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July 16, 2024
 

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NATURAL SELECTIONS

JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 10, 2009
Swine flu highlights pig industry's fatal flaw
As office workers all over Japan tuck into their lunchtime katsudon (pork cutlet with rice), I'm sure many of them joke about the H1N1 swine flu that threatened to become a pandemic (an epidemic affecting a large region). At the time of writing, the World Health Organization hasn't classed it as a pandemic;...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 12, 2009
I, robot, am looking forward to a very bright future
When robot history comes to be written, April 2009 will occupy a prominent place. Future robots will look back, perhaps with pride, at the events of this month. A robot has been created that has, for the first time, independently advanced scientific knowledge.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 8, 2009
Looking forward to a 200-year-old human
If you believe everything you read about the health-giving properties of the traditional Japanese diet — and if you were to eat traditionally every day — you might expect to live to at least 150, in rude health.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 8, 2009
City ecology explains Japan's low birthrate
Last week, a 33-year-old woman in California made headlines around the world when she gave birth to eight babies. She had been on fertility treatment and, it emerged, already had six children.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 11, 2009
Time a Darwinian 'true myth' evolved to rival religion
This year, 2009, is a double anniversary of particular relevance for this column.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 31, 2008
Japan's science in '08
In Chinese astrology, rats are said to hunger for power and to be unpredictable, and in 2008 — a Year of the Rat — both those characteristics were clearly in evidence. What with the financial crisis that is changing the established order of things, and the food and fuel crises that have sent...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 10, 2008
'Self' and the macaque mind
One of my favorite locations in Japan is an uninhabited island just off the coast of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture to the south of Tokyo. Uninhabited by humans, it is, however, inhabited by another primate: a troop of Japanese macaques.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 12, 2008
Science's own alternative history
I'm a sucker for stories that imagine alternate histories. Philip K. Dick wrote a classic, 1962's "The Man in the High Castle," that supposed Japan and Germany won World War II, and annexed the United States between them. Another came to mind last week; "The Difference Engine" (1990) by William Gibson...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 29, 2008
TMS can reach parts of the brain conventional treatments may not
I am in a windowless basement in central London with two men I've only just met. It sounds like this story could veer toward the salacious, but bear with me.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 8, 2008
Tuna's just too cheap
A prime slice of fatty, creamy otoro — belly-meat of Bluefin tuna — isn't cheap. These days in Tokyo, you can expect to pay at least ¥10,000 ($100) for a goodly portion of the stuff.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 10, 2008
Dolphin 'crimes' exposed
I love it when animals do things that we don't expect, especially when they do things we might have species- centeredly thought were unique to humans, or when they do something that appears to be "out of character."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 13, 2008
Foundering 'flagships'
It's often said what a privilege it is to attend a birth, and so it was in July that I felt lucky to witness the moments after the birth — by hatching — of a Green Turtle.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 30, 2008
Climate change in Costa Rica
A couple of weeks ago I was woken at dawn by the booming screeches of the aptly named Howler Monkey. I was in Costa Rica, in the cloud forest of Monteverde.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 9, 2008
Is there anyone out there?
W hat's the most incredible headline you could expect to read in a newspaper? For me, it would have to be something like: "We are not alone: Life found on other planets."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 11, 2008
Of Darwin and Mishima . . .
If I said that I met Darwin last week, you might think I'd gone crazy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 14, 2008
Space defense no reason to ax gentler projects
For a country with a constitution "forever renouncing war" (Article 9), Japan spends an awful lot of money on its military. In 2005 it was the fifth largest military spender in the world. And now there is the unsettling news that Japan is expanding its powerful self-defense capability into space.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 30, 2008
Do bacteria make the man (or woman or child)?
What happens when Japanese people start eating a Western diet? Could it mean that their famed long life span starts to decline?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 9, 2008
Life and left-handed meteorites
I wonder if Empress Gensho, who ruled Japan for nine years and died in 748, had something against left-handed people.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 12, 2008
Food for thought in our ways of seeing
W hen the famed Michelin food guide belatedly reached Asia recently, it seemed to make up for lost time, awarding more of its coveted stars to restaurants in Tokyo than are held by restaurants in New York and Paris combined. About time, too.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2008
Let science empower you
The setting: The 350-year-old Royal Society in London, whose magnificent neo-Classical base overlooks the Mall, which has Buckingham Palace at one end of the boulevard and Trafalgar Square at the other. The speaker: Lord Rees of Oxford, the Astronomer Royal. Martin Rees is the current president of the...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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