Using science for more animal welfare

Researchers develop alternative to goose liver

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

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With the help of rheology, the mechanical properties of real foie gras and that produced by Vilgis and his team can be measured and compared.  

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Credit: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research

Foie gras, translated from French as “fatty liver”, is known in Germany as “Gänsestopfleber” (goose liver). For animal welfare reasons, the so-called “force-feeding” has been criticized for a long time, and in many countries its production or even sale is prohibited. Substitute products have so far been unable to imitate the unique taste and texture of foie gras.

Researchers led by Thomas Vilgis from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz, together with colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark, have now used various scientific methods to examine the structure of real foie gras and developed an alternative based on these findings.

“It has always been a goal to reproduce the taste and texture of real foie gras while not losing sight of animal welfare,” says Thomas Vilgis, himself a passionate amateur chef and scientist at the MPI-P.

For their investigations, the researchers used both microscopic methods to determine the fat content or the proportion of collagen fibers, which account for a large part of the mouthfeel, and so-called rheological investigations. In the latter, the “processing” of the foie gras in the mouth is simulated by means of appropriate mechanical setups and expressed in figures.

In order to produce a new, animal-friendly foie gras, the researchers cooked collagen-rich tissue such as skin and used it to make a gel. This gel is then mixed with liver and fat in the correct proportions to form a pâté. However, despite similar ingredients, this mixture could not adequately imitate the “real” product, and even the systematic addition of collagen did not produce a better result. The scientists then had the idea of treating the fat with the goose's own lipases. Lipases are enzymes that help to digest fat in the body and mimic the natural processes in the duck's body.

The pâté produced in this way closely mimics the properties of real foie gras. This is mainly due to the restructured fat, because it is only the lipase treatment that allows the formation of large (irregular) fat aggregates, as they also occur in foie gras. This is the best way to imitate the mouthfeel and, above all, the melt. Collagen-enriched pâtés do not allow for this.

For Vilgis and his team, it was important not to add any external ingredients or additives to the foie gras. Vilgis has already applied for a patent for the recipe and hopes to work with companies that can help in the production of the alternative product. He would also like to work with sensory experts who can help him refine the taste and smell of foie gras.

The research results have now been published in the journal Physics of Fluids.

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Journal

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0255813 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animal tissue samples

Article Title

Foie gras pâté without force-feeding

Article Publication Date

25-Mar-2025

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New study explores what motivates LGB parents to have more children

Reichman University

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Dr. Geva Shenkman Lachberg, Dina Recanati School of Medicine:

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Credit: Gilad Kavalerchick

“Neither stigma nor social support — but rather age, economic status, number of children, and religiosity — are the key predictors of LGB parents’ desire to expand their families.” A new study led by Dr. Geva Shenkman-Lachberg of the Dina Recanati School of Medicine at Reichman University, in collaboration with Yuval Shaia of Reichman University and Dr. Kfir Ifrah of Ruppin Academic Center, found that only sociodemographic factors — including the parent’s age, number of current children, economic status, and level of religiosity — predict the desire and intention to have more children among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) parents. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, experiences of discrimination, stigma, and social support were not found to have a significant impact on parental aspirations. The researchers now aim to further explore the reasons behind these findings.

 

The research team explored the desire, intention, and assessment of the likelihood of having additional children among LGB individuals who are already parents. The study, published last week in the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, is the first to focus on the motivations for family expansion among LGB parents. It examined three measures of parental aspirations — desire, intention, and estimated probability — in the context of parenthood achieved through fertility treatments.

 

The study included 234 LGB parents with an average age of 40.23, surveyed between November 2022 and February 2024. Participants completed questionnaires addressing a wide range of factors that may influence the motivation to have additional children. The variables examined included sociodemographic characteristics (parent’s age, gender, education level, economic status, religiosity, marital status, number of children, and place of residence); factors related to perceptions of the parental role (investment in parenting, satisfaction with parenting, sense of parental competence, and parental integration); social variables (social support, experiences of discrimination, and stigma); as well as a cultural variable — pronatalism, which reflects sociocultural values ​​that encourage childbirth and parenthood.

