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Coffee Grounds & Reishi Mushroom Spores Can be 3D Printed into a Compostable Alternative to Plastics

The AHA! Team — Fri, 09 May 2025 05:24:29 +0000

University of Washington via EurekAlert! – Only 30% of a coffee bean is soluble in water, and many brewing methods aim to extract significantly less than that. So, of the 1.6 billion pounds of coffee Americans consume in a year, more than 1.1 billion pounds of grounds are knocked from filters into compost bins and garbage cans. While watching the grounds from her own espresso machine accumulate, Danli Luo, a University of Washington doctoral student in human centered design and engineering, saw an opportunity. Coffee is nutrient-rich and sterilized during brewing, so it’s ideal for growing fungus, which, before it sprouts into mushrooms, forms a “mycelial skin.” This skin, a sort of white root system, can bind loose substances together and create a tough, water-resistant, lightweight material. Coffee is nutrient-rich and sterilized during brewing, so it’s ideal for growing fungus Luo and a UW team developed a new system for turning those coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects: packing materials, pieces of a vase, a small statue. They inoculate the paste with Reishi mushroom spores, which grow on the objects to form that mycelial skin. The skin turns the coffee grounds — even when formed into complex shapes — into a resilient, fully compostable alternative to plastics. For intricate designs, the mycelium fuses separately printed pieces together to form a single object. Published findings The team published its findings Jan. 23 in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. “We’re especially interested in creating systems for people like small businesses owners producing small-batch products — for example, small, delicate glassware that needs resilient packaging to ship,” said lead author Luo. “So we’ve been working on new material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam with something more sustainable and that can be easily customized for small-scale production.” New material recipes that can replace things like Styrofoam To create the “Mycofluid” paste, Luo mixed used coffee grounds with brown rice flour, Reishi mushroom spores, xanthan gum (a common food binder found in ice creams and salad dressings) and water. Luo also built a new 3D printer head for the Jubilee 3D printer that the UW’s Machine Agency lab designed. The new printer system can hold up to a liter of the paste. The team printed various objects with the Mycofluid: packaging for a small glass, three pieces of a vase, two halves of a Moai statue and a two-piece coffin the size of a butterfly. The objects then sat covered in a plastic tub for 10 days, during which the mycelium formed a sort of shell around the Mycofluid. In the case of the statue and vase, the separate pieces also fused together. The process is the same as that of homegrown mushroom kits: Keep the mycelium moist as it grows from a nutrient rich material. If the pieces stayed in the tub longer, actual mushrooms would sprout from the objects, but instead they’re removed after the white mycelial skin has formed. Researchers then dried the pieces for 24 hours, which halts the fruiting of the mushrooms. The finished material is heavier than Styrofoam — closer to the density of cardboard or charcoal. After an hour in contact with water, it absorbed only 7% more weight in water and dried to close its initial weight while keeping its shape. It was as strong and tough as polystyrene and expanded polystyrene foam, the substance used to make Styrofoam. All its components are compostable Though the team didn’t specifically test the material’s compostability, all its components are compostable (and, in fact, edible, though less than appetizing). Because the Mycofluid requires relatively homogeneous used coffee grounds, working with it at significant scale would prove difficult, but the team is interested in other forms of recycled materials that might form similar biopastes. “We’re interested in expanding this to other bio-derived materials, such as other forms of food waste,” Luo said. “We want to broadly support this kind of flexible development, not just to provide one solution to this major problem of plastic waste.” This research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Junchao Yang, a UW master’s student in human centered design and engineering when completing this research, is a co-author, and Nadya Peek, UW associate professor of human centered design and engineering, is the senior author. For more information, contact Luo at danlil@uw.edu. Journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing DOI 10.1089/3dp.2023.0342 To read the original article click here.

