[ECO Forum]

Title: Greenhouse Effect Gas

Contributor: wasabi

When we talk about the greenhouse effect gases, we often mention about CO2, however, I hear the most influential gas is steam, rather than CO2. Nevertheless, the prohibition of letting out is only for CO2. It is true that it is difficult to restrict the amount of steam, however, some methods that can reduce the yield of steam seem to be needed now.

[LIFE Forum]

Title: The Exhaust Gas of Cars

Contributor: moth

I am not a patient of asthma, but I suffer from the stimulation of exhaust gas from cars every day. In the future, the small devices that measure the amount of pollution in the city and send the information of measurement in real time will be set along main streets. Are there many people who want to know such information that directly connects to our daily lives?

Chemical environmental information deriving from traffic, I think, should be treated as good as traffic information itself. Moreover, I think it interesting to send such information in order for those who use the transportation to participate in cleaning the environment.

Title: Tax for Cash Register Bag

Contributor: platypus

I hear that in Suginami ward we are imposed 5 yens tax on a cash register bag of markets. Recently the number of those who bring their own bags is increasing, however, I am the one who receive the register bag.

I think that 5 yens tax per a bag is a little too expensive, but the system that we can receive one point when we refuse to get a bag seems to promote our bringing our own bag. What do you think of it?

Title: Re: Tax for Cash Register Bag

Contributor: anzu

I think 5 yens tax suitable, even cheaper.

I have been to the market where we have to buy a bag for 5 yens before. You think that it appeals to our feelings to be forced to pay money for bags, don¡Çt you?

However, I think it troublesome to pay it as a tax.

[Media Forum]

Title: Environmental Report

Contributor: platypus

I am interested in the environmental reports that have been recently published by enterprises. The number of enterprises that publish environmental reports increases every year, and the contents become more and more interesting. Moreover, it is a very good tendency that companies are trying to show their own characteristics. I suppose that they should write about not only their policies and activities for environment but also their ideas of nature interfaces. For example, how about inserting the graph of temperature of the office through a year?

[Technology Forum]

Title: Information Exchange Service

Contributor: wasabi

Since the beginning of music distribution service on the internet, melodies for cell phones come to be easily downloaded. At present, we mainly download contents from large servers to small terminals and we exchange information between cell phones mutually. However, when wearable information instruments develop and each person takes various kinds of information with him/her, the present method that needs relay servers is insufficient, I think. In the future, the service that enables us to exchange information directly between wearable information instruments must be needed. What do you think of it?

Members Introduction

NI Forum is managed by the students in young generation with their interests and skills. Most of the students are members of the Graduate School of Frontier Science, the University of Tokyo. Let us introduce some of them.

TOMOMI HONDA

Most of the NI Forum staffs do environmental researches, however, I research the communication technology of ¡ÈTraffic Simulation of Optical Metro Network¡É. In the future, when we transport multimedia information through broadband, the present metropolitan network cannot cope with it. The days when the net distribution of movies comes true thanks to the harmony of computers, correspondence, and media will soon come, and I study on adjusting such a communication environment.

I am interested in sending information, and I intend to study communication technology. The reason why I attend NI Forum is the same, that is, I think of it as a base of sending information. I want to do NI Forum¡Çs work as if I were on a staff of mass communication.

Because of that, now I collect some news on ¡ÈMedia Forum¡É where topics about books, movies, music, etc., are discussed. I am eager to make a report on ¡Èthe Ghibli Museum¡É that has been open ? the museum where we can see what are made by Hayao Miyazaki who appeals the symbiosis of nature and human beings. However, the entrance to the Ghibli Museum is strictly by advance purchase of a reserved ticket and it is so popular that I cannot get a ticket. From now on, I want to gather materials for NI Forum and offer them widely.

HIROFUMI IKOMA

I research animals¡Ç behaviors by putting various kinds of sensors like PHS and GPS on animals and birds.

So far the agricultural observation is not precise in spite of spending much time and human resources. However, engineering approaches enables us to get more valid data than before. Now we put information devices (Nature Interfacer) on crows and investigate their modes and activities of life.

Nature Interface is the new idea that connect nature with engineering in an unprecedented way, isn¡Çt it? I think that animals haven¡Çt had any connection with machines before at all, and that engineering has been considered as harm to the environment. However, I am sure that it is time to discuss what we can do to make it good for the environment.

NI Forum is, I think, the place where the cross point between nature and engineering can be made more easily, in another word, where we can discuss what science is able to do for the environment.