As we’ve seen in this space before, humans are looking at a variety of meat replacements, many for sustainability reasons. But this is the first time I’ve encountered an intensive study on the farming viability of snake meat. Particularly, python – whose meat is already enjoyed throughout Southeast Asia, and has a flavour and texture similar to chicken breast.
Scientists observed two python farms in Thailand and Vietnam (hosting populations of reticulated and Burmese pythons) for a full year before publishing their findings in Scientific Reports. They discovered that the hallmarks that make pythons a top predator are ironically turning them into an excellent candidate for our plates.
“Pythons have an ‘extreme biology and evolutionary slant toward extreme resource and energy efficiency,’ Patrick Aust, conservation specialist at nonprofit People for Wildlife and co-author of the paper, told ABC News. Since pythons are an ‘ambush predator’ that chooses prey up to 100% their own weight, they can survive for prolonged periods of time between meals, Aust said. […]
The pythons were fed on a weekly basis a variety of locally sourced proteins, such as wild-caught rodents and fishmeal, and were regularly measured and weighed over a 12-month period, according to the paper. The authors found that both species of python grew rapidly – by up to 46 grams per day – with females seeing higher growth rates than males.”
Because pythons eat one giant meal periodically, they are less susceptible to supply chain interruptions than livestock like cows or pigs. Plus, they are almost all meat: 82% of their average body mass is edible. The biggest hurdle scientists envision is reprogramming the Western palate to understand python meat as food. Otherwise (besides plant-based options of course) snake meat could prove one of the more sustainable protein sources in our increasingly dire food future!
We at DFC love our cheeses – especially the more flavourful varieties, like blue cheeses, and bries. But, as a new analysis from Vox outlines, we might not have much more time to enjoy them – at least in the way we’re accustomed.
Turns out, about 100 years ago, the cheese-making industry accidentally created worldwide uniformity in camemberts, bries, and certain blues by standardizing the use of Penicillium camemberti. This sub-strain of the fungus Penicillium biforme produces particularly delicious – and attractively fluffy and white – mould. This albino mould was so popular that other, genetically diverse, strains of cheese mould have died out. Now, p. camemberti is under threat specifically because of this lack of biodiversity.
“For reasons that are not totally clear, the albino strain can’t reproduce sexually, like most molds can — meaning, it can’t ‘breed’ with another individual to create new genetic diversity. So to create more of this fungi, cheesemakers have to clone it, not unlike how you propagate a plant using a cutting. Yet decades of replicating the same individual can introduce harmful errors into its genome, [evolutionary biologist Jeanne] Ropars said.
That’s what’s happened with P. camemberti. In recent decades, the albino fungus picked up mutations that interfere with its ability to produce spores, and that makes it much harder to clone. Put simply: It’s now difficult for cheesemakers to grow the key fungus used to make brie and Camembert.”
If P. Camemberti goes the way of the Gros Michel banana, there are other options, like populating camembert and brie with similar, “wild”-er strains. But that would change the taste and look of the pristine white, smooth cheeses we’re used to. A small price to pay for nature’s correction of humanity’s overreach? It looks like we’ll have to see: The mould is in charge here, and taking our taste buds along for the ride!
As I write this, I’m sipping on a soda water – a luxury our friends Down Under don’t have right now. Due to a perfect storm of climate change, political unrest, and literal accidents, Australia and New Zealand are experiencing a carbon dioxide shortage. This translates to a noticeable dearth of pop cans on supermarket shelves; or, as they would call them “fizzy drinks.” Photos of empty racks are circulating in the news and on social media: Think early COVID, where instead of toilet paper and baker’s yeast, it’s flats of Diet Coke.
“At the recent Gasworld European CO2 Summit 2024 in Austria, Content Director Rob Cockerill reflected on the new dynamics sweeping the international CO2 market. ‘Does that mean another CO2 crisis is coming? It’s potentially going to happen.’ […]
‘For the supply chain, the challenges are competition for sources. You’ve got a lot of traditional sources supplying emerging markets, that are moving out of Western Europe and North America to lower-cost energy environments, and then there is carbon capture and sequestration which is also competing for those sources.’
Alongside traditional demand driven by the food and beverage industry are some interesting emerging applications, such as e-fuels, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and green concrete, which Carson said has the potential to be ‘gigantic.’”
