The first man-made biological leaf could enable humans to colonise space

A Real Artificial Leaf Made By Man

RCA graduate Julian Melchiorri says the synthetic biological leaf he developed, which absorbs water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen just like a plant, could enable long-distance space travel.

Silk Leaf by Julian Melchiorri

"Plants don't grow in zero gravity," explainsMelchiorri. "NASA is researching different ways to produce oxygen for long-distance space journeys to let us live in space. This material could allow us t0 explore space much further than we can now."

Melchiorri's Silk Leaf project, which he developed as part of the Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering course in collaboration with Tufts University silk lab, consists of chloroplasts suspended in a matrix made out of silk protein.

Chloroplasts

"The material is extracted directly from the fibres of silk," Melchiorri explains. "This material has an amazing property of stabilising molecules. I extracted chloroplasts from plant cells and placed them inside this silk protein. As an outcome I have the first photosynthetic material that is living and breathing as a leaf does."

Related story: "Growing a city from the bottom up" could save the human race

Chloroplasts suspended in silk protein

Like the leaves of a plant, all Melchiorri's Silk Leaf needs to produce oxygen is light and a small amount of water.

Silk Leaf lamps by Julian Melchiorri

"Silk Leaf is the first man-made biological leaf," he claims. "It's very light, low energy-consuming, it's completely biological."

Photosynthetic Facade

Visualisation of a photosynthetic facade by Julian Melchiorri

"My idea was to use the efficiency of nature in a man-made environment," he explained. "I created some lighting out of this material, using the light to illuminate the house but at the same time to create oxygen for us."

Photosynthetic Filters For Buildings

Visualisation of photosynthetic filters for buildings by Julian Melchiorri

However, Melchiorri says the material could also be used at a much larger scale.

"It could [also] be used for outdoor applications," he says. "So facades, ventilation systems. You can absorb air from outside, pass it through these biological filters and then bring oxygenated air inside."

The first man-made biological leaf could enable humans to colonise space

6:32 PM Artificial leaf, biological leaf, carbon emission, oxygen production, synthetic leaves

Babies’ brains practice words long before they canspeaks

Babies’ brains practice words long before they can speaks

A one-year-old sits in a brain scanner while researchers record her brain responses to spoken syllables. 

  

Newborn babies arrive as strangers in a strange land. They know nothing of the customs or language of their new mysterious world. Yet astonishingly, with almost no obvious effort, babies learn an entirely new language. Some babies even learn several.

They manage this feat, in part, by tons of behind-the-scenes practice, a new study finds. Babies mentally rehearse the movements required for speech long before they utter a word, scientists reported July 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This result might explain why babies sometimes get those super intense, slightly confused looks when you’re talking to them, kind of like Zoolander’s Blue Steel. Maybe babies are concentrating really hard, trying to figure out exactly how your mouth is able to produce those funny noises.

Scientists led by Patricia Kuhl of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle tested the responses of babies’ brains as they listened to spoken syllables. The team used a technique called magnetoencephalography, which measures subtle magnetic differences caused by differences in brain activity, to figure out which brain areas are active when babies hear syllables.

Unlike other brain scanning methods, a little bit of motion is OK with MEG, making the technique great for little kids. (University of Washington lab member Sarah Roseberry Lytle says that the lab keeps a professional toy-shaker around for the sole purpose of taming wiggly babies during their scans.)

Syllables of speech mesmerize this baby while scientists figure out which parts of the brain are active.

In 7-month-old babies, brain areas important for movement and hearing were active as the babies heard a familiar syllable. “It’s almost as if their brain is rehearsing,” says Lytle, who directs the outreach division of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and wasn’t involved in the study.

In slightly older babies, the brain behaved differently: Auditory areas were very involved, while motor areas seemed to play less of a role. This weakened motor area response in 11-month-old babies, and also in adult listeners, might indicate a baby’s familiarity with the sound.

By 11 months, the syllable has become a familiar one, and the motor areas of the brain might not need to work as hard mimicking the movement. This idea fits with what happened when the older babies heard a syllable that doesn’t exist in their native language. All of a sudden, those motor areas once again jumped to attention.

