Lobster bisque, foie gras: Michelin-star chef prepares ISS meals for French astronaut
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with French astronaut Sophie Adenot, who is set to join the ISS crew in 2026.
PARIS – When French astronaut Sophie Adenot arrives at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2026, she will dine on French gastronomical classics such as lobster bisque, foie gras and onion soup prepared especially for her by a chef with 10 Michelin stars.
Parsnip and haddock veloute, chicken with tonka beans and creamy polenta and a chocolate cream with hazelnut cazette flower will also be on the menu, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on July 2.
Food delivered to the ISS must meet strict specifications. It cannot be crumbly or too heavy and must be able to be stored for two years, the ESA said in a statement.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are only available after a new spacecraft arrives from Earth with supplies.
So most meals in space are canned, vacuum-packed or freeze-dried from a set of options provided by space agencies.
But to spice things up, one out of every 10 meals is prepared for specific crew members according to their personal tastes.
'During a mission, sharing our respective dishes is a way of inviting crewmates to learn more about our culture. It's a very powerful bonding experience,' Lieutenant-Colonel Adenot said in the statement.
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Lt-Col Adenot's menu was developed by
French chef Anne-Sophie Pic , who holds a total of 10 Michelin stars and was named best female chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2011.
Ms Pic said it was an 'exhilarating challenge' to develop the menu, which includes four starters, two mains and two desserts.
Lt-Col Adenot, a 42-year-old former helicopter test pilot, is scheduled to arrive for her first tour aboard the ISS in 2026.
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Straits Times
13 hours ago
- Straits Times
Smart sensors used in study to detect cognitive decline in seniors who live alone
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox SINGAPORE – Ms Julie Chia lives alone in a flat in Tampines and keeps herself active despite her advanced age. The 97-year-old feels secure each time she heads out, whether it is to the Lions Befrienders (LB) Active Ageing Centre at her void deck to play Rummy-O with her friends or nearby to buy the newspaper and her dinner. The sprightly woman is among more than 200 seniors living alone who have been recruited since 2020 for a longitudinal study looking into using smart sensor technology to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) – a condition that increases one's risk of developing dementia – in order to respond to it early. This will help seniors to age better and remain for longer in the community. 'With this (beacon sensor) on my keychain, I know that whenever I go out, someone knows. I feel more relieved,' said Ms Chia. What the researchers have gathered from the second phase of the study, with sensor data collected from 63 seniors living alone, is that the machine learning-based prediction technology is able to detect MCI at a 90 per cent accuracy rate. This is an improvement from the previous performance of 70 per cent obtained in the first phase of the study in 2020. The data for the study is generated by eight sensors placed in different parts of the participants' homes, such as the living room, under the mattress, inside their medicine box or cabinet, and on the door. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. Additionally, the seniors are given a wearable device to measure their daily steps and heart rate. In Ms Chia's case, the sensors were installed at her home in April 2021. Unlike a traditional video surveillance system that captures images and voices, the sensors monitor movement and daily routines discreetly, including sleep patterns, physical activity and memory lapses. They also track how often the senior moves around the flat or goes out and for how long, how well he or she sleeps, or the frequency of forgetting personal items, particularly their medications. A sensor resembling a tag is also attached to their keychain to help track whether the senior participants have their keys with them when they go out. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG The longitudinal study, called Sensors In-home for Elder Wellbeing , is led by Associate Professor Iris Rawtaer, head and senior consultant at the department of psychiatry and director of research at Sengkang General Hospital , and p rofessor of computer science Tan Ah Hwee from Singapore Management University. It is estimated that there will be 152,000 individuals living with dementia in Singapore by 2030, and 187,000 by 2050. While global study statistics vary, up to half of all people with MCI go on to develop dementia within five years, said Prof Rawtaer. In 2024, the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention and care found that 45 per cent of cases of dementia could potentially be delayed by addressing some of the modifiable risk factors, such as social isolation, untreated vision loss and high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, commonly known as bad cholesterol. However, many people are not even aware of experiencing MCI, the at-risk state for dementia. They seek help only after significant cognitive decline has occurred, missing the crucial window for intervention and advanced planning, said Prof Rawtaer. This is where the sensor system can help. 