Keiko Nakamura

  Our theme this year is interrelationships. It is acceptable to call this a synonym for the word “living”. While we have no special perspective, we have chosen to address this topic in consideration of modern society, in which interrelationships have grown weaker.

  The subject of Talk is “listening”. We talk with the scientist and musician Tsutomu Ohashi about the meaning of the environment of sound, a temporal phenomenon that constantly approaches from all directions. There is a wealth of sound in the tropical rain forests, the original home of humanity. We can understand the data stating there is no such thing as a sense of hearing, but that sound effects the whole body. That sense of wholeness provides the pleasure in listening to the sound. Urban condominiums are sound deserts. They remind one of places with no interrelationships.

  Research takes a look at the agile gibbon and the salamander. In the tropical rain forest, monkeys extract that part they like from the melody of a duet. It’s interesting that this resembles the acquisition of speech by a human infant. When the density among Ezo salamander rises, so does the incidence of large heads and cannibalism. This is not seen in salamanders from the same egg pouch. What causes that to happen? Scientist Library features Fumio Osawa. Dr. Osawa is now 84 years old, but is demanding of himself, believing it essential that he must think for himself and keep active. This results in the insight that making mistakes is part of the essential nature of living creatures.

“One Page from the Five Lab Experiments” and the Homepage are daily activities at BRH. We are full of determination regarding our work with insect origins and the brain, and hope to translate that into success. Please place the pop-ups on your desk. We also include the wish that you send the postcard, one of our new ideas, to a friend. That will make interrelationships grow!