This result makes sense, given what scientists know about how babies learn language over time. Babies start off as generalists. These little citizens of the world pick up any and all sounds and languages that happen to float by. But during the second half of their first year, babies get choosier and focus more brainpower on the language spoken most frequently around them. So a new sound might prompt babies to start back at square one and try to figure out how the speaker makes that noise.

Studies like these are starting to MEsome of the mysterious ways in which infant brains soak up language so easily. One day, we might actually know how these precocious little learners pull off their linguistic feats. But just because we understand it a little better won’t make it any less amazing.

Babies’ brains practice words long before they canspeaks

8:54 AM amazing baby, babies brain, baby brain, baby memory

How to measure a planet

Measuring the Planet Size 

Thanks to NASA's Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, scientists have made the most precise measurement ever of the radius of a planet outside our solar system. The size of the exoplanet, dubbed Kepler-93b, is now known to an uncertainty of just 74 miles (119 kilometers) on either side of the planetary body.

The findings confirm Kepler-93b as a "super-Earth" that is about one-and-a-half times the size of our planet. Although super-Earths are common in the galaxy, none exist in our solar system. Exoplanets like Kepler-93b are therefore our only laboratories to study this major class of planet.

With good limits on the sizes and masses of super-Earths, scientists can finally start to theorize about what makes up these weird worlds. Previous measurements, by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, had put Kepler-93b's mass at about 3.8 times that of Earth. The density of Kepler-93b, derived from its mass and newly obtained radius, indicates the planet is in fact very likely made of iron and rock, like Earth. 

"With Kepler and Spitzer, we've captured the most precise measurement to date of an alien planet's size, which is critical for understanding these far-off worlds," said Sarah Ballard, a NASA Carl Sagan Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle and lead author of a paper on the findings published in the Astrophysical Journal.

"The measurement is so precise that it's literally like being able to measure the height of a six-foot tall person to within three quarters of an inch -- if that person were standing on Jupiter," said Ballard.

Kepler-93b orbits a star located about 300 light-years away, with approximately 90 percent of the sun's mass and radius. The exoplanet's orbital distance -- only about one-sixth that of Mercury's from the sun -- implies a scorching surface temperature around 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (760 degrees Celsius). Despite its newfound similarities in composition to Earth, Kepler-93b is far too hot for life.  

To make the key measurement about this toasty exoplanet's radius, the Kepler and Spitzer telescopes each watched Kepler-93b cross, or transit, the face of its star, eclipsing a tiny portion of starlight. Kepler's unflinching gaze also simultaneously tracked the dimming of the star caused by seismic waves moving within its interior. These readings encode precise information about the star's interior. The team leveraged them to narrowly gauge the star's radius, which is crucial for measuring the planetary radius.

Spitzer, meanwhile, confirmed that the exoplanet's transit looked the same in infrared light as in Kepler's visible-light observations. These corroborating data from Spitzer -- some of which were gathered in a new, precision observing mode -- ruled out the possibility that Kepler's detection of the exoplanet was bogus, or a so-called false positive.

Taken together, the data boast an error bar of just one percent of the radius of Kepler-93b. The measurements mean that the planet, estimated at about 11,700 miles (18,800 kilometers) in diameter, could be bigger or smaller by about 150 miles (240 kilometers), the approximate distance between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Spitzer racked up a total of seven transits of Kepler-93b between 2010 and 2011. Three of the transits were snapped using a "peak-up" observational technique. In 2011, Spitzer engineers repurposed the spacecraft's peak-up camera, originally used to point the telescope precisely, to control where light lands on individual pixels within Spitzer's infrared camera.

The upshot of this rejiggering: Ballard and her colleagues were able to cut in half the range of uncertainty of the Spitzer measurements of the exoplanet radius, improving the agreement between the Spitzer and Kepler measurements.

"Ballard and her team have made a major scientific advance while demonstrating the power of Spitzer's new approach to exoplanet observations," said Michael Werner, project scientist for the Spitzer Space Telescope at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, is responsible for Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

http://spitzer.caltech.edu

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

How to measure a planet

8:44 AM kepler, NASA, Planet measure

Brazil to unleash GM-mosquito swarms to fight dengue

Time to unleash the mozzies? Genetically modified mosquitoes will be raised on a commercial scale for the first time, in a bid to stem outbreaks of dengue fever in Brazil. But it is unclear how well it will work.

