Catalan spring onions, or “calcots”, are a very popular kind of vegetables obtained by special agronomic practices that avoid photosynthesis and subsequent metabolism by the Allium cepa plants. They have been considered for more than a century harmless for pets, as pleasant odour and sweet taste differ so largely from any other onion that can be ingested by children and adults in huge quantitie...

Archaeopteryx has been regarded as an icon of evolution ever since its discovery from the Late Jurassic limestone deposits of Solnhofen, Germany in 1861. Here we report the first evidence of colour from Archaeopteryx based on fossilized colour-imparting melanosomes discovered in this isolated feather specimen. Using a phylogenetically diverse database of extant bird feathers, statistical analys...

Alpha-lipoic acid is an organosulphur compound well-known for its therapeutic potential and antioxidant properties. However, the effective use of α-lipoic acid depends on biological plasma half-life and its preserving stability, which could be improved by encapsulation. In this study, α-lipoic acid was incorporated into chitosan microparticles obtained by reverse emulsion crosslinking technique...

Marine aerosol constitutes one of the most important natural aerosol systems at the global level and comprises both organic and inorganic components of primary and secondary origin. This work presents new results on organic marine aerosol properties and its link with oceanic biological productivity. Laboratory experiments have shown that sea-spray aerosol originating from highly biologically ac...