'Nine out of 10 times, it essentially outperforms your pen and paper routine screening instruments like your MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination) and your Moca (Montreal Cognitive Assessment),' Prof Rawtaer told The Straits Times. MMSE and Moca are brief screening tools used to assess cognitive function and detect MCI as well as mild dementia. The participants in the study go through detailed neurocognitive assessments yearly, providing the benchmark against which the machine learning models in the sensor system are tested. 'The question is whether seniors can accept the use of the sensor system. Is this intrusive? Is this inconvenient? Is this going to be something that we can scale and do in the long term in the community?' Prof Rawtaer said. Ms Chia, for instance, did not have her wearable device – a study requirement – on her on the day of the interview. A spokesman for LB, who was with her that day, said the seniors may forget to charge their wearable device. Prof Tan said that for the second phase of the study, the team developed an advanced machine learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) model to handle irrelevant or missing sensor data due to hardware failure, for instance. The AI can also explain why it flagged someone as being at risk, he said. As an example, it has learnt that people with MCI often move around less while at home and are more likely to forget to take their medication. 'At SMU, we have one data engineer and two data analysts looking at the data. Moving forward, we are thinking that we should partner with a commercial party... to be able to do this in a viable manner. It's not just the installation of the equipment but the maintenance and the day-to-day monitoring,' he said. The total installation cost of the sensor system is below $1,000. In the third planned phase of the study – for which the researchers are awaiting funding – they will test the sensors in multi-person households, and look at new digital biomarkers and how to reduce the numbers of sensors used to make the monitoring system more efficient and affordable. Beyond cognitive assessment, the smart sensor system could be expanded to support safety monitoring and health assessment, the researchers said. LB's executive director Karen Wee said the smart sensor system has a lot of potential not just in helping seniors to age well in the community, but also in enabling providers like it to better support the seniors. 'Wearables may not be something that the seniors of today are keen on, but who is to say that in 10 years' time they will not be widespread,' she said.

Straits Times
13 hours ago
- Straits Times
Life After... blazing biomedical research trail in S'pore: Renowned scientist breaks new ground at 59
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox So much of the news is about what's happening in the moment. But after a major event, people pick up the pieces, and life goes on. In this new series, The Straits Times talks to the everyday heroes who have reinvented themselves, turned their lives around, and serve as an inspiration to us all. World-renowned nanotech scientist Jackie Ying moved to Saudi Arabia in 2023 to help further the country's biomedical research potential. SINGAPORE - Professor Jackie Ying, a pint-sized dynamo never seen without her signature headscarf, dark suit and track shoes, has always lived life on her terms. As she approaches 60, she has again met change head-on. The world-renowned nanotech scientist has relocated from Singapore – where she spent two decades as one of the pioneers transforming the nation into a research powerhouse – to Saudi Arabia. Prof Ying has given up all she has accomplished here to move to the Middle East, where she is building a laboratory in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh to advance novel diagnostics and treatments in genetic diseases, which are particularly prevalent there. It is yet another milestone in a career of many firsts for the Taiwan-born, US-trained scientist. 'I'm really excited. I feel 20 years younger because of all these new things I want to do,' she told The Straits Times. 'Physically, I think I'm running after myself because of the excitement of my lab and the collaborators.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July HDB launch World Tariffs will kick in on Aug 1 barring trade deals: US Treasury Secretary Singapore Woman on SMRT's 190 bus injured after bottle thrown at vehicle leaves hole in window Business Great Eastern says Takeover Code not breached when it shared IFA valuation with OCBC Asia 'Don't be seen in India again': Indian nationals pushed into Bangladesh at gunpoint Asia Thousands evacuated as Typhoon Danas lashes Taiwan Asia Two women fatally stabbed at bar in Japan by man Life Star Awards 2025: Christopher Lee wins big, including Special Achievement Award and Best Actor The plan is to help advance Saudi Arabia's budding biomedical scene, as Prof Ying did for Singapore many years ago. Blazing a trail in Singapore Prof Ying, 59, is among a pool of top researchers, coined 'whales', who were wooed here from all over the world more than two decades ago by then A*Star chairman Philip Yeo to turn Singapore into a biomedical hub. Among other achievements, she helped to establish Biopolis. One of the youngest people