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Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 219

Feb 22, 2019

A New Treatment Can Relieve Food Allergies, But Few Doctors Offer It

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

Because there’s not yet an FDA-approved version of this treatment, most medical providers don’t yet offer it. So most patients can get it only by enrolling in research studies, of which there have been dozens in recent years.


Patients Find Relief For Food Allergies In Oral Immunotherapy Treatment : Shots — Health News Many parents of kids with life-threatening food allergies live with fear, EpiPen in hand. Some are trying oral immunotherapy, a treatment that can help patients build tolerance to foods like peanuts.

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Feb 20, 2019

Your brain needs a fitness plan. Here’s how to keep it in shape

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, neuroscience

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.

The basics of heart health have been drilled into our brains: Eat less saturated fat. Keep moving. Know your “numbers” for cholesterol, blood pressure and BMI.

But what about that brain itself? Although life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900, our “mindspan” — how long we stay cognitively healthy — hasn’t kept pace.

Continue reading “Your brain needs a fitness plan. Here’s how to keep it in shape” »

Feb 19, 2019

How oyster mushrooms helped clean up after California’s wildfires

Posted by in category: food

Mycelia consume their food externally, by secreting powerful enzymes that break down molecules. In other words, they “digest” whatever substrate, or surface, they’re growing on, converting it to nutrients and—depending on the substrate—edible mushrooms.

Proponents say it’s a natural, more benign, and potentially cheaper alternative to the “scrape and burn” approach to environmental clean-up, which involves digging up contaminated soil and incinerating it.

The problem with that traditional approach is that it can remove potentially fertile topsoil, says Theresa Halula, who teaches mushroom cultivation at Merritt College in Oakland, California. Mycoremediation, on the other hand, she says, can help clean up toxic sites while actually improving soil fertility.

Continue reading “How oyster mushrooms helped clean up after California’s wildfires” »

Feb 19, 2019

This Site Uses Deep Learning to Generate Fake Airbnb Listings

Posted by in categories: food, habitats, robotics/AI

There’s a four-bedroom Edinburgh unit with “original wood floors,” listed by Christine. And there’s a two-bathroom apartment in Gainesville with a double sofa bed and open kitchen plan, listed by Michel. A “beautiful apartment” in Berlin has a “floral feeling.” A three-bedroom in Rome includes “utilities and toiletries.”

There’s just one problem with these Airbnb listings: they don’t exist.

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Feb 19, 2019

EU urged to back lab-grown meat to feed ‘unsustainable’ European consumption

Posted by in category: food

EU policymakers have been urged to shake up European diets by pouring public money into creating lab-grown meat as a viable mass-market alternative.

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Feb 19, 2019

The open-source movement to hack your arugula

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, food

95 percent less water circa 2018.


Open-source farming could challenge Big Ag and take crop production to new heights.

Continue reading “The open-source movement to hack your arugula” »

Feb 19, 2019

Without Bugs, We Might All Be Dead

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, economics, existential risks, food, genetics

There are 1.4 billion insects for each one of us. Though you often need a microscope to see them, insects are “the lever pullers of the world,” says David MacNeal, author of Bugged. They do everything from feeding us to cleaning up waste to generating $57 billion for the U.S. economy alone.

Today, many species are faced with extinction. When National Geographic caught up with MacNeal in Los Angeles, he explained why this would be catastrophic for life on Earth and why a genetically engineered bee could save hives—and our food supply—worldwide.

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Feb 19, 2019

Fungus provides powerful medicine in fighting honey bee viruses

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, security

In field trials, colonies fed mycelium extract from amadou and reishi fungi showed a 79-fold reduction in deformed wing virus and a 45,000-fold reduction in Lake Sinai virus compared to control colonies.

Though it’s in the early stages of development, the researchers see great potential in this research.

“Our greatest hope is that these extracts have such an impact on viruses that they may help varroa mites become an annoyance for bees, rather than causing huge devastation,” said Steve Sheppard, a WSU entomology professor and one of the paper’s authors. “We’re excited to see where this research leads us. Time is running out for bee populations and the safety and security of the world’s food supply hinges on our ability to find means to improve pollinator health.”

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Feb 18, 2019

Vaccinating Mice May Finally Slow Lyme Disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food

Killing ticks and inoculating people has failed, so researchers try immunizing mice via vaccine-laced food.

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Feb 18, 2019

How our plants have turned into thieves to survive

Posted by in categories: evolution, food, genetics

Scientists have discovered that grasses are able to short cut evolution by taking genes from their neighbours. The findings suggest wild grasses are naturally genetically modifying themselves to gain a competitive advantage.

Understanding how this is happening may also help scientists reduce the risk of genes escaping from GM crops and creating so called super-weeds—which can happen when genes from GM crops transfer into local wild plants, making them herbicide resistant.

Since Darwin, much of the theory of evolution has been based on common descent, where natural selection acts on the genes passed from parent to offspring. However, researchers from the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield have found that grasses are breaking these rules. Lateral gene transfer allows organisms to bypass evolution and skip to the front of the queue by using genes that they acquire from distantly related species.

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