Latest news with #UniversityofBarcelona
The Star
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Interview: Spain must upgrade power grid to match renewable energy shift, expert warns
BARCELONA, Spain, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Spain must adapt its electrical grid to reflect the country's evolving energy landscape or risk more large-scale blackouts, Jordi Sole, an energy expert and professor at the University of Barcelona, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday. His warning comes ahead of a Senate vote on Wednesday that could urge the government to launch an independent investigation into the nationwide blackout that affected the country on 28 April. Sole said the root cause of the blackout is the lack of flexibility and stability in Spain's electrical system. "The grid has not been adapted to the new reality," Sole said. "The system is unstable and not flexible enough to respond quickly to oscillations in market supply and demand. It lacks the stabilization mechanisms needed to adapt to these fluctuations," he said. Spain has made significant progress in its energy transition, with renewable energy accounting for 56 percent of electricity generation in 2024, according to Red Electrica, the national grid operator. Sole said this transformation has outpaced the modernization of infrastructure. He argued that "not enough has been done to adapt the electrical network to this new energy mix." "The systemic problem of the electrical grid is that Spain's network is designed for an energy system that we are making a transition away from. It's a system based on fossil fuels and centralized energy sources that can provide power on demand," Sole added. The unprecedented blackout, described in the industry as a "zero energy" event, is still under investigation. On 14 May, Spain's Minister for Ecological Transition Sara Aagesen told Parliament that initial findings indicated three successive outages in the southwest triggered a cascade effect that ultimately caused the collapse of the national grid. According to Sole, another vulnerability is Spain's limited interconnection with the broader European grid, as the "lack of interconnection of the peninsular network with the rest of the continent" remains evident. He cited the International Energy Agency (IEA), which has repeatedly urged European governments to double investment in energy grids. "The investment at both the European and Spanish levels currently accounts for 0.36 percent of GDP. However, the IEA suggests that the rate should be 0.6 percent, which is double the current rate -it hasn't been done because it's expensive," he said. Sole also highlighted the role of private energy firms in the debate. "These companies, which earn millions from the business of electrical energy, should make some contribution to the grid," he said, calling out their reluctance to contribute and reduce their profits. He concluded by calling for a more holistic energy strategy that prepares the grid for a renewable-driven future. "This requires a new vision of energy consumption, one that considers environmental impacts, social and energy justice, and energy poverty," Sole said.
The Star
14-05-2025
- Science
- The Star
How to cook the perfect cacio e pepe pasta (according to scientists)
Pasta has long been a subject of scientific interest. — Pexels From adding salt to egg whites to help them rise, or ice water to fix the green colour of spinach, time-old tricks are legion in the kitchen. And, much to the dismay of Italians, pasta preparation is also the subject of many such beliefs, starting with that famous drizzle of olive oil that some say should be added to the pot of boiling water, supposedly to ensure that spaghetti doesn't stick. This advice has been the subject of much comment in the scientific community, including by chemist Raphael Haumont, famous associate of top chef Thierry Marx, who constantly points out that olive oil simply rises to the surface and doesn't mix with water at all. In short, it's a waste! All is not lost, however, as the perfect pasta is a very serious subject, and researchers from several universities have joined forces to conduct experiments to find the ultimate ingredient that will guarantee the perfect creamy texture of cacio e pepe, the famous pasta dish made with pecorino romano cheese and black pepper. Anyone who has ever tried to make this dish at home may have encountered problems, despite the simplicity of the ingredients. It's hard to achieve the creaminess normally produced by the pecorino without getting clumps of cheese or a sticky mess. It's true that Italians generally recommend adding a ladle of pasta cooking water to finish a pasta-in-sauce dish like cacio e pepe. And that water contains starch. But for researchers, you need to add starch rather than rely on the unknown quantity in the cooking water. Yes, there's starch in spaghetti – but not enough. For the sauce to be as creamy as it should be, the ratio of starch to cheese needs to be around 2-3%. And this works just as well with corn or potato starch, according to study results published in the journal Physics Of Fluids. In practice, you need 4g of starch for 240g of pasta and 160g of grated pecorino. Scientists from the University of Barcelona (Spain), the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (Germany), the University of Padova (Italy) and the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria also add that it's important to ensure the correct temperature of the dish when assembling the pasta with the sauce. It's important not to overheat the dish, as this could result in the cheese forming clumps. While the purpose of this study may raise a smile because of its light-hearted nature, the authors remind us that pasta – both its composition and the way it is cooked – has long been a subject of scientific interest. 'On several occasions, pasta has been a source of inspiration for physicists. The observation that spaghetti always break up into three or more fragments, but never in two halves, puzzled even Richard Feynman himself, and the explanation of this intriguing phenomenon earned Audoly and Neukirch the Ig Nobel Prize,' the researchers write. – AFP Relaxnews
Daily Mail
08-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Jab duo could extend life by up to 16 years and de-age the brain - but are you brave enough to take it?