 

As one of the first studies to examine motivations for having additional children among LGB parents, the researchers based their hypotheses on previous findings from studies conducted among LGB individuals who were not yet parents. These earlier studies found that, alongside sociodemographic variables, social factors also had a significant impact. For example, non-parent LGB individuals who experienced lower levels of social support and higher levels of stigma and discrimination reported lower desire and intention to become parents. Accordingly, the researchers hypothesized that similar patterns would emerge among LGB parents — that exposure to stigma and discrimination or a lack of social support would be associated with decreased motivation to expand their families.

 

However, contrary to the initial hypothesis and previous findings from studies of non-parent LGB individuals, the current study found that only sociodemographic factors were significant predictors of motivation for additional children. Younger parental age, fewer existing children, higher economic status, and greater religiosity were the only variables found to be associated with the desire, intention, and estimated likelihood of bringing additional children into the world. In contrast, social support, stigma, discrimination, perceptions of the parental role, and pronatalist attitudes were not found to be significantly linked with aspirations for family expansion, once sociodemographic variables were accounted for within the statistical prediction model.

 

Dr. Geva Shenkman Lachberg, Dina Recanati School of Medicine: “The current study is particularly relevant in the Israeli context — a country that reveres childbirth and parenthood, with one of the highest average numbers of children among OECD countries. Israel is also known for its widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies and generous government funding, including nearly unlimited cycles of fertility treatment. Within this ‘parenting empire’, it is important to understand what motivates LGB parents to have more children — especially given the significant challenges they have faced over the years, such as restrictions on surrogacy in Israel.

 

“While previous studies have highlighted the impact of stigma, discrimination, and lack of social support on parenthood aspirations among sexual minorities, it seems that these factors carry less weight among LGB parents. It may be that after they have succeeded in becoming parents — effectively breaking the glass ceiling — they are accepted into the social consensus, and it is the sociodemographic factors that remain significant. In this sense, the emerging picture closely resembles the one we are familiar with among heterosexual parents.”

 

This study, one of the first to address the motivations for having additional children among LGB parents who have used assisted reproductive technologies, makes a significant contribution to understanding gay parenthood in the Israeli context.

 

 

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DOI

10.1080/02646838.2025.2478398 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Predictors for desire, intention, and likelihood for more children among LGB parents through assisted reproduction

 

SpongeBoost visualises sponge functions in wetlands with a comic book

SpongeBoost project launches the first part of its comic book series to promote water retention solutions for resilient landscapes

Pensoft Publishers

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SpongeBoost comic book launch

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Credit: SpongeBoost project

The SpongeBoost project is taking a creative approach to communicating its mission of enhancing and restoring landscapes' natural water retention capacities. By consolidating existing knowledge, utilising best practices, and testing innovative approaches, the project aims to create a comprehensive roadmap for implementing transformative measures that improve resilience to extreme weather events. This involves synthesising information for policy-making, practical restoration, and land-use planning, as well as showcasing successful examples of sponge restoration and its multiple benefits.

As part of its innovative creative communications approach, the project has developed a character, called Spongy. Through engaging visuals and inspiring stories, Spongy will simplify complex concepts, shape the project's visual identity and make the sponge narrative fun and accessible to both experts and non-experts.

The first edition of the comic book is available both in print and digitally, ensuring open access and free availability. The English and German versions of the first edition of the comic book have been published and are now available on Zenodo. Translations into seven more languages will follow shortly. The SpongeBoost comic book will be presented at future events across Europe to raise awareness about the project and its mission.

The official launch of the SpongeBoost comic book took place on 13 March 2025, during a hybrid workshop hosted by SpongeBoost partners from Deutsche Umwelthilfe in Berlin. The event, titled "Sponge.Power.Climate. – Innovatively Communicating Sponge Landscapes as Nature-Based Solutions", was attended by participants from across Germany.

The workshop featured a presentation by Maria Mincheva from Pensoft Publishers, who discussed the importance of science communication as a bridge between research and the public. Carina Darmstadt from Environmental Action Germany then officially introduced the SpongeBoost comic book, developed in collaboration with illustrators Melissa Harms and Nele Schacht from parzelle34 in Weimar. Their creative illustrations brought Spongy to life, transforming him from a concept into a character that supports the project’s mission to promote nature-based solutions for water retention.