Next week biotech company Oxitec of Abingdon, UK, will open a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to raise millions of modified mosquitoes. Once released, they will mate with wild females, whose offspring then die before adulthood. That should cut the number of dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. In April, Brazil'sNational Technical Commission for Biosecurity(CTNBio) approved their commercial use.

The mosquitoes could be an important step forward in controlling dengue, which affects more than 50 million people every year, with a 30-fold increase in the last 50 years. There is no vaccine or preventive drug, so all anyone can do is to spray insecticide on a large scale in a bid to kill dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

The Brazilian state of Bahia is one of the affected areas. A state of alert, declared in February, is in force in 10 rural districts. Oxitec plans to release millions of modified mosquitoes in the Bahia town of Jacobina, as part of an expanded research programme. A larger release could follow if the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency also lends its approval, as expected.

Question mark

But no one is sure if the insects will succeed. Margareth Capurro at the University of São Paulo has studied the effects of a trial release in Jacobina last year. She plans to submit her report this month.

Capurro says her data show the number of mosquito eggs falling by an impressive 92 per cent in Jacobina. But so far this has not led to a drop in the incidence of dengue.

That may be because the study was too small, says Capurro. Only after a full epidemiological study next year will we know for sure if the GM mosquitoes are working.

"In every trial we've demonstrated excellent control of the dengue mosquito in an urban setting," says Hadyn Parry of Oxitec. For now they are only measuring success in terms of mosquito numbers.

Dangerous precedent

The CTNBio set a dangerous precedent by approving the commercial release of the mosquitoes before full epidemiological studies had been completed, says agronomist Leonardo Melgarejo, who works for Brazil's Ministry of Agrarian Development, and economist Antonio Inacio Andrioli of the Regional Northwest University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.

In a technical paper presented before the authorisation of the GM mosquitoes, they argued that they should only be released commercially once the technology had been fully evaluated.

In the long run the modified mosquitoes might be stymied by their high cost, says Thomas Unnasch of the University of South Florida in Tampa. The technology depends on sterile males, who by definition cannot pass on the genetically engineered trait. So Unnasch says it would be necessary to release huge numbers of them year after year, at a cost of millions of dollars.

Nevertheless the US authorities are considering using the mosquitoes in Florida, where dengue is also a serious problem.

Brazil to unleash GM-mosquito swarms to fight dengue

5:50 PM

Stats magic: the facts and figures to remember from World Cup 2014

There were fewer red cards at the 2014World Cup than any other edition since 1986 (8).

• The 2014 World Cup saw a joint-high number of goals scored (171).

• Germany reached the World Cup final for the eighth time; more often than any other side in the history of the competition.

• Germany scored 18 goals – the last team to score as many in a World Cup tournament were Brazil (also 18) in 2002.

• Argentina trailed for just seven minutes in the entire tournament (excluding injury time).

• Belgium reached the quarter-final stage, despite only holding a lead for 52 minutes in their five matches combined.

Belgium led for just 52 minutes of the tournament, but still made the last eight. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

• Brazil committed 31 fouls in their quarter-final win over Colombia; the most fouls that they had made in a single World Cup game since records began in 1966.

• James Rodríguez became the first player to score in his first five career World Cup appearances since Peru’s Teófilo Cubillas (across the 1970 and 1978 tournaments). Gerd Müller in 1970 was the last player to do it in a single tournament.

• Miroslav Klose became the top scoring player in World Cup history with his strike against Brazil in the semi-finals (16 goals).

• This was the first time that three sides from the Concafaf region made it out of the group stages and into the last 16 (since the format began in 1986).

• Costa Rica knocked out Italy, England, Greece and beat Uruguay, four sides placed in the top 12 positions of the Fifa Rankings (Uruguay – 7th, Italy – 9th, England – 10th, Greece – 12th).

• Only six European nations made it to the last 16; a joint-World Cup low since the round of 16 was introduced in 1986.

• All eight group stage winners progressed to the quarter-finals stage for the first time in World Cup history.

• One point was England’s lowest-ever return in a World Cup group stage.

 England's lowest-ever group stage points return. Photograph: Michael Regan - The FA/The FA via Getty Images

• This was the first time that England have been eliminated from a World Cup at the group stage since 1958.

• Three of the last four teams to win the World Cup have gone out in the following group stage (France 2002, Italy 2010, Spain2014).

