Rowan Hooper - The Japan Times

August 15, 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

Aug 9, 2006

Eying wars in the deep

It was the night of Oct. 6, 1941, in the Straits of Gubal in the southern Red Sea. Like most of the crew of the hybrid steam-sail ship SS Thistlegorm, moored in the safe haven in Egyptian waters off the shallow reef, merchant seaman John McKai was sleeping on the deck. There was no air conditioning,...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jul 26, 2006

* Japanese name: Baba-yasude * Scientific name: Parafontaria species * Description: Galleyworms are not worms but millipedes: elongated, cylindrical arthropods, with two pairs of legs on each body segment. Millipede means "1,000 legs" but these species have around 20 body segments, so therefore about...

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

Jul 12, 2006

Guinea pigs hail 'mystical experience'

What was the most spiritually meaningful moment in your life?

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jul 12, 2006

Jewelwing damselfly

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jun 28, 2006

Eight-barbel loach

* Japanese name: Hotoke-dojo * Scientific name: Lefua echigonia * Description: Loaches are in the family of ray-finned fish. They have a flattened body, and four pairs of sensory organs, known as barbels, around the mouth, like whiskers. Catfish have similar sensory organs, but belong to a different...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jun 14, 2006

* Japanese name: Amasagi * Scientific name: Bubulcus ibis * Description: Cattle egrets are in the heron family, but they are shorter and have stouter necks than their relatives. They have a "hunched" posture, even when they stand up straight. They are medium-sized birds, 46-56 cm long, with a wingspan...

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

Jun 14, 2006

Where are these life-saving drugs in Japan?

Wataru Tsurumi's book, "The Complete Manual of Suicide," was a best seller in Japan and it's easy to see why. He was writing for a market that is particularly interested in self-destruction.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

May 31, 2006

Philosopher reignites debate over contraception

When it was reported last month that Hollywood actor Tom Cruise intended to eat his wife's placenta raw, I thought it was one of the stranger stories going round at the time. Another, according to some newspapers, was that Cruise had bought his wife, actress Katie Holmes, an adult-sized pacifier to ensure...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

May 24, 2006

Schlegel's green tree frog

* Japanese name: Schlegel-aogaeru * Scientific name: Rhacophorus schlegelii * Description: Schlegel's green tree frog is a medium-sized tree frog, which at a few centimeters long still makes it smaller than most other frogs and toads. The back is green, although some frogs have small yellow spots on...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

May 10, 2006

Blue & white flycatcher

* Japanese name: Ooruri * Scientific name: Cyanoptila cyanomelana * Description: The blue and white flycatcher is a handsome migratory songbird, about 16-cm long, with a vivid, electric-blue cap, back, wings and tail. The breast is white and the face, eyes and bill are brown-black. At least, the males...

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

May 10, 2006

Reappraising the role of damaged DNA

Outside of comic books, when you are exposed to radiation, your DNA is damaged and you get ill. Sometimes very ill: just witness the terrible effects of the radiation released in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 20 years ago.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Apr 26, 2006

* Japanese name: Donko * Scientific name: Odontobutis obscura * Description: The enigmatically named Dark sleeper is a perch-like fish in the order Perchiformes. Members of this, the largest order of vertebrates, include 40 percent of all fish. They are typically fat-lipped, grumpy-looking fish and...

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

Apr 12, 2006

Poor health may be no-laughing matter

Some people complain that Japanese people don't laugh enough, that Japanese society today is too strait-laced.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Apr 12, 2006

Peacock butterfly

* Japanese name: Kujaku-cho * Scientific name: Inachis io geisha * Description: Instantly recognizable, with its chocolate-brown body, striking red wings and eye spots, the peacock is in the Nymphalid family of butterflies. In members of this family, the front pair of legs are reduced and useless for...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Mar 22, 2006

Black-spotted frog

* Japanese name: Tonosama-gaeru * Scientific name: Rana nigromaculata * Description: Males of this handsome frog grow to about 70-mm long, while females are slightly larger at 77 mm. They vary in color, from lime green to gray-brown, but they all have a pattern of black spots down the flanks of their...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Mar 8, 2006

Japanese huchen

* Japanese name: Itou * Scientific name: Hucho perryi * Description: A huge fish, a member of the salmon family, the Japanese huchen grows up to 1 meter long. Also known as the Sakhalin taimen, it is Japan's largest freshwater fish. Its size alone is distinctive enough (folk stories tell of huchens...

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS

Mar 8, 2006

New signals abound of our genetic evolution

Good news this week for believers in common sense, opponents of intelligent design, and, incidentally, for writers of columns about natural selection.

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Feb 22, 2006

Signal crayfish

* Japanese name: Uchida zarigani * Scientific name: Pacifastacus leniusculus * Description: Crayfish look like small lobsters. Despite their name, they are not fish, but freshwater crustaceans. They have a segmented body, up to 20-cm long, with 10 legs and a hard exoskeleton that they must molt as they...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Feb 8, 2006

* Japanese name: Ana-jako * Scientific name: Upogebia major * Description: Mud shrimps are 10-cm-long decapod crustaceans, which means they have 10 legs and a hard outer shell. They also have two pairs of antennae, of which one pair is very long. The animal is whitish in color, with large dark-brown...

Japan Times

ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER

Jan 25, 2006

* Japanese name: Daisagi * Scientific name: Egretta alba * Description: The great egret is the largest of the egrets in Japan. It is 80-100 cm tall, with a wingspan of 140-170 cm. The plumage is pure white; the legs, feet and bill are black. In flight, great egrets are languid, with slow and deep wingbeats,...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.

In search of the ‘Japanese dream’

By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

mission sustainability vol.8: Omron Corp.Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

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