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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 Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 9, 2012
My seminal link with manga god Osamu Tezuka
In this month's column I am going to claim an audacious link with that great "god of manga," Osamu Tezuka.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 12, 2012
Excuse this proud new father — it's time to indulge in some baby talk
I'll preface this column by admitting that it is fairly common, among journalists on the science and health beats, that after they personally reproduce they experience a burning desire to write about the science of childbirth. Seasoned editors know to expect that postnatal reporters will start pitching...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 8, 2012
How astrology and superstition drove an increase in abortions in Japan
I like to think of myself as a rational human being most of the time, but I have to suppress a shudder if someone opens an umbrella indoors, and I'd probably comment if a black cat crossed my path.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 10, 2012
Is sci-fi becoming sci-fact in Japan, too?
Where is Japan's equivalent of Elon Musk? Where's the young entrepreneur with a huge bank balance and dreams to match? Where is that someone raised in these isles on sci-fi manga and space movies who wants to make human travel in space a reality?
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 13, 2012
Though spooked by new threats, Japanese accept mass killers
Before March last year, if you'd asked a child in Japan about nuclear radiation you would probably have been told about Godzilla, the monster powered by mutations caused by radiation, or Tetsuwan Atomu, aka the nuclear-powered robot Astro Boy. Not any more.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 8, 2012
Procreation begets problems for pandas
Just how cute are giant pandas? The public can't get enough of them. The star attractions at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo are Ri Ri and Shin Shin, a male and female pair who helped attract some 4.4 million visitors last fiscal year — the highest number for 19 years.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 11, 2012
Obesity on the rise as Japanese eat more Western-style food
When Japanese people are ordering food, how many times do you hear them asking for "oomori" (large size)? It's the equivalent of asking for "supersize" in a U.S. fast-food joint.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012
A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready
I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 8, 2012
Japan's Super-K to resume seeking why anything exists
To start the year, here's an appreciation of a site in Japan that would have left even the Zen-imbued architects of Kyoto's sublime Kinkaku-ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) open-mouthed with awe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 11, 2011
It takes a supersize brain to drive a London taxi
Visitors to Japan often comment on the way taxi doors open as you approach — at the touch of a button by the driver; and that those drivers generally wear smart white gloves. I apologize for the competitive tone, but there is something far more remarkable about London taxis: their drivers.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2011
'Calamity' awaits those unready for climate-change refugees
There is a wonderful expression in Japanese: Fūdo ni nareru, which means something like "to become acclimatized to natural conditions."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 9, 2011
Like Astro Boy, humans may be able to live with radiation
"It makes good media. It's the emotional pulling on the idea that radiation kills you. But you talk to our cancer patients: Radiation cures you."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 11, 2011
An English school for orangutans
You may have seen the YouTube footage of an orangutan cooling her face with a wet towel. Filmed on a sweltering day in August at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo, the ape is seen dipping a towel in a pond, wringing it out, and patting it on her face.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 14, 2011
Delving into 'white matter'
Last week I watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," a new film about superintelligent chimps that bust out of captivity and rampage across San Francisco in a bid for freedom.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 10, 2011
Up close and personal with MIT robots
I'm in a lab surrounded by computer and video equipment, toys, and robots. Lots of robots. I'm like a kid in a candy shop. It's the modern equivalent of an Aladdin's cave for otaku (geeks).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 12, 2011
Warp-drive quest for the Big Bang's 'lost' material
What do these three things have in common: a mysterious, donut-shaped belt of plasma wrapped around the Earth; the warp engines on the starship USS Enterprise; and a laboratory at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) outside Geneva, Switzerland?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 8, 2011
'Transcendent Man' denies life ends with death
When Ray Kurzweil was a child he tried to invent a homework machine: He didn't accept that he had to waste time doing his dumb school assignments. Half a century on, nothing much has changed, though the authority Kurzweil challenges has got loftier: Now, says the American futurist and inventor, he doesn't...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 10, 2011
From salamanders to little green men?
When I was a child, I remember wondering why there were no animals that could photosynthesize. Maybe that's a bit odd, but it's not that I was especially geeky; I just felt almost indignant that there weren't animals with green skin. It seemed to make so much sense.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 20, 2011
Solace for some in the nuclear science
The few, seemingly miraculous, stories of survival are passed on from person to person, and some are given as much media coverage as the horrific devastation. The rescue of a 60-year-old man from the roof of his house, washed 15 km out to sea; the survival of a 4-month-old girl who was swept away from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 13, 2011
Study chips away further at humans' uniqueness
Time for some self-love, people: We're pretty damn cool. As animals, we're special.
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.

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