• There were more goals scored by substitutes in this World Cup than in any previous edition (32).

• Silvestre Varela’s goal for Portugal v USA was the latest during normal time of a World Cup finals match since 1994 (94min 33sec).

• Tim Howard made 15 saves in the USA’s quarter-final defeat to Belgium – no goalkeeper has ever made as many saves in a single World Cup game (1966-2014).

• Three of Holland’s five outright victories in this World Cup tournament were from losing positions in normal time.

• Italy have exited at the group stage in their last two World Cups. The last time they managed this was in the 1960s (1962 and 1966).

• Germany are the first European team to win the World Cup in Latin America.

• Teams from Uefa have won the last three World Cups, the first time a single confederation has won three in a row.

• Germany’s 7-1 win was the biggest margin of victory ever seen in a World Cup semi-final.

 David Luiz contemplates the biggest World Cup semi-final defeat ever. Photograph: Fernando Bizerra Jr./EPA

• With their destruction of Brazil, Germany became the top scoring nation in World Cup history (223), overtaking Brazil in the process. Germany ended the tournament with 224 goals, three ahead of Brazil.

• Luke Shaw was the youngest player to play at this World Cup finals, when he played for England v Costa Rica (18 years 348 days).

• 13.3% of shots have been scored at these finals; a higher proportion than in any other World Cup tournament since records began in 1966.

• There were only three direct free-kicks scored at these finals, the fewest since 1986 (3). In 2010 there were five scored, while in 2006 and 2002, nine were scored.

• The only World Cup to see more own goals than this tournament (5) was the 1998 finals (6).

• Switzerland’s Diego Benaglio was the only goalkeeper to register a shot at the 2014 tournament, thanks to a late effort v Argentina.

• The Algeria goalkeeper Rais M’Bolhi created two goalscoring chances; only three of his team-mates managed more in the tournament.

 Rais M'Bolhi: creative Algerian genius. Photograph: Caetano Barreira/Fotoarena/Corbis

• Brazil have topped every group they have played in at a World Cup from 1982 onwards.

• Spain conceded 5+ goals in an international (5-1 v Holland) for the first time since losing 6-2 to Scotland in June 1963.

• That four-goal margin is the biggest losing margin by a defending champion at a World Cup.

• Brazil’s 7-1 defeat to Germany was the biggest losing margin by a host nation at a World Cup.

• Tim Cahill has scored in three World Cups for Australia; no other Australian has done so in more than one tournament

• Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan (6) overtook Cameroon’s Roger Milla (5) as all-time top scoring African player at a World Cup.

• Algeria became the first African team to score four goals in a World Cup game when they beat South Korea 4-2.

• England’s Wayne Rooney recorded his first World Cup assist in his team’s opening game v Italy and his first goal in their game v Uruguay.

• Keisuke Honda became the first Japanese player to score at two different World Cups.

• Switzerland’s Xherdan Shaqiri scored the first entirely left-footed hat-trick at a World Cup (1966-2014).

 Xherdan Shaqiri scores one of his left-footed treble against Honduras. Photograph: Andres Stapff/Reuters

• His treble was also the 50th hat-trick in the history of the World Cup.

• In losing 4-0 to Germany, Portugal conceded four goals in a World Cup for the first time in their history.

• Clint Dempsey’s goal (29 seconds) v Ghana for the USA was the fifth fastest in World Cup history.

• The England goalkeeper Joe Hart made only one save in two World Cup games.

• In his 126 minutes of World Cup action, Diego Costa failed to muster a single shot on target (only five shots in total).

• In winning Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012, Spain conceded a total of six goals, one fewer than they did in their three matches at World Cup 2014.

• Alex Song picked up Cameroon’s eighth red card in their World Cup history. His cousin Rigobert Song is one of only two players (along with Zinedine Zidane) to be sent off twice at World Cups, meaning the Song family is responsible for three of Cameroon’s eight reds.

• Olivier Giroud’s opening goal v Switzerland was France’s 100th goal at World Cup finals.

• Neymar scored the 100th goal of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil’s 100th game in World Cup finals history.

• Against Japan Colombia’s substitute goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon became the oldest ever player to feature in a World Cup match, at 43 years and three days.

Faryd Mondragon: record breaker. Photograph: Matthias Hangst/Getty Images

• Honduras have now played nine games without a win at the World Cup (D3 L6). They have played more matches at the World Cup without winning than any other side (New Zealand, El Salvador and Bolivia – all six).

