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Category: food

Saturday Citations: Black hole flare unprecedented; the strength of memories; bugs on the menu

This week, researchers reported finding a spider megacity in a sulfur cave on the Albania-Greece border, and experts say that you, personally, have to go live there. Economists are growing nervous about the collapse of the trillion-dollar AI bubble. And a new study links physical activity levels with the risk of digestive system cancers.

Additionally, astronomers reported the most massive and distant black hole flare ever observed; researchers determined why are more vivid; and the scientists are once again exploring farmed insects as a food source—this time, for lengthy interplanetary missions:

Is fungi our secret tool against antibiotic resistance?

face_with_colon_three fungi is even better than current medicines and frankly better for you. We can also ingest fungi that can help be a natural food medicine to help prevent worse diseases.

While all attention is on the pandemic right now, the SARS-CoV-2 virus isn’t the only microbial threat we face.

While we’re all rightly focused on the COVID-19 pandemic at the moment, the SARS-CoV-2 virus isn’t the only microbial threat we face.

Back in 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that within a decade, antibiotic-resistant bacteria could make routine surgery, organ transplantation and cancer treatment life-threateningly risky — and spell the end of modern medicine as we know it.

United Nations General Assembly’s AUDACITY 100 Disruptors Summit

face_with_colon_three Fungi can save all life on earth. This lecture teaches that mushrooms are outperforming even age old medicines.

Watch my 15 minute speech at the United Nations General Assembly’s AUDACITY 100 Disruptors Summit was a powerful reminder of how interconnected we all are.

I spoke about how fungal mycelium can help heal ecosystems, strengthen food systems, and strengthens the health.
of the residents of the planet. Mycelium supports our collective immunity.

When Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World was published in 2005, it foretold the mycelial revolution that continues to sweep the planet. This book is as relevant today as it was then. What has happened since? The scientific community continues to verify that mycelium is essential for our collective health, whether as nutritional supplements, or as the core fabric of our food webs.

Precision medicine intervention found to ease symptoms of a depression biotype

Depression is one of the most widespread mental health disorders worldwide, characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, a loss of interest in everyday activities, dysregulated sleep or eating patterns and other impairments. Some individuals diagnosed with depression also report being unable to pay attention during specific tasks, while also experiencing difficulties in planning and making decisions.

Recent studies have uncovered different biotypes of depression, subgroups of patients diagnosed with the condition that exhibit similar neural circuit patterns and behaviors. One of these subtypes is the so-called “cognitive biotype,” which is linked to a reduced ability to focus attention and inhibit distractions or unhelpful thinking patterns.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System recently carried out a study assessing the potential of guanfacine immediate release (GIR), a medication targeting known to be impaired in people with the cognitive biotype of depression.

Bisphenol A causes sex-specific changes in metabolism and the immune system, study reveals

Even small amounts of bisphenol A can lead to long-term health effects. When researchers studied adult rats exposed in the fetal stage, they found that females had developed a more masculine and males a more feminine gene expression pattern. This led to females progressing towards a cancer-like state, while males progressed towards metabolic syndrome, which can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Bisphenol A is a synthetic chemical with estrogen-like properties that is commonly used in food packaging materials. The substance is banned in many products, but is still present in some packaging. Levels of bisphenol A in people’s bodies are often above levels considered safe, with previous research showing that the substance can cause adverse health effects.

Females masculinized and males feminized In the current study, published in Communications Medicine, researchers investigated how bisphenol A affects the body during the fetal stage.

AI-guided enzyme discovery enables 98.6% breakdown of polyurethane foam in hours

As the use of AI spreads through every industry and becomes more of a part of our lives every day, researchers are also looking into ways it can be used to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. One of these problems is the world’s reliance on plastics for making everything from clothing to medical supplies to food wrappers, which is creating a massive amount of non-biodegradable waste—with more and more piling on every day. Much of this ends up wreaking havoc on various ecosystems and creating an overabundance of microplastics that end up in our food and water supplies.

Clearly, there is a need for recycling these materials. However, plastics remain one of the most difficult materials to recycle efficiently. But now, a team of researchers might have found a way to facilitate the process with the help of AI. Their study, published in Science, details how a helped them find enzymes that can break down plastics faster and more efficiently than any they’ve found on their own.

Global initiative advances next-generation light sensors based on emerging materials

A global team of experts from academia and industry has joined forces in a landmark Consensus Statement on next-generation photodetectors based on emerging light-responsive materials, which could accelerate innovative applications across health care, smart homes, agriculture, and manufacturing.

Professor Vincenzo Pecunia, head of the Sustainable Optoelectronics Research Group (www.sfu.ca/see/soe), has led this global initiative culminating in the publication of a Consensus Statement in Nature Photonics. Featured on the journal’s cover, the paper provides a unified framework for characterizing, reporting, and benchmarking emerging light-sensing technologies. These guidelines could catalyze the adoption of such sensors across a wide range of applications, enhancing quality of life, productivity, and sustainability.

Light sensors, also known as photodetectors, are devices that convert light into electrical signals. They are at the heart of countless smart devices and represent a valued at over $30 billion, reflecting both their ubiquity and economic significance. Emerging photodetectors—including those based on organic semiconductors, perovskites, , and two-dimensional materials—could take this field even further by enabling ultrathin, flexible, stretchable, and lightweight sensors. These next-generation photodetectors promise lower costs, enhanced performance, and unique functionalities, paving the way for applications that were previously impossible.

Why we used to sleep in two segments — and how the modern shift changed our sense of time

From the article:

“In multi-week sleep studies that simulate long winter nights in darkness and remove clocks or evening light, people in lab studies often end up adopting two sleeps with a calm waking interval. A 2017 study of a Madagascan agricultural community without electricity found people still mostly slept in two segments, rising at about midnight.”

There’s a reason you sometimes wake up in the middle of the night.

Rare lost allele that boosts soybean seed protein identified

A research team led by Prof. Hou Xingliang from the South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has used genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify a rare allele that controls seed protein content and was lost during soybean domestication.

Their findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Oct. 30.

Domesticating into crops represents a breakthrough in human history, yet key beneficial traits are often lost in the process. Soybeans are a good example. Modern soybean cultivars have lower seed protein content (30%–40%) than their wild ancestors, wild soybeans (Glycine soja), which typically contain 50%–60% protein. Since soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) are the primary source of plant-based protein for both and , increasing seed protein content is a critical goal for .

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