Scientists are a step closer to creating a 'fountain of youth' treatment that could help humans live into their nineties—and beyond. The injections involve the 'anti-ageing molecule' klotho, a type of protein that is naturally produced by the body. Levels of klotho, named after the mythological Greek figure Clotho, who spun the thread of human life, naturally decline as we get age. This process occurs at the same time we start experiencing age-related maladies like weaker bones, loss of muscle mass and declining cognitive abilities. Now, Spanish scientists have developed a klotho-based treatment that both increased levels of the protein in mice and boosted the lifespan of the rodents by a fifth. The experts said this is the equivalent of adding an extra 16 years to an 80 year-old human's lifespan. Not only did these mice live longer they showed improved muscle strength, bone density and brain function. While further research is needed before the treatment can be trialled on humans, the authors of the new study claim it could make a massive contribution to improving the ageing process. In the study, published in the journal Molecular Therapy, experts from the University of Barcelona used a specially modified virus to deliver klotho into the mice's cells. This harmless virus carried the biological blueprints for cells to produce the protein, enabling the mice to boost their klotho levels over a long period. Mice were given the virus via two injections—one into a vein in the body and the other directly into the brain. This enabled it to bypass the natural barrier that normally protects the vital organ and allowed scientists to examine klotho's effect on the brain. In total, three groups of mice were tested. One received the treatment at six months of age, another got the dose at 12 months, and a final group of six month old mice got a placebo to act as a control. Male mice injected at 12 months were found to live the longest (31.5 months on average), a fifth longer than the control group who only lasted 26.3 months. The average mouse lives for roughly 12 to 18 months. The researchers noted that klotho levels were the highest among the animals injected at one year old. Researchers also tested the mice on their physical fitness and found those in the treatment group performed better in experiments measuring coordination and muscle strength. Tissue analysis showed mice on klotho had less internal scarring on their muscles and were generally more muscular. Female mice on the treatment, however, did not see the same lifespan extension due to severe health complications that the scientists said were not related to the treatment. However they did develop stronger bones. Analysis of brain tissue also showed mice of both sexes showed signs they were developing new neurons in the hippocampus, an area of the brain closely linked to learning. This suggests the treatment could combat age-related dementia. Currently the implications for using the treatment in people remain limited. Mice aren't humans, and many drugs and treatments that have shown promise on rodents have failed to replicate this success when trialled on people. Also of note is that many of the tissue samples used in the analysis only came from a limited number of rodents, between three and four, which could limit the results. However, Joan Roig-Soriano, an expert in neuroscience and author of the new study, said techniques that can provide klotho to humans are already available. 'We now have viral vectors that can reach the brain after being administered intravenously, which would make it easier to safely transfer this therapy to humans,' he said. 'Another option would be to administer the protein directly as a drug instead of using viral vectors, but we still need to find an efficient way to deliver it and ensure it reaches the target organs,' he said. Previous research has shown klotho can improve brain function in old primates and 'de-age' the brains of mice by decades. Klotho was originally discovered by Japanese researchers who found that the amount produced by mice could affect how long the rodents lived.
