Bubbling

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Friday show, our weekly news roundup. And this is the very last regular Equity episode of the year. Yes, we still have a lot planned for you, but expect more special interviews, guest appearances and predictions than our normal fare. But that’s all to come. This time ’round we once again had Mary Ann Azevedo and Alex…

The longer it takes to brew a batch of beer, the greater the chances of microorganisms getting in and ruining the whole thing. In order to speed up and simplify the process, scientists have developed tiny BeerBots.When making beer, brewers start by extracting sugars from grains such as barley, resulting in a solution known as wort. Yeast is then added to the wort, where it ferments the sugars and thus converts them into alcohol and flavor compounds.The fermentation process takes up to four weeks, during which time…

While out to dinner with my colleague and L.A. Times restaurant critic Bill Addison, we ordered an old-fashioned pear and blue cheese salad served over tender greens, which had just returned to the menu It broke the mold with the addition of lightly pickled gooseberries and chunks of soft avocado. The pears — a soft, buttery variety called Warren — were cut into thick wedges and complemented the fatty avocado and blue cheese, providing some crisp, sweet balance. The salad reminded me how much I love pears. When I’ve been…

Lakes appearing in Alaska because of melting permafrost are "belching" methane into the atmosphere, a scientist working with NASA said.These lakes, called thermokarsts, are so full of the climate-damaging gas that it can be seen bubbling to the surface.More and more of these lakes are appearing as Alaska's permafrost thaws with rising temperatures and increasing forest fires, according to a 2021 study.NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) project is studying their effect on climate change, according to a…