food science

Brief, cross-partisan conversations about sensitive political topics have scant power to narrow divisions, study finds The premise is simple, and it seems like common sense: If Republicans and Democrats could come together for good faith dialogue, the conversations would reduce tensions and ease the corrosive polarization that threatens U.S. democracy.
Slowing down automation may have economic benefits Robots, artificial intelligence, and other automation technologies enable companies to produce more. They also displace workers from their jobs, wreaking havoc on those who have no other training and are financially vulnerable.
Maybe it’s time to break up with plastic Despite its functionality, plastic could be posing a threat not only to the environment but to human health.
Before chickens became food for people, they were regarded as special exotica There are more chickens than any other species of bird on the planet. With three chickens for every human being, they are a food staple for millions of people around the world. But new research shows chickens were domesticated only relatively recently and were once revered.
How did vertebrates first evolve jaws? Five-hundred million years ago, it was relatively safe to go back in the water. That's because creatures of the deep had not yet evolved jaws. In a new pair of studies in eLife and Development, scientists reveal clues about the origin of this thrilling evolutionary innovation in vertebrates.
Mass spectrometry-based draft of the mouse proteome Proteins control and organize almost every aspect of life. The totality of all proteins in a living organism, a tissue or a cell is called the proteome. Using mass spectrometry, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have characterized the proteome, or protein complement of the genome, in important model organisms. In 2014, a team at the Chair of Proteomics and Bioanalytics reported a draft human proteome for the first time, followed by that of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana in 2020, and now that of the most common laboratory mouse.
One dead as rare tornado tears through Dutch city A tornado ripped through a southwestern Dutch city on Monday, killing a woman and injuring nine others in the first fatal twister to hit the country for three decades.
Shedding light on the building blocks of photosynthesis at the cellular level In a new study recently published in Nature Plants, University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers took a deeper look into how plants control the growth of the important cells that allow them to convert sunlight into chemical energy.
Study finds evidence of resonant Raman scattering from surface phonons of Cu(110) Researchers at Johannes Kepler University in Linz have been investigating the physical properties of Cu(110), a surface attained when cutting a single copper crystal in a specific direction, for several years. Their most recent study, featured in Physical Review Letters, provides the first evidence of so-called resonant Raman scattering from the surface of the metal. This phenomenon entails the inelastic scattering of phonons by matter.
New study offers insight into past—and future—of west-side wildfires When the 2020 Labor Day Fires torched more than 300,000 hectares over the span of two weeks in parts of western Oregon and Washington, they devastated communities and put the threat of west-side fires squarely into focus. A new study led by the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station examines the context surrounding the fires and offers insight into the historical role of large, high-severity fires—and the future of wildfires—west of the Cascades.
Ghost in the Machine: When Does AI Become Sentient? A Google engineer made headlines for claiming that an AI called LaMDA had become sentient or conscious. While many AI scientists disagreed, what would it take for an AI to ever become sentient?
Japan swelters as heatwave prompts power crunch warning Japan's government warned Monday of a power crunch as extreme heat hits the country, with temperature records toppling and Tokyo's rainy season declared over at the earliest date on record.
Tropical cyclones have decreased alongside human-caused global warming, but don’t celebrate yet The annual number of tropical cyclones forming globally decreased by about 13% during the 20th century compared to the 19th, according to research published today in Nature Climate Change.
NASA experiment suggests need to dig deep for evidence of life on Mars According to a new NASA laboratory experiment, rovers may have to dig about 6.6 feet (two meters) or more under the Martian surface to find signs of ancient life because ionizing radiation from space degrades small molecules such as amino acids relatively quickly.
Why Do Wint-O-Green Life Savers Spark in the Dark? Maybe you've tried this game of biting down on a wintergreen candy in the dark and looking in the mirror and seeing a spark. Where do those sparks come from?
Climate damage caused by growing space tourism needs urgent mitigation Published today in the journal Earth's Future, researchers from UCL, the University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a 3D model to explore the impact of rocket launches and re-entry in 2019, and the impact of projected space tourism scenarios based on the recent billionaire space race.
What the frequency of your pay means for financial well-being Wharton marketing professor Wendy De La Rosa was enjoying dinner with family when her cousin started raving about a new arrangement with his employer that allows him to access his wages each day through an app, rather than waiting for payday.
The World's 'Poles of Inaccessibility' Are, Well, Pretty Inaccessible The Poles of Inaccessibility are the locations on Earth that are the farthest away from either water or land and are the most remote spots in the world.
How to save $50 off your food bill and still eat tasty, nutritiousmeals Cutting your grocery bill takes planning and flexibility – and knowing your budget. Here’s how to get started.