The event also included a dynamic storytelling workshop, encouraging participants to share their own creative ideas for new "sponge stories". This session provided an opportunity for experts from diverse fields and communication professionals to collaborate and exchange their different perspectives on the topic.

With the release of the comic book and ongoing efforts to extend the story through additional editions, SpongeBoost aims to promote nature-based solutions that enhance landscape resilience and help combat the impacts of climate change. 

Stay tuned for more project information on the SpongeBoost website: www.spongeboost.eu

Find the SpongeBoost project on social media on X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky.

***

SpongeBoost receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101112906.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the EU nor the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) can be held responsible for them.

 

Physics meets art: a new twist on interference patterns

Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

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Researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, discover brand new one-dimensional diffraction patterns in two-dimensional nanomaterials, with exciting implications

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Credit: Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan – One of the simplest and most beautiful naturally occurring patterns can be observed when light is shined through a pair of slightly misaligned periodic structures. This phenomenon, known as the moiré effect, is not only pretty to look at, but also has important consequences for the properties of materials.

In an article published in ACS Nano, a team led by researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, announced the discovery of a previously unseen moiré pattern: a series of periodic one-dimensional bands in tungsten ditelluride bilayers.

In nanomaterials, moiré patterns depend on the relative angle between two layers of atoms; by adjusting the angle between the lattices, different patterns can be realized. Typically, this twist angle is small – only a few degrees – since the characteristic size of the pattern decreases with increasing twist angle. However, when the researchers experimented with larger twist angles, something unexpected happened.

“The resulting pattern is a series of parallel stripes,” says Yijin Zhang, one of the corresponding authors of the study. “Typical interference patterns look like two-dimensional arrays of bright spots. These one-dimensional bands are completely distinct from all previously known patterns.”

This phenomenon can partly be explained by the choice of material. Tungsten ditelluride has a very unconventional crystal structure, consisting of distorted quadrilaterals rather than an ordered honeycomb-like lattice.

“A more disordered lattice means fewer constraints on the twist angle,” explains Tomoki Machida, senior author. “By choosing to study this material, we are free to explore the patterns that emerge when the angle is increased significantly.”

Through theoretical modeling and transmission electron microscopy experiments, the team was able to confirm that the one-dimensional bands occur precisely at twist angles of 61.767º and 58.264º. Perturbing the angle even by a tenth of a degree causes the interference pattern to revert to the traditional bright spots.

“Moiré patterns govern the optoelectronic properties of materials, so this discovery opens the door for engineering materials with uniquely anisotropic properties,” says Zhang. “For example, it may soon be possible to tune nanomaterials to conduct heat or electricity in a particular direction.”

The researchers hypothesize that other materials also possess similar one-dimensional patterns at large twist angles and are currently searching for them, as well as devising ways to apply their discovery to the study of one-dimensional phenomena. Regardless of what they find, more interesting interference patterns are almost certain to follow.

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The article, “Intrinsic One-Dimensional Moiré Superlattice in Large-Angle Twisted Bilayer WTe2,” was published in ACS Nano at 10.1021/acsnano.4c17317.

 

About Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo

The Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo-IIS) is one of the largest university-attached research institutes in Japan. UTokyo-IIS is comprised of over 120 research laboratories—each headed by a faculty member—and has over 1,200 members (approximately 400 staff and 800 students) actively engaged in education and research. Its activities cover almost all areas of engineering. Since its foundation in 1949, UTokyo-IIS has worked to bridge the huge gaps that exist between academic disciplines and real-world applications.
 

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Journal

ACS Nano

DOI

10.1021/acsnano.4c17317 

Article Title

Intrinsic One-Dimensional Moiré Superlattice in Large-Angle Twisted Bilayer WTe2

Article Publication Date

27-Mar-2025

 

Mechanisms stabilizing Japanese moorlands, species asynchrony, and species and compositional stability

Yokohama National University

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Our study provides general empirical evidence that species asynchrony, species stability, and compositional stability jointly stabilize (purple arrows), while bryophyte cover destabilizes (red arrows) moorland community stability.