Major CO2 supplier BOC has chimed in, telling Australia’s ABC News that it’s working to re-establish the supply chain, but prioritizing delivery for medical, water treatment, and safety first. Here’s hoping this isn’t the first sign of complete social collapse, and our antipodean amigos will soon have their fizzy drink supply restored – in time for (their) winter!
Here is some fun news that will brighten up the winter days: Researchers at the University of Nottingham have developed a method of making different colours of blue cheese. And no, they don’t just dye them! The colour difference is in the mould – the deliciously funky Penicillium roqueforti – that gives cheeses like Stilton, Cabrales, and its namesake, Roquefort, their distinctive flavour and blue-green veins. Now, cheese with white, red/brown, and bright green pigmentedspores could be seen on our tables in future. This is thanks to some careful selective breeding on the part of the research team.
“The researchers found that a biochemical pathway gradually forms the blue pigments, starting at a white color, which progressively becomes yellow-green, red-brown-pink, dark brown, light blue, and finally dark blue-green. The team were then able to use some classic food-safe (non-GM) techniques to ‘block’ the pathway at certain points, and so create strains with new colors that can be used in cheese production. […]
Reported team lead Dr. Paul Dyer, Professor of Fungal Biology:
“‘The interesting part was that once we went on to make some cheese, we then did some taste trials with volunteers from across the wider University, and we found that when people were trying the lighter-colored strains they thought they tasted more mild. Whereas they thought the darker strain had a more intense flavor. Similarly, with the more reddish brown and a light green one, people thought they had a fruity tangy element to them – whereas according to the lab instruments they were very similar in flavor. This shows that people do perceive taste not only from what they taste but also by what they see.’”
The team is now embarking on a production trial with local cheesemakers in Nottinghamshire and in Scotland. They hope that these flashy new colours will convert a few of the folks out there who aren’t fans of traditional blue cheese. I’m already on board – and mentally planning an amazing technicolour cheese plate for as soon as these hit the market!
I’ve been through my fair share of regional airports in my lifetime, but they all blur together in my mind into one mass of delays, bad coffee, and low-key existential dread. Perhaps a glass of wine would change all that – classing up the place as well as making it more memorable… That’s part of the rationale behind a wholesale transformation of Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci Airport, which, thanks to American firm Rafael Viñoly Architects, will soon boast a green roof that will also serve as a functioning vineyard!
The announced plan is actually a full reimagining of the airport. They intend the 19-acre, 38-row vineyard to cover a central plaza modelled on the traditional streetscape of Tuscany, the Italian region of which Florence is the capital.
“The sloping green roof entirely dedicated to vineyards will be by design intentions an ‘ode to the Tuscan winemaking tradition,’ designed to be functional and productive. In fact, according to the designers, ‘the vineyards will be cultivated by a leading winemaker in the region and the wine will be produced and aged in specialized cellars under the roof of the terminal.’
Structurally, complex engineering and careful consideration of factors such as weight distribution, drainage, and wind load will be essential to support the vineyard. In addition, the microclimate of a rooftop is very different from that of a traditional vineyard, with problems of heat, wind, and proximity to aircraft.”
That “proximity to aircraft” part has some critics concerned, as the information the architects have made available doesn’t address the significant pollution that planes generate, and how it could affect or even enter the grapes. One imagines a thorough environmental assessment is in the offing – it would be great for them to make the results public when and if they come in. If, and only if, I’m guaranteed a clean wine, then this could definitely be a refreshing stop on my next Italian vacation!
One giant downside of all the cool technology we have at our fingertips nowadays is what happens to it after we’re done with it. Throwing out e-waste with regular garbage leaches toxic chemicals into our ecosystem. Even doing the responsible thing and recycling e-waste uses harsh chemicals, and can have devastating repercussions for the humans involved. But still, we must try to find a way to limit the damage, because technology has become a major part of modern life, and isn’t going away.
Scientists at ETH Zurich have found a small, elegant solution that we can add to our arsenal, that neatly doubles recycling both e- and food waste. They have developed an aerogel (roughly, a gel substance in which the water content has been replaced by a gas, making it incredibly porous) from old milk. This milk-derived aerogel can be used to winkle out highly pure bits of gold from discarded motherboards, which can then be collected and processed for reuse.
