COLUMBUS, Ohio–There is money to be made – and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – by finding a second life for the potato peels, fried dough particles, cheese whey and other industrial food-processing waste products that routinely end up in landfills, according to new research.
Scientists have taken the first step at estimating the best large-scale uses for food processing waste, first analyzing its contents and, based on those findings, proposing production opportunities ranging from sustainable fuels, biogas and electricity to useful chemicals and organic fertilizer.
This work is known as valorization, or determining the potential value of something “that is otherwise valueless or even a drain on resources for a company – when you have to...
COLUMBUS, Ohio–Wildlife researchers have completed a study that may settle the question of why, in October 2009, a group of coyotes launched an unprovoked fatal attack on a young woman who was hiking in a Canadian park.
By analyzing coyote diets and their movement in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, where the attack occurred on a popular trail, the researchers concluded that the coyotes were forced to rely on moose instead of smaller mammals for the bulk of their diet – and as a result of adapting to that unusually large food source, perceived a lone hiker as potential prey.
The findings essentially ruled out the possibility that overexposure to people or attraction to human food could have been a factor in the attack – instead, heavy snowfall, high...
COLUMBUS, Ohio–“Smart surveillance” for viral spillover from animals to humans, targeted preparedness and drug and vaccine research, and worldwide cooperation on surveillance and stopping disease spread are required to reduce deaths and lessen the economic consequences of the next pandemic, according to an international team of scientists.
In a perspective article published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the 14 experts cite virus pandemics dating from 1918 to the COVID-19 crisis as examples of how “the world has largely failed to meet the challenge to be better prepared to prevent or respond to the next outbreak.”
Future outbreaks are inevitable. The team says the best way to lower chances for...
COLUMBUS, Ohio–The high heat and low water conditions produced by global warming weaken pine trees’ resistance to disease by hindering their ability to mount an effective defense at the same time that pathogenic fungi in their tissues become more aggressive, new research suggests.
The study is the first to simultaneously examine metabolic gene expression in both host trees and the pathogens attacking them under normal and climate-change conditions. The findings help explain the mechanisms behind what has become a well-known fact: The warming world makes trees more susceptible to disease.
The study was conducted on Austrian pines, which are native to southern Europe and used ornamentally in the United States. Researchers tested climate change conditions’ effects on...