All posts tagged: Eggs

It’s always rice and eggs

It’s always rice and eggs

Published by Sam Flores

The water was at our backs, but everything still looked blue. It was a Saturday, and the sky above the lake was shockingly clear. The breeze hurried the fluffy clouds along like an invisible, impatient dog walker trying to jostle a pack of Pomeranians past the more interesting signposts and fence posts: a brief stall, then a fluid push forward. Usually, all that blue would have felt like a gift. That day, walking home from a particularly sad documentary interview, I wasn’t sure it was helping. Outside of writing this newsletter, I work on radio documentaries with my partner, Stephen. They are creative projects with the sneaky ability to hollow you out sometimes, especially when the story requires you to watch someone move through a series of the hardest days of their life. Not every documentary I’ve worked on has gone that way. This one has. I carried my messy notes as we walked slowly. Stephen carried a neatly packed bag lined with recorders, headphones and batteries. We were quiet, as we typically are after …

19 Million Eggs Pulled As Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 98 Across 17 States

19 Million Eggs Pulled As Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 98 Across 17 States

Published by Jenni Sidey

The FDA and CDC have tied a growing Salmonella outbreak to eggs produced by Texas-based Midwest Poultry Services, which recalled roughly 1.5 million cartons – more than 19 million eggs – after the contamination surfaced. As of July 24, 98 people across 17 states had been sickened, according to the FDA, which said the recalled eggs are “a likely source of illnesses in this outbreak” and that its investigation is ongoing. The recall itself went out through an FDA notice on July 22, before the illness count was attached. The eggs may be contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis, a subtype that can cause serious and occasionally fatal infections in young children, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. “Midwest Poultry Services identified the issue on its two Texas farms through proactive environmental monitoring practices and root cause analysis,” the company said, adding that it “is not distributing fresh eggs produced on its Texas farms at this time.” The company said it began diverting eggs to a breaking plant, where they would be pasteurized to kill any pathogens, and characterized …

Injection halves risk of chromosome error common in older human eggs

Injection halves risk of chromosome error common in older human eggs

Published by skeptic

Cells with a signal indicating the presence of too many chromosomes DEPT. OF CLINICAL CYTOGENETICS, ADDENBROOKES HOSPITAL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Human eggs that contain too many or too few chromosomes can lead to miscarriage, IVF failure and conditions such as Down’s syndrome. Now, researchers have found that giving the eggs a single injection can substantially reduce the problem. The approach could eventually boost the chances of success for older women undergoing IVF. “It really seems like a big deal,” says Marcos Iuri Roos Kulmann at Nilo Frantz Reproductive Medicine in Porto Alegre, Brazil, who wasn’t involved in the new research. “To my knowledge, this is the first [therapy] to show such clinical potential for correcting this major cause of IVF failure.” During a process called meiosis, egg and sperm cells eject exactly half of their genetic material. This means that when egg and sperm combine during fertilisation, they form an embryo with a complete genome. Sometimes, however, a sperm or egg cell has slightly more or slightly less than the half genome it should contain. This …

Lambs born via IVF using highly immature eggs in major breakthrough

Lambs born via IVF using highly immature eggs in major breakthrough

Published by skeptic

Five sheep have been born via experimental IVF, one of which has produced two offspring of its own LAURENCE WINRAM Healthy lambs have been born via an experimental form of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) that coaxes highly immature eggs to become mature ones in the lab. This is the first time the approach has been demonstrated in a large animal, raising hopes that it could boost the number of eggs available for the fertility treatment and improve IVF success rates. While further research is required, it may be of particular benefit when the ovaries have been damaged by cancer treatment. “It’s really a major breakthrough,” says Stine Kristensen at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark, who wasn’t involved in the research. More than 30 years ago, the same approach led to live births in mice. “Much more than mice, reproduction in sheep is quite similar to in the human body,” says Manjushree Boob at the Shubham Hi-Tech Hospital and Test Tube Baby Centre in Maharashtra, India, who also wasn’t involved. Standard IVF involves daily injections for …

Taylor Swift loves Easter eggs. Her fans think these five are about her wedding to Travis Kelce