Fast Company
06-05-2025
- Science
- Fast Company
Scientists just designed the perfect cacio e pepe recipe
Chances are, if you're not an Italian grandma or a skilled home chef from Rome, you've probably messed up while trying to make cacio e pepe. At least, that's the thesis underpinning the scientific study ' Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce,' published on April 29 in the journal Physics of Fluids. The study—conducted by a group of scientists from the University of Barcelona, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Germany, the University of Padova in Italy, and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria—is pretty much what its title suggests: a full-on scientific investigation into the most 'optimized recipe' for the creamy, peppery pasta dish. 'We're Italians living abroad, and we often get together for dinner to enjoy traditional recipes from home,' says Ivan Di Terlizzi, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute. 'Among the dishes we've cooked, cacio e pepe came up several times, and every time, we were struck by how hard it is to get the sauce right. That's when we realized it might actually be an interesting physical system to study. And of course, there was also the very practical motivation of avoiding the heartbreak of wasting good pecorino!' A very brief history of pasta-based physics experiments This isn't the first time that pasta has been used as inspiration for physicists. Probably the most famous example of 'pasta as experiment,' Di Terlizzi says, is the observation that spaghetti almost never breaks cleanly in half, tending to snap into three or more fragments instead. This fact originally puzzled renowned physicist Richard Feynman (who died in 1988) and wasn't fully explained until 2005, when a team of French physicists showed that it's caused by cascading cracks traveling along the pasta. Another example, Di Terlizzi adds, is the physics of ring-shaped polymers, which are 'notoriously hard to understand.' A study in 2014 used a type of circular pasta, which the researchers called 'anelloni,' to explain why these looped polymers behave so strangely in experiments. With cacio e pepe, the physics question of interest has to do with the sauce's unusual behavior under heat. 'The main goal of our work wasn't just culinary; it was to explore the physics of this system,' Di Terlizzi says. 'The sauce's behavior under heat shares features with many physical and biological phenomena, like phase transitions or the formation of membrane-less organelles inside cells. The recipe is, in a sense, the practical byproduct of everything we learned.' The most optimal cacio e pepe recipe, according to scientists Cacio e pepe traditionally only includes three ingredients: pasta, pecorino Romano cheese, and black pepper. While it seems like a simple enough concoction, the sauce's creamy smoothness (the backbone of the dish) can be quite finicky to achieve. When the temperature gets too high or the mixing of cheese and pasta water isn't done carefully, the cheese proteins will denature—essentially 'unfolding' and losing their normal 3D structure. In the unfolded state, the proteins then stick together and the emulsion breaks. 'Instead of a creamy consistency, you get a gooey mess, which we call salsa impazzita. . . that is, crazy sauce,' Di Terlizzi says. The physics-based solution to 'crazy sauce'? It's all about starch. It turns out that, by perfecting the ratio of starch in the pasta water to cheese mass, the cacio e pepe sauce becomes far more resistant to heat, which stabilizes the emulsion and prevents clumping. 'Without starch, the so-called 'mozzarella phase' kicks in at around 65°C, where the proteins start forming large aggregates,' Di Terlizzi says. 'But if the starch concentration is above 1% relative to the cheese mass, the clumps stay small, and temperature becomes much less critical, making it much easier to get a good result.' This is similar to using polymers to stabilize emulsions in soft matter physics, he adds. 'Phase behavior of cacio e pepe sauce' contains ultra-detailed steps to a foolproof cacio e pepe, but here are the instructions in condensed terms: Step 1: For a pasta dish for 'two hungry people,' start with 300 grams of the preferred tonnarelli pasta—or opt for spaghetti or rigatoni, if you must. From there, you'll need 200 grams of cheese. 'Traditionalists would insist on using only pecorino Romano DOP [protected designation of origin], but some argue that up to 30% parmigiano Reggiano DOP is acceptable; though this remains a point of debate,' the recipe notes. Proceed based on your own personally held cheese preferences. Step 2: To prepare the sauce, dissolve 5 grams of starch—like potato or corn starch—in 50 grams of water. Heat this mixture gently until it thickens and turns from cloudy to nearly clear. This is your starch gel. Step 3: Add 100 grams of water to the starch gel. Instead of manually grating the cheese into the resulting liquid, blend the two together to achieve a homogeneous sauce. Finish the sauce by adding black pepper to taste (for best results, toast the pepper in a pan before adding). Step 4: To prepare the pasta, cook in slightly salted water until it is al dente. Save some of the pasta cooking water before draining. Once the pasta has been drained, let it cool down for up to a minute to prevent the excessive heat from destabilizing the sauce. Finally, mix the pasta with the sauce, ensuring even coating, and adjust the consistency by gradually adding reserved pasta water as needed.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
The perfect cacio e pepe? It comes down to science.