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Nanoplastics Promote Conditions for Parkinson’s Across Various Lab Models

The AHA! Team — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 03:47:42 +0000

Duke Health – DURHAM, N.C. – A novel study sounds the alarm on the need for a new area of research. Nanoplastics interact with a particular protein that is naturally found in the brain, creating changes linked to Parkinson’s disease and some types of dementia. In a Duke-led study appearing Nov. 17 in Science Advances, the researchers report that the findings create a foundation for a new area of investigation, fueled by the timely impact of environmental factors on human biology. Improperly disposed plastics have been shown to break into very small pieces “Parkinson’s disease has been called the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world,” said principal investigator, Andrew West, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University School of Medicine. “Numerous lines of data suggest environmental factors might play a prominent role in Parkinson’s disease, but such factors have for the most part not been identified.” Improperly disposed plastics have been shown to break into very small pieces and accumulate in water and food supplies, and were found in the blood of most adults in a recent study. “Our study suggests that the emergence of micro and nanoplastics in the environment might represent a new toxin challenge with respect to Parkinson’s disease risk and progression,” West said. “This is especially concerning given the predicted increase in concentrations of these contaminants in our water and food supplies.” West and colleagues in Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and the Department of Chemistry at Trinity College of Arts and Sciences found that nanoparticles of the plastic polystyrene — typically found in single use items such as disposable drinking cups and cutlery — attract the accumulation of the protein known as alpha-synuclein. West said the study’s most surprising findings are the tight bonds formed between the plastic and the protein within the area of the neuron where these accumulations are congregating, the lysosome. Researchers said the plastic-protein accumulations happened across three different models performed in the study – in test tubes, cultured neurons, and mouse models of Parkinson’s disease. West said questions remain about how such interactions might be happening within humans and whether the type of plastic might play a role. And were found in the blood of most adults in a recent study “While microplastic and nanoplastic contaminants are being closely evaluated for their potential impact in cancer and autoimmune diseases, the striking nature of the interactions we could observe in our models suggest a need for evaluating increasing nanoplastic contaminants on Parkinson’s disease and dementia risk and progression,” West said. “The technology needed to monitor nanoplastics is still at the earliest possible stages and not ready yet to answer all the questions we have,” he said. “But hopefully efforts in this area will increase rapidly, as we see what these particles can do in our models. If we know what to look out for, we can take the necessary steps to protect ourselves, without compromising all the benefits we reap every day from plastics.” The study was funded by in part by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s initiative (ASAP-020527). In addition to West, study authors include Zhiyong Liu, Arpine Sokratian, Addison M. Duda, Enquan Xu, Christina Stanhope, Amber Fu, Samuel Strader, Huizhong Li, Yuan Yuan, Benjamin G. Bobay, Joana Sipe, Ketty Bai, Iben Lundgaard, Na Liu, Belinda Hernandez, Catherine Bowes Rickman, and Sara E. Miller. To read the original article click here.

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Low Levels of BPA Exposure Can Affect Prenatal Brain Development

AHA Publisher — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 07:00:11 +0000

University of Calgary via News-Medical – Humans are exposed to a bath of chemicals every day. They are in the beds where we sleep, the cars that we drive and the kitchens we use to feed our families. With thousands of chemicals floating around in our environment, exposure to any number is practically unavoidable. Through the work of researchers like Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, PhD, the implications of many of these chemicals are being thoroughly explored. “Manufacturers follow standards set by regulatory bodies, it’s not up to the manufacturers to prove the chemicals in consumer products are safe,” says Kurrasch, a researcher in the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) and Alberta Children’s Research Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine. “Scientists play a critical role and do the meticulous work of determining where the risks lie.” Kurrasch’s research over the past decade has focused on a chemical that is broadly recognizable: Bisphenol A, also known as BPA. This chemical is commonly found in plastics, canned food linings, and even thermal receipts. Studies from Kurrasch’s lab contribute to the collective research that shows the harms of exposure to this industrial compound. The latest study out of Kurrasch’s lab, published in Science Advances, suggests that continued vigilance is needed. A postdoctoral researcher in her lab, Dr. Dinu Nesan, PhD, examined the impact of low levels of BPA exposure to pregnant mice and the brain development of their offspring. “Our goal was to model BPA levels equivalent to what pregnant women and developing babies are typically exposed to. We purposefully did not use a high dose. In fact, our doses were 11-times and nearly 25-times lower than those deemed safe by Health Canada and the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), respectively. Even at these low levels, we saw effects on prenatal brain development in the mice.” Dr. Deborah Kurrasch, PhD, Researcher, University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) Using this BPA exposure model, Nesan found striking changes to the brain region responsible for driving circadian rhythms, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, located in the hypothalamus. When prenatally exposed to these low levels of BPA, the suprachiasmatic nucleus failed to develop properly. This change can have implications for sleep, activity levels, and other behaviours. “Previously we showed embryonic exposure to low-dose BPA can affect the timing of when neurons develop in zebrafish, but it was unclear whether a similar effect would be observed in a mammalian model with more similarities to humans,” says Nesan, first author on the study. When neurons develop, they rely on proper signals to guide them. If neurons develop too early, the cues they experience are different, which can lead to developmental errors such as migrating to the wrong location, becoming the wrong type of neuron, or forming inappropriate connections. These errors can lead to altered behaviors later in life. “Our study shows that in pregnant mice, prenatal exposure to BPA affects the timing of neuron development in the fetal brain, which has lasting effects on behaviours. Offspring that are exposed to BPA during gestation are awake longer and exhibit hyperactivity. The prenatal BPA exposure seems to change the brain’s circadian cues, causing the animals to have elevated energy levels and spend less time resting,” says Nesan. The researchers are hopeful their findings will add continued pressure on regulatory bodies to keep revisiting their determinations around safe levels of BPA. “We think there’s an incredible abundance of data showing BPA exposure guidelines are not yet at the appropriate level, which includes even the EU (European Union) who is leading on this front, but their ‘safe’ levels are still twice the dose we used in our study” says Kurrasch, “We hope our research serves as a reminder that low dose BPA is still capable of causing changes that are measurable and significant.” Her message of how to interpret this research is simple: Limit your exposure to BPA the best you can. Maintain smart practices with plastics in your kitchen, for example not heating them, and using glass or stainless steel when possible. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Michael Antle, PhD, professor of psychology and member of the HBI. To read the original article click here.