• Ghana went out in the group stage for the first time ever (in their third World Cup). Now only three teams have never exited in a World Cup opening group stage: Germany,Holland and the Republic of Ireland.

• Fabio Capello has won one of his seven World Cup games as a manager.

• Mexico have been knocked out of the World Cup finals at the second-round stage in all six editions since 1994; no team has been knocked out at this stage as often as this.

• Nigeria have lost all three of their World Cup second-round ties (0-2 v France in 2014, 1-2 v Italy in 1994 and 1-4 v Denmark in 1998).

• Ángel di María’s goal v Switzerland was the latest ever scored by Argentina at the World Cup (118 minutes).

• Switzerland have failed to score in their last three World Cup knockout matches, last scoring in one in 1954.

• Belgium conceded only three goals in five games at the 2014 World Cup.

• Holland progressed to the semi-finals for the third time in their last four World Cups.

• Costa Rica’s Keylor Navas saved 21 of the 23 shots on target that he faced at this World Cup (91%).

• Thomas Müller has scored 10 goals and provided six assists in just 13 World Cup matches.

Thomas Müller scores. Again. Photograph: Francois Xavier Marit/AFP/Getty

• Against Brazil in the semi-final, Germany were 5-0 up faster than any other team in World Cup history (29 minutes).

• The 7-1 defeat to Germany equalled Brazil’s all-time biggest margin of defeat (lost 6-0 to Uruguay in 1920).

• Germany scored two more goals v Brazil than England have in their past two World Cup campaigns combined.

• Argentina have progressed from all four of their World Cup semi-finals.

• Argentina v Holland was the first World Cup semi-final to finish 0-0 (including extra-time). Lionel Messi did not touch the ball in the opposition box in the entire 120 minutes.

• Nine of the 14 goals Brazil conceded in this World Cup came in the first 30 minutes of their games.

• Brazil conceded 10 goals from 14 shots on target conceded in the semi-final and third place play-off game combined.

• Mario Götze is the first substitute to score a winning goal in the World Cup final.

• Mario Götze is the youngest scorer of a goal in a World Cup final since Wolfgang Weber in 1966 (22 years, 33 days).

• Sami Khedira is the 10th player to win the European Cup/Champions League and World Cup in the same season.

Stats magic: the facts and figures to remember from World Cup 2014

8:41 AM FIFA 2014, Foot ball world cup, world statistics.facts

Android 5.0 L Update for Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10: When to Expect It

The  much awaited Android L release was introduced earlier last month during Google I/O technology event and now the fans are eagerly waiting for the new Android iteration to hit their devices. Even though Google didn’t officially reveal when the Android 5.0 L update for Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and other supported devices will be released for the public, we can make estimations based on the company’s previous releases.

The Android 5.0 L release is no doubt the biggest update Google’s mobile operating system has seen since its debut back in 2008. The first thing you’ll notice is probably the new Material Design philosophy which aims to make the interface more intuitive with the help of 3D effects and shadows.

The Android 5.0 L notifications and lock screen have also suffered important changes. The lock screen is now accommodating your notifications and you will be able to interact with them as soon as you pick your smartphone up. Google has also found a clever way to prioritize the notifications you interact with more frequently. The notification bar has been redesigned and the Quick Settings button has vanished. Now, the Quick Settings menu is located one swipe down away from the notification bar. In order to access Quick Settings you will have to swipe down once to bring up notifications, then swipe once more to show Quick Settings toggles.

Quick Settings also introduces “Adaptive Brightness” instead of Auto Brightness, rotation lock shortcut, Do Not Disturb Mode, and it seems that the Android L Developer Preview code also hides some clues about the possibility of changing the Quick Settings toggles.

The status bar will now change color to match the action bar of the app running on the screen, while being transparent in the home and lock screens. The Android 5.0 L multitasking received a new interface that is a reminiscent of the Chrome for Android card-based tabs page. Besides receiving a makeover, the Android 5.0 L multitasking also allows apps to display more than one card.

The new Android iteration also introduces ART instead of the obsolete Dalvik runtime, support for 64-bit processors, USB audio-out, search within Settings menu, and enhanced battery life.

