Plant-based seafood alternatives should have similar flavors, textures and nutritional content to the foods they mimic. And recreating the properties of fried calamari rings, which have a neutral flavor and a firm, chewy texture after being cooked, has been a challenge. Building off previous research, a team publishing in ACS Food Science & Technology describes successfully using plant-based ingredients to mimic calamari that matches the real seafood’s characteristic softness and elasticity.

Scientists developed a machine-learning tool that can teach itself, with minimal external guidance, to differentiate between aerial images of flowering and nonflowering grasses — an advance that will greatly increase the pace of agricultural field research, they say. The work was conducted using images of thousands of varieties of Miscanthus grasses, each of which has its own flowering traits and timing.

An international team led by researchers from Empa and EPFL has explored how in future aerial robots could process construction materials precisely in the air – an approach with great potential for difficult-to-access locations or work at great heights. The flying robots are not intended to replace existing systems on the ground, but rather to complement them in a targeted manner for repairs or in disaster areas, for instance.

 

Two-dimensional porphyrin-based COFs show great promise for photocatalytic CO₂ reduction, yet their π-π stacking often impedes active site exposure and charge transfer. Researchers developed a series of porphyrin COFs with tunably twisted linkers. The N-N-linked twisted unit in NN-Por-COF creates a remarkably undulating layered structure that enhances mass transport and exposes more active sites, while simultaneously modulating the electronic structure of cobalt-porphyrin to reduce reaction barriers. This dual structural and electronic optimization yields outstanding photocatalytic performance, achieving CO production rates of 22.38 and 3.02 mmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ under pure and 10% CO₂, respectively, surpassing most porphyrin-based photocatalysts.

A research team from Helmholtz Munich, the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the TUM University Hospital has developed DeepNeo, an AI-powered algorithm that automates the process of analyzing coronary stents after implantation. The tool matches medical expert accuracy while significantly reducing assessment time. With strong validation in both human and animal models, DeepNeo has the potential to standardize monitoring after stent implantation and thus improve cardiovascular treatment outcomes.

Researchers from the Laboratory of Systems Biology, Department of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), Estonia, recently found that the extent of AMPK activation is not the same in all muscles. The muscles in our body are different, as they are adapted to the work they perform. Muscles performing continuous work, such as the heart and postural muscles that keep us upright all day, have more mitochondria that make ATP to fuel the work.

High-starch algae are important in biofuel production, as a feed supplement in agriculture and as an efficient way to bind carbon dioxide. Researchers have now found a new method to control starch storage in algae - a finding with potential applications in areas such reducing greenhouse gases. “Modifying a blue light-activated signalling pathway makes it possible to regulate storage. This offers a significantly higher yield than traditional methods that rely on nutrient deprivation,” says Dimitris Petroutsos, Associate Professor at Uppsala University, who led the study recently published in Nature Communications.