World Food Prize Goes To Ohio State University Soil Scientist
The World Food Prize honors an individual’s achievements that have improved the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. This year’s winner, Rattan Lal, is a professor of soil science at Ohio State University and is the founding director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center there.
Lal’s work has focused on the principle that crop residues are essential for maintaining healthy soil by restoring depleted carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil. This approach differs from conventional soil fertility strategy, which has relied heavily on fertilizer since the 1970s. In the 1990s, Lal’s research revealed that restoring degraded soils by the increasing organic matter in it improved soil health and helped combat rising carbon dioxide levels by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil. “Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,” World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson said.
Parental Restrictions Lead To Picky Eating, Study Says
A new study published in the journal Pediatrics followed over 300 parent-and-child pairs for five years and found that restricting food or demanding that a child eat was associated with the most picky eating behaviors in children. Less picky eating was associated with fewer parental food restrictions and fewer demands that a child eats.
Families who participated in the study were eligible for the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Head Start program, according to the study’s senior author Dr. Megan Pesch, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. This means the families were living at or below the poverty level for a family of four. In the study, children were categorized by levels of pickiness, including low, medium, and high pickiness. Roughly 15% of the children in the study belonged to the “high” picky eater group, meaning the children were nervous about new foods and frequently would not eat vegetables.
Parents responded to questionnaires when their children reached the ages of 4, 5, 8 and 9. In the study, picky eating was clear by age 4 and continued through the five years of the study. Child health experts say the best time to introduce new foods to a baby is at six months, when the baby starts eating solid foods, adding that a variety of foods should be offered through the formative toddler years. The study showed that picky eating was associated with lower body mass index, confirming the findings of previous studies that picky eating does not cause weight gain. “Picky eaters do generally tend to eat high-carb, high-fat, hyper-palatable processed foods more,” said Dr. Pesch. “Yet studies have really shown that in developed countries, like the United States, we don’t see many — if any — micro-nutrient deficiencies in picky eaters.”
Science Can Help You Brew A Better Cup of Coffee
Christopher H. Hendon teaches computational materials chemistry at the University of Oregon. Also known as “Mr. Coffee,” Hendon puts the wisdom of his profession to work at home. His goal is to produce a consistent taste in his single daily cup of coffee. Here are his tips:
*Freeze your beans to maintain freshness, then grind them in a burr grinder. The frozen beans will break into similarly sized chunks for even flavor extraction. Determine your grind setting by trial-and-error, changing it until you find the optimal setting for your brewing device. Finer grinds tend to work best for drip brewing, while coarser grinds work best for immersion brewing.
*Use a ratio of 60 grams of coffee to one liter of water, which works for both immersion brewing and drip brewing.
*For the most flavor extraction and foolproof brewing, choose a brewing device that fully immerses the beans in the water, such as a French press.
*Use soft tap water heated to a temperature just below boiling (195 to 205ºF), as recommended by the National Coffee Association, and brew for two to four minutes for French press or about five minutes for drip coffee.
Physicists Create Iridescent Chocolate That Shimmers Like a Rainbow
Samy Kamkar, the founder of internet security company Openpath, has been experimenting with a new kind of chocolate that has a mesmerizing appearance. Kamkar developed a 3-D model for casting with a saw-tooth pattern at its base. He then tempered his chocolate and pressurized it in a vacuum chamber (a step he isn’t sure is 100% necessary). Kamkar’s cast results in chocolate with numerous surface lines and edges that make diffracted light the most visible light, giving the chocolate an iridescent appearance. Harvard physics professor Dr. David A. Weitz claims that Kamkar’s saw-tooth pattern isn’t strictly necessary, as any uniform pattern of parallel lines spaced in proximity to the wavelength of light will create the iridescent effect.
Swiss researchers have also been working on iridescent chocolate for two and a half years. Some use the same technique as Kamkar and plan to bring the chocolate to market soon. Their obstacle, however, is convincing consumers that no artificial coloring or additives have been applied to the surface of the chocolate. “People think that there is a plastic foil on top, which is not the case,” says Patrick Rühs, a Zurich food scientist. For those interested in making chocolate that shimmers like a rainbow, Kamkar will soon release a video tutorial showing people how to make his iridescent chocolate at home.
Gas-X For Cows Could Make Beef and Dairy Cattle More Environmentally Friendly
Methane accounts for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, second only to carbon dioxide. When viewed as a country, cattle rank as the world’s sixth-largest methane emitter, ahead of Brazil, Japan and Germany, according to research firm Rhodium Group. To address the problem, several companies are currently testing products that reduce the amount of methane emitted by beef and dairy cattle.
Swiss company Mootral created a dietary supplement consisting of garlic, citrus and other compounds that consistently reduces the animal’s toxic output when added to its feed. Mootral has yet to demonstrate that its product is effective in different breeds of cattle and in different climates. Another challenge: the company’s business model relies on livestock and dairy companies accumulating and selling carbon-offset credits. But if Mootral or a competing company’s product continues to show promise, the dietary supplement could swiftly lead to fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Watch A Former Rocket Scientist Make Top-Notch Copper Cookware
Copper conducts electricity and heat faster than steel, aluminum, and most other materials. That’s why copper pots and pans are among the best you can buy: they respond quickly to temperature changes, making it easy to go from a rolling boil to a gentle simmer in seconds. But how is copper cookware made? Former aerospace engineer Jim Hamann shows you all the little details.
Hamann has been handcrafting copper cookware for more than 15 years. He makes his Duparquet line of cookware by first cutting a large disc of copper and trimming it on a lathe. Most of the disc becomes the bottom of the pan. To form the sides, he fits the disk onto a form on the lathe then manually bends the copper around the form using levers as the disk spins. Steady, even pressure is the key to straight sides, since the more that copper is worked, the stiffer it becomes. Next, holes are drilled into the side to attach a cast-iron handle with copper rivets, which are heat-softened then hand hammered into place. Hamann lines the interior with tin by melting the tin then evenly spread it by hand. After a final polish, the pans are ready for cooking up anything you can imagine. Watch Hamann demonstrate and discuss the process in this fascinating YouTube video.
