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May 02, 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.
For Rowan Hooper's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 17, 2014
Alien invasion threatening native species
An invasion has been going on under our noses. It is multipronged, ruthless and very difficult to repel. It has been called an "ecological apocalypse."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 19, 2014
Now is the time to research Alzheimer's
The team leader at the Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience at Riken's Brain Science Institute is not a man usually given to making apocalyptic statements.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 15, 2014
Historical ifs and weathers or not
To suggest that history is shaped by chance weather events and climatic variation doesn't lend it quite the same gravitas as if it were wrought by great leaders. It certainly isn't as inspirational. But such processes can be just as important — and the weather can sometimes foil even the best-laid plans for world domination.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 15, 2014
Stem-cell leap defied Japanese norms
It's not surprising that last week Haruko Obokata issued a plea for privacy. On Jan. 29 she published a scientific paper on stem cells that could revolutionize medicine, and overnight the researcher based at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe became a domestic and international star.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 18, 2014
Cooperation vs. competition in space
Shadows of winter clouds
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 14, 2013
2013: A year to clone in Japanese science
In a year when the science news in Japan is still dominated by Fukushima, there have also been plenty of inspirational stories. For this final column of 2013, I have picked a few of my favorites.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 16, 2013
Creationists all thumbs over digits research
It's back to basics this month, with a look at evolution, science and religion.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 19, 2013
'GTAV' aggro-risks doubt
In the last week I've been drunk in a strip club, got shot at by gangsters and driven a sports car into the ocean — where, regretfully, my partner drowned. But that's nothing compared to a friend of mine who has robbed a convenience store at gunpoint and broken into a military air base — then stolen a jet aircraft.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 7, 2013
Fukushima: health disaster or PR fail?
One thing about having a nuclear accident in a rich country is that at least there is going to be good medical care and long-term monitoring. The repair and clean-up operation is another matter, of course — which is why Japan is currently under pressure to accept help from abroad in fixing the appalling mess caused by the three reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Aug 10, 2013
In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales
Final arguments from the defence and prosecution were heard in mid-July, and the world court is now considering its judgment. At issue is Japan's right to conduct its seasonal "scientific" whaling program in Antarctic waters. But the case has involved arguments about how to define science itself.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 13, 2013
Effects will become more obvious as Japan's climate changes
Residents of Japan's big cities, and of Tokyo in particular, are well aware of the heat-island effect — especially now with the onset of summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jun 9, 2013
Unraveling the mystery of male birds' missing members
How the chicken lost its penis: It sounds like a weird cousin of one of Rudyard Kipling's 'Just So Stories for Little Children' from 1902, which featured 'How the Leopard Got His Spots' and 'How the Camel Got His Hump.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 12, 2013
Japan's Suzaku satellite shows how all bets are off around Cygnus X-1
This month, the Vermillion bird of the South — which is currently flying 550 km above Earth — meets an astronomical swan some 6,000 light-years away.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 14, 2013
Casting a little light on fireflies
If dragonflies are the insects of Japan's day, then the mysterious, magical fireflies are its bugs of the night.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2013
Embrace the DNA that makes you a mongrel
This month, we celebrate the mongrel, a word that means different things to different people. For some, it may bring to mind nonpedigree dogs, mutts that don't belong to a specific breed; in Japanese, the word is daken, which has the definite negative connotation of a 'skulking cur.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 10, 2013
Fugu reveals its simple gender switch
It's the most celebrated and notorious fish in the world, certainly in culinary circles. Now the puffer fish — one of Japan's most enigmatic creatures — meets some of biology's deepest questions: Why did sex evolve? Why are there two sexes? Why is the male sex chromosome such a puny little thing?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 13, 2013
How Japan's teens can avoid sleep demons
Have you ever woken up but been unable to move; felt a powerful pressure holding you down, gripping you tight? Haruki Murakami has, and he describes it like this: "I was having a repulsive dream — a dark, slimy dream. ... After I awoke, my breath came in painful gasps for a time. My arms and legs felt paralyzed. I lay there immobilized, listening to my own labored breathing, as if I were stretched out full-length on the floor of a huge cavern."
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Dec 9, 2012
World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling
It was hardly the result the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hoped for, or expected.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 11, 2012
Japan's live organ donors enjoy better health than 'normal' citizens do
At age 56, Toshinobu Horiuchi was a desperate man. He had suffered kidney failure and needed a transplant. As a doctor, based in Tokyo, he knew better than most that he faced a long wait.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 14, 2012
Why stem-cell science thrives in Japan
It's easy to take for granted the epic scale of what some scientists are attempting these days. When the news broke a couple of weeks ago that Japanese scientists had turned normal cells from a mouse into eggs, and then fertilized them and seen them develop into baby mice, I thought it was pretty cool.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

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