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On farms off the coast of Alaska and in Mexico, a company called Blue Evolution grows seaweed used in food and skincare products. But five years ago, while studying the potential for seaweed to be used in bioenergy, the company discovered something else: The algae also contains critical minerals. The research, conducted with Pacific Northwest National Labs, identified the presence of scandium, an expensive rare earth element thats produced in tiny volumes globally. The seaweed also contains other rare earth elements and platinum group metals that can be used to make products ranging from EV batteries to motors for wind turbines. That generated a lot of excitement, says Beau Perry, CEO of Blue Evolution. Everyone was like, Can you mine with seaweed? The company undertook more research into the area, and today it launched a new initiative, Orca Minerals, thats focused on the new form of mining. Instead of blasting rocks or the seabed, the process makes use of the fact that seaweed naturally absorbs minerals from seawater as it grows. [Photo: Rachelle Hacmac/Blue Evolution] At its lab in San Jose, the company is analyzing samples of seaweed that it grows in seawater tanks on the Mexican coast and in the ocean in Alaska. With the right location, and the right strain of seaweed, Perry says, it’s possible to harvest meaningful amounts of certain minerals. The team identifies and selectively breeds seaweed strains, and is currently analyzing one of those proprietary strains. “We’re starting to select the characteristics that should yield more, with faster growth, but also more solid content and more mineral content,” Perry says. The content of critical minerals like cobalt or palladium is small, but that’s also true in traditional mining. “When you’re mining rare earths, it’s just mostly wasted material. You need a huge amount of rock,” he says. “Rare earth elements are not that much more concentrated in those deposits than in some of the seaweed samples we’ve seen.” Some other startups are working on processes to extract minerals from land using plants, like a company called Metalplant thats mining nickel with crops grown in Albania. Seaweed has some advantages: It grows much more quickly and can concentrate minerals at a higher proportion, so the yield can be greater. And while there’s a fixed stock of minerals in soil, currents in the ocean continually replenish supply. [Photo: Rachelle Hacmac/Blue Evolution] The rest of the seaweed also has valueas nutrients, pigments, or carbon that can be used to make seaweed-based textiles, plastic, and other materials; critical minerals are a side benefit. As the biomaterials market grows, that would simultaneously mean more potential to displace traditional mining on land. If the company grows seven-figure tons of dry seaweed in Alaska to meet demand for biomaterials, for example, Perry says it could also produce enough scandium to be a major player in the global market. (For some other minerals and elements that are produced at bigger scales, it would contribute a much smaller percentage.) Mining from seaweed, rather than rocks, could help avoid some of the environmental impact of getting components that are necessary in things like electronics and EV batteries. Traditional mining destroys wildlife habitats; pollutes water, soil, and the air; uses large amounts of energy; and creates piles of waste. The Trump administration also wants to fast-track deep-sea miningextracting minerals from the ocean floorsomething scientists say could cause irreparable harm to marine ecosystems. Growing and harvesting seaweed doesn’t cause those problems. Refining minerals from seaweed also takes less energy and is a cleaner process than traditional refining, Perry says. The company is working on its own green-chemistry-based extraction techniques that could potentially bypass the need to use a secondary refinery. The work is still in progress, and the company wants to ensure it can predictably harvest a certain volume of critical minerals from its seaweed. But it expects to have an operational prototype by 2027. Commercial production could begin in 2028.
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Getting older can be a time when declining vision, hearing, and cognitive abilities may mean it’s no longer safe to drive. It may even lead to giving up your driver’s license. In theory, those who age out of driving should be perfect new customers for ride-sharing apps. And yet, Lyft says only 5.6% of its U.S. riders are older than 65. The company sensed a disconnect. The app wasn’t meeting older riders needs, and it needed a redesign. Lyft Silver, now available nationwide, is designed specifically for older users, with a font that’s 1.4 times bigger than the standard app, and a simple interface. [Image: Lyft] “Developing Lyft Silver was truly a labor of care and intention,” Audrey Liu, Lyft’s EVP of rider experience, tells Fast Company via email. “We started by listeningreally listeningto the experiences and needs of older adults. We spoke with riders, caregivers, and organizations that serve this community to understand the specific challenges they face with transportation. Things like navigating complex apps, feeling unsure about who their driver will be, or needing a little extra time and assistance.” The new design represents a collaboration among experts on aging, as well as partners like AltaMed, Urban League, Self Help for the Elderly, and others. The specialized app leans on Lyft’s findings about how its older customers actually use the service, like matching riders with more accessible vehicles that are easier to get in and out of since Lyft data showed older adults were twice as likely to cancel rides when they got matched with a pickup truck. And because Lyft found older adults are 57% more likely to not show up for their rides, the app has a “Get Help” button that connects riders to a live agent during work hours. Lyft Silver profiles also have trusted contacts, so ride details can be shared with family and caregivers. [Image: Lyft] “Personally, thinking about my own mom and aunt, and the desire I have for them to move through their day with ease and independence, was a huge motivator,” Liu says. “We focused on building features that directly address those paint points: things like a simpler app interface with larger buttons and clearer instructions, the option for drivers who have indicated a preference for assisting older riders, and a longer wait time to enter and exit the vehicle without feeling rushed. It was about creating a service that feels less transactional and more supportive, fostering a sense of comfort and trust.” It’s simple by design, and by basing the app on the needs and experiences of its actual users, Lyft Silver shows how tech companies can better adapt their services to an aging population.
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Chances are, if youre not an Italian grandma or a skilled home chef from Rome, youve probably messed up while trying to make cacio e pepe. At least, thats the thesis underpinning the scientific study Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce, published on April 29 in the journal Physics of Fluids. The studyconducted 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 Austriais pretty much what its title suggests: a full-on scientific investigation into the most optimized recipe for the creamy, peppery pasta dish. Were Italians living abroad, and we often get together for dinner to enjoy traditional recipes from home, says Ivan Di Terlizzi, the studys lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute. Among the dishes weve cooked, cacio e pepe came up several times, and every time, we were struck by how hard it is to get the sauce right. Thats 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 isnt 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 wasnt fully explained until 2005, when a team of French physicists showed that its 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 sauces unusual behavior under heat. The main goal of our work wasnt just culinary; it was to explore the physics of this system, Di Terlizzi says. The sauces 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 sauces 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 isnt done carefully, the cheese proteins will denatureessentially 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? Its 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. [Chart: AIP Publishing] 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 pastaor opt for spaghetti or rigatoni, if you must. From there, youll 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 starchlike potato or corn starchin 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. Step 5: Garnish with grated cheese and pepper, and serve.
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