Meat grown in the laboratory makes historic debut in Singapore

SINGAPORE ― Lab-grown chicken meat made a historic debut at a Singapore restaurant today in a culinary first that its creators said could help reduce the environmental damage involved in human food production.

US start-up Eat Just said earlier this month that its product had been approved for sale in the city-state as an ingredient in chicken nuggets after Singapore became the first country to allow the sale of meat created without slaughtering any animals.

Consumption of animals is an environmental threat as cattle produce the potent greenhouse gas methane, while logging to create pastures destroys natural barriers against climate change.

The company on Wednesday said it had made its first commercial sale of the product to 1880, a restaurant in Singapore's Robertson Quay, a posh riverside entertainment centre.

This undated handout from Eat Just released on December 19, 2020 shows a nugget made from lab-grown chicken meat at a restaurant in Singapore, which became the first country to allow meat created without slaughtering any animals to be sold. ― AFP pic

The restaurant began serving the cultured meat this evening, saying its first diners were students aged 14-18 who had been invited to the launch after showing “a commitment to building a better planet”.

The launch, however, was closed to the media because of measures against the coronavirus.

Entrepreneur Marc Nicholson, who founded 1880, described serving cultured meat as a “revolutionary step towards solving climate change and creating the opportunity to feed the world without overwhelming the planet”.

Eat Just chief executive Josh Tetrick said this week that the launch “moves us closer to a world where the majority of meat we eat will not require tearing down a single forest, displacing a single animal's habitat or using a single drop of antibiotics”.

Demand for sustainable meat alternatives is rising due to growing concerns from consumers about the environment and animal welfare, but other products on the market are plant-based.

Meat consumption is projected to increase more than 70 per cent by 2050, and lab-grown alternatives have a role to play in ensuring a secure food supply, the company said.

There were concerns that lab-grown varieties would be too expensive, but a spokesman for Eat Just said the company had made “considerable progress” in lowering the cost. ― AFP

Source: The Malay Mail
Dec 19, 2020

This tape is so sticky it can hold up a 42-inch TV

The next time you buy a LED TV, you may not need to drill a damaging holes on your wall. Especially if your wall have surfaces made of glass, all you need is a gecko-tape and you can easily hang your super-sized TV on it. Don't worry, your TV could just be 20kg at the most.





Gecko inspired sticky tape in action


For years man has been fascinated by the ability of geckos to run up walls feeling absolutely at home. Now a gecko-inspired sticky tape has been developed that could do everything from sticking a TV to a wall to holding parts of a car together. No kidding.

Not only is ‘Geckskin’ incredibly sticky stuff – capable of fixing 300kg to a flat surface – it can also be released with a gentle tug, and reused over 100 times without losing its strength.

Previous attempts to construct such an adhesive focused on mimicking the microscopic hairs that cover gecko toes. But it proved difficult to make larger pieces of these fabrics. Instead Geckskin, developed at the University of Massachusetts, Amhurst, employs other properties of gecko feet to impart its sticking ability- it is incredibly tough while being flexible enough to make close contact with whatever surface it’s sticking to.

In a demonstration of its abilities, the material was used to fix a 42-inch flat screen TV to a glass surface (refer to the above figure).

A thin rubbery polymer layer in Geckskin sticks to the glass because of van der Waals forces – an attraction between the molecules of the two surfaces. As the polymer is so flexible, it moulds to the glass surface, maximising contact between the molecules in the glass and polymer.

A stiff carbon fibre fabric provides the other important property of gecko feetstrength.

A synthetic tendon is stitched into the material that’s stuck to the wall. This is attached to the television’s mounting bracket.

Source: TheGreen Mechanics

Mechanical gears: insects got there first

When it comes to engineering, humans are an innovative bunch.

 

But sometimes, it turns out that the natural world got there first. Scientists have discovered that a certain type of plant-hopping insect boasts mechanical gears that are astonishingly similar to those in our bikes and car gearboxes.

Scanning electron micrograph image of the tiny insect gears (image credit: Malcolm Burrows)

 

 

Researchers in the UK made the discovery after filming high-speed videos of the Issus coleoptratus nymph as it jumped. They noticed that the young insects sported curved strips of gear teeth on their hind legs.

