Japan has one of the highest installed renewable energy capacities in the world. The country is also one of the world’s largest consumers of energy. Lacking its own fossil fuel resources, it relies on imports for nearly all of its supply. This dependence on imports makes the country vulnerable to …
beginning March 1998, 20 metric tonnes of raw ivory will change hands between Zimbabwe and Japan. This is the first time in ten years that the trade will be legal, endorsed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ( cites ), the international body which implemented a ban …
THE Tokushima City Assembly in Japan turned down a request from local residents for a referendum on whether to replace a 250-year-old dam on the Yoshino River. Twenty-two of the 40 assembly members voted against the request. Earlier, about 100,000 residents of the city signed a petition opposing the plan …
Global Positioning System (GPS) devices have dwindled to the size of a wristwatch. Japan's electronic giant Casio has developed a watch weighing just about 148 grammes that displays longitude and latitude anywhere on Earth. The watch is 60 per cent lighter than existing GPS hand-held devices and will even tell …
the municipal government of Saitama, Japan, has asked an association of waste facilities to temporarily shut down incinerators after residents called for a boycott of vegetables, which were reportedly contaminated with dioxin. Officials said they will ask more than 100 industrial waste facilities in Saitama to cease operations until March …
discarded oyster shells are to be used to clean household wastewater in a prototype plant being built in Japan. The plant will purify water that would otherwise pollute local beaches. "Oyster shells harbour large numbers of anaerobic and aerobic microbes on their surfaces,' says Toyokuni Asahina, one of the plant's …
greenpeace , an international environmental group, has condemned Japan for its attempt to "expel' Greenpeace from International Whaling Commission ( iwc ) meetings. Greenpeace feels that this is due to its continued campaign against Japan's whaling operations. In a press statement John Frizell of Greenpeace said: "Greenpeace has played an …
sight-seeing boats are threatening the coastal mangrove trees on Iriomotejima island in Japan. Large waves from high-speed boats are washing away the mud around their roots. With ecotourism booming in Japan, a growing numbers of people are making trips to visit the ancient forests in Iriomotejima, about 440 km southwest …
Coaxing better quality sound from your loudspeakers could soon be taking a tropical turn. A Japanese paper-making company is helping to develop a speaker diaphragm made from paper that began life as waste banana leaves. Apparently the material has far better sound qualities than conventional materials. Normally made of paper, …
it seems , for now that is, all the frantic debates on the implications of human cloning were not really necessary. The last few months have not been very pleasant for cloning scientists. In December, researchers at the Kinki University, Japan, cloned eight genetically-identical cows from only 10 implanted embryos. …
THE Japanese government is considering revising its guidelines on gene therapy. Current rules, introduced in 1994, allow only researchers to use gene therapy in the treatment of serious life threatening diseases such as cancer and AIDS. The move follows an application by researchers to Osaka University's ethics committee for permission …
Environmentalists in Japan have found high levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and Dichloro dimethyl-trichloro ethane (DDT), in dead Golden Eagle chicks and unhatched eggs around the country. Experts say that further tests are needed to find out if these chemicals are responsible for the plummeting breeding rates …
Environment ministers of Korea, Japan and China have agreed to boost cooperation among the three countries to prevent further environmental pollution in Far East Asia. "We shared the view that the three-way cooperation in the field of environment is extremely important and indispensable, because dynamic economic development has been deteriorating …
Japanese electronics company Seiko has launched a wristwatch powered by body beat. The watch, which went on sale in Japan from December 15, 1998, exploits the temperature difference between the surroundings and the wearer's arm. According to the designers of the watch, it starts to generate electri- city as soon …
IF YOU find being buried under the mice, keyboards and all the other computer paraphernalia a little cumbersome then take heart, because you are not alone. Irritated by a clutter of similar electronic gadgets an his desk, a researcher at the Tokyo-based Sony Computer Laboratories devised a quick and easy …
in order to counter military threat from North Korea, Japan's Defence Agency plans to set up research on a system to shoot down ballistic missiles. The Japanese intend to borrow technology from the us Department of Defence, which is developing a similar programme called the Theater High Altitude Area Defence …
h g wells's 19th century vision of a Martian invasion of Earth, The War of The Worlds , saw Earthlings emerging victorious in the end of a lengthy, devastating war through sheer persistence, a will to fight back and those ever-popular human strongpoints
this is an age when a good figure almost always helps: the thinner it is, the better it is supposed to be. We are talking, of course, about television ( tv ) screens and miscellaneous visual display systems. These have been getting thinner and thinner over the past decade. Recently, …
Supreme Court (SC) directed the state governments to create effective hospital waste management systems in cities. This was followed by a notification from the Union ministry of environment and forests to the state governments. Despite this, few hospitals have taken the treatment of bio-medical waste seriously. In Ahmedabad, 90 per …
Japanese inventor Hikoshichi Takahashi is patenting a wind-powered generator that sits on the roof of a car. The device has either funnels or tubes, or both, which channel fast-moving air into a generator to produce electric power for the car. Excess power can be stored in the car's battery. Sadly, …
If you want a widescreen television but do not have enough room or money to squeeze a large set into your living room, Sony has an answer. Its new Glasstron goggles use a virtual reality headset display
