Integrating Science, Culture in Osaka

Posted: October 24, 2006

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She made one request to the scientists attending this year’s congress: “Whatever conclusions you come to, they should be with moral integrity—not only against your fellow men or women, but against the planet; for our environment is a fragile one and we cannot afford to poison her, intentionally or unintentionally.” The opening night’s welcome reception also honored this year’s Maison G. DeNavarre Award for young scientists recipient, Megan Jones, for her essay entitled, “How Can Cosmetic Science Influence Society?” Jones currently is a sales manager at Uniqema in Johannesburg, South Africa, in addition to being the president of COSCHEM, the South African SCC.

The evening’s stage festivities ended with a performance by the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra and moved to the nearby hotel for dinner buffets held in five separate rooms featuring foods from around the globe.

Conferences: The second day kicked off with two keynote speakers, Hachiro Tagami, MD, PhD (Tohoku University, Japan) and Tomoji Kawai, PhD (ISIR Osaka University, Japan). Tagami looked at means to determine efficacious skin care products. “The eyes are unreliable instruments to judge normalcy of skin,” said Tagami. He described how, in the past 25 years, there has been a movement among dermatologists and cosmetic scientists to introduce noninvasive methods that utilize rapidly progressing biophysical instrumentation into the field of skin science.

In Kawai’s address, nanotechnology development in Japan and its applications in personal care were discussed. Two major approaches were given to developing nanotechnologies: top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach refers to cutting materials down to a nano-size, whereas the bottom-up approach refers to adding molecules together to build up into the “nano-world.”

In addition to the two approaches, Kawai stated that he believes there should be categories of nanotechnologies: those already industrialized, those forecasted for practical use in 5-6 years, and those with potential for practical use in 10-20 years. For example, nanotechnology currently used in sunscreens already has been industrialized, whereas pinpoint drug delivery systems could be applied in “nanomedicine” in 10-20 years. Kawai’s presentation touched on public concern recently raised regarding nanomaterials in sunscreens.