 

Before leaping forward, the baby planthoppers lock together these tiny gears. The researchers say that this ensures both legs move simultaneously - within a fraction of a second of each other - propelling the insect powerfully from leaf to leaf.

 

"We usually think of gears as something that we see in human-designed machinery," said Gregory Sutton at the University of Bristol, "but we've found that this is only because we didn't look hard enough."

The baby plant-hopping Issus coleoptratus (image credit: Malcolm Burrows)

 

 

Interestingly, the gears are only found in the nymph stage of the insect – they disappear when the insect undergoes its final moult to become an adult. It’s not known why they vanish, but it may be because any damage to the gear teeth during adulthood would reduce the mechanism's effectiveness.

 

These incredible gears are the very first example of a functional cog mechanism in nature – proof that evolution is perhaps the best engineer of all.

Source: Science Focus

FGV mulakan pengeluaran komersil biodiesel di Kuantan

KUANTAN:  Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGVH) merancang memulakan pengeluaran komersil biodiesel di kilangnya di Kuantan bulan depan.

Kilang menelan kos RM 35 juta itu yang dibeli pada April lepas, beroperasi sejak 1 Julai, 2013.

Ketua Pegawai Eksekutifnya, Dr Emir Mavani Abdullah berkata perniagaan baharu itu sejajar dengan strategi FGVH menggerakkan lagi perniagaan hilirannya dalam usaha untuk melindungi perniagaan huluannya.

"Kami telahpun berada di tahap pengeluaran akhir. Kini kami sedang menguji produk dan akan memulakan pengeluaran komersil, harapnya dalam tempoh dua atau tiga minggu akan datang," katanya pada majlis rumah terbuka Hari Raya syarikat di sini, Selasa.

Beliau berkata FGVH juga membentuk sebuah syarikat konsortium dengan Sime Darby Bhd, yang dinamakan Biodiesel Malaysia Sdn Bhd, untuk meningkatkan lagi industri.

Pengerusinya Tan Sri Isa Samad berkata penubuhan konsortium tersebut bertujuan untuk mengurangkan simpanan stok minyak sawit mentah (MSM) negara bagi menyokong harga.

Ini, katanya, merupakan sebahagian daripada usaha untuk mengurangkan stok kerana disebabkan bekalan yang terlampau banyak bukan sahaja di Malaysia dan Indonesia, ia akan menyebabkan permintaan menjadi kurang, yang seterusnya membawa kepada penurunan harga.

FGVH dan Sime Darby setiap satu memegang 32 peratus pegangan dalam konsortium itu.

Pegangan selebihnya diperuntukkan bagi syarikat perladangan, peserta biodiesel dan pelabur lain.

Isa berkata FGVH masih sedang mencari pelabur yang sesuai untuk menyertai konsortium itu bagi mengembangkan pasaran biodiesel b5 dan b10, dalam dan luar negara.

- BERNAMA 

Penyakit kencing tikus ancam manusia

KUALA LUMPUR:  Penyakit bawaan haiwan mamalia iaitu tikus menerusi air kencingnya atau leptospirosis kini semakin menular.

Ini kerana meskipun statistik Kementerian Kesihatan menunjukkan penurunan kadar kematian disebabkan jangkitan penyakit itu menurun, namun jumlah kes jangkitan saban tahun meningkat.

Statistik jumlah kes individu yang dijangkiti bakteria leptospira pada tahun 2012 mencecah kepada 3,665 kes di seluruh Negara.

Tinjauan Astro AWANI di beberapa premis makanan di sekitar Bandar Kuala Lumpur mendapati persekitaran sangat kotor.

Bukan longkang yang tidak diselenggara tersumbat, malah ada juga individu yang tidak bertanggungjawab membuang sisa makanan ke dalam longkang. Bahkan tikus-tikus berkeliaran tanpa rasa takut untuk menjamah sisa makanan yang bersepah-sepah.

Premis makanan yang kotor menimbulkan ketidakpuasa hati orang ramai. Bukan sahaja pemandangan yang jelik menjadi tatapan tetapi bau busuk yang tidak menyenangkan memutuskan selera pelanggan.

