GREEN APPLIANCES
From a fridge that makes vegetables turn greener to an air purifier that spreads vitamin C
TOKYO
The cabbage once destined to turn yellow sitting in the refrigerator can now get even greener instead.
A fridge that enhances Vitamin C and chlorophyll in the food it stores is the latest Japanese invention in a range of "vitamin home electronics" spawned to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers. Others include a lamp that helps form Vitamin D and an air purifier that spreads Vitamin C.
What gave birth to the fridge, launched in September by Mitsubishi Electric, was not so much a technological breakthrough but a change in the way of thinking.
"We upgraded the concept of not reducing vitamins to that of increasing them," said Kazuhiko Mizuno, a company spokesman in charge of home appliances. He said the change was "reflecting the consumer tendency to seek healthier food."
The key is a tiny box, which creates orange light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that promote photosynthesis in the greens, which are kept in a partitioned, humid space in the fridge. The company chose a wavelength of 590 nanometers, which looks orange to human eyes.
Mizuno said the choice of wavelength was important---longer waves that look red are most effective in promoting photosynthesis and also lead to budding and flowering. The orange light creates chlorophyll in vegetables such as cabbage, making them look greener after several days in the fridge.
And the difference is not only cosmetic. Mitsubishi Electric found that after three days, vitamin-C content rose by 10 percent in broccoli sprouts, compared with a 25-percent drop in conventional refrigerators. The vitamin was 14- to 16-percent higher in cabbages after three days.
LEDs--which are also key to powering mobile telephones--are considered suitable for refrigerators as they require less power than conventional lights, have longer life spans and do not get hot. It costs just about 70 US cents a year to keep the orange light on 24 hours a day, Mizuno said.
But the fridge will not be exported for now as Mitsubishi Electric doubts other countries have the same market as Japan where consumers are health conscious and mostly urban, making fresh daily vegetables harder to obtain.
"We would not be able to make large sales to people who can get as many vegetables as they want from gardens for cooking," Mizuno said, though he added there could be a market from rich people in big cities such as Shanghai.
Masaru Sonoda, a professor specializing in biochemical nutrition at Kyoritsu Women's University, said the fridge took advantage of the fact that vegetable cells are still alive after the harvest.
"A big factor [in maximizing the fridge's function] would be how fresh the vegetable is when you buy it," he said.
But he stressed that cutting-edge electronics were no substitute for a balanced diet. "You would not be short of vitamins if you are healthy through a normal diet," he said.
But for those who are still worried, NEC Lighting offers the "Vitamin Day" series of fluorescent lights, which promote vitamin-D forming in human bodies with enhanced ultraviolet rays of a wavelength between 280 and 320 nanometers.
"As the increase is very small, you don't have to worry about damage" from ultraviolet rays, a company spokesman said, noting the amount was only 0.001 percent of natural sunlight.
The product is suitable for offices and rooms that lack outer light or underground complexes, he said.
Zojirushi, a major maker of vacuum bottles and cooking appliances, has been marketing an air purifier that spreads vitamin C and catechin, a type of tannin found in green tea and used as a health supplement.
The "Air Breeze" releases air through a ceramic cartridge with the hidden goodness.
The company says the machine keeps roses fresh for four days if in an enclosed space of one cubic meter (1.3 cubic yards), while roses without the machine would wither away.
Back in 2001, Fuji Spinning pioneered the concept of "wearable vitamins," developing a special textile that contains provitamin, which turns into vitamin C when it reacts with chemicals in the skin. Its "V-UP" T-shirts and underwear hit store shelves in early 2002, expanding to vitamin E the following year.
The concept has now evolved into "wearable cosmetics" embracing ionized silver for anti bacterial effect, seaweed essence for losing weight, and an extract from Japanese rice wine said to be good for the skin.
M. Suzuki, AFP
VIRTUAL FAMILY TREE
Genographic Project to dissect human genetic links
By Charles Hoshinson
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON
Scientists have begun an ambitious five-year project to collect DNA samples from more than 100,000 people around the world to use them to create a virtual family tree of the genetic connections among humans.
The Genographic Project has assembled an international team of scientists at 10 locations under the auspices of the National Geographic Society and International Business Machines (IBM) to better understand how modern humans migrated from their ancestral home in Africa. The aim is to create the largest-ever database of human genetic information.
"We all care about our roots, but this is really going far back," National Geographic Society president John Fahey said.
Researchers have surprisingly little genetic information to work with to confirm oral histories of ancient migrations or to fully understand the origins of today's ethnic groups and cultures, said project leader Spencer Wells, a population geneticist at the society.
"We have a vague sense of some of these patterns, and we can speculate on what these patterns tell us," but "we really don't have the kind of sampling we need," he said. "What we're doing is inviting the entire world to participate."
Researchers involved in the decade-long Human Genome Project, which completed a preliminary map of the human genome in 2003, had intended a companion effort to map human genetic origins. But that effort bogged down over accusations of racism and commercial exploitation of indigenous peoples, which limited the cooperation of groups necessary for its success.
The core of the Genographic Project is a field effort to collect 100,000 samples from indigenous communities around the world. Those communities are "absolutely key to the success of this project," Wells said, because their genetic markers are the most reliable indicators of shared human lineage, and because their cultures are under threat from migration and intermixing.
"There's a real sense of urgency in the work that we're doing," said Ted Waitt, whose Waitt Family Foundation is financing the multimillion-dollar field effort.
Researchers have taken care to involve indigenous leaders as advisers, and the database of information will be public to avoid concerns about commercial exploitation, he said.
The society also is selling DNA sampling kits for US$99.95 on its web site (www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic), with proceeds to go toward educational and cultural efforts in indigenous communities. Fahey said 1,200 kits had already been sold immediately after the news of the project was announced in April, and project leaders hope to sell many more to further expand its reach.
"A million would be a good number," said Nick Donofrio, IBM senior vice president for technology and manufacturing.
The information collected could help shed light on the origins of Native American tribes or whether Alexander the Great's armies left a genetic trail across Asia.
"This is where genetics really lets you get at the why and how of human history," Wells said. He offered examples of how the project could enrich human knowledge, with the assistance of indigenous volunteers.
Mongolian native Tumur Battur learned that he was a descendant of famed Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan, courtesy of previous research that had discovered genetic similarities among ethnic groups along Genghis Khan's path across Asia. "I was so excited," he said.
Phil Bluehouse, a Navajo from the US state of Arizona, broke down in tears when Wells traced his genetic origins to Mongolia, confirming an instinct he had since childhood.
"It's always been something that was in me, and finally I was able to say 'yeah,'" he said. "I don't know what else to say. It's wonderful."
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