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Credit: YOKOHAMA National University

Subalpine and boreal moorlands are ecosystems that contribute to climate stability by reducing excess carbon as well as acting to help regulate the climate—both invaluable properties in a time of advancing climate change. Therefore, understanding how to maintain these communities in their natural state is imperative. However, the underlying mechanisms of community stability and how factors such as biodiversity within these communities affect their long-term stability is still not well understood.

Scientists in Japan have been studying subalpine and boreal moorland plant communities over an extended area in a national monitoring project, the ‘Monitoring Site 1000.’ Using this dataset researchers at YOKOHAMA National University analyzed the relationships between vascular plant species richness, species asynchrony, species stability, community compositional stability, bryophyte cover and the temporal stability of the community cover to understand what factors influence plant communities’ stability.

They found “empirical evidence that species asynchrony, species stability, and compositional stability jointly stabilizes, while bryophyte cover destabilizes moorland community stability,” said Shun Nonaka, one of the papers authors and a researcher at the College of Urban Sciences, YOKOHAMA National University. 

Their results were published in the Science of The Total Environment on Feb. 27.

Community stability within a plant ecosystem may be affected by many different factors. In the study by researchers at YOKOHAMA National University on the subalpine and boreal communities, species asynchrony, species stability and compositional stability were the primary drivers in that system’s stability.

Species asynchrony, the change in species abundance over time, evidences the multiple temporal niches that many of the different plants fill. Strengthening the overall community by introducing a diversity of temporal life strategies thereby increasing the probability that if an environmental change occurs some of the species would be able to survive.

Species stability in the moorlands was largely the result of the presence of the dominant species, for example Moliniopsis japonica. This is an important finding as many of these species are currently under threat from the encroachment of woody species and a loss of habitat. “Thus, the study findings highlight that dominant species with habitat specificity in moorlands (such as Moliniopsis japonica, Carex middendorffii, and Rhynchospora alba), which are increasingly threatened by the expansion of woody species and the reduction of areas occupied by moorlands, should be conserved regardless of their endangered status,” said Nonaka

Compositional stability, the maintenance of the same groups with the community, increased the temporal stability of the community.

Species richness, the number of species within an area, generally has a positive effect on community stability. In the study they found that the role of species richness in community stability could not be determined. This may be due to the shorter time scales of this study. Future work in these areas should consider longer time scales in their research to clearly define the role of species richness.

The greatest negative influence on community stability was the bryophyte cover as the bryophytes, largely Sphagnum mosses, decreased species asynchrony. Sphagnum moss physiology has a very strong effect on nearby hydrology and biogeochemical cycles. This can very negatively affect the vascular plants thereby reducing the number of plants that may fill certain temporal niches.

“The factors that determine moorland community stability identified in this study underscore the importance of dominant species conservation and the critical role of biodiversity in conservation strategies for moorland ecosystems,” said Takehiro Sasaki, the second author on the paper and a researcher at the Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, YOKOHAMA National University.

“This study also showed that the destabilizing effect of bryophyte may become more pronounced with increasing temperature fluctuations across time scales. Future study should evaluate the multifunctional stability of ecosystem functions and community stability on longer-term and broader spatiotemporal scales. In particular, the “Monitoring Site 1000” used in this study should continue to be monitored over a wider area and over a longer period of time in the future, and monitoring of easily measurable factors such as soil environmental factors such as pH and EC and plant traits such as leaf height and specific leaf area should also be incorporated into the protocol,” said Sasaki.

This work was financially supported by a Fostering Joint International Research A (no. 19KK0393) and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B (grant no. 21H02567, 22H03791 and 24K03127) to TS from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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YOKOHAMA National University (YNU) is a leading research university dedicated to academic excellence and global collaboration. Its faculties and research institutes lead efforts in pioneering new academic fields, advancing research in artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum information, semiconductor innovation, energy, biotechnology, ecosystems, and smart city development. Through interdisciplinary research and international partnerships, YNU drives innovation and contributes to global societal advancement.

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Journal

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178955 

Article Title

Species asynchrony, species stability, and compositional stability jointly stabilize, while bryophyte cover destabilizes plant communities across Japanese moorlands