The world is good

2021-06-01 11:48:21 These Extraordinary Stickers Keep Food Fresh For Longer!

We recently wrote about how a New York startup developed technology to preserve food without refrigeration for months. Now we have news about how thanks to a simple sticker, products can stay fresh longer.

StixFresh, part of a food and crop protection startup, ryp LABS, develops innovative technologies to tackle global food waste. It has now come up with a way to successfully keep fruit fresh for up to 14 days longer. It reports that these stickers have been shown to be effective at keeping a long list of fruit firm, sweet and juicy over an extended period. These include apples, pears, avocados, dragon fruits, kiwis,  oranges and other citrus fruit.

The magic occurs due to small stickers, the size of a 50 cent piece, that contain a special formulation. The chemical-free compounds in them then create a protective layer around the fruit, slowing down the process of ripening and spoilage, the company details on its website.

The science behind the StixFresh formulation is extremely simple yet genius. Premature rotting processes are slowed down by using the same compounds plants naturally produce, to create their own natural defense system, the company explains. Protecting the fruit from damaging environmental conditions can keep it fresh for longer, extending its shelf life, both at the market and at home.

As for the future, StixFresh - awarded Best Sustainability Initiative and Best Packaging Technology at the World Food Innovation Awards - plans to adapt its invention to extend the lifespan of vegetables as well. 

The philosophy behind this amazing initiative can be synthesized in a quote by the renowned American chef, book author, journalist, and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain in his Wasted! The Story of Food Waste documentary. “Use everything. Waste nothing”, he suggests. Today that is possible thanks to extremely inventive minds like Zainuddin's. Open / Comment

2021-05-31 12:01:58

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2021-05-31 12:01:53 This App Lets You Buy Leftover Food From Your Favorite Restaurant

Too Good To Go is an app that lets you buy whatever food your favorite restaurant has left when it is about to close. It could be your favorite pasta dish, fresh sushi, or a delectable dessert. But you never know what you are going to get, it’s always a surprise according to the anti-food-waste app.

Most restaurants would end up throwing the extra food away and that is exactly what the folks behind the app want to avoid. Food waste in the US is so pervasive that it amounts to between 30 and 40 percent of all food produced. When food is sent to a landfill, it turns into methane gas when it decomposes. So instead of feeding a hungry person, leftover food actually contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

Now there is a way to keep food out of landfills and into hungry bellies. Too Good To Go launched in New York and Boston in September 2020 (the Danish app first launched in Copenhagen in 2016) and over 500,000 people have already signed up. This saved over 200,000 meals from going into landfills. Since then, the app has expanded into Washington DC and Philadelphia and will be in ten US cities by the end of the year, Lucie Basch, cofounder of Too Good To Go, told Fast Company.

The app doesn’t just partner with restaurants and cafes, but also with food stores, grocers, coffee shops, and anywhere food can be wasted.

The service is free for customers to use and the app takes a cut from the sales price of the food which is usually about one-third of the price of ordering from the menu. Open / Comment

2021-05-30 12:07:27 The patient, seen undergoing tests in the lab Open / Comment

2021-05-30 12:07:18 Scientists Partially Restore Vision in Blind Man Using Emerging Technique and Genes from Light-Sensitive Algae

By injecting a Parisian man’s eye with genes from algae that encode for light-sensing proteins, scientists were able to slowly restore the patient’s vision to the point where he could locate, identify, and count objects again.

The treatment is being called a breakthrough in optogenetic therapy, and offers a chance of vision restoration in people with retinitis pigmentosa, the degradation of photoreceptive cells in their eyes.

Found in glowing algae, the protein, called channelrhodopsin ChrimsonR, aids in the flow of ions in and out of the cell after being exposed to light. The application of this protein opens up new possibilities for retinal gene-therapy, as it bypasses the broken photoreceptors typifying retinitis pigmentosa.

