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Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 256

Jun 1, 2018

News: SMAP, the spacecraft I once worked on, is providing relative moisture data from the Earth’s surface

Posted by in categories: food, health, space travel

It’s interesting to note that eastern Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas are experiencing much less soil moisture during the middle of May…


Data from the first NASA satellite mission dedicated to measuring the water content of soils is now being used operationally by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to monitor global croplands and make commodity forecasts.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive mission, or SMAP, launched in 2015 and has helped map the amount of water in soils worldwide. Now, with tools developed by a team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, SMAP soil moisture data are being incorporated into the Crop Explorer website of the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, which reports on regional droughts, floods and crop forecasts. Crop Explorer is a clearinghouse for global agricultural growing conditions, such as soil moisture, temperature, precipitation, vegetation health and more.

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Jun 1, 2018

Scientists develop material that could regenerate dental enamel

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London have developed a new way to grow mineralised materials which could regenerate hard tissues such as dental enamel and bone.

Enamel, located on the outer part of our teeth, is the hardest in the body and enables our teeth to function for a large part of our lifetime despite biting forces, exposure to acidic foods and drinks and extreme temperatures. This remarkable performance results from its highly organised structure.

However, unlike other tissues of the body, cannot regenerate once it is lost, which can lead to pain and tooth loss. These problems affect more than 50 per cent of the world’s population and so finding ways to recreate enamel has long been a major need in dentistry.

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May 28, 2018

A protein activated

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Weight gain has often been noted as a side effect of quitting smoking, and research has well established that nicotine can function as an appetite suppressant. A new study has now uncovered a novel mechanism showing how nicotine directly activates a protein that signals a type of fat cell to start burning energy.

A few years ago, scientists discovered a new, third type of fat cell called beige fat. This important discovery revealed an entirely new metabolic target for obesity research. Along with brown fat cells, beige fat was found to rapidly burn calories and generate heat.

Now, new research from the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute has revealed a novel metabolic mechanism explaining how a protein called CHRNA2 specifically stimulates beige fat cells to burn energy. The study found that CHRNA2 receptor proteins are activated by two molecules – nicotine and acetylcholine.

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May 28, 2018

Bowery Farming is putting an urban twist on agriculture

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

This high-tech farm is growing crops in an entirely new way. 🌱.

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May 27, 2018

CRISPR-edited rice plants increase grain yield

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

Scientists from Purdue University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences report the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to develop a variety of rice producing 25–31% more grain than traditional breeding methods.

crispr future technology

The team, led by Jian-Kang Zhu, a distinguished professor in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue and director of the Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made mutations to 13 genes associated with the plant hormone abscisic acid – known to play roles in plant stress tolerance and suppression of growth. Of several varieties created, one produced a plant that had little change in stress tolerance but produced 25% more grain in a field test in Shanghai, China, and 31% more in a field test conducted on China’s Hainan Island.

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May 25, 2018

The strawberry-picking robots doing a job humans won’t

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

The strawberry-picking robots coming to a farm near you. 🤖🍓.


Strawberry producers say labour shortages are driving them to find robotic fruit pickers instead.

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May 25, 2018

Weed-killing robots are threatening giant chemical companies’ business models

Posted by in categories: business, food, genetics, robotics/AI

But if robots kill weeds, who will spray Roundup on everything.


AI-powered weed hunters could soon reduce the need for herbicides and genetically modified crops.

How it’s done now: Current farming methods involve spraying large amounts of indiscriminate weed killer over fields full of crops that have been genetically tweaked (usually by the same company that makes the weed killer) to resist the chemicals. The pesticide and seed industry is enormous, worth $100 billion globally. Of that, herbicide sales alone account for $26 billion.

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May 23, 2018

Urban food from vertical farming

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Your local supermarket and favourite restaurant could soon be growing their own food, thanks to an EU-funded project that has completely redesigned the food supply chain to develop the concept of in-store farming.

Our busy, modern lives demand that fresh produce be available 365 days a year, even though some varieties may only be seasonal and/or produced on the other side of the world. The result is a system centred on quantity, low prices and efficiency rather than on quality, sustainability and traceability.

The EU-funded INFARM (The vertical farming revolution, urban Farming as a Service) project reflects a growing desire for highly nutritious locally grown food, which is free of herbicides and pesticides and addresses the lack of accountability in the current food system. “By growing produce directly where people eat and live, we can cut out the lengthy supply chain, significantly reduce food waste, offer nutrient-dense food without any chemical pesticides and improve the environmental ‘foodprint’ of our ,” says the INFARM’s Chief Technical Officer and co-founder, Guy Galonska.

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May 23, 2018

New robots set to transform farming

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

The Robots are Coming!


European consumers expect a clean supply chain and biodiversity to be conserved. Therefore, reducing the inputs of pesticides and chemical fertilisers to a minimum and/or replacing them by agro-ecological or robot solutions is required. Furthermore, the average age of European farmers is among the highest of all sectors, thus farming needs to attract young people with attractive working opportunities.

This is where the new agricultural robot solution for precision farming developed within the context of the EU Flourish (Aerial Data Collection and Analysis, and Automated Ground Intervention for Precision Farming) project can play a part. Use of robots in precision farming has the potential not only to increase yield, but also to reduce the reliance on fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides through selectively spraying individual plants or through weed removal.

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May 21, 2018

Loss of marine habitats is threatening the global fishing industry – new research

Posted by in categories: food, habitats, security, sustainability

Seafood consumption is both a love and a necessity for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. And its supply is a key part of maintaining food security for the whole planet. But during a time of rapid population growth and increasing demand, stocks of wild fish and invertebrates (such as mussels and prawns) are declining.

The problem is that policies and plans designed to make sure there are enough fish and invertebrates almost exclusively target fishing activity. But we also need to protect the critical habitats that are essential for the sustainability of these stocks and fisheries.

Most species that are fished require more than a single to live and thrive. Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), for example, spends its adult life shoaling in deep water where it lives, feeds and spawns. But juveniles require more stable habitat such as . So, if we want to manage fish and invertebrate stocks for sustainability reasons, it is essential to protect the supporting habitats of targeted species.

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