Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: food – Page 2

Battery made from natural materials could replace conventional lithium-ion batteries

What if the next battery you buy was made from the same kinds of ingredients found in your body? That’s the idea behind a breakthrough battery material made from natural, biodegradable components. It’s so natural, it could even be consumed as food.

A team of researchers at Texas A&M University, including Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Dr. Karen Wooley and Professor of Chemical Engineering Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, has developed a biodegradable battery using natural polymers. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wooley’s research group in the College of Arts and Sciences has spent the past 15 years shifting toward natural products for the construction of sustainable and degradable plastics materials. Lutkenhaus, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, has been using organic materials to design a better battery. She suggested collaboration to combine Wooley’s naturally sourced polymers with her battery expertise.

Termite observations reveal their sophisticated technique to prevent contamination in fungal crop

Some species of termites are known to cultivate their own crops of fungus within their nests, similar to the way humans maintain farms to feed people. One such species is Odontotermes obesus, which cultivates the fungus Termitomyces. The relationship between these termites and the fungus can be thought of as a sort of symbiotic one. In this case, Termitomyces feeds the termites, and the termites protect the fungus from an invasive “weed-like” fungus called Pseudoxylaria can quickly overrun Termitomyces if left to its own devices.

A new study, published in Science, sheds some light on the methods these insects use to protect their crops, which was previously unclear. The research team investigated these methods through a series of experiments in which Pseudoxylaria was introduced into the termite’s crop of Termitomyces combs.

In the first part of the experiment, only a small amount of weed was placed on a comb, and the termites’ responses were observed and compared to the response to an uninfected comb. Then, a highly infected comb was introduced next to a healthy comb, and termite responses were observed. Finally, the team attached a healthy comb to an infected comb to find out how the termites responded. Then, the boluses, which were used by the termites to cover certain pieces of comb, were analyzed for microbial content and fungistatic properties using sequencing and inhibition assays.

Energy-efficient catalyst converts water pollutants into useful ammonia

When the current method for producing something is estimated to consume a staggering 1–2% of the annual global energy supply, it means we need to make a change. The Haber-Bosch process produces ample amounts of ammonia (NH3)—a valuable chemical compound that has a wide array of uses in fields such as agriculture, technology, and pharmaceuticals—while consuming a lot of energy.

A research team at Tohoku University has made a significant contribution to an alternate method for converting harmful nitrate pollutants in water into ammonia, addressing both environmental and energy challenges.

Their findings are published in Advanced Functional Materials.

Hidden Plant Stem Cells Could Hold the Key to Feeding the Future

Plant scientists discovered hidden stem cell regulators tied to growth and crop size. Their breakthrough could transform how we grow food, fuel, and resilient harvests.

Plant stem cells play a vital role in producing the world’s food, livestock feed, and renewable fuels. They are the foundation of plant growth, yet many aspects of how they work remain a mystery. Past studies have struggled to identify several of the key genes that govern stem cell activity.

Mapping the genetic regulators of growth.

New approach improves accuracy of quantum chemistry simulations using machine learning

A new trick for modeling molecules with quantum accuracy takes a step toward revealing the equation at the center of a popular simulation approach, which is used in fundamental chemistry and materials science studies.

The effort to understand materials and eats up roughly a third of national lab supercomputer time in the U.S. The gold standard for accuracy is the quantum many-body problem, which can tell you what’s happening at the level of individual electrons. This is the key to chemical and material behaviors as electrons are responsible for chemical reactivity and bonds, electrical properties and more. However, quantum many-body calculations are so difficult that scientists can only use them to calculate atoms and molecules with a handful of electrons at a time.

Density functional theory, or DFT, is easier—the computing resources needed for its calculations scale with the number of electrons cubed, rather than rising exponentially with each new electron. Instead of following each individual electron, this theory calculates electron densities—where the electrons are most likely to be located in space. In this way, it can be used to simulate the behavior of many hundreds of atoms.

Is Chronic Kidney Disease Due to Cadmium Exposure Inevitable and Can It Be Reversed?

Cadmium (Cd) is a metal with no nutritional value or physiological role. However, it is found in the body of most people because it is a contaminant of nearly all food types and is readily absorbed. The body burden of Cd is determined principally by its intestinal absorption rate as there is no mechanism for its elimination. Most acquired Cd accumulates within the kidney tubular cells, where its levels increase through to the age of 50 years but decline thereafter due to its release into the urine as the injured tubular cells die. This is associated with progressive kidney disease, which is signified by a sustained decline in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and albuminuria. Generally, reductions in eGFR after Cd exposure are irreversible, and are likely to decline further towards kidney failure if exposure persists.

Spider-inspired magnetic soft robots could perform minimally invasive gastrointestinal tract procedures

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a collection of organs and structures inside the bodies of humans and other animals that is responsible for the digestion of food, the absorption of nutrients and the expulsion of waste. Its underlying parts include the mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, rectum and anus.

Over the past decades, the incidence of cancer in the GI tract and some other conditions affecting the digestive system has risen substantially. Existing approaches to diagnose and treat GI cancers rely on endoscopy, a medical procedure that entails the inspection of internal organs via a flexible tube with an embedded camera (i.e., endoscope), which is inserted into the body through the anus, mouth or a small incision.

In addition to being highly uncomfortable for patients, endoscopy often fails to reach regions that are deep into the GI tract or are difficult to access due to the body’s natural configuration. Some have thus been trying to devise alternative systems that could inspect parts of the digestive system more effectively, while causing patients minimal discomfort.

Smells interpreted as taste!

When we eat or drink, we don’t just experience taste, but rather a ‘flavor’. This taste experience arises from a combination of taste and smell, where aromas from food reach the nose via the oral cavity, known as retronasal odor. Researchers have now shown that the brain integrates these signals earlier than previously thought – already in the insula, a brain region known as the taste cortex – before the signals reach the frontal cortex, which controls our emotions and behavior.

“We saw that the taste cortex reacts to taste-associated aromas as if they were real tastes,” explains the lead author. “The finding provides a possible explanation for why we sometimes experience taste from smell alone, for example in flavored waters. This underscores how strongly odors and tastes work together to make food pleasurable, potentially inducing craving and encouraging overeating of certain foods.”

The study involved 25 healthy adults who were first taught to recognize both a sweet taste and a savory taste through combinations of taste and smell. This was followed by two brain imaging sessions using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in which the participants were given either a tasteless aroma or a taste without smell. The researchers trained an algorithm to recognize patterns in brain activity for sweet and savory tastes, and then tested whether the same patterns could be identified when the participants were only given aromas.

Elon Musk: Robotaxis Will Replace Personal Cars, Not Just Uber

Questions to inspire discussion.

🧠 Q: How does Tesla’s upcoming AI chip compare to the current one? A: Tesla’s AI5 chip will be 40 times better than the current AI4 chip, which is already capable of achieving self-driving safety at least 2–3 times that of a human.

💰 Q: What is the expected pricing for Tesla’s robotaxi service? A: Tesla’s robotaxi service is projected to cost $2 per mile at launch, which is cheaper than Uber rides in high-cost areas like Seattle.

Impact on Transportation.

🚘 Q: How will robotaxis affect car ownership? A: Robotaxis are expected to become a viable alternative to car ownership, especially when prices reach $1 per mile, making them cheaper than options like airport parking.

💼 Q: How does Tesla’s robotaxi cost compare to competitors? A: Tesla’s robotaxi can be built and deployed for half the cost of competitors like Whim, potentially offering more competitive pricing.

Continue reading “Elon Musk: Robotaxis Will Replace Personal Cars, Not Just Uber” | >
/* */