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Over 100 Nobel winners urge Greenpeace to support GMOs
Greenpeace is being taken to task by 107 Nobel laureates, who have signed a letter asking it to support genetically modified organisms (GMOs), The Washington Post reports. In particular, the band of scientists are pushing Greenpeace to stop opposing Golden Rice, a much-hyped genetically modified strain that packs in beta carotene (which gives it the yellow color). That makes it a potentially useful tool for fighting Vitamin A deficiency, which remains one of the biggest causes of blindness, illness and death in children in developing countries.
Amazon opens up grocery deliveries to more of London
Amazon's grocery delivery service only went live in the UK a couple of weeks ago, but already the company is expanding beyond the launch footprint of various central and east London areas. As of today, Amazon Fresh is now available in 59 additional postcodes in northern, eastern and southern parts of the capital, taking the total up to 128 (full list here). Reside within one of those postcodes, and you can order any of over 130,000 everyday products for home delivery, including meat, seafood, fresh fruit and vegetables.
Let people watch you eat, live on Twitch
Not everyone can get famous on Twitch for being good (or terrible) at gaming, but all of us can eat. Twitch has now opened up that very democratic activity with the "social eating" channel. It's under the Twitch Creative umbrella, which launched in style last year with a 200-hour Bob Ross marathon. As Polygon notes, that's despite the fact that Twitch apparently still prohibits "Muk-ban"-style streams focused on food consumption. In that popular Korean trend, people get paid up to $10,000 a month to stream themselves snarfing large meals.
On-demand food service delivers beer with your meal
There's no shortage of online food delivery services, and services that deliver alcohol. However, getting both at the same time is a challenge. How are you supposed to complement that burger with a tasty brew? DoorDash has an answer. As of today, customers in southern California (other cities are coming, at least in the US) can order both alcohol and food at the same time, whether the drinks come from a restaurant or a liquor store. Your options will depend on the relevant corporate partnerships, but it could save you the hassle of placing a second order or (gasp) drinking something tamer.
Six gadgets made from LEGO bricks
By Cat DiStasio When kids play with LEGO bricks, their creations are limited only by their imaginations. A few colorful blocks can become a spacecraft, a bulldozer or a skyscraper with just a few moves. Although the LEGO builds from you childhood may not do much on their own, those colorful bricks lend themselves to amazing works of ingenuity when combined with other simple items. To showcase the vast potential of these cherished toys, we've rounded up a series of awesome gadgets made from LEGOs. Read on to learn about a working LEGO printer built by a teenager, a prosthetic arm that makes kids the star of any crowd and even a working LEGO camera that shows how it's possible to create almost anything if you want it badly enough.
A $1,500 smart oven made me the perfect leg of lamb
If you'd like to cook more but tend to feel disappointed by the results, you might be interested in the June. Announced last year, the June is an intelligent oven outfitted with a camera, a scale, a bevy of sensors and the guts of a smartphone or tablet (It has an NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip plus a 2.3GHz quad-core processor) to deliver the perfect meal. Want a medium rare steak? Simply weigh it, plop it in the oven where the camera will instantly recognize it's a steak, stick a temperature probe in, enter in your desired temperature on the touch screen and the oven will take care of the rest.
Charge your phone with KFC's new take-out box
Suppose you've just fired up Yelp to hunt down the nearest KFC, texted your friends to get their order and then posted a sweet victory Snapchat of your crispy haul. That probably just took a chunk from your smartphone battery -- but don't worry dudes, KFC's got your back with a device charger in your take-out box. Just don't try to plug it in while you're fingers-deep in greasy chicken.
Nanoflowers can detect bacteria before they make you sick
You typically won't know you're infected with E. coli until it starts wreaking havoc on your gut. That's why a group of scientists from Washington State University are building a handheld biosensor that can sniff out even tiny amounts of pathogen in food. The biosensor will rely on flower-shaped nanoparticles the team developed. These nanoflowers can trap bacteria enzymes and amplify them, so they can be recognized by a simple pH strip. According to team leader Yuehe Lin, they plan to use the nanoflowers to create a simple biosensor similar to a pregnancy test strip that anyone can use.
India is building a monsoon-predicting supercomputer
In India, monsoons are big business. If the country has a healthy rainy season, its agricultural industry thrives and helps account for a fifth of the total value of its goods and services. It's vitally important for meteorologists to predict when those rains will come, so instead of utilizing numerical or statistical predictions -- which once failed to predict India's biggest drought in 40 years in 2009 -- the country is spending $60 million on a supercomputer that could give farmers the advance notice they need to plant crops and increase yields.
SodaStream will replace some obsolete Keurig Kolds for free
Now that your Keurig Kold machine is suddenly obsolete, SodaStream is stepping up to replace that fizzy, carbonated hole in your life. The company is offering a free Fountain Jet sparkling water maker -- either out of the goodness of their hearts or because they've got a bunch of old stock to unload -- to anyone affected by the tragic and sudden closure of Keurig's pod-based soda efforts.
