Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: food – Page 4

It was once thought that when an aging star engulfed a planet it would be a dramatic swelling and devouring event akin to a predator eating its prey. New observations, however, tell a very different story.

Data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals that the planet’s orbit didn’t terminate with a sudden engulfment. Instead, the planet spiraled slowly inward over time until it met its fiery end.

The scientists behind this surprising update are from NSF’s NOIRLab, and they worked with data collected by Webb’s powerful mid-and near-infrared instruments.

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Wearables such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, or data glasses have become an integral part of our everyday lives. They record health data, monitor your sleep, or calculate your calorie consumption. Researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed the open-source platform “OpenEarable.” It integrates a multitude of sensors into wireless earphones with the aim to enhance health measurements and safety applications in medicine, industry, and everyday life. The scientists are currently presenting their platform at Hannover Messe from March 31 to April 4.

Wearable technologies have made significant progress in recent years, but many of the existing systems are either proprietary, i.e. not customizable by others, or their measurement capabilities are limited. With OpenEarable 2.0, a research team headed by Dr. Tobias Röddiger from KIT’s TECO research group moves one step further: The open-source platform for ear-based sensor applications enables developers to create customized software. With a unique combination of sensors, more than 30 physiological parameters can be measured directly at the ear – from heart rate and breathing patterns to fatigue and body temperature. “Our aim was to create an open and high-precision solution for health monitoring that goes far beyond what is possible with today’s commercial wearables,” says Röddiger. “OpenEarable 2.0 provides a platform for researchers and developers that is easily customizable and scalable. This allows them to program the earphones individually for specific requirements.

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Insecticides can help protect crops against troublesome pests, but they also pose a risk for beneficial insects such as pollinators. A study led by researchers at Penn State provides insight into how even sublethal doses of insecticides can negatively affect pollinators by disrupting the mating process.

The study, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, looked at the effects of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid that is among the most widely used insecticides globally.

The researchers found that exposure to the insecticide, even at sublethal levels, reduced successful mating in bumble bees and altered the chemical signaling of both males and gynes—female bees capable of reproduction. It also negatively impacted both sperm viability in males and lipid storage in gynes.

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Constructed strain achieves record-high yield from methanol, advancing ecofriendly biomanufacturing. Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University have discovered the ideal genetic “recipe” to turn yeast into a tiny yet powerful eco-friendly factory that converts methanol into D-lactic acid, a key compound used in biodegradable plastics and pharmaceuticals.

This approach could help reduce reliance on petroleum-based processes and contribute to more sustainable chemical production.

Lactic acid is widely used in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and bioplastics.

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Hedonic eating is defined as food consumption driven by palatability without physiological need. However, neural control of palatable food intake is poorly understood. We discovered that hedonic eating is controlled by a neural pathway from the peri–locus ceruleus to the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Using photometry-calibrated optogenetics, we found that VTA dopamine (VTADA) neurons encode palatability to bidirectionally regulate hedonic food consumption. VTADA neuron responsiveness was suppressed during food consumption by semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor 1 (GLP-1R) agonist used as an antiobesity drug. Mice recovered palatable food appetite and VTADA neuron activity during repeated semaglutide treatment, which was reversed by consumption-triggered VTADA neuron inhibition.

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Scientists have discovered a new phylum of microbes in Earth’s Critical Zone, an area of deep soil that restores water quality. Ground water, which becomes drinking water, passes through where these microbes live, and they consume the remaining pollutants. The paper, “Diversification, niche adaptation and evolution of a candidate phylum thriving in the deep Critical Zone,” is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” James Tiedje, an expert in microbiology at Michigan State University, agrees with da Vinci. But he aims to change this through his work on the Critical Zone, part of the dynamic “living skin” of Earth.

“The Critical Zone extends from the tops of trees down through the soil to depths up to 700 feet,” Tiedje said. “This zone supports most life on the planet as it regulates essential processes like , water cycling and , which are vital for food production, and ecosystem health. Despite its importance, the deep Critical Zone is a new frontier because it’s a major part of Earth that is relatively unexplored.”

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A chemical reaction that’s vital to a range of commercial and industrial goods may soon be initiated more effectively and less expensively thanks to a collaboration that included Oregon State University College of Engineering researchers.

The study, published in Nature, involves —adding the diatomic hydrogen molecule, H2, to other compounds.

“Hydrogenation is a critical and diverse reaction used to create food products, fuels, commodity chemicals and pharmaceuticals,” said Zhenxing Feng, associate professor of chemical engineering. “However, for the reaction to be economically viable, a catalyst such as palladium or platinum is invariably required to increase its reaction rate and thus lower cost.”

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New research from The University of Manchester may reshape our understanding of what happens to the immune system when we fast. The study on mice shows that the brain’s hypothalamus controls how the immune system adapts during fasting, through a handful of highly specialized neurons responsible for making animals hungry.

Published in Science Immunology, the study shows the brain’s perception of hunger or fullness, rather than actual eating or , is enough to drive changes in the body’s immune cells.

The findings cast doubt on the current view that a lack of nutrients alone controls how the immune system responds to fasting, indicating the brain has a critical role, beyond the simple absence of food.

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Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed the first-ever method of detecting ribonucleic acid, or RNA, inside plant cells using a technique that results in a visible fluorescent signal. The technology can help researchers detect and track changes in RNA and gene expression in real time, providing a powerful tool for the development of hardier bioenergy and food crops and for the detection of unwanted plant modifications, pathogens and pests.

RNA is a signaling molecule inside cells that is used to read the deoxyribonucleic, or DNA, code and convert it into functional parts such as proteins that are essential for and . The ORNL-developed biosensor continuously monitors RNA levels in live plants, replacing a traditional destructive, time-consuming method used by scientists for collecting, processing and analyzing tissue.

“With this biosensor, scientists gain real-time insights into how cells reprogram themselves at a molecular level under changing environmental conditions such as drought or disease,” said Xiaohan Yang, lead for the project at ORNL. The approach streamlines traditional methods used to verify in modified plants and can better detect plant physiology related to disease or nutrient stress, accelerating the development of better crops.

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