K. Tanaka, one of the authors, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002 for the development of the soft-desorption ionization method for mass spectrometric analyses of biological macromolecules. In this paper, the development of the soft-desorption ionization method and the produced time-of-flight mass spectrometer(TOF-MS) are described.

Super-Kamiokande, which contains 50ktons of pure water, is a neutrino detector located 1000m underground. We report here the detection methods of neutrinos, how to analyse the data, and the results obtained so far.

Recent methods of measuring ultrafast low-light-level phenomena have enabled novel investigations on the study of ultrafast interaction of photons with materials in a variety of fields. Fundamental information on the interaction, mechanisms, dynamics and structure of various ultrafast processes can be obtained from direct temporal measurements on the ultrafast time scale in the range of picoseconds to femtoseconds. These measurements usually require not only a high time resolution but also the capability to perform multidimensional spectral and spatial data acquisition for accurate and rapid measurements.

We propose a new X-ray methodology for direct observations of individual single molecular units in real time and real space. This new system, which we call diffracted X-ray tracking (DXT), monitors the Brownian motion of a single molecular unit by observations of X-ray diffracted spots from a nanocrystal tightly bound to the individual single molecular unit in bio-systems. DXT does not monitor translational motions but monitors orientational ones. One of the advantages of DXT is that it can obtain information about the dynamics of single molecules through a quantitative analysis, since the data from DXT is independent of the chemical conditions. Recently, time-resolved dynamical X-ray observations of individual DNA and myosin molecules with picometer-scale precision were demonstrated using DXT.

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) is a noninvasive brain imaging technique with which the distribution of neural activity is estimated by measuring local blood flow changes. Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) method measures changes in the density of deoxidized hemoglobin in blood caused by blood flow changes, while other methods have been developed to measure the blood flow changes directly. Effort has been expended to realize a submillimeter spatial resolution by using higher static magnetic field. fMRI has been carried out with various mental tasks, and many important findings have been made on the localization of higher brain functions.

Almost forty years have passed since the principle of the SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) was discovered. The SQUID magnetic sensor has become familiar after the discovery of high-Tc superconducting materials. The applicability of the SQUID is expanding. In this issue, SQUID detection systems for lymph nodes in the human body and metallic contaminants in foodstuffs were described.

Since serious measurements of dose equivalent in space were started, about twenty years have elapsed and no standard method is yet established. In this paper, several principles for measuring dose equivalent in space are explained and the disadvantages of each measurement are described. Then, the discrepancies among the results recently obtained using those methods are shown. These discrepancies are mainly caused by the differences in LET(Linear Energy Transfer) distributions obtained in space. From these findings, it is concluded that the most important problem in space dosimetry is how to obtain correct LET distribution for space radiation. Finally, to obtain the correct LET distribution some ideas are presented.

The human senses are faced with the limits of types of observable information, accuracy, and speed. In our daily life, extra information obtained through synthetic eyes is indispensable. Synthetic eyes are devices that convert interaction between observables and materials to electric signals. Superconducting devices outperform conventional technology for spectroscopic photon detection.