects in e-mail communication. In this experiment, e-mail messages were experimentally manipulated in terms of style of writing (polite style and chatty style) and depth of self-disclosure (deep self-disclosure and shallow self-disclosure), and the manipulated e-mail messages were presented to twenty subjects. The emotional aspects of the subjects when they read the received e-mail messages were measured and analyzed in this study. In addition, they were also asked to compose reply e-mails for the received e-mails, and the contents of the reply e-mails were analyzed in this study. From the results of this experiment, when recipients receive e-mails that contain deep self-disclosure or were written with chatty language, they tend to interpret the partners' emotions as more positive and also feel more positive emotions. In addition, when the recipients feel more positive emotions, they tend to use more characters, emoticons and chitchat in their reply e-mails.

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The objective of our research was to improve students' communication in a secondary science classroom setting. To this end, we designed a system of worksheets and role exchanges, and then introduced them into four classes of seventh-grade students. We also sought to analyse the impact of these new activities on the sixty-four students' understanding, achievement and communication by testing students at three different stages during the exercise. As a result of this research, the following three points became clear : 1) There was a significant increase in the level and quality of students' communication during the lesson in which the worksheets and role exchanges (with roles such as Explainer, Questioner, and Checker) were used. 2) There was a significant difference in the patterns of change between new activities and normal activities in the scores achieved in the pre-test as opposed to the scores achieved in the post-post test. Comprehension of the content of "Why can't you hear the thunder and see the lighting at the same time?" with the new activities was maintained for at least four months. 3) Interrogative questions such as "Is that idea consistent?" on the worksheets do in fact work well, as students were generally able to express their ideas consistently on the post-post test.

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A software program that allowed students and teachers to easily manipulate a weather satellite image was developed. Users could immediately display an image if the day and hour were selected from a list, and obtain animated images. The duration, repetition, and speed of the animation could be specified. Further, the software had functions for writing and saving notes, depicting the cloud-top temperature, coloring areas corresponding to a specified range of temperature or reflectivity, and superimposing an infrared image onto a visible image. The software was practically applied in a science camp for 7^<th> to 9^<th> grade students and in a workshop for elementary school teachers. The participants of the camp were able to identify common weather and climate patterns on the globe such as the global air circulation and monsoons. Eighty-five percent of the workshop participants who or whose colleagues had used the CD-ROM containing the software with satellite images (which was distributed at the workshop) judged that it was useful or very useful. They remarked that the students were able to visually understand motions of clouds and typhoons and subsequently changes in the weather by using it.

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