Drought increases rural suicide, and climate change will make drought worse New research has found suicide increases during drought among men in Australia's rural communities, and the problem may be exacerbated due to climate change.
Organ storage a step closer with cryopreservation discovery Australian scientists have taken the first step towards improved storage of human cells, which may lead to the safe storage of organs such as hearts and lungs.
Researchers chart progress in architected materials that respond to external stimuli Recent advances in pre-programmed architected materials could enable new functions that can evolve in response to their environments or external stimuli, according to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers.
X-ray binary GX 3+1 investigated with AstroSat Using the AstroSat spacecraft, Indian astronomers have investigated a low-mass X-ray binary known as GX 3+1. The study provided more insights into the properties of GX 3+1 and detected a thermonuclear burst from this source. The findings are reported in a paper published June 15 on arXiv.org.
Could the precipitous drop in public school enrollment be good for students? Schools in the U.S. resumed in-person learning last year, but enrollment in public schools across the country has failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels and, in some cases, continued to drop.
New sensitive and robust single-cell RNA sequencing technique outperforms competition The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has revolutionized the fields of medicine and biology by providing the ability to study the inner workings of thousands of cells at once. But scRNA-seq methods are limited by potential inaccuracies in determining cell composition and inefficient complementary DNA (cDNA) amplification—a process by which a double-stranded DNA that "complements" the single-stranded RNA is generated and replicated millions of times—by the commonly-used template-switching reaction.
Default options facilitate faster carbon offsetting in air travel The defaults on a carbon offsetting website can cause a large percentage of customers to select faster CO2 compensation, even if this entails higher costs. In cooperation with a web portal offering carbon offsetting, a research team at the University of Bern with the participation of Professor Dr. Axel Ockenfels at the University of Cologne explored the question of the costs at which people are still willing to accept so called defaults. Defaults are options that kick in automatically if we do not explicitly reject them. The study has been published in Nature Human Behaviour.
YouTuber uses air as a wire — thanks to Nikola Tesla The YouTuber finds that the device can manage to light a bulb about one foot away, but can he do better?
Bacteria’s shapeshifting behaviour clue to new treatments for urinary tract infections Urinary tract infections are both very common and potentially very dangerous. More than half of all Australian women will suffer from a UTI in their lifetime, and nearly one in three women will have an infection requiring treatment with antibiotics before the age of 24.
Gift cards from politicalized brands dampen recipients’ gratitude Even gift cards aren't immune from America's sharp political divisions.
The UK’s largest carbon capture plant is now operational The U.K.'s largest capture carbon plant is now operational in Cheshire in Northwest England, the facility's operator, Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE).
Team composition, structure, members’ gender influence ability to focus, work together The ability of team members to work together across a range of tasks, called collective intelligence (CI), varies significantly between teams. Research suggests that the level of collective attention (the quality and coordination of members' focus) a team develops influences its level of CI. A new study examined what factors enhance collective attention, focusing on the influence of teams' hierarchy and its interaction with teams' gender composition.
Never-before-seen microbes in Arctic could aid search for life on Mars The researchers found that the microorganisms can survive by eating and breathing simple inorganic compounds of a kind that have been detected on Mars, such as methane and carbon dioxide.
Dream of unlimited, clean nuclear fusion energy within reach The old joke is that nuclear fusion is always 30 years away. Yet the dream of abundant clean energy is no laughing matter as we meet an ITER researcher to catch up on progress at the reactor facility.
NASA is one step closer to finding ancient microbial life on Mars NASA's Curiosity rover has just provided evidence of a key ingredient for life on Mars. Scientists using data from NASA's Curiosity rover measured the total organic carbon in Martian rocks for the very first time.
Improving the future of purification by using molecular silhouette to separate compounds in fluids Impure chemical mixtures can now be separated based on differences in molecular silhouette. Membranes have been developed with nanoscale pores that match the shape of impurities in the mix so that only the impurity can pass through. KAUST researchers have suggested that the first application of these metal-organic framework (MOF) based shape-selective membranes could be energy-efficient, low-cost purification of natural gas.
Ancient microbes may help us find extraterrestrial life forms Using light-capturing proteins in living microbes, scientists have reconstructed what life was like for some of Earth's earliest organisms. These efforts could help us recognize signs of life on other planets, whose atmospheres may more closely resemble our pre-oxygen planet.
Researchers extend quantum amplification to Floquet systems Detection of weak signals is a crucial step in the verification of physics hypotheses and making breakthroughs in cutting-edge and fundamental physics research. However, if the signals are too weak to measure, they need enhancement. One attractive way to amplify the signals is quantum amplification. The state-of-the-art quantum amplification techniques still have some limitations because they rely on the inherent discrete state transitions of atoms and molecules and therefore lack tunability, usually enhancing only one signal within a narrow range of frequencies.