Orang ramai yang ditemui menggesa agar pihak peniaga lebih bertanggungjawab menjaga kebersihan di premis mereka.

“Sampah kotor ini punca tikus membiak. Dimana ada makanan disitulah dia hidup. Peniaga pun kadang-kadang sambil lewa,” Kata Nordin Ali yang kesal dengan kebersihan gerai di sekitar Kuala Lumpur.

Malah katanya, jika dibiarkan berlarutan bukan sahaja mengundang penyakit kencing tikus tetapi wabak penyakit yang lebih serius.

Begitu juga dengan Philips Mathew yang ditemui Astro AWANI. Beliau dengan sinis membezakan saiz tikus yang disifatkan lebih besar dari tikus.

“Tikus sekarang lebih besar dari tikus, banyak sangat berkeliaran macam tak takut pada kita. Terlalu banyak, lagipun dengan longkang tersumbat. Bau busuk lagi,” kata Philips sambil ketawa ketika ditemubual wartawan.

Ahmad Daud Abu Bakar turut melahirkan kebimbangan yang sama lebih-lebih lagi ada premis makanan yang sekadar kelihatan bersih dibahagian luar premis sahaja.

“Kedai kenalah bersih dan Jabatan Kesihatan kenalah periksa. Ini tidak kita tengok luar bukan main bersih tetapi kalau tengok dekat dapur kotor,”

Harapan orang ramai agar peniaga lebih bertanggunjawab dalam menjaga kebersihan harapan mereka hanya satu agar semua pihak bertanggungjawab dalam menjaga kebersihan.

- Astro Awani 

World’s slowest moving drop caught on camera after 13 years of waiting

Exactly how this experiment can benefit mankind, I don't know but this is just for the sake of reading:


Bitumen caught dripping


Slowest drop caught on camera

The second-longest running science experiment in history has just yielded its strange result: a sticky, black drop of pitch.

Set up in 1944 at Trinity College Dublin, the experiment is meant to reveal the strange properties of bitumen -- pitch, or asphalt -- which appears solid at room temperature but is in fact flowing very, very slowly.

At around 5 o'clock in the afternoon on July 11, 2013, physicist Shane Bergin and colleagues recorded what Nature described as one of the most eagerly anticipated and exhilarating drips in science.

“We were all so excited,” Bergin told Nature. “It’s been such a great talking point, with colleagues eager to investigate the mechanics of the break, and the viscosity of the pitch.”

The Trinity College team estimates the pitch to be about 2 million times more viscous than honey, or 20 billion times the viscosity of water.

The origin of the experiment is lost in history, although a similar experiment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, set up in 1927, is tagged by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest running lab experiment.


Source: TGM

Minum air boleh merangsangkan otak

LONDON: Satu kajian kecil baru mendapati bahawa pelindapkejutan dahaga anda dengan air boleh memberi otak anda rangsangan.

Kajian menunjukkan bahawa subjek yang minum kira-kira tiga cawan air (24 ounces/775 mililiter) sebelum mengambil ujian kognitif menunjukkan prestasi yang lebih baik pada ujian mengukur masa tindak balas daripada yang tidak minum air. Perbezaan ini adalah amat ketara apabila subjek berasa haus, dengan penyelidik membuat spekulasi bahawa kehausan boleh mengambil perhatian daripada tugas di tangan, memperlahankan masa tindak balas.

Namun, dalam satu ujian, dalam mempelajari peraturan orang yang dahaga sebenarnya bertindak lebih baik, tetapi penyelidik tidak berapa jelas mengapa.

"Ia mungkin bahawa proses fisiologi [minum atau tidak minum air] menjejaskan prestasi kepada tugas-tugas yang berbeza dengan cara yang berbeza," Kajian penyelidik Edmonds Caroline, University of East London Sekolah Psikologi di England, LiveScience.

Beliau menambah, kedahagaan mungkin membawa kepada prestasi yang lebih baik pada beberapa tugas, kerana vasopressin hormon, yang mengaktifkan tindak balas dahaga, telah dikaitkan dengan perhatian dan rangsangan.

