The Dose: Greenwashing

Greenwashing, 3D printed food, & a PD biomarker discovery

Welcome to The Dose! We’re delivering bi-weekly health and science updates right to your inbox, and we’re including some humor, art, and fun along the way.

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Did you know that more than 10 million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s Disease? The Michael J. Fox Foundation is a non-profit working to find a cure for PD, and they recently made an exciting discovery in their quest. Scientists from the foundation have used a tool to detect alpha-synuclein protein in brain and body cells. Alpha-synuclein is a neuronal protein that aids in neurotransmitter release. Formerly, this protein was only detectable in post-mortem analysis. Read more to learn about why this is important to understanding Parkinson’s and caring for those who have it.

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If you don’t know about the work Michael J. Fox does for his foundation and Parkinson’s research, then perhaps you’ve seen a “little” movie franchise he starred in-- “Back to the Future”. Have you ever wondered about the physics of time travel and the science associated with certain parts of the movies? Then you should check out this article to learn more about relativity and twin paradox.

Christopher Lloyd (left) and Michael J. Fox in a scene from Back to the Future. Photo: Alamy

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Great Scott! Have you heard of greenwashing?

If not, let us be the first to tell you: It’s a sham!

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Speaking of… Food Babe is responsible for greenwashing, fear mongering, and a host of other incorrect assumptions and outright lies. Maybe you’re familiar with her after she came for your beloved PSL for not containing actual pumpkin? Well, we’ve broken down some of her baseless claims, and discussed her false sense of authority.

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Food Babe (and others) might have a lot to say about this endeavor, but we think it’s fascinating… 3D printed cake! Check out this article to learn more about the graham-paste based confection, created by a team from Columbia University, including their failed iterations and the tweaks they made to achieve success. There’s an interesting video as well, so you can see each creation print.

A halved slice of edible 3D-printed cake. Jonathan Blutinger / Columbia Engineering

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If the cake got you pondering, we’d like to leave you with a question…

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