yeast

Everybody’s Making Sourdough in 2020 But My Sister’s Is the Nerdiest

There are a few universal truths in this world. Water is wet, the Earth is round, and there will always be things your siblings do better than you. In my case, my older sister Christine Elderkin-Campos bakes delicious homemade sourdough. As if that weren’t enough, she’s also taken to stenciling her creations with nerdy art.…

Movies Beth Elderkin Oct 23

Can You Brew Beer On the Moon?

When some apocalyptic event in the very near future forces humans scurrying to another planet, we’re probably going to have the same question. Can we still get shitfaced? A team of University of California, San Diego students are competing to send an experiment aboard a spacecraft built by Indian startup TeamIndus, which received a million…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum Jan 20

This Machine Hopes To Make Engineering Pharmaceuticals More Portable

If you’re a doctor working in a remote area or on the battlefield, getting access to medications can be tough. That may sound like the start of a commercial, but it’s a sometimes tragic fact. As far as we’ve come in the history of medicine, treatment isn’t as portable as we would like. A team…

Tech News Carli Velocci Jul 30

How You Could Fool a Forensic Test with Flour and Yeast

There’s a basic test used to identify bodily secretions at crime scenes. It’s not the only test, but it is useful in primary investigations—unless you spill a lot of commercial flour around. Your mouth is perpetually full of amylase, which isn’t a bad thing. Amylase is an enzyme that attacks starch, breaking it down into…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 30

Now We Can Use Microbes to Make Designer Chocolate Flavors

Chocolatiers use yeasts to ferment the cocoa when making their tasty confections, which helps guard against the occasional bad-tasting batch. Those same yeasts can also be used to alter the aroma, providing a new means of making designer chocolate tailored to match your favorite flavors. Before cocoa beans are ground up, purified, melted, and combined…

Tech News Esther Inglis-Arkell Nov 20

Scientists Can Now Make THC from Yeast

Yeast is an incredible organism—you can thank it for booze!—and thanks to the marvels of modern genetics, we’ve made it incredibly versatile. Just a month after announcing a method for hacking yeast to produce narcotics, researchers just announced that the creation of yeast that produces THC and cannabidiols. You’re probably thinking this will yield a…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Sep 14

Scientists Have Hacked Yeast to Produce Narcotics

Yeast, that magical microorganism that provideth bread and beer, can now make narcotics, too. In a much-anticipated update, a team of scientists from Stanford University has engineered a strain of common brewer’s yeast to turn simple sugars into opioid drugs. Last year, bioengineer Christina Smolke announced that her lab had coaxed yeast into producing precursors…

Tech News Maddie Stone Aug 14

The Only Reason Why Your Scotch Doesn’t Taste Like Meat And Bad Eggs

Your drink is the result of a battle between chemistry and biology. Lucky for you, chemistry won. That’s why your glass of scotch doesn’t taste like rotten eggs and stinky meat. Yeasts are hardy creatures. You can set them adrift on the air or plunge them in water. You can dry them up and cool…

Books & Comics Esther Inglis-Arkell May 7

Meet The First Man To Put Beer Under A Microscope

The man in the picture is considered the “Father of Microbiology.” He helped to discover and sketch microorganisms. When he turned his microscope on beer, he saw some of the most useful microorganisms in the world — but he failed to recognize them. This man above is Anton van Leeuwenhoek, and he’s wearing an absolutely…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Apr 7

Coming Soon: Beer Brewed With Space Yeast

Beginning April 13, you’ll have a chance to try Ninkasi Brewing Company’s “Ground Control,” an imperial stout brewed with yeast that, last year, traveled to space. Here are the details, via Eugene Oregon based Ninkasi Brewing Co.: In 2014, the brewery’s co-founders embarked on a new kind of mission – the Ninkasi Space Program (NSP),…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 19

A Perfume That Smells Like Roses—But Is Actually Made from Yeast

A rose is a rose is a rose, except when it’s actually a yeast. A company called Ginkgo BioWorks in Boston is partnering with French fragrance company Robertet to create a genetically-modified yeast that makes the rose oil used in perfumes. Why go through all the trouble of recreating rose oil with yeast? The goal…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Mar 5

