Seafood from the lab – will consumers like it?
Whereas the artificial hamburger has been launched with a lot of fuss a few years ago, artificial seafood has been developed in relative quiet. But it may come to the market much sooner. Texture and taste seem to be good, already. Prices come down fast. But will the consumer like seafood from the lab? Seafood
Biobased aromatics: Europe leads the way
Last month, Chemical and Engineering News devoted an article to biobased aromatics: aromatic compounds derived from biobased resources. Much is going on here. This developing sector holds the promise that it will be able to produce aromatic compounds cheaper than the oil industry, and sustainably as well. As Vito’s Ludo Diels, one of the researchers
Insects: now it’s the time to cherish our little friends
The decline of insects has been well established now. It concerns both their abundance and their diversity, and spans all continents. If they decline even more, we will run into unknown risks, because we depend on them in many ways, partly unknown. We know enough to act now. Let’s build environments in which our little
Could reforestation stop climate change?
A publication in Science last year triggered a debate: can we stop climate change by planting billions of trees? These trees would capture CO2 and in so doing, save the earth from overheating. Indeed: trees planted in sufficient numbers could stop global heating. But wouldn’t such a scheme of reforestation end up in a technical
Global warming: businessmen and central bankers come to the rescue
Figures on global 2019 climate have come in and global warming does not seem to slow down. Many new records were set, like that on ocean water temperatures. That 2019 is not the hottest year on record is only due to a very slight El Niño effect in 2019 (as opposed to the hottest year
Carbon storage in the soil
The Conversation, that invaluable source of balanced information, ran an article on carbon storage in the soil. Potentially, one of our main instruments for controlling the rise of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. But present developments point the other way: carbon emissions and soil depletion, at a pace that might even harm the world’s agricultural
CRISPR to the rescue as bacteria develop antibiotics resistance
Antibiotics resistance of harmful organisms becomes a major problem – in agriculture, in human and veterinary medicine. Scientists now try to come up with new methods. They think that CRISPR (discovered less than 10 years ago) might be a solution. Scientists don’t often highlight it, but resistance of harmful organisms to our drugs is becoming
Nature as our teacher!
Reading the book Naturally! Of course. How nature always keeps surprising us (in Dutch) by Alle Bruggink and Diederik van der Hoeven was a great pleasure to me. Even stronger, I studied it with great interest. Almost all subjects have my active interest, and they have done so for years already. A personally coloured book
on: 11 January 2020