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 …
one of the hottest races in the fiercely competitive world of microelectronics has been for the development of bright blue and green light-emitting diodes ( led ) and laser diodes. Most of the big electronics companies in the world, including rca and Sony have been involved in the research for …
Alarmed and feeling helpless, Japan is seeking external help for containing the food poisoning crisis which has till now claimed seven lives and affected nearly 6,400 people (Down To Earth Vol 5, No 6). The culprit is believed to be the o-157 colon bacteria. Most of the victims are school …
in one of the worst outbreaks of food poisoning in Japan, four children lost their lives and over 4,000 more have been taken ill. The poisoning cases were primarily reported from the Sakai, in Osaka Prefecture, the second-largest city in Japan. The Escherichia coli 0157 bacterium strain has been found …
when Yoshihide Matsumura, the owner of a Tokyo-based small electronics firm fell victim to a credit-card fraud in Hongkong, he decided to hit back. But he did not take recourse to the law or even break it. Instead, using his expertise in fingerprint identification technology, he developed a high-grade counterfeit …
a huge increase in public spending on science and technology attempts to motivate Japanese researchers towards strengthening the creative research sector. The council for science and technology has asked the national government to spend about us $155 billion on basic research over the next five years. At present, Japan is …
astronauts can now do away with oxygen cylinders. Scientists at the agency of industrial science and technology's National Institute for Resources and Environment have developed a battery that generates not only electricity but also oxygen. And the thing that makes it possible is common algae. During photosynthesis, like other plants …
Japanese consumers are a wasteful lot. Trees felled in Asian rainforests are dumped as old furniture after a few years of use by the Japanese. A study conducted by the Sarawak Conservation Campaign (scc), an ngo, links the wasteful consumption patterns in Japan with the depletion of South Asia's tropical …
drivers struggling to get out of traffic jams in Tokyo can now hope for a respite. It is now possible for hapless drivers to receive real-time information about which is the best route to their office and whether their favourite parking space is free. This has been made possible through …
STRAWBERRY PACT: Mumbai-based Gemini Agritech Ltd and Israel-based Plastro Gvat have entered into a technical arrangement for the supply of strawberry cultivation technology and support on a turnkey basis. The company has also made a marketing arrangement with Holland's Flodac B V for a period of five years for its …
FORTY years of suffering and deprivation later, victims of one of the world's worst pollution disasters were finally promised compensation in a recent settlement. An agreement was reached between 1,500 Japanese victims of Minamata disease - caused by mercury pollution in Minamata Bay - and the Chisso chemicals company, which …
Tokyo, like all other major cities has heavy vehicular traffic, and a lot of smog as a result. KojiTakeuchi, a chemical engineer at the National Institute for Resources and Environment in Tsukuba, Japan, has designed a solar-powered smog col1ecting panel. The panels are made of teflon fibres mixed with carbon …
QUITE A SAVING: Those suffering from skin cancer will now have to dish out less money for their medical bills. Scientists from the Cancer Research Campaign in Britain have invented a light emission device called Paterson Lamp that cures the disease at a lOth of the price of laser therapy. …
Japanese scientists have devised a novel way to process silk yarn into a fine powder. Raw silk is first boiled in an alkali solution of sodium carbonate to decrease its strength. The crushing is done in two stages. Preliminary crushing produces a coarse powder with particles about 20 I-t m …
Japan's only cigarette making company is facing its first challenge from five smokers who sued the company recently for trying to make them addicted to a harmful product. The company, Japan Tobacco Inc, holds 80 per cent of the nation's cigarette market. Cigarette makers in Japan have an easier time …
The Japanese have come to the rescue of ailing mangrove trees in Sri Lanka. Japan's Institute of Technology on Fisheries and Fishing Communities has come forward to provide aid for a major mangrove rehabilitation scheme which began recently in the Chilaw district in Nattandiya. Nearly 10,000 mangrove plants were planted …
THE nation that makes radios the size of credit cards and tape recorders small enpu~ to slip into shirt pockets, has set its sights on a new target for miniaturisation. This time, however, the customers will be physicists and other researchers. And thego~l is any- thing but small: to squeeze …
THE Centre for Ecological Research (CER) was set up at Kyoto University in April, 1991, to "promote fundamental research in various ecological topics, and provide facilities for the collaborative utilisation by ecologists throughout Japan and the rest of the world." In December 1991, the Indian Academy of Sciences -brought out …
A prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Japan had to be shut down due to sodium leakage last December. This accident has recently raised fundamental questions about Japan's nuclear power policy, as the government-run Atomic Energy Commission has begun reviewing the country's fast-breeder development plan. The fast-breeder reactor 'Monju', named after …
