How ‘smart’ hydrogel packaging tells you if your food is still fresh

Aug, Thu, 2026
Innova1
Purchase & Order

The cuts of meat in a supermarket case can look perfectly fresh even as bacteria are already multiplying inside the package. Is there a way to know before you open it?

How 'smart' hydrogel packaging tells you if your food is still fresh
The cuts of meat in a supermarket case can look perfectly fresh even as bacteria are already multiplying inside the package. Is there a way to know before you open it?
Your next handbag could start with mushrooms
The search for leather alternatives has led researchers somewhere unexpected: fungi. Although traditional leather is durable, producing it requires animal agriculture, which carries negative environmental impacts. Meanwhile, vegan alternatives are typically made from petroleum-based plastics that are difficult to recycle. Researchers report in ACS Applied Bio Materials that mycelium, the underground network of fibers below mushroom caps, can be pressed into a durable yet compostable leather-like fabric. They even sewed the fabric into a purse.
Experimental drug turns cancer's favorite fuel against it
Cancer cells have a voracious appetite for sugar—using it to fuel their rapid growth. This is why many scientists have tried to develop drugs that block cancer cells' metabolism by cutting off their sugar supply.
Histone acetylation sites reshape DNA condensates, revealing a potential gene-control mechanism
A research team from AIST, the Institute of Science Tokyo, and Ritsumeikan University has demonstrated that the phase behavior of histone–DNA condensates depends on the site of histone acetylation.
AI tool may fix chemical plants' blueprints
When Northeastern University industrial engineering student Sierre Ternoey started her research position in Aachen, Germany, she was challenged to fix an issue that frustrates chemical engineers worldwide.