Science Saturday 4!
I've forgotten to post on Saturday twice in a row. I need to work on this. To make up for it, I've got two science things today.
Te Papa is broadcasting the move of their squid from the preservation fluid to its display tank on Wednesday. It's on their site. The time set aside is a few hours, but it's a colossal squid. It's so big that the word big isn't sufficient. This is going to be really cool. (Plus, they'll get to turn it over, which they hadn't been able to do yet.)
Today's Science Saturday reveals my ignorance of biochemistry. There's this stuff called Power Flour, which is derived from barley malt, which, when added to a staple food (i.e., starchy food), acts as a nutritive supplement. It's got digestive enzymes in that begin digestion when mashed up with the staple food, instead of in the body. This is really important for infants and young children, because their bodies aren't ready to digest really complex food (which is why you feed babies mush from jars). So you can take whatever staple food you have and feed it to your very young ones, and they'll get the full nutritive benefit that an adult would. The enzymes are amylase (for starch -> sugar), protease (proteins-> amino acids), and phytase (phytin -> phytase + the ions it attaches to which we need-- potassium, iron, etc.).
MY QUESTION: Where are we getting the proteins for the protease? Most staple foods are rich in starches, so amylase will be able to work, and phytin is in the hulls of seeds and grains, so there'll probably be enough there to produce a substantial amount of free ions that we need. But proteins aren't going to be as available, except in areas where legumes are the staple food. Malt contains a little bit of protein and amino acid, but hardly enough to count for much.
Te Papa is broadcasting the move of their squid from the preservation fluid to its display tank on Wednesday. It's on their site. The time set aside is a few hours, but it's a colossal squid. It's so big that the word big isn't sufficient. This is going to be really cool. (Plus, they'll get to turn it over, which they hadn't been able to do yet.)
Today's Science Saturday reveals my ignorance of biochemistry. There's this stuff called Power Flour, which is derived from barley malt, which, when added to a staple food (i.e., starchy food), acts as a nutritive supplement. It's got digestive enzymes in that begin digestion when mashed up with the staple food, instead of in the body. This is really important for infants and young children, because their bodies aren't ready to digest really complex food (which is why you feed babies mush from jars). So you can take whatever staple food you have and feed it to your very young ones, and they'll get the full nutritive benefit that an adult would. The enzymes are amylase (for starch -> sugar), protease (proteins-> amino acids), and phytase (phytin -> phytase + the ions it attaches to which we need-- potassium, iron, etc.).
MY QUESTION: Where are we getting the proteins for the protease? Most staple foods are rich in starches, so amylase will be able to work, and phytin is in the hulls of seeds and grains, so there'll probably be enough there to produce a substantial amount of free ions that we need. But proteins aren't going to be as available, except in areas where legumes are the staple food. Malt contains a little bit of protein and amino acid, but hardly enough to count for much.