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America’s Troubled Drinking Water Supply, It’s Worse Than Most People Can Imagine

AHA Publisher — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:00:47 +0000

Damon Hines via NaturalHealth365 – From coast to coast, America’s drinking water supply is threatened by a variety of sources: plastics, pesticides, pathogens, PFAS, lax standards, and aging infrastructure create a perfect storm of toxicity. On July 28, 2010, the United Nations declared this issue to be a human right under International Law. Today, more than ten years later, 30 million people in the U.S. live in areas where they lack access to safe drinking water, two million people are denied access to running water and basic indoor plumbing, and over 110 million are exposed to toxic chemicals in their drinking water. America’s water is troubled but what’s more troubling is the lack of initiative to better enforce environmental safety laws, push for new legislation, and hold those parties – Big Government, Big Business, Greedy Policymakers – accountable for the ongoing water crisis. “Like a blood test for a disease, you only find what you test for” Erin Brockovich, the activist and clean water pioneer, makes this statement in her book Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do about It. Pollutants and toxins are everywhere, from the biological to the chemical, from the hazardous wastes and byproducts of industry and agriculture to chlorine and disinfectants. There are over 40,000 chemicals on the market, and only a few hundred are regulated. With so many dangerous chemicals, how do we know what to test for? The fact is: every city delivery system is different. For example, in Flint, Michigan, the national headline was about high lead levels. The same held true for Newark, New Jersey. In 2014, algal blooms and runoff from farms in the Lake Erie watershed shut down the Toledo, Ohio drinking water system. Other common toxic offenders include TCE (used in dry cleaning and refrigeration), hexavalent chromium (an anticorrosive agent), and PFASs (otherwise known as “forever chemicals”), which have become the latest headline grabber in the U.S. The CDC lists PFAS as potential carcinogens and endocrine disrupters. “A cocktail of chemicals all the time” The water crisis in Flint, Michigan wasn’t a one-off event. According to Seth M. Siegel, “We are ingesting, in micro quantities, a cocktail of chemicals all the time.” A 2018 study found that 21 million people in the U.S. were receiving water from utilities that violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. Many of these people live in rural, low-income areas. The health hazards of contaminated water are as numerous as the toxins polluting the systems. Chronic exposure to toxic byproducts have been linked to liver, kidney, and nervous systems problems, as well as increased risks of cancer. Outbreaks of E. coli, norovirus, giardia, and cryptosporidium have all contaminated water supplies. And Legionnaires’ disease, a type of pneumonia, and other pathogens, are known to grow in aging pipes and infrastructure. It’s going to take more than an Brita filter to fix America’s troubled waters. It’s a public health crisis that We the People need to solve … by pushing for change, new legislation, and by bridging the gap between clean resources and human rights. Sources for this article include: Theguardian.com, Theguardian.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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