Happy weekend, Spoon readers. We hope you have a restful few days ahead and aren’t scrambling to pick out a Halloween costume and buy candy (cough, me).
This week we’ve got stories about a creative way to cut down on beer bottle label waste, how scientists are using heating technology to make better gluten-free bread, and a nifty new attribute of the new NYC Nordstrom flagship where you can get food delivered to you while you shop. Enjoy!
AB InBev will print labels on beer bottles using only ink
AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, is making a new type of beer bottle design that would completely do away with paper labels in an effort to save paper waste. According to MarketWatch, the brewer is experimenting with tattoo-ing information directly on 200,000 bottles using ink. AB InBev is developing the technology in their Tattoo Alpha Plant in Belgium, and will launch them in the U.K. as part of a limited-edition run of Beck’s Artist Series, a collaboration between the company’s Global Innovation and Technology Center and six up-and-coming artists.
Photo: Nordstrom
In NYC, Nordstrom will offer in-store food delivery
Starting this week, the new flagship Nordstrom in New York City opened its doors. In addition to a bunch of bells and whistles, shoppers at this new location can order food to be delivered to them while shopping (h/t Bloomberg). They can place an order from an eight-item menu (the Bloomberg article didn’t indicate how, whether it’s from a Nordstroms staff member or an app), which will also feature wine. Salespeople will then deliver the orders directly to the hungry shopper within the seven-story department store.
Scientists electric shock bread to eliminate gluten
If you’ve had to give up bread due to gluten sensitivity, you probably know that gluten-free breads are generally… not so tasty. But that could all be about to change. This week Phys.org wrote a piece about a brand new way that scientists cooking gluten-free bread using electric shocks. Called “Ohmic heating,” this strategy allows for rapid and uniform heating of the dough, which keeps gluten-free breads from becoming tough and dry. This speedy cooking method also saves time and energy to speed up manufacturing.
Scientists have created a hornless bull using CRISPR
Earlier this month, scientists reported that they had successfully sired calves without any horns (h/t Singulary Hub). For those that don’t know, bulls typically have to have their horns removed, which can be painful for the animals. Using gene editing technology, scientists have now developed a way to “silence” the horn gene so that calves are born without any horns at all. This may not sound like a huge deal, but it could have some serious implications for the future of gene editing animals we eat.
Back in August, it was reported that there were issues with these new bovines: there is an unintended sequence of bacterial DNA in the genome. Was this somehow resolved? Here’s a reference:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614235/recombinetics-gene-edited-hornless-cattle-major-dna-screwup/