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Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 2

Sep 5, 2024

Common yellow food dye can make the skin of a mouse temporarily transparent, study finds

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

In H.G. Wells’ 1,897 science fiction novel, “The Invisible Man,” the protagonist invents a serum that makes the cells in his body transparent by controlling how they bend light.

More than 100 years later, scientists have discovered a real-life version of the substance: A commonly used food coloring can make the skin of a mouse temporarily transparent, allowing scientists to see its organs function, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The breakthrough could revolutionize biomedical research and, should it be successfully tested in humans, have wide-ranging applications in medicine and health care, such as making veins more visible to draw blood.

Sep 5, 2024

Robots Are Coming to the Kitchen. What Does This Mean for Everyday Life?

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Can automated restaurants still be community and cultural spaces, or will they become feeding stations for humans? These and other questions loom as new food tech reaches the market.

Sep 5, 2024

Scientists just made mice ‘see-through’ using food dye — and humans are next

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

A common food dye can turn the skin of living mice transparent, enabling researchers to peer inside the body without surgery.

This is the first time scientists have used the technique to visualize the tissues of living mice under the microscope. They used a food-safe dye, which can likely be found in snacks in your pantry, and several fundamental physics principles to render the mice see-through.

Sep 4, 2024

Seeing like a butterfly: Optical invention enhances camera capabilities

Posted by in categories: food, nanotechnology, robotics/AI

Butterflies can see more of the world than humans, including more colors and the field oscillation direction, or polarization, of light. This special ability enables them to navigate with precision, forage for food and communicate with one another. Other species, like the mantis shrimp, can sense an even wider spectrum of light, as well as the circular polarization, or spinning states, of light waves. They use this capability to signal a “love code,” which helps them find and be discovered by mates.

Inspired by these abilities in the animal kingdom, a team of researchers at the Penn State College of Engineering has developed an ultrathin optical element known as a metasurface, which can attach to a conventional camera and encode the spectral and polarization data of images captured in a snapshot or video through tiny, antenna-like nanostructures that tailor light properties. A machine learning framework, also developed by the team, then decodes this multi-dimensional visual information in real-time on a standard laptop.

The researchers have published their work in Science Advances.

Sep 3, 2024

Quantum-dot-enabled infrared hyperspectral imaging with single-pixel detection

Posted by in categories: chemistry, food, information science, military, quantum physics

Widely utilized across various industries such as chemistry, agriculture, and military, this technology relies on strategies like dispersive optics and narrow-band light filters.

However, limitations exist in these approaches. Additionally, the fabrication of large-scale InGaAs detector arrays poses challenges, necessitating the development of new experimental methods and algorithms to advance infrared hyperspectral imaging technology in terms of miniaturization and cost-effectiveness.

In a paper published in Light Science & Applications, a team led by Professor Baoqing Sun and Yuan Gao from Shandong University introduce a novel method for encoding near-infrared spectral and spatial data.

Aug 29, 2024

15 Best Longevity Foods

Posted by in categories: food, life extension

Did you know letting crushed garlic sit for 10+ minutes before cooking it helps preserve more of its healthy polyphenols from heat? I learned a bunch of similar tidbits while researching this article on the best longevity foods!


Want to know the best longevity foods that increase lifespan to add to your diet? We pored through hundreds of studies and made a list!

Aug 29, 2024

How much microplastic are you drinking? New tool can tell you in minutes

Posted by in categories: food, neuroscience

Micro-and nanoplastics are in our food, water and the air we breathe. They are showing up in our bodies, from testicles to brain matter. Now, University of British Columbia researchers have developed a low-cost, portable tool to accurately measure plastic released from everyday sources like disposable cups and water bottles.

Aug 28, 2024

Ketogenic Diet may Reduce Friendly Gut Bacteria and raise cholesterol levels

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the research from the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise, and Metabolism involved 53 healthy adults for up to 12 weeks. Participants followed either a moderate sugar diet (control), a low-sugar diet (less than 5% of calories from sugar), or a ketogenic (keto) low-carbohydrate diet (less than 8% of calories from carbohydrates).

Key findings include:

Increased Cholesterol: The keto diet raised cholesterol levels, particularly in small and medium sized LDL particles. The diet increased apolipoproteinB (apoB), which causes plaque buildup in arteries. In contrast, the low-sugar diet significantly reduced cholesterol in LDL particles.

Aug 24, 2024

First-Ever Coral Crossbreeding Hopes to Mimic the Resilience of an ‘Invincible’ Reef in Honduras

Posted by in category: food

The reef of Tela Bay should be dead if anything we know about coral reefs is true. The harms it faces are manifold, from warm waters to boat traffic to agricultural runoff and murky water.

Not only can the Tela reef survive these hazards, it thrives—as no other reef in the Caribbean thrives. On any given day, live coral cover in Tela is around 65%, almost four times more than the average for the Caribbean (18%).

Scientists are now working hard and fast to try and solve the mystery of why the Tela Reef seems partially invincible, and whether its secret sauce can be applied to other reefs at peril in the Gulf of Mexico.

Aug 23, 2024

Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s predictions on life in an AI utopia

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

But after five days, Sherif upped the game. He had the two groups compete for food. He limited their resources. It was a fist-swinging, curse-hurling, dust cloud of a mess. When a few punches landed, the adult researchers had to step in, adults with notebooks holding back furious Eagles and violent Rattlers.

Sherif concluded that scarcity was one of the main drivers of all human conflict. War, violence, invasion, and theft were all born of wanting a limited resource. The history of all humanity seems to support the hypothesis: We fight over water, cattle, arable land, ore deposits, oil, precious stones, and so on.

Big Think recently spoke with Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom about his new book, Deep Utopia. He’s got good news. Bostrom argues that the future will do away with the need for conflict over scarce resources. To him, the future is plentiful.

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