The Harmonious Ecosystem That You Destroy To Make Bread

A loaf of bread isn’t fluffed up by chemistry alone. It’s slowly built up by colonies of yeast, which you heartlessly extinguish when you bake the dough in the oven. There’s an ecosystem in every loaf, and a special kind of loaf, sourdough, is built by a special kind of ecology. If you make bread…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 23

Using Yeast DNA To Unlock a Better Beer

Beer may be as old as civilization itself, but modern molecular biology could teach craft brewers some new tricks. Troels Prahl, a brewer and microbiologist with White Labs, is currently analyzing the full DNA sequences of yeast from 2500 batches of beer in hopes of finding the yeast genes that explain why a lager becomes…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Jun 27

This substance is the secret to drink alcohol without getting drunk

Well, this could change things. Apparently there’s a secret method to drinking alcohol without getting drunk. All you have to do is eat some yeast before you drink. Seriously. Line your stomach with a teaspoon of yeast for every beer you plan to drink and you’ll be able to drink all night without acting like…

Sploid Casey Chan Apr 25

Science gets closer to artificial life with first synthetic chromosome

Science, man. An international team of scientists have made a major breakthrough in synthetic biology. For the first time ever, they were able to insert a man-made, custom-built chromosome into brewer’s yeast to not only create a life form but one that also passes down its man-made genes to its offspring. We’re closer to creating…

Sploid Casey Chan Mar 27

Why do rotten foods taste so awful?

Biting into a rotten piece of fruit or meat is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. According to a 40-year-old theory, it’s because microbes have evolved to taste disgusting as a way to fend off competitors — namely you. But proving this theory has been difficult, until now. Back in 1977, ecologist Daniel Janzen proposed the idea…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 12

The deadly side of champagne bubbles

Though the “sparkling” part of champagne is a key part of it’s appeal, those tiny bubbles were a huge problem for about a century’s worth of French wine makers. We’ll let you in on the making, and the downside, of bubbles. There’s a famous legend that has the inventor of champagne, Dom Perignon, tasting his…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Sep 20

Magneto would approve of new magnetized yeast cells

Some Frankenstein yeast cells had part of their own DNA removed and some human cell tissue put in. Why did this happen? So they could be so stuffed full of iron that they’re super-magnetized and moved with magnets. Are us mere mortals far behind? Harvard Medical School scientists are pleased to announce that they’ve taken…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 1

Scientists Create Mutant Yeasts with Heavy Ion Beam, Sake Ensues

While the newly-generated variety of brewing yeast cooked up by boffins at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science doesn’t shoot laser beams or gain super-strength when you piss it off, it does apparently make a very tasty rice wine. By training its heavy ion beam at a batch of brewing yeast, yhe Radiation Biology…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Feb 20

Researchers resurrect new species of life from ancient Andean tomb

Close to 1,500 years ago, indians living in what is now Quito, Ecuador buried their most revered dead in 16-meter-deep tombs. An ancient alcoholic beverage was commonly included in these burial vaults. Now, by examining the clay vessels used to ferment and store this brew, a team of South American researchers has managed to not…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Feb 20

yeast

Everybody’s Making Sourdough in 2020 But My Sister’s Is the Nerdiest

Can You Brew Beer On the Moon?

This Machine Hopes To Make Engineering Pharmaceuticals More Portable

How You Could Fool a Forensic Test with Flour and Yeast

Now We Can Use Microbes to Make Designer Chocolate Flavors

Scientists Can Now Make THC from Yeast

Scientists Have Hacked Yeast to Produce Narcotics

The Only Reason Why Your Scotch Doesn’t Taste Like Meat And Bad Eggs

Meet The First Man To Put Beer Under A Microscope

Coming Soon: Beer Brewed With Space Yeast

A Perfume That Smells Like Roses—But Is Actually Made from Yeast

The Harmonious Ecosystem That You Destroy To Make Bread

Using Yeast DNA To Unlock a Better Beer

This substance is the secret to drink alcohol without getting drunk

Science gets closer to artificial life with first synthetic chromosome

Why do rotten foods taste so awful?

The deadly side of champagne bubbles

Magneto would approve of new magnetized yeast cells

Scientists Create Mutant Yeasts with Heavy Ion Beam, Sake Ensues

Researchers resurrect new species of life from ancient Andean tomb

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

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