Researchers have studied the effectiveness of new antimicrobial systems based on the use of essential oils extracted from plants such as thyme or cinnamon to improve the preservation of foods and found them suitable - with no smell or taste.

As the developed world becomes wealthier, people are more demanding about the processes used in the foods they eat, even if it means contradictions. Some distrust the science that goes into preservation, like additives. while insisting they are concerned about rampant food waste - which is most often spoilage.

In July, 2016, to stave off a patchwork of state rules on food labels, and an effort by Democrats to put warning labels on genetically modified foods a few years prior, Congress directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to create a national mandatory standard for food science under the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law.

For government purposes, the definition of a bioengineered food is much different than science. Government defines a bioengineered food that contains "detectable genetic material" created through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) techniques and for which the modification and not through conventional breeding or found in nature.

By signing the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, colloquially called the Farm Bill, President Donald Trump removed industrial hemp from the controlled substances list. For the first time in over 80 years, farmers can grow and sell industrial hemp.

Since microRNAs are key regulators of biological processes, a microRNA cluster that regulates synaptic strength and is involved in the control of social behavior in mammals may be a new path toward therapeutic strategies for the treatment of social deficits in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia. 

DNA is first copied to make messenger RNA molecules (mRNAs) that are then translated into protein. MicroRNAs are short snippets of RNA that do not code for a protein. Instead, they function mainly by regulating the stability or translation rate of mRNAs, inhibiting the production of particular proteins. Each microRNA typically targets hundreds of different mRNAs, making them ideal for coordinating complex cellular processes.

The ichthyosaur (literally ‘fish-lizard’) lived in what is today southern Germany during the Jurassic Period some 180 million years ago. The two-meter long reptile swam in the vast ocean that is now, after climate and geological changes, Europe.

Researchers have analyzed the remains of an ichthyosaur so well-preserved that its soft-tissues retain some of their original pliability; the most comprehensive and in-depth examination of a soft-tissue fossil ever undertaken. Among other things, the study reveals that the soft parts have fossilized so quickly that both the original cells and their internal contents are preserved.

A distant planet has an abundance of helium in its atmosphere so great that it has swollen to resemble an inflated balloon.

The helium of HAT-P-11b, 124 light years from Earth and in the Cygnus constellation, is blown away from the day side of the planet to its night side at over 10,000 km an hour. Because it is such a light gas, it escapes easily from the attraction of the planet and forms an extended cloud all around it.