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Category: food – Page 2

Scientists have unveiled a new food source designed to sustain honey bee colonies indefinitely without natural pollen.

Published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research from Washington State University and APIX Biosciences NV in Wingene, Belgium, details successful trials where nutritionally stressed colonies, deployed for commercial crop pollination in Washington state, thrived on the new food source.

This innovation, which resembles the man-made diets fed to livestock and pets all their lives, contains all the nutrients bees need. It’s expected to become a potent strategy for combating the escalating rates of colony collapse and safeguarding global food supplies reliant on bee pollination.

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A trio of animal physiologists at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, has found that at least one species of crow has the ability to recognize geometric regularity. In their study published in the journal Science Advances, Philipp Schmidbauer, Madita Hahn and Andreas Nieder conducted several experiments that involved testing crows on their ability to recognize geometric shapes.

Recognizing regularity in geometric shapes means being able to pick out one that is different from others in a group—picking out a plastic star, for example, when it is placed among several plastic moons. Testing for the ability to recognize geometric regularity has been done with many animals, including chimps and bonobos. Until now, this ability has never been observed in any creature except for humans.

Because of that, the team started with a bit of skepticism when they began testing carrion crows. In their work, the testing was done using computer screens—the birds were asked to peck the outlier in a group; if they chose correctly, they got a food treat. The team chose to test carrion crows because prior experiments have shown them to have exceptional intelligence and mathematical capabilities.

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Industrial farming practices often deplete the soil of important nutrients and minerals, leaving farmers to rely on artificial fertilizers to support plant growth. In fact, fertilizer use has more than quadrupled since the 1960s, but this comes with serious consequences. Fertilizer production consumes massive amounts of energy, and its use pollutes the water, air, and land.

Plant biologists at the Salk Institute are proposing a new solution to help kick this unsustainable fertilizer habit.

In a new study, the researchers identified a key molecule produced by plant roots, a small peptide called CLE16, that encourages plants and beneficial soil fungi to interact with each other. They say boosting this symbiotic relationship, in which the fungi provide mineral nutrients to the plants through CLE16 supplementation, could be a more natural and sustainable way to encourage crop growth without the use of harmful artificial fertilizers.

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A chemical injected before MRI scans to help create sharper images may cause some patients to experience a potentially deadly complication in rare cases, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico found that gadolinium – a toxic rare earth metal used in MRI scans – could mix with oxalic acid found in many foods to precipitate tiny nanoparticles of the metal in human tissues.

The research, published in the journal Magnetic Resonance Imaging, assessed the formation of these nanoparticles associated with potentially deadly health problems in the kidneys and other organs.

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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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