Instead, the ChrimsonR genes were targeted for retinal ganglion cells, which are part of the vision equipment responsible for taking information from photoreceptors and relaying them to the optic nerves, and then to the brain where they’re transformed into what we know as sight.

The ganglia were essentially given the job of the photoreceptors, which due to the disease no longer functioned. A pair of purpose-built goggles collected the image of the world and condensed it into a single amber-light spectrum, the one which causes the channelrhodopsin ChrimsonR protein to change shape and send signals to the brain.

Over months of training, the patient was able to see objects, the white lines on the sidewalk, and more with the help of the goggles—all of which is detailed in the resulting study, published in Nature journal. This doesn’t seem like a particularly advanced treatment, but retinitis pigmentosa has no approved therapy, and is one of the most common causes of blindness in young people.

Further developments in this field could make optogenetic therapy much more futuristic, such as if a gene somewhere in biology could be found that reacted in the same way as ChrimsonR, but towards multiple color spectrums. This would allow a more natural version of sight to be restored. Open / Comment

2021-05-29 11:32:18 Open / Comment

2021-05-29 11:32:15 Scientists Develop Personalized Anti-Cancer Vaccine

Cancer has a major impact on society across the world. There were an estimated 18 million cancer cases around the world in 2018. Recently, a group of scientists from Montreal was able to make progress in the search for an effective drug.

In a study published in Nature, the researchers show how they came to create an effective personalized vaccine by combining oncolytic viruses with small synthetic molecules (peptides) specific to the targeted cancer.

For a vaccine to induce an immune response, it has to contain elements that stimulate the cells of the immune system—the famous white blood cells.

These elements, called adjuvants, are ingredients in all vaccines. They allow the human body to perceive potential danger and contain the threat by sending its army of immune cells.

Our approach consists of using oncolytic viruses to stimulate this immune response and direct it towards the cancer. To succeed, we create a vaccine by mixing viruses with synthetic peptides (antigens) that resemble the targeted cancer. - Said Bourgeois-Daigneault study participant.

Because it’s true that, to be effective, the vaccine has to be personalized for each patient, based on the mutations specific to each cancer cell. Thanks to the identification work done by other research teams, we can predict what peptides to use for each patient through the information obtained from a biopsy.

The advantage of our approach is that the oncolytic viruses themselves have the power to kill the cancer. We can thus attack the cancer on two fronts: kill it directly with the virus and induce an immune response, thanks not only to the virus, but to the vaccine as well.

On our mice, we were able to show the efficacy of the resulting immunization. Open / Comment

2021-05-28 12:15:01 Open / Comment

2021-05-28 12:14:47 ‘Unluckiest Swan’ Becomes a Mom After Crafty Raft Rescue From Rising Waters

Hope floats. Swans’ nests do not—unless they get a little help from someone determined to make sure their precious cargo has a chance to hatch.

Rob Adamson, who lives and works at Jones Boatyard in St Ives, England has been a longtime spectator to the world’s “unluckiest swans” efforts to become parents.

For a decade, he looked on sadly as the poor birds’ eggs fell prey to poaching foxes and rising waters. This year as the Great Ouse began to flood, he knew he couldn’t stand by and let another clutch perish on his watch.

During the night, Adamson fashioned a makeshift raft and moored it with a line to the bank. It was well after dark when he gingerly lifted the nest and its occupants—nine eggs and one hissing mama—to safety, all under the wary eye of Papa swan.

Back on the Ouse, Mama swan has settled in nicely and hopes are that the signets will hatch soon. While Papa swan remains vigilant, to further ensure the family’s safety, Adamson has erected fencing to deter predators.

As a breed, swans have a reputation for beauty that’s only surpassed by their fierce temper. That neither of the pair attacked Adamson is unusual.

Perhaps the two sensed that he was only trying to help—which would only be keeping in character since Adamson’s affinity for the majestic avians is already well established. Open / Comment

2021-05-27 13:29:28 Open / Comment