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November 21, 2024
 

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Rowan Hooper

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Rowan Hooper
Rowan Hooper has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Sheffield University, UK, and he worked as an insect biologist in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, for five years before spending a two-year period at The Japan Times in Tokyo. He is now news editor for New Scientist magazine, based in London.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 3, 2001
Antlion symbiosis story to make Darwin smile
Antlions, insects resembling feeble, intoxicated dragonflies, flutter briefly in summer, hardly eating, only copulating, reproducing then dying. But their life as larvae is all about food. Living for two to three years at the bottom of a funnel-shaped pit/trap in the ground, the antlion larva waits with...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 27, 2001
Scorpion fly
*Japanese name:Shiriage mushi *Scientific name: Panorpa japonica * Description: Males are unmistakable -- the abdomen is curled like a scorpion's. The wings, which are held flat when resting, are clear with black spots at the ends, and the head has a large "beak" that is used for feeding. Adults...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 26, 2001
Vaccine theory of HIV debunked
A tempest that has been raging in the outwardly dignified world of academia is set to die down with the publication today of three papers in Nature and one in Science. The story -- about the origin of AIDS -- is one of intrigue, mystery and death. Mostly, however, it is about death.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2001
Science fare
There are two scientist types that have traditionally made it to the big screen: the mad and evil (Dr. Frankenstein) or the bold and dashing (Dr. Indiana Jones). Sometimes they are bold, dashing and mad (Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly"). If women, they are usually babes (Linda Fiorentino in "Men in Black,"...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 20, 2001
Tiger beetle
*Japanese name: Hanmyo *Scientific name: Cicindela chinensis japonica * Description: Tiger beetles have strong jaws and metallic blue, red and green bodies. The pattern on their bodies makes it difficult for them to be spotted by enemies -- and by us, too. You're most likely to see tiger beetles...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 19, 2001
Intelligent elephant mamas never forget
Elephants form some of the most intimate social relationships seen outside primates. The female-led society provides a high level of care to its members: Little elephants are bathed and carried over obstacles, and mothers frequently touch their young with their trunks. If disturbed, calves and the matriarch...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 13, 2001
Paper wasp
*Japanese name: Futamon ashinagabachi *Scientific name: Polistes chinensis * Description: Paper wasps are social insects, meaning that they live together in a colony. A queen lays eggs, and worker insects feed the larvae. They have yellow and black stripes like regular wasps, but paper wasps are easy...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 12, 2001
Scientists find munchies has physiological basis
The anecdotes and folklore that filter out from the hazy world of cannabis users attest to the drug's stimulating effect on the appetite as well as on the brain. Now scientists have confirmed that the munchies has a physiological basis, establishing the first firm link between cannabinoids (chemicals...
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 6, 2001
Bee-fly
* Japanese name: Birodo tsuriabu
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 5, 2001
Climate change blamed for Okinawa coral death
Scientists at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa have published evidence showing that global climate changes in 1998 devastated coral reefs around Sesoko Island. The report, published in the April edition of the journal Ecology Letters, comes on the heels of George W. Bush's unilateral abandonment...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 19, 2001
Earthlings, meet your parent
The four planets closest to the sun are siblings of a sort. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars have similar core properties and densities, suggesting that they probably formed from the same dust cloud in the early solar system, but they have very different surfaces and atmospheres. Mercury is hot, has low...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2001
Gene find could harness power of photosynthesis
A team of Japanese researchers has identified a gene in the mustard plant Arabidopsis that controls the movement of light-gathering cells in leaves. The discovery could lead to the construction of artificially enhanced plants, they say.
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 11, 2001
Calcium pulses clue to nerve cell growth
Like an insect's antennae, filapodia are the fingerlike projections sent out by a developing nerve cell to detect environmental cues. Scientists at the University of California at San Diego have discovered how the filapodia communicate with the main body of the cell: through a kind of biological Morse...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 5, 2001
Paleolithic technology and the boom in cultural evolution
About 300,000 years ago something happened that was unlike anything in the previous few billion years, something that would have ever-expanding repercussions.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 26, 2001
The bite of a Jurassic killer
A combination of advanced medical scanning techniques and sophisticated data-analysis used in engineering has revealed the biomechanics of dinosaur feeding.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 19, 2001
Genome decoded: evolution, religion and what it all means
The publication of the human genome sequence has been compared to the detonation of the first atomic bomb and the landing of the first human on the moon.
LIFE / Travel
Feb 19, 2001
Coming soon: cheap space travel
If all goes well, American millionaire Dennis Tito will this year become the world's first space tourist, flying on the Soyez rocket to the International Space Station. The ticket price? A cool $20 million. But a new fueling system developed by Andrews Space & Technology of Segundo, Calif., could soon...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 5, 2001
Animals and nature's remedies
Michael Huffman of Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute was watching a group of wild chimpanzees in Western Tanzania in 1987 when he saw something that first puzzled and then astonished him. His subsequent work has changed how we think about animal feeding behavior and has important implications...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 29, 2001
Toward the future of medicine
How alternative is alternative medicine these days?
LIFE / Travel
Jan 25, 2001
Legally blind woman realizes dream in trek across India
Last week, a woman from Ireland embarked on an epic three-month, 1,000-km unsupported trek across India on elephant-back. Caroline Casey is caring for her elephant herself, and camping at every stage of her journey, accompanied only by an elephant feeder and Indian guides. What makes the already daunting...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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