Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘food’ category: Page 267

Apr 8, 2018

Counting down the 10 most important robots in history

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

From research labs to factories, farms, and even our own homes, robots are everywhere these days. But which are the most important robots ever built? We decided to welcome our new robot overlords with just such a list. Read on to discover which robots we owe a debt of a gratitude for their part in turning science fiction into, well, science.

Read more

Apr 8, 2018

Goodbye Anthropocene hello Alexacene. The future of humankind and the planet

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gdhL3KsZ0jw

You heard about the Anthropocene, a new geological era when what happens to the planet is determined by the activities of the human species. The Anthropocene started with agriculture 12,000 years ago or with the industrial revolution in the 1800s according to different opinions.

I propose that the Anthropocene will be over by the end of this century as what will happen to Earth is determined not by humans but by artificial intelligence (AI).

Continue reading “Goodbye Anthropocene hello Alexacene. The future of humankind and the planet” »

Apr 7, 2018

Researchers developing renewable energy approach for producing ammonia

Posted by in categories: energy, food, sustainability

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing a renewable energy approach for synthesizing ammonia, an essential component of fertilizers that support the world’s food production needs. The Haber-Bosch process developed in the early 1900s for producing ammonia relies on non-renewable fossil fuels and has limited applications for only large, centralized chemical plants.

The new process, published in Nature Catalysis, utilizes a plasma—an ionized gas—in combination with non-noble metal catalysts to generate at much milder conditions than is possible with Haber-Bosch. The energy in the plasma excites nitrogen molecules, one of the two components that go into making ammonia, allowing them to react more readily on the catalysts. Because the energy for the reaction comes from the plasma rather than high heat and intense pressure, the process can be carried out at small scale. This makes the new process well-suited for use with intermittent renewable sources and for distributed .

“Plasmas have been considered by many as a way to make ammonia that is not dependent on fossil fuels and had the potential to be applied in a less centralized way,” said William Schneider, H. Clifford and Evelyn A. Brosey Professor of Engineering, affiliated member of ND Energy and co-author of the study. “The real challenge has been to find the right combination of plasma and . By combining molecular models with results in the laboratory, we were able to focus in on combinations that had never been considered before.”

Read more

Apr 6, 2018

Calorie restriction improves our age-related diseases — new results of a landmark trial

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, life extension, neuroscience

Cutting calories by 15% may help protect us against age-related diseases, suggests a new report of a landmark calorie restriction trial with adults. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

The landmark CALERIE study reports that cutting calories by 15 percent slows down an aging metabolism and may help protect against age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, type 2 diabetes, cancer and other ailments. The researchers published their results on March 22 in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The researchers found that calorie restriction decreased systemic oxidative stress, one of the nine hallmarks of aging linked to age-related diseases.

Continue reading “Calorie restriction improves our age-related diseases — new results of a landmark trial” »

Apr 3, 2018

Musk and Zuckerberg Are Fighting Over Whether We Rule Technology—Or it Rules Us

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

In the public imagination, the Amish are famous for renouncing modern technology. In truth, many Amish farms hum with machines: milk vats, mechanical agitators, diesel engines, and pneumatic belt sanders are all found in their barns and workshops.

The Amish don’t actually oppose technology. Rather, the community must vote on whether to adopt a given item. To do so, they must agree almost unanimously, says Jameson Wetmore, a social science researcher at Arizona State University. Whereas the outside world may see innovation as good until proven otherwise, the Amish first decide whether a new technology might erode the community values they’re trying to preserve. “It is not individual technologies the concern us,” one Amish minister told Wetmore, “but the total chain.”

It’s an idea that is resonating in Silicon Valley these days, where a debate over technology and its potential unintended consequences is cleaving the industry into rival camps—each with a tech titan as its figurehead.

Continue reading “Musk and Zuckerberg Are Fighting Over Whether We Rule Technology—Or it Rules Us” »

Apr 2, 2018

Gene-Edited Foods Are Coming A Grocery Store Near You

Posted by in categories: food, genetics

The USDA has officially approved gene-edited foods.

Read more

Apr 2, 2018

Are ducks the future for rice farms?

Posted by in categories: food, sustainability

Dumping pesticides and using ducks instead. 🦆 🦆 🦆.

Read more

Mar 27, 2018

Alphabet Research Arm X Wants to Apply Artificial Intelligence to Farming

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Alphabet’s Moonshot and research arm X wants to use AI, artificial intelligence, to improve farming and agriculture.

Read more

Mar 27, 2018

Protein Engineering May Be the Future of Science

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, food, neuroscience, science

Scientists are increasingly betting their time and effort that the way to control the world is through proteins. Proteins are what makes life animated. They take information encoded in DNA and turn it into intricate three-dimensional structures, many of which act as tiny machines. Proteins work to ferry oxygen through the bloodstream, extract energy from food, fire neurons, and attack invaders. One can think of DNA as working in the service of the proteins, carrying the information on how, when and in what quantities to make them.

Living things make thousands of different proteins, but soon there could be many more, as scientists are starting to learn to design new ones from scratch with specific purposes in mind. Some are looking to design new proteins for drugs and vaccines, while others are seeking cleaner catalysts for the chemical industry and new materials.

David Baker, director for the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, compares protein design to the advent of custom tool-making. At some point, proto-humans went beyond merely finding uses for pieces of wood, rock or bone, and started designing tools to suit specific needs — from screwdrivers to sports cars.

Continue reading “Protein Engineering May Be the Future of Science” »

Mar 23, 2018

This plant-based coating makes fruits and veggies last up to four times longer

Posted by in category: food

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VPeEUlxbsE4

Inhabitat spoke with Apeel Sciences CEO James Rogers about Edipeel, a product created with edible extracts from fruits and vegetables to preserve produce.

Read more