Even though the Mountain View-based company didn’t reveal when the Android 5.0 L update for Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 will be released, we strongly believe we will get to see it in flesh sometime mid-fall. So far, Google released two Android updates a year, one in the summer and one mid-fall.

Android L was officially previewed at Google I/O this summer and the Developer Preview is already available for both Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 2013. From now on, Google will probably adopt an Apple-like strategy, intruding new Android iterations developer previews during I/O then make them available for the public in the fall. We are expecting the final version of Android 5.0 L to be released sometime in October, synchronized with the debut of a new Nexus device.

Even though it was rumored that the Nexus program will be discontinued, one of Google’s officials dismissed the rumors. Reports in the industry are talking of an 8.9-inch Nexus tablet manufactured by HTC and codenamed Volantis. If the rumors are to be believed, the tablet will pack a 64-bit enabled Tegra K1 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 8 MP rear-facing camera, 3 MP secondary shooter, and “aluminium zero-gap” construction.

After the Android 5.0 L update for Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10 will be officially released, the new firmware will also be released for the members of the Google Play Experience tribe in a matter of weeks. Motorola might be one of the first OMEs to update their smartphones to Android 5.0. Furthermore, HTC announce they will update both One M7 and One M8 to Android L within 90 days after they receive the final version from Google.

Android 5.0 L Update for Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10: When to Expect It

3:04 PM Android L update NEXUS GOOGLE

New research suggests soluble corn fibre may boost calcium absorption

Innovative ingredient may offer one solution for helping adolescents to improve status of two nutrients currently lacking in their diets

Hoffman Estates, IL – Around the globe, fibre and calcium intakes are below the levels recommended by experts^1,2,3contributing to potential long-term public health implications^1,3,4. New research, published this month in theBritish Journal of Nutrition, shows soluble corn fibre (SCF) may not simply boost fibre intake when added to foods, but can also increase the amount of beneficial bacteria present in the gut, while enhancing calcium absorption in adolescents⁵. SCF is a prebiotic fibre that is well tolerated, and is easily incorporated into foods or beverages to boost fibre content. These latest results showing SCF can enhance calcium absorption are significant because during adolescence, a critical time for bone growth, dairy intake tends to decrease, resulting in inadequate calcium intake which is a vital mineral for building and maintaining strong bones.

Researchers studied the potential effect of SCF on calcium absorption and retention in adolescent children with a usual diet that was low in fibre. In a controlled dietary study, adolescent girls and boys who consumed 12g/day fibre from SCF absorbed significantly more calcium (a 12% increase versus a control) than when consuming no SCF. Additionally, the researchers found that when the adolescents consumed SCF, there was an increase in specific strains of beneficial gut bacteria, namely the phylum Bacteroidetes, and these increases were positively correlated with increases in calcium absorption. These results indicate that moderate daily intake of SCF may increase beneficial gut bacteria and also short-term calcium absorption in adolescents who are consuming less than recommended amounts of calcium.

'A decrease in milk consumption among adolescents has led to an increase in deficiency of calcium in the diet, leaving researchers with a particular interest in finding functional foods that can help increase calcium absorption,' stated Connie Weaver, PhD, of Purdue University and lead researcher of the study. 'Dietary factors that enhance bone density and bone mineral content have the potential to contribute to reduced risk of bone fracture later in life.'

If the adolescents in this study had continued to consume SCF, allowing for increased calcium absorption, the researchers estimated that this would lead to additional 41.4 mg/day retained calcium and if persistent over a year would account for an additional 15.1 g of calcium, or about 1.8% of total body calcium.

'On average, people aren't meeting their fibre or calcium intake goals with the foods they currently consume. Adding fibres with functional health benefits to already consumed foods is a realistic and simple way to help address this global public health concern among key age groups,' said Michael Harrison, PhD, Senior Vice President of New Product Development at Tate & Lyle. 'Tate & Lyle has consistently shown a commitment to investing in research that leads to the production of high quality ingredients that allow people to live well and improve their health.'

###

The soluble corn fibre used in the study was added to fruit snacks and provided by Tate & Lyle, a global provider of high-quality, specialty ingredients.

About Tate & Lyle

Tate & Lyle is a global provider of ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, operating from over 30 locations worldwide.