Domino's will track customers on their way to pick up pies
Domino's already lets customers monitor the status of their pizzas for delivery, but on Monday it will reverse that service, allowing pizza-makers to track the location of customers coming in for a pie pick-up. The program rolls out across Australia starting on Monday, according to CNBC. Anyone in the country who orders Domino's from a smartphone will be prompted to enable location-tracking on themselves, plus choose whether they're coming by bike, car or on foot. Domino's will start cooking the appropriate pizza once the customer is in range, so it comes out as fresh as possible, CEO Don Meij said.
Six gadgets that let you cook with sunlight
Barbecue season has begun in the United States, and folks are dusting off their charcoal and propane grills for the first time in months to welcome the warmer weather. However, outdoor cooks have another option -- if they're adventurous enough to try cooking with the power of the sun. The concept of a solar ovens isn't new; in fact, it's probably quite ancient. But technological advancements made it possible to increase efficiency and make it easier to cook without traditional fuel. There are high-tech options field tested in remote terrain, a tubular solar cooker that reaches 550 Farenheit within just a few minutes, and even a super hot "death ray" that could have produced some tasty results, if it hadn't self-destructed.
Uber's food delivery service is coming to London
In some parts of the world, Uber is known for more than just helping people get from A to B. UberEats, for example, is a food delivery service the company runs in various large North American cities, Paris, and as of a week ago, Singapore. It even has its own dedicated app in some places, and there are more than a few clues knocking around that point to the service launching in London in the near future. Uber is currently recruiting a "restaurant partnerships manager" and "marketing manager" for UberEats, both based in the capital, and according to BuzzFeed News, cyclists and scooter riders that will end up doing the legwork are being encouraged to pledge their allegiance prior to the service going live.
Bayer to use satellite imaging to modernize farming efforts
You probably know Bayer for its aspirin. But the multinational pharmaceutical company has its fingers in more pies that that -- it's also keen to become a force in agriculture. As part of a push to focus on its Crop Science division, the company's partnered with Planetary Resources, an aerospace tech company, to create products and services using data obtained from satellite imagery. The goal? To sell services and tools to farmers that will make agriculture more efficient and environmentally adaptable. Though the collaboration has just been announced and, therefore, no services have yet been created, Bayer's indicated a few key areas where satellite data could be beneficial: water conservation through more ideally timed irrigation; recommendations on timing for crop planting; and the ability to determine what soil will hold water best.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the Keurig for baby milk
It was in the drafty lounge, just days after our daughter was born, that the health visitor warned us against buying Tommee Tippee's Perfect Prep. She leant in, conspiratorially, and faux-whispered "between you and me, they're unsafe" with eyes darting left and right as if looking for hidden microphones. A week or two later, a consultant echoed the sentiment, saying "they [sic] claim to have done the research, but won't prove it." That sort of universal condemnation for a baby gadget that promised to revolutionize the way we parent piqued my interest. I just had to try it out for myself.
Pepper the robot gets a job at Pizza Hut
SoftBank's Pepper robot has been gainfully employed in the past, but it's apparently ready for a new career in the food industry. Pizza Hut Asia is partnering with MasterCard on a trial that will use Pepper for orders and information in restaurants by the end of 2016. Once you pair your MasterPass account, you can do everything from paying for your meal to asking about the calorie count. It's not necessarily as quick as ordering directly from your phone, but a demo (below) suggests that it's fairly painless -- it's easy to see the humanoid helper taking some of the load off of Pizza Hut's staff. Let's just hope that it fares well in less-than-ideal conditions.
National Academy of Sciences finds GMOs to be 'safe'
The debate surrounding the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has been raging for years and continues to do so. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has finally weighed in on the matter and found GMOs to not just be generally safe, but good for both people and the environment. The academy has even gone so far as to set up a dedicated website where visitors can peruse the source data that the academy leveraged for its study.
Amazon will sell its own food brands to Prime members
Amazon is no stranger to selling self-branded goods, whether they're tablets, USB cables or baby wipes. However, it's reportedly close to venturing into uncharted territory: food. Wall Street Journal sources understand that the internet shopping pioneer is weeks away from a "broad push" into selling its own brands of perishables. The Happy Belly label would offer everything from cooking oil to tea, while the Wickedly Prime badge would focus on snacks. There's also talk of a wider move into around-the-home products like the Presto line (things like laundry detergent) and Mama Bear (baby-oriented goods, including food).
Cord-munching weasel temporarily knocks the LHC offline
Just weeks after coming online from a series of crucial upgrades, CERN's Large Hadron Collider was knocked back offline overnight after a weasel (potentially a Marten) chomped through the wrong power cable. "We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," CERN spokesman, Arnaud Marsollier, told NPR.
Pizza Hut gives you delivery estimates before you order online
You know the score: you order from an unfamiliar pizza place and have little idea as to when your food will arrive until you've already made a purchase. Wouldn't it be nice if you knew when that pie would show up before you spent your cash? Pizza Hut thinks it can help. It's offering an estimated "Visible Promise Time" that tells you when your online order is likely to reach your door (or, for carry-out, when it's ready) before you commit. The time varies based on the volume of orders, how many drivers are on hand and the typical drive time for your part of town. If you're not sure that ordering at 6PM on a Friday is a wise idea, you'll find out very quickly.
