Cricket burgers – shaking up the protein supply chain
Melted cheese over a burger – is your stomach rumbling? How about making that cheese from plant protein and the burger from insects? We need to develop ways to produce more existing sources of protein more efficiently. Animal-based protein has an important role as part of a sustainable diet and as a contributor to food security. But now is the timefor alternative sources of complementary protein for direct human consumption, and animal feed, to increase their market share. In this episode we are going to be looking at how to increase the production and market uptake of complementary proteins, with:Emanuele Zannini who has a PhD in Applied Biomolecular Science and is now a senior researcher coordinator at the School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College Cork. Tuen Veldkamp, a senior researcher in Animal Nutrition at Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and who is interested in testing and demonstrating innovative rearing methods to help the European insect supply chain become commercially viable.Erlend Sild the founder of the deep-tech company, BugBox, who has developed an industrial and scalable technology forsustainable protein production from crickets, providing competitive production costs and increasing efficiency using AI.
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35:51
Fires, asteroids and chemical agents – new tools to keep us safer
What can surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy tell us about the presence of novichok? How can we improve our understanding of how asteroids respond to the tactics we may need to deploy for planetary defence? And as incidences of wildfires grow, how can Europe’s response be more effective? Listen on to hear the answers to these and many other key questions. Joining us for this episode are: Patrick Michel, a director of research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice. He is involved in space missions to asteroids, for both science and planetary defence purposes and is the principal investigator of the European Space Agency’s Hera mission, which contributes to the first asteroid deflection test through NASA’s DART mission. Emilio Chuvieco, professor of Geography and director of the Environmental Ethics chair at the University of Alcalá, Spain, and his main interest is the use of Earth Observation data to monitor environmental problems, particularly forest fires. Tomas Rindzevicius, a senior researcher in the Department of Health Technology, Drug Delivery and Sensing, at the Technical University of Denmark, who focuses on the application of nanomaterials for sensing applications to detect trace amounts of explosives, toxic industrial chemicals and chemical warfare agents.
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34:36
Turning back the tide of biodiversity loss
What can we do to save species under threat from climate change and human encroachment? From the oceans to the forests, today we look at how vital evidence is to preserving biodiversity, a key barometer of the planet’s health. Biodiversity is under threat, but it is not all grim news: science-based conservation can step in and halt a decline, as shown in a paper published recently in the journal ‘Science’, which did a meta-analysis of 186 studies comparing changes in biodiversity over time. Today we’ll journey through rainforests, air and sea to hear about the latest research funded by the EU, that is gathering the data we need to make conservation effective, with Claire Fortunel who is based at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development; Alison Cleary, a molecular ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey, and Ada Álvarez-Manzaneda, a fellow at the Department of Ecology at the University of Granada, in Spain.
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28:22
New horizons in robotics
Assistive tech, preventing injury at work and biomimetics feeding into the design of future robotic systems – listen on to find out more about the robots of the future.Robotics is a swiftly changing field: Cheaper hardware is making research more accessible, and thanks to advances in AI, the focus is now shifting from feats of physical dexterity achieved by expensive robots, to building ‘general-purpose robot brains’ in the form of neural networks. Talking these ideas over are Mac MacLachlan, professor of Psychology and Social Inclusion, and co-director of the Assisting Living & Learning Institute at Maynooth University, in Ireland.Arash Ajoudani the director of the Human-RobotInterfaces and Interaction laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology. And Tim Landgraf, based at the Dahlem Centerfor Machine Learning and Robotics at the Free University of Berlin.
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30:30
Saving lives by tackling malaria
Why is it so hard to find a vaccine that works well against placental malaria? Ever thought about the challenges of irradiating 300 mosquitoes a second! And how do the dynamics of replication play out in our bodies?
Malaria is described by the World Health Organization as
‘perpetuating a vicious cycle of inequity’. Listen on to see how EU scientists are working to understand and mitigate the disease.
Catherine Merrick is professor of Parasitology in the Pathology Department at Cambridge University. She studies the human malaria parasite, aiming to improve our understanding of the fundamental biology of the parasite, and the impact of this biology on virulence.
Lars Hviid is professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, at the University of Copenhagen. His work
has improved our understanding of how people gradually acquire protection from malaria, and furthered the development of vaccines against this deadly parasite.
Hanan Lepek is the founder and CEO of Senecio Robotics. He works at the interface of biology and mechanical and software engineering, to create and deploy sterile mosquitoes on a large scale to reduce local mosquito populations.
About CORDIScovery – unearthing the hottest topics in EU science, research and innovation
CORDIScovery is a monthly podcast featuring a panel discussion between guests at the forefront of their scientific fields. From threats to biodiversity to the future of space exploration, if you want to hear how the EU’s cutting-edge research is taking on the key issues challenging us today, then be sure to download and listen to what Europe’s leading scientists have to say. CORDIScovery is produced by CORDIS, whose mission is to share the results of the very best of EU-funded research.
Listen to CORDIScovery – unearthing the hottest topics in EU science, research and innovation, More or Less: Behind the Stats and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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