Determining the structure of small RNAs could inform future therapeutics A new method allows researchers to determine the structure and abundance of "transfer RNAs" (tRNA)—small, highly structured and chemically modified RNAs involved in protein production—in living cells. Misfolding of tRNAs has been linked to human diseases ranging from cancer to type 2 diabetes and neurological disorders. The new method, which also shows how tRNA structure can change when the cells are stressed by high temperatures, a common stressor faced by plants, bacteria, and even humans, could potentially inform the development of therapeutics for RNA-linked diseases and is applicable to other small, highly modified types of RNA.
New study solves long-standing mystery of what may have triggered ice age A new study led by University of Arizona researchers may have solved two mysteries that have long puzzled paleo-climate experts: Where did the ice sheets that rang in the last ice age more than 100,000 years ago come from, and how could they grow so quickly?
Study explores the properties of a unique intermediate polar Using data from ESA's XMM-Newton satellite and NASA's NuSTAR space observatory, Indian astronomers have performed a broadband X-ray analysis of a unique intermediate polar known as Paloma. Results of the study, published June 17 on arXiv.org, shed more light on the properties of this object.
Watch the world’s smallest rotary engine run at 30,000 rpm You can see "the world's smallest" rotary Wankel engine, a Toyan RS-S100 Single Rotor Wankel Rotary Engine, in this video.
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Soundtrack Getting Definitive, Expanded Vinyl Release Select tracks from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Vince Guaraldi have been available on virtually every audio format over the last 60 years, but PEANUTS fans still have some surprises in store for them, as previously unreleased, alternate takes on familiar tracks were discovered and will [...]
League of Legends Champion Trailer Reveals Nilah, First Look at Gameplay League of Legends' next champion, Nilah, has already been revealed this week with Riot Games offering players our first look at the next character's gameplay. The champion uses water-based abilities and a whip to attack enemies near and far based on the snippets of gameplay we've seen, but we [...]
Legacies Creator Reveals the Character Viewers Would Have Met in Season 5 Thursday saw the end of Legacies after four seasons on The CW, but while the episode, 'Just Don't Be a Stranger, Okay?' capped off the series and the long running The Vampire Diaries franchise, it wasn't necessarily originally intended to be the end. While the network did give the series a heads [...]
LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation Trailer Teaser Released LEGO and Star Wars are teaming up once again for an all-new special. Since the debut of Disney+, Star Wars fans have been treated to a lot of fun content, including The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special and LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales. Now, everyone's favorite characters from a galaxy far, far [...]
Vince McMahon vs Oliver Luck XFL Lawsuit Settlement Conference Scheduled WWE's Vince McMahon has been in the news quite a bit lately thanks to the interview with Pat McAfee, but the latest news involving the head of WWE involves his time as the head of the XFL. Recently former XFL Commissioner Oliver Luck filed a lawsuit against McMahon for termination without cause, [...]
Star Wars: Obi Wan Fans Are Losing Their Minds Over The Anakin Skywalker Scenes Today Obi-Wan Kenobi fans can't get enough of the Anakin Skywalker moments from this week's episode. *Spoilers ahead for Episode 5!* In the latest entry, viewers are treated to some trips back through time to The Clone Wars era. Both Anakin and his master are captured in their previous forms. Numerous [...]
WWE’s Original Plan for Roman Reigns Unifying the WWE and Universal Championships Has Reportedly Backfired Roman Reigns unified the WWE and Universal Championships into the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 38 back in April by defeating Brock Lesnar. Roughly a month later, Reigns started cutting promos at WWE Live Events indicating he was entering a new phase of [...]
The Flash: Ezra Miller No Longer Part of Future DC Plans – Report Warner Bros. and DC Comics have been in a bit of a pickle after Ezra Miller's recent antics. The actor has been arrested multiple times while vacationing in Hawaii for alleged harassment and disorderly conduct at a karaoke bar and for an alleged assault at a private event. Miller is also being [...]
Spy x Family Reveals Anya’s Biggest Save Yet Spy x Family is setting the stage for its big midseason finale, and the penultimate episode of the first cour for the series has revealed Anya Forger's biggest save in the anime yet! The anime taking on Tatsuya Endo's original manga franchise was the biggest premiere of the Spring 2022 anime [...]
Doctor Strange 2’s Reed Richards Cameo Sets Up a Unique MCU Problem It's been over a month since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness first debuted, with the blockbuster film taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe into uncharted territory. The film was chock-full of surprises and unique moments amid its multiversal adventure with Doctor Strange (Benedict [...]