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Category: food – Page 320

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HYDERABAD: In an initiative that may improve farm productivity, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai and Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad have joined hands to develop nanosensors that can read the percentage of moisture and nutrients in the soil. This new research is expected to provide an important technological innovation in the field of agriculture. This is for the first time an IIT is collaborating with an agricultural university to devise solutions for the farmers.

“While we were exploring the possibilities of nano technology in various fields, the idea of using it in agriculture sector struck us. Thanks to the interest shown by some agricultural scientists at PJTSAU, we decided to develop nanosensors which can calculate the moisture content of the soil. There is a need for IITs to work for solving the problems faced by farmers and this is a step in that direction,” said V Ramgopal Rao, director of IIT Delhi, who was instrumental in initiating the research project, while he was the chief investigator of Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics Project at IIT, Mumbai.

While IIT, Mumbai will develop the nano soil sensors, PJTSAU will serve as the testing partner and conduct field tests to assess the efficacy of nanosensors. Already, funds have been allotted by IIT for the research project and a team of agricultural scientists and technologists has been formed to work on the project.

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CRISPR to improve shelf life of vegetables and fruits. I magine what this would mean for populations in remote locations with horrible climates or in disaster zones that need fresh foods.

Yinong Yang, a Penn State University researcher, has used a famous gene editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 for cutting out a small piece of DNA from one specific gene in a white button mushroom. With this, Yang was able to stop the gene, which in turn cuts the production of an enzyme known as polyphenol oxidase in mushroom. With this gene editing of white mushrooms, the mushroom doesn’t get spoiled as natural mushrooms.

You might have heard something like this earlier as scientists have also developed non-browning versions of apples and potatoes. However, those crops were called GMOs as scientists had put in new, slightly altered genes within those plants to ‘silence’ the natural gene.

Last fall, Yang wrote a letter to the US Department of Agriculture, wherein he asked whether his mushroom would be subject to regulation by the USDA. The USDA replied this week saying no.

Continue reading “Penn Researcher uses CRISPR/Cas9 to snip out tiny piece of DNA from gene in white button mushroom” | >

#nutrition #CrapScience

So after 40 years of prescribing low fat diets & demonising cholesterol, the largest & longest clinical experiment ever (40 years, 9,000 patients, randomly assigned diets) shows that “Patients who lowered their cholesterol, presumably because of the special diet, actually suffered MORE heart-related deaths than those who did not.”

In other words, if you’ve been cutting on steaks, butter etc. for 4 years or more, you may have INCREASED your mortality rate from heart disease by %8.

Oops?

Via Oxford Martin School @oxmartinschool

Continue reading “This study 40 years ago could have reshaped the American diet. But it was never fully published” | >

Nanostructured samples and materials can be efficiently and reliable characterized using Anton Paar’s SAXSpace small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SWAXS) system. Users can obtain the size, shape, and size distribution of nano-sized samples and particle domains with the help of the SAXSpace. The device is ideally suited for the analysis of colloidal, biological (Bio-SAXS), and isotropic samples.

The SWAXS system also has a wide selection of accurate and versatile sample stages to meet each SAXS application. Easy handling and automatic alignment facilitate smooth operation. With the unique combination of robust design, short measurement time, and high system uptime, the device not only provides superior WAXS or SAXS results but also ensures high sample throughput. These capabilities make SAXSpace ideally suited to explore nanostructure in various materials, including surfactants, pharmaceuticals, proteins, foods, polymers, and nanoparticles.

Key Features

The key features of the SAXSpace are as follows:

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If history is a guide, trade may be widespread among space-voyaging civilizations throughout the galaxy. Cultures that hate each other, still find common ground across a bartering table — as noted in this article blast from the past. #SETI

Sitting in the waiting room of my local auto repair, I honestly began to wonder if on some other far-flung planet, pointy-eared aliens would be listening for someone to sing out that they, too, were “Good to Go.”

Or, to them, would the sort of back and forth banter that we all take for granted in day-to-day business here on Earth seem as alien as ice cream? Would a highly-advanced civilization circling another sunlike star even need this sort of social lubricant?

Probably so, says Albert Harrison, a professor emeritus of social psychology at the University of California at Davis. “Every culture on Earth and many different species [here] depend at least in part on exchange and reciprocity,” said Harrison. Unless an off-world civilization has a complete “hive”-like mentality, he says it’s probably not a stretch to think that marketing, customer service and even social decorum (or at least some sort of etiquette and civility) would also play a role there as well.

Continue reading “Why E.T. Will Need Customer Service” | >

To the Robots of this restaurant “You’re Fired!”.

Employing robots and artificial intelligence in Chinese restaurants has turned out to be not such a smart idea after all, with restaurants in Guangzhou either closing down or firing their mechanical staff.

According to Workers’ Daily, two restaurants which made use of robotic waiters have closed down and a third which remains open has given all but one of the robots the sack.

Their human counterparts at the restaurant were full of complaints about their former colleagues. “The robots weren’t able to carry soup or other food steady and they would frequently break down. The boss has decided never to use them again,” said one employee.

Continue reading “Guangzhou restaurant fires its robot staff for their incompetence” | >