Taylor Swift loves Easter eggs. Her fans think these five are about her wedding to Travis Kelce

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This It’s been pre-emptively compared to the Met Gala, and Taylor Swift’s approaching wedding to Travis Kelce is already proving to not just be the biggest celebrity event of the year, but the most mysterious one too. Three years after beginning their romance, the chart-topping pop star and football player are getting hitched, with their wedding taking place on Friday (3 July). And as speculation reaches a fever pitch, fans have started combing Swift’s recent public appearances for the kind of Easter egg-ish clues she loves to weave into her work. Rumours about the pair’s wedding have been circulating for months now – some appear to have been decoys, some genuinely unbelievable (but apparently true). Details of the day are few and far between, as not even the guests have been told a date. However, all signs appear to point to Swift and Kelce, …

Tesco makes major egg change across all stores – follows Asda and Lidl | UK | News

Tesco makes major egg change across all stores – follows Asda and Lidl | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

Tesco has revealed that it has completed a switch that it announced years ago. The supermarket, which is the largest in the UK, has completed its changeover to cage-free eggs, following in the footsteps of Asda and Lidl. Tesco recently released its Sustainability Report for 2026, revealing that it has made the change across both its UK and Irish supply chains. It had made the pledge back in 2016, originally promising to stop selling cage eggs by 2025. A Tesco spokesperson told The Grocer: “Animal welfare is extremely important to us, and we’re committed to continually raising standards while supporting Britain’s poultry farmers. Alongside meeting our cage-free commitment across own-brand eggs in the UK, all of our fresh chicken is British and we continue to work closely with UK farmers to ensure it meets higher welfare requirements.” They added: “This includes exceeding government standards by providing birds with 20% more space than the industry norm.” “Our approach not only strengthens British agriculture but also helps drive improvements in welfare across the wider poultry sector, ensuring …

Star Trek writer confirms Doctor Who crossover nearly happened after incredible Easter eggs

Star Trek writer confirms Doctor Who crossover nearly happened after incredible Easter eggs

Published by Daniella Wilson

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman has revealed a crossover with Doctor Who was very close to happening after last year’s epic Easter egg. The sixth episode of season 3, titled The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail – which aired last August – treated fans to the appearance of the TARDIS in the background behind the USS Enterprise, while commander Pelia (Carol Kane) also suggested she had met a Doctor. Asked about the Easter egg during a recent interview with Awards Radar, Goldsman discussed how he was actively working with former Who showrunner Russell T Davies on a crossover for years. “We were trying with Russell to do a crossover. We were for years,” he said. “Again, these are the near misses, but we got not unclose, and we had some really cool conversations about it. And so, certainly in our view, I mean, Pelia traveled in the TARDIS. Why not?” The Enterpise and the TARDIS (circled) in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Paramount+ Although The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail marked the first …

Variations on Broken Eggs | Christopher Benfey

Variations on Broken Eggs | Christopher Benfey

Published by Jenni Sidey

In April 1951 Randall Jarrell sent a short poem titled “A War” to his friend Robert Lowell: There set out, slowly, for a Different World,At four, on winter mornings, different legs…You can’t break eggs without making an omelette—That’s what they tell the eggs. The poem is unnervingly odd, with its disjointed second line that evokes, for me, Bruegel’s ominous Hunters in the Snow, who bring no good tidings to the village they’re approaching. Jarrell’s only accompanying comment urged Lowell to read Hannah Arendt’s just-published book, The Origins of Totalitarianism. Jarrell was inviting an interpretation: in a totalitarian state, whether fascist or communist, foot soldiers who’ve been promised a better world follow their leaders to disaster blindy (with their legs, not their heads). “The fact that the totalitarian dictator rules his own country like a foreign conqueror,” Arendt wrote, “adds to ruthlessness an efficiency which is conspicuously lacking in tyrannies in alien surroundings.” Ruthless efficiency was the theme of Arendt’s essay “The Eggs Speak Up,” written around 1951 with Jarrell’s “A War” as epigraph.1 It seems …