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Category: food – Page 7

A hidden “backup heater” that helps burn fat and boost metabolism

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have uncovered a new way that brown fat, a type of fat that burns energy, can boost the body’s metabolism. This process allows cells to consume more fuel and generate heat, improving overall metabolic health. Conducted in mice, the research points to new possibilities for using brown fat to address metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance and obesity.

The findings were published Sept. 17 in Nature.

Brown fat is unique because it turns energy (calories) from food into heat. Unlike white fat, which stores energy, or muscle, which uses it immediately, brown fat helps keep the body warm in cold environments. Exposure to cold can increase the amount of brown fat, and scientists have long suggested that activating it could support weight loss by increasing calorie burning.

The Impact of Physicochemical Conditions on Lactic Acid Bacteria Survival in Food Products

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), due to their many advantageous features, have been utilized in food manufacturing for centuries. Spontaneous fermentation, in which LAB play a fundamental role, is one of the oldest methods of food preservation. LAB survival and viability in various food products are of great importance. During technological processes, external physicochemical stressors appear often in combinations. To ensure the survival of LAB, adjustment of optimal physicochemical conditions should be considered. LAB strains should be carefully selected for particular food matrices and the technological processes involved. The LAB’s robustness to different environmental stressors includes different defense mechanisms against stress, including the phenomenon of adaptation, and cross-protection.

Preventing overhydration: Study uncovers a neural circuit that prompts mice to stop drinking

Identifying the neural mechanisms that support the regulation of vital physiological processes, such as drinking, eating and sleeping, is a long-standing goal within the neuroscience research community. As the disruption of these processes can severely impact people’s health and everyday functioning, uncovering their neural and biological underpinnings is of the utmost importance.

New insights gathered by neuroscientists could ultimately inform the development of more effective interventions designed to regulate vital physiological processes. Thirst and hunger are known to be regulated by homeostatic processes, biological processes that allow the body to maintain internal stability.

Yet behavior can also be anticipatory, which means that animals and humans often adjust their actions (i.e., stop drinking) before the concentration of substances in the blood changes in response to drinking water. The mechanisms through which the brain predicts when it is the right time to stop drinking remain poorly understood.

Six billion tonnes a second: Rogue planet found growing at record rate

Astronomers have identified an enormous ‘growth spurt’ in a so-called rogue planet. Unlike the planets in our Solar System, these objects do not orbit stars, free-floating on their own instead. The new observations, made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second. This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a rogue planet, or a planet of any kind, providing valuable insights into how they form and grow.

“People may think of planets as quiet and stable worlds, but with this discovery we see that planetary-mass objects freely floating in space can be exciting places,” says Víctor Almendros-Abad, an astronomer at the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Italy and lead author of the new study.

The newly studied object, which has a mass five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, is located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. Officially named Cha 1107–7626, this rogue planet is still forming and is fed by a surrounding disc of gas and dust. This material constantly falls onto the free-floating planet, a process known as accretion. However, the team led by Almendros-Abad has now found that the rate at which the young planet is accreting is not steady.

Scientists Discover Food Molecules That Trick Cells Into Staying Young

Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have discovered that certain nutrients in food can cause a mild stress reaction in nematodes. Surprisingly, rather than harming the organisms, this slight stress appears to boost their overall health and help them maintain vitality as they grow o

Sleuthing for cause of deadly kidney disease in farm workers in hot climates

So many men in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua, have died from kidney failure, the town is known as the Island of the Widows. The condition that afflicts them — called chronic kidney disease of unknown origin, or CKDu — is, as its name implies, a mystery. It is a tubulointerstitial kidney disease that affects people everywhere. But researchers don’t know why rates are much higher in low-lying, hot agricultural areas like Chichigalpa, which is surrounded by sugarcane fields.

Shuchi Anand, MD, a Stanford Medicine associate professor of nephrology, has been interested in the disease since it was first described in the 1990s.

“Two-thirds of the people with this disease are men, many in their 30s and 40s,” said Anand, who is the director of the Center for Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease. “This is the prime age of work and income generation. They are the breadwinners. This disease can devastate families.”

Ancient DNA reveals prehistoric connections and a patrilineal society in early China

Scientists from Peking University have uncovered new genetic evidence that sheds light on how prehistoric people in China interacted, migrated, and built their communities. Led by Professors Huang Yanyi and Pang Yuhong from the Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), the research reveals the first direct genetic proof of a patrilineal social system in Neolithic China.

The study, conducted in collaboration with Yunnan University and Minzu University of China, was published in Nature Communications on September 30, 2025.

The story of Chinese civilization begins along two : the Yellow River, known for its millet-farming cultures, and the Yangtze River, home to early rice agriculture. How people in these regions exchanged ideas, adapted to environmental shifts, and shaped early societies has long fascinated archaeologists and historians.

Eco-friendly technology removes toxic PFAS from water

Rice University researchers, in collaboration with international partners, have developed the first eco-friendly technology to rapidly capture and destroy toxic “forever chemicals” (PFAS) in water. The findings, recently published in Advanced Materials, mark a major step toward addressing one of the world’s most persistent environmental threats.

The study was led by Youngkun Chung, a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Michael S. Wong, a professor at Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing, and conducted in collaboration with Seoktae Kang, professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Keon-Ham Kim, professor at Pukyung National University in South Korea.

PFAS, short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are synthetic chemicals first manufactured in the 1940s and used in products ranging from Teflon pans to waterproof clothing and food packaging. Their ability to resist heat, grease and water has made them valuable for industry and consumers. But that same resistance means they do not easily degrade, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”

SHIELD activated: Researchers build defense to protect drones from cyberattacks

Fooled into following a hacker’s rogue commands, a drone is liable to do any number of things. Fly erratically. Speed up. Slow down. Hang suspended in the air. Reverse course. Take a new course. And, most dangerously: Crash.

What the compromised drone cannot do, however, is regain control. Lost to its original assignment—whether it’s delivering a package, inspecting an aging bridge or monitoring the health of crops—the machine is essentially useless.

At FIU, cybersecurity researchers have developed a series of countermeasures to fight back mid-flight against hostile takeovers.

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