Dalam kajian itu, 34 subjek dewasa telah diminta untuk menahan diri daripada makanan dan minuman bermula pada pukul 9 malam sebelum datang ke makmal untuk ujian pada keesokan harinya. Dalam beberapa kes, subjek telah ditawarkan bar bijirin dengan air untuk sarapan pagi. Pada hari lain, mereka telah ditawarkan bar bijirin dengan tiada air.

Kajian sebelum ini telah mendapati bahawa penggunaan air boleh meningkatkan daya ingatan kanak-kanak, mengikut laporan LiveScience.


- AFP

Ancient inscription from King Solomon's time unearthed

A shard of pottery unearthed near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem bears an inscription that dates to the 10th century B.C. The inscription is the oldest alphabetic text found in Jerusalem and predates the earliest found Hebrew inscription in the region by 250 years.

 Jar fragment from the time of Kings David and Solomon discovered in Jerusalem

 Sphinx fragment found by Hebrew University of Jerusalem during excavation in Hazor



The enigmatic letters, which wrap around the top of a neck-less ceramic jar, were written around the time of King David or King Solomon's reign in an early form of Canaanite, not Hebrew. As a result, archaeologists believe a Jebusite or some other non-Israelite tribe member wrote the inscription.

At that time, the Israelites hadn't yet conquered the region, and Hebrew was not the dominant language of the day.

The findings are published in the current issue of the Israel Exploration Journal.

The area around Jerusalem is teeming with archaeological relics. An 11th century B.C. temple found near Jerusalem reveals evidence of fighting between Canaanites, Israelites and Philistines. And an ancient royal garden in the hills above Jerusalem was recently revived. In addition, an ancient seal depicting a man fighting a lion and possibly referencing the Biblical tale of Samson was discovered at Beth Shemesh, an archaeological site about 12 miles (20 kilometers) west of Jerusalem. That seal dates to the 12th century B.C., and was described last year by Tel Aviv University archaeologists.

The pottery was found underneath the second floor of a 10th-century B.C. building near the southern wall of the Temple Mount. The ceramics were probably used as fill for the building.

The fragment was found along with pieces of six other jars of its type. The writing, which included letters about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) tall, was inscribed into the jar before it was fired, and all the pottery pieces were likely made from clay that originated in the hills around Jerusalem.

However, the ceramic shard has just the tail end and the very beginning of the inscription left, just seven letters in all, and the meaning of those letters remains a mystery. The combination of phonetic letters has no meaning in any known languages of the region. The archaeologists suspect the inscription bears the name of the owner or the contents of the jar.

This excavation and others at the site, which is a national park open to the public, involve the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and the East Jerusalem Development Company.


Source

Apa itu Pembenihan Awan

Dengan kejadian jerebu yang melanda negara ketika ini, proses Pembenihan Awan perlu dilakukan walaupun kosnya sangat tinggi.

TERDAPAT 3 JENIS PEMBENIHAN AWAN:-

Pembenihan dinamik awan
Arus udara menegak terdorong dan lebih banyak air melalui awan. Hal ini membawa pada lebih banyak hujan. Kaedah ini mempunyai 11 peringkat yang berbeza yang terlibat dan setiap kesalahan di salah satu peringkat boleh merosakkan seluruh proses.

Pembenihan Awan Higroskopik
Bahan letupan dan flare digunakan untuk menyebarkan garam melalui bahagian bawah awan. Air tertarik pada garam dan siaznya membesar lalu turun ke bawah sebagai hujan. Teknik ini masih memerlukan banyak kajian.

Pembenihan Awan Statik
Bahan kimia iaitu silver iodide disebarkan ke dalam awan. Kelembapan yang terdapat dalam awan terkondensasi di sekitar kristal. Hal ini membuat awan lebih berkesan dalam penyebaran hujan di tempat – tempat tertentu.

Namun begitu, Pembenihan awan bergantung pada cuaca. Kehadiran awan adalah suatu kemestian.Teknik ini juga bergantung pada suhu dan komposisi awan.

Pembenihan awan amat sangat komplesk cara persediaannya dan mungkin mengambil masa beberapa tahun latihan untuk menghasilkan buah (awan).Tidak ada sistem kawalan di tempat untuk menentukan di mana hujan akan jatuh.


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