It's not your cooking skills that is making your cacio e pepe subpar — it's science. Fortunately, new research is here to help you master this deliciously simple dish. Cacio e pepe might be considered the Italian cousin of macaroni and cheese. The dish is deceptively simple on the surface, involving nothing more than cooked pasta (ideally, spaghetti or bucatini) combined with pecorino romano cheese and black pepper. But as anyone who has tried and failed to make it knows, getting this pasta to be as creamy and delicious as possible has everything to do with execution. Researchers (and Italian food lovers) from the University of Barcelona, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, the University of Padua and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria say they have cracked the code to making perfect cacio e pepe. They discovered that using powdered starch — rather than just relying on the starch that comes from the pasta water — is the key ingredient to making creamy, not clumpy, cheese sauce. So, what is the ideal ratio? According to the new study, the goal is to use about 3% of starch for the amount of cheese you use — so, if you use 100 grams of pecorino romano, 3 grams of powdered starch. Measuring this out in advance is key. Get ready to taste cheesy goodness. Here's what to do. Prepare the starchy water: Measure your cheese, then see what is 3% of that in order to find the appropriate amount of powdered starch (you can use either potato or corn starch for this recipe). Then add the starch to warm water to create a solution. Cook pasta: Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook your pasta, preferably spaghetti or bucatini. Your aim is to get the pasta al dente, which means 'to the tooth' — i.e., neither too tough or soft. This may mean shaving a minute or two off your pasta box's recipe time. (Test a noodle if you're unsure.) Then drain the pasta and set aside. Prepare the sauce: In a separate pan large enough to fit your pasta, blend your pecorino romano cheese into the starchy water. Stir so you get a smooth and uniform consistency, sans pasta-ruining clumps. Reheat the sauce: Slowly heat the cheese and starch mixture back up in the pan. Don't go too high — that will cause the cheese to clump up. And this recipe is all about avoiding those dreaded clumps! Instead, slowly heat until it reaches serving temperature. Combine the pasta and sauce: Add the cooked, drained pasta into the pan with the sauce. Toss it to ensure it's properly coated with cheesy goodness. Add black pepper: Use fresh ground pepper to finish the sauce and toss again to coat the pasta. Serve immediately. Buon appetito! It's true that cacio e pepe is a classic — but as with any classic, there are always some ways to put a new spin on it for when you're feeling like something just a touch different. Here are some ideas from around the internet. Use crushed red chile peppers: Chef Jamie Oliver has a recipe for a cacio e pepe offshoot that uses red chile peppers in place of black pepper. His version also includes asparagus, which just so happens to be in season. Add lemon zest: Martha Stewart likes to make a traditional cacio e pepe recipe, but with a twist. She grates the zest of a Meyer lemon into the dish, as well as squeezes in some lemon juice for a touch of acidity. Make it vegan: A cacio e pepe recipe without cheese? It might sound impossible, but Los Angeles-based chef Matthew Kenney does just this by creating a cheese-like sauce with nutritional yeast and cashew cream. Turn it into a grilled cheese: Culinary creator Peter Som has a recipe for a cacio e pepe grilled cheese for when you can't be bothered to boil pasta. Go for a green version: Broccoli gets the cacio e pepe treatment thanks to this recipe from Chowhound.