“[Prof. Raffaele] Mezzenga and his team took discarded whey, a by-product of strained milk, and extracted extremely long, nanoscopically thin protein fibres. They then added a chemical acid to link the fibres together, froze them and finally heated the resulting mass to form an aerogel.
Next, they placed the aerogel in a soup of computer motherboards, which they had stripped of all non-metal parts and then dissolved in a combination of hydrochloric and nitric acid. They found that the aerogel absorbed gold ions from the liquidised e-waste. After drying and burning the aerogel scaffolding, Mezzenga and his team recovered whole gold nuggets of more than 90 per cent purity, equivalent to 22 carats, with most of the remainder of the nugget consisting of copper.”
The process is great because it has low overhead, as it uses two waste products to accomplish the results. Plus, it’s way less toxic than traditional recovery processes. But it isn’t quite as effective, as the 10 per cent of copper left in the nuggets attests. (I wonder if this can be mitigated by using recycled metals for applications that don’t require complete purity?) Either way, this is a fascinating advancement in recycling, and a really cool use of something I’d sniff a carton of and regretfully toss!
Tomato lovers rejoice! Science has discovered a new feature of the tangy, antioxidant-filled fruit (technically, berry) that makes sauces, salads, and airplane beverage service such a delight. A team of Cornell microbiologists tested tomato juice’s bacteria-killing abilities, and found it startlingly effective at taking out one of the evillest food-borne pathogens out there, Salmonella enterica Typhi. This form of Salmonella not only causes the traditional violent gastric upheaval of food poisoning, but when it escapes the digestive tract and enters the bloodstream, it causes typhoid fever. ”
Typhoid is a giant public health problem in parts of the world where sanitation and access to clean water are in flux – usually places where malnutrition is common too. So researchers looked to kill two birds with one tomato and see if the nutritional powerhouse could have an effect on food-borne illness. And (contrary to at least my original assumption) it wasn’t the acidity that did it!
“The researchers scanned the genome of tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) looking for genes encoding small proteins called peptides that might act as antimicrobial agents.
From four initial candidates, the team identified two antimicrobial peptides that inhibited the growth of Salmonella Typhi and even killed off a strain resistant to ciprofloxacin, the primary antibiotic used to treat typhoid fever.
Lastly, the researchers modeled the shape of their two lead candidate peptides and simulated their interactions with the bacterial cell membranes. As the modeling predicted, the two peptides ruptured Salmonella Typhi’s cell membranes in just 45 minutes.”
In addition, the peptides successfully killed off Salmonella typhimurium, a cousin of the lethal kind that just gives you regular ol’ food poisoning. While these results are from pitting peptides against microbes in a lab, and may not be as spectacular on the battlefront of a full digestive system, it’s a pretty cool indicator of how eating your vegetables (or fruits) can be good for you in unexpected ways!
I have to confess I loathe a self-checkout. They’re buggy, frustratingly slow, and a tragic sign that businesses are willing to take livelihoods away from real people in the name of commerce. I can feel my cells dying when the sensor accidentally double-scans my liter of milk and I have to wait ages for a poor, run-off-ther-feet clerk to restore justice to the world. But I was resigned to what seemed like a certain fate: With our mania for integrating technology into our lives, the self-checkout was unfortunately here to stay. 
But, according to the venerable BBC, the future of the technology is far more complicated. It seems that the multi-million dollar investment in the supermarket’s Next Big Thing (that started in the ’90s!) has peaked. Users and proprietors alike have a variety of reasons to have had it up to here with the self-serve kiosks. For the former, see my above litany of flaws! And for the latter, they can facilitate outright fraud (remember that whole “ring everything in as bananas” hack?).
“In a 2021 survey of 1,000 American shoppers, 60% of consumers said they prefer to use self-checkout over a staffed checkout aisle when given the choice, yet 67% of consumers have had the technology fail while trying to use it.
The bottom line is businesses want to cut costs, and shoppers want to get in and out of a store. If self-checkout isn’t the answer, they’ll find another avenue.
‘It’s not that self-checkout technology is good or bad, per se… [but] if we try self-checkout and realize we’re not benefiting from it, we might switch back to not using it,’ says Amit Kumar, an assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas, who studies consumer behaviour and decision-making.
That appears to be happening in many cases, as customers’ frustrations with the technology persist. But [sociology professor Christopher] Andrews says that while stores may change up their strategies – as seen with Dollar General and others – many large retail chains are likely to keep kiosks in stores due to sunk costs. ‘They spent billions putting it in stores, and are hoping they can still get the public to buy into it,’ he says.
While the shine is off this particular apple, stores seem to be willing to offer more opportunities to choose between staffed and unstaffed checkouts, versus throwing the tech to the curb entirely. What a capitalist choice, putting both options in the hands of consumers and seeing which come out on top! I know I’m in camp Have a Lovely Chat About the Weather with a Living Human over here. But either way, we consumers will come out of it with our groceries, one way or another!
Good thing I have well-mannered friends, otherwise I’d have to keep this dispatch in mind during my next party! Bon Appetit has done a recent deep dive into the real science behind double dipping. The act of dunking, say, a corn chip into a bowl of salsa, biting off the dipped part, and then going back for more with the saliva-bedecked Tostito is all well and good if you’re on your own. (Add a rainstorm outside and a good book, and that’s what I call a perfect afternoon!) But at a shindig with others, it’s a recipe for rudeness – if not bacterial transmission.
The article cites a study from Clemson University, in which the students involved first dipped bitten crackers in plain water, then in water where the pH was lowered to mimic the acidity of common snack dips. The bitten cracker delivered about 1000 more bacteria per millilitre of water than the control (unbitten) cracker. When a bitten cracker was dipped into the acidic water, the initial measurements were similar, but some of the bacteria were killed off by the acid over a two-hour wait.
“Lastly, the focus shifted to various dips: salsa, chocolate syrup, and jarred cheese dip, each differing in pH and viscosity. The researchers found that when ‘clean’ crackers were used, the dips harbored negligible additional bacteria. However, after being exposed to a double-dipped cracker, the amount of germs harbored in each dip also differed: Salsa accumulated approximately five times more bacteria than the chocolate and cheese dips. And two hours later, the bacterial counts in the salsa reduced to levels similar to the other dips.
This can be explained by a couple of factors: A thin dip like salsa is more likely to drip from your bitten chip back into the communal dip, dragging your lurgies along with it. ‘In a thicker food the bacteria are going to be more immobilized and not spread throughout the dip,’ [food scientist Dr. Donald] Schaffner says. But salsa is also more acidic than the others, obliterating some of the bacteria over time.”
Bacterial levels in dips can also be affected by what kind of bacteria your double dipper has in their mouth, how much of it, and the temperature at which the dips are served. Having the details laid out in black and white by such a simple experiment is quite illuminating. It seems this time-honoured point of etiquette has a scientific basis. Even if it didn’t I’d still single dip at parties – but in my own home, that salsa is mine!
The only time I’ve really thought about my tongue is when I’ve burned it on hot soup or pizza or coffee, and then that unpleasant numb and sandpapery sensation gets in the way of all the awesome things I want to taste for a day or two. Otherwise, it’s justmy words and staying out of the way of my teeth, and doing a bunch of actually really complex and difficult stuff completely unconsciously… Now that I think about it, go tongues!
Researchers have discovered another superpower the muscular mouth organ can add to its list: Each has a distinctive “tongue print,” likened to a fingerprint, that may tell the secrets of the human its attached to. The University of Edinburgh-based team used AI to analyze silicone casts of fifteen subjects’ tongues, taking microscopic scans and creating comprehensive maps of their taste buds. There were some surprising predictive results.
“The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, found that a single papilla could predict someone’s gender and age with moderate accuracy, up to 67% – 75%, and even the specific individual could be identified from the 15 study participants with about 48% accuracy (a random predictor would have an accuracy of just 6.66%).
While further studies are needed to confirm this in larger numbers of people, the study provides some of the first evidence that tongue papillae could act as unique identifiers, the authors said. […]
Studying how the distribution of papillae varies across individuals and populations could provide new insights into why certain people or groups like some foods more than others, and how tongue features correlate with various medical conditions.”
This phenomenon could be a boon to the nutrition of the future as well, helping scientists understand how a food is interpreted by different tongues in order to pare down the fat content without losing flavour, for example. The hardworking, humble tongue has some mysteries left; it’s up to us to become aware of the miracle in our mouths, and crack them!