On November 25, MANA Principal Investigator Dr. Katsuhiko Ariga presented a lecture at Takezono Higashi Junior High School in Tsukuba as one of a series of “Science Q” lectures sponsored by the Tsukuba-Science City Network. The aim of this program, in which leading researchers visit elementary and junior high schools to give science classes, is to reverse the "flight from science" by young people. Dr. Ariga’s lecture was delivered in the school gymnasium to third-year students at the school, as well as specially-invited 8th to 10th graders from Tsukuba International School.

Dr. Ariga, who is also Unit Director of the MANA Supermolecules Group, made a presentation entitled “New Nanotechnology Changing the Future.” Dr. Jan Labuta (NIMS Postdoctoral Researcher) of the same unit then introduced students from his homeland, the Czech Republic, and discussed his research life at Tsukuba, and Technical Staff member Masaaki Akamatsu gave the students a demonstration of a supermolecular material which makes it possible to visualize the distribution of cesium on the surface of solids. The event concluded with a question-and-answer session, during which students talked intently with the NIMS scientists and expressed their gratitude for the class in both Japanese and English.