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 …
The accelerators used in particle physics are huge machines with marry kilometres of tunnels. The cost and labour required for making and operating such accelerators is proving to be even beyond the multinational collaborations. One novel idea to reduce the size and consequent cost of accelerators is the plasma wake …
an oil-spill off Mikuni on the north-western coast of Japan, is threatening wildlife and nuclear reactors. The spill was caused by the Russian oil tanker Nakhodka when it split in two and sank in the Sea of Japan on January 6. It was carrying 15,300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil. …
in a significant development in the fight against air pollution, a group of 14 Japanese companies have agreed to pay us $27.2 million to 438 people who were suffering from illnesses related to air pollution. The companies accepted an out-of-court settlement, terminating a 14-year-old dispute. The first suit in the …
Japanese scientists have learned that beer may inhibit the carcinogen: tryptophan pyrolysate product no-2, a heterocyclic amine, produced by burning meat, fish or tobacco leaves. This was reported by a team led by Hikoya Hayatsu, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Okayama University, in the annual meeting of the Japanese …
japan had woken up to the Minamata disease way back in 1956, signalling the beginning of one of the worst pollution cases to have hit it in the post-World War ii era. In 1995, a 40-year-old saga of bureaucratic evasion, corporate high-handedness and judicial foot-dragging finally reached its culmination. The …
Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan have developed a material which can be attached to chimneys of power plants and factories to remove carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from emissions and help protect against global warming. This material, a sieve-like membrane which can selectively remove CO 2 from mixed …
Twenty seven-year-old Tokihiro Masao recently walked out of the hospital after his surgeons removed his right ventricle and atrium. As heart transplants are forbidden in Japan, such an operation was the only option to save the patients life. Defending this novel technique, Shunji Sano from the Okayama University Medical Department …
Japanese port authorities will soon manufacture the world's fastest cargo vessel. The Techno Super Liner (TSL) is designed to be the ocean-going equivalent of the Bullet train
indian computer manufacturers are vying with each other to obtain transfer of technology collaborations from Japan for local manufacture of machines that can
Yet another addition to the fleet of satellites peering down on earth is Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (adeos). Bristling with sensors for measuring everything from stratospheric ozone to ocean turbulence, the satellite launches Japan into the upper realms of remote-sensing science. Carrying eight instruments from Japan, France and the …
Japanese workers have developed the first neodymium-doped yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Nd:YAG) laser, based on ceramics. Nd:YAG lasers are used for micro fabrication and in medical work. Normally, lasers are made from monocrystalline material. The size and power of these is limited by the size of single crystals that can be grown. However, …
It is known that female catfishes attach their mouths to the anal region of the males during spawning. The significance of this bizarre trait has been discovered by some Japanese scientists from the laboratory of Animal Sociology at the Osaka City University. They have found that the sperm on being …
The discovery of the cause of a rare hereditary disease that makes sufferers insensitive to pain may lead to the discovery of more effective painkillers. Researchers at the Kumamoto University School of Medicine in Japan examined DNA from four people suffering from CIPA or chronic insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis …
Africa apparently has become the new-found interest for Japs, who are quietly targeting their overseas development assistance (ODA) towards helping African nations create a strong base for science and technology. In Kenya, for instance, they have collaborated with the government to establish the Kenya Medical Research Institute, the Kenya Forestry …
companies around the world have been vying with each other to come up with the lightest and easiest to carry mobile phone. Thanks to Japan's penchant for miniaturisation, now you can carry a phone around your wrist. The Japanese telecommunications giant, nit , has developed a wristwatch-telephone that could be …
A Japanese construction firm, Taisei Corporation, has developed a soil bioremediation technique that offers a less expensive and environmentally benign response to soil that has been contaminated by oil. The new technique employs bacteria that can breakdown hydrocarbon molecules into small innocuous compounds. Certain strains of soil-dwelling bacteria naturally degrade …
the presence of an unusually high number of bluefin tuna off the western coast of Ireland has invited a large fleet of Japanese tuna boats and a lot of trouble. Ireland's tiny maritime patrol fleet had to employ everything in its means to keep the Japanese tuna boats off its …
Japanese chemists have discovered a new gel which is a polymer of N-isopropylacrylamide and ruthenium. The gel swells and contracts on its own, an action that can be used to facilitate the periodic release of drugs. The timing for the release of the drugs can be set by the choice …
Nikon recently unveiled the first digital camera in Japan that adds spoken and hand-written captions to photographs. The new camera, about the size of a mobile phone, has a microphone for recording live commentary. Up to 17 minutes of audio information can be stored in it. The sound clips can …