Tate & Lyle operates through two global divisions, Speciality Food Ingredients and Bulk Ingredients, supported by our Innovation and Commercial Development Group. The Group's strategy is to become a leading global provider of Speciality Food Ingredients through a disciplined focus on growth, and by driving Bulk Ingredients for sustained cash generation to fuel this growth.

Speciality Food Ingredients consists of three platforms: Texturants, which includes speciality starches and stabilisers; Sweeteners, which comprises nutritive sweeteners and our range of no-calorie sweeteners including SPLENDA® Sucralose; and our Health and Wellness portfolio which includes speciality fibres and our salt-reduction offering. Additionally, our Food Systems business provides a wide variety of blended ingredient solutions.

Tate & Lyle Bulk Ingredients includes bulk sweeteners, industrial starches and fermentation products (primarily acidulants). Corn co-products from both divisions are primarily sold as animal feed.

Tate & Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L. American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2014, Tate & Lyle sales totalled £3.1 billion. http://www.tateandlyle.com. SPLENDA® is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC.

New research suggests soluble corn fibre may boost calcium absorption

8:42 AM calcium, diet, fiber rich food, food

How to install Android L on NEXUS 5 and NEXUS 7

Manual Installation Of Android L on NEXUS 5 and NEXUS 7

Last month Google previewed Android L at I/O, and immediately after, it released the operating system preview to the developers. You however don’t have to be a developer totry out Android L now, and all you need is aNexus 5 smartphone or a Nexus 7 tablet. Hit the break below to check out the step-by-step guide on how to install Android L on your Nexus devices now.

Before we start though, let us warn you that this is a beta version of the OS and has many bugs. Google too warns that this “Android preview system image is not a stable release, and may contain errors and defects that can result in damage to your computer systems, devices, and data.” Having said that if you are still feeling adventurous here are the steps.

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and Fastboot tools

First off you will need to download and install these two tools, which essentially allow you to send commands to your device from your computer via USB. These tools are generally found in the Android SDK, but the SDK is a huge file and has many things you will not need.

Instead you can download this minimal tool that can be found on the XDA forum. This is a 2MB installer and has both the above mentioned tools. Install the tools in a folder you can easily access.

Android L image

The next step is to download the appropriate Android L image for your Nexus device. You can find the image for Nexus 5 here, and the Nexus 7 here. The image will be downloaded in a .tgz format, and you will need an extractor utility like WinRAR or 7-zip to extract the files from the archive. Extract the files to the same folder that contains the Android ADB and Fastboot tools.

Enable USB debugging

Now, on your smartphone/tablet, head over to the Settings menu and scroll down to About smartphone/tablet. Once inside, tap on the ‘Build number’ tab seven times to unhide the developer options. Press the back button once and you will see the Developer options tab now. Click on the tab and once inside, enable the USB debugging option.

Windows drivers

Once you have enabled USB debugging, Windows will again look for drivers when you connect your device to your computer. To ensure, it uses the latest drivers, install them from here. This step is necessary for your computer to recognize the Nexus device as a developer device.

Head over to Control Panel and click Devices and Printers to look for your device. The Nexus device should be listed there as an ‘Android Composite ADB interface’. If it is not recognized, update the drivers with the one you installed. Check your device as there will be a popup message asking, “Allow USB debugging?” Click on allow and your device is ready.

Fastboot mode

With your device still connected to the computer, power it off. You will need to put it in fastboot mode and there are two methods to choose from. The first method is to press the volume up, volume down and power buttons simultaneously. For the second method double-click on “py_cmd” in the folder you downloaded the tools to open the command prompt. Type ‘adb reboot-bootloader’ — without the quotation marks — to restart your device in fastboot mode.

Unlock Bootloader

By default your device should be in a lock state, which won’t allow you to install the Android L image. To unlock it, type the command ‘fastbook oem unlock’ (without quotations). The device will ask you to confirm if you want to unlock the bootloader, and using the volume rocker move the option to ‘Yes’ and press the power button to select the option.

This step will essentially erase your Nexus device and prep it for the new Android installation.

Installing Android L

Now that the device is prepped, in the command prompt simply type the flash-all command. This will start the process of installing Android L onto your Nexus smartphone or tablet.

How to install Android L on NEXUS 5 and NEXUS 7

7:00 AM ADB, Android debug bridge, Android L, Android L image, Fast boot, Installation, NEXUS, XDA forum