2024 March

If you have ever been unlucky enough to get stuck on a poorly ventilated form of public transport just as a pack of high schoolers get on board after a long day, you will know that teenagers smell bad. It’s an objective fact. They stink.

Here are 13 facts about cheese you should know -- from what's in that bloomy rind to the cheese that's too stinky to carry on public transit.

While both huckleberries and blueberries are known for having a similar blue hue, and can be swapped in some recipes, there are a few notable differences.

If you assumed that Guinness or strong Irish whiskey were the definitive best alcoholic beverages of Ireland, there's an important drink left out: poitin.

A new approach is gaining momentum in European agriculture: a "third way" that lies between conventional production and organic farming systems. Here farmers must forego synthetic pesticides only—which ...

Very surprising!

A new study suggests that python meat is a more sustainable protein source option. Read to learn more.

What if there’s no experiment to work out which theory of consciousness is correct?

Future varieties could be yellow-green, reddish-brown-pink, or light blue.

Go ahead, eat some ants. We triple dog dare you.

You may see ricotta and mascarpone used interchangeably, but these two Italian cheese are not the same. Here's how they differ in taste, texture, and process.

Nearly 70 "forever chemicals", also known as PFAS, are commonly found in materials that come into contact with food, some of which have been linked to negative health outcomes

Academic journals have been caught publishing papers that were clearly written by ChatGPT — and at least one has yet to retract.

Research Highlights: A study of over 20,000 adults found that those who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating schedule, a type of intermittent fasting, had a 91% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. People with heart disease or cancer ...

Award winning actor Gillian Anderson is harnessing the power of botanicals to cater to an underserved market. We ask which ingredients align to which need state.

Chocolate prices rise in the run up to Easter after high temperatures curb cocoa crops in West Africa.

Here's what's happening.

Eugenol, the main component of essential oil from the Syzygium aromaticum clove tree, has great potential as an alternative bioresource feedstock for biosynthesis purposes. Although eugenol degradation to ferulic acid was investigated, an efficient method for directly converting eugenol to targeted natural products has not been established. Herein we identified the inherent inhibitions by simply combining the previously reported ferulic acid biosynthetic pathway and vanillin biosynthetic pathway. To overcome this, we developed a novel biosynthetic pathway for converting eugenol into vanillin, by introducing cinnamoyl-CoA reductase (CCR), which catalyzes conversion of coniferyl aldehyde to feruloyl-CoA. This approach bypasses the need for two catalysts, namely coniferyl aldehyde dehydrogenase and feruloyl-CoA synthetase, thereby eliminating inhibition while simplifying the pathway. To further improve efficiency, we enhanced CCR catalytic efficiency via directed evolution and leveraged an artificialvanillin biosensor for high-throughput screening. Switching the cofactor preference of CCR from NADP+ to NAD+ significantly improved pathway efficiency. This newly designed pathway provides an alternative strategy for efficiently biosynthesizing feruloyl-CoA-derived natural products using eugenol.

Above and below: Schematic of the target pattern created in the right figure; blue dots are the position of active posts, and the pink dots are the stagnation points. When PNPP is added to the solution, the AP-coated posts react and create a mandala-like pattern. (M. Mosnadi)

While more Americans report following plant-rich diets, they also are consuming more meat, according to new research.

Lauréate du prix Irène Joliot-Curie 2023 dans la catégorie « Jeune femme scientifique », cette chimiste est parvenue à reproduire la toute première structure expérimentale d’un récepteur olfactif

What's going on?

Have you ever wondered what all 1,000+ Pokémon smell like? Because we have. With the news of a weird AI smell-o-vision device called GameScent, we’ve rounded up a list of which game worlds we’re most curious to get a whiff of – for better or worse.

If "Cajun-style" only makes you think of spicy chicken sandwiches and popcorn shrimp, you need to join us in the Big Easy this episode, to meet the real Cajun flavor.

Scent training could make pet dogs better behaved, suggests a study by Aberystwyth University academics published in Animals.

As these rare beauties grow in popularity, it's the perfect time to do a breakdown of Bolivian tree tomatoes and ways to incorporate them into everyday life.

With animal-free dairy products and convincing vegetarian meat substitutes already on the market, it's easy to see how biotechnology can change the food industry. Advances in genetic engineering are allowing ...

A critical molecule for the metabolism of living organisms has been synthesized for the first time by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers at low temperatures (10 K) on ice coated nanoparticles ...

This study investigated the effects of chewing rate and food composition on in vivo aroma release and perception of composite foods. Bread or sponge cake paired with varying sugar content and viscosity strawberry jams, spiked with citral and limonene, were examined. In-nose release was characterized using Proton-Transfer-Reaction-Time-of-Flight-Mass-Spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS). Simultaneously, Time-Intensity (TI) profiling assessed citrus aroma perception (n = 8, triplicate) while fast and slow chewing protocols were applied (fast: 1.33 chews/s; slow 0.66 chews/s; each for 25 s). Chewing rate did not significantly impact the area under the curve and maximum intensity of in vivo citral and limonene release and citrus aroma perception. Faster chewing rates significantly decreased the time to reach maximum intensity of aroma release (p 0.05) and citrus aroma perception (p 0.001). Faster chewing rates probably accelerated structural breakdown, inducing an earlier aroma release and perception without affecting aroma intensity. Adding carriers to jams significantly (p 0.05) increased aroma release, while perceived citrus aroma intensity significantly (p 0.05) decreased regardless of chewing rate. In conclusion, chewing rate affects the temporality of in vivo aroma release and perception without affecting its intensity, and carrier addition increases in vivo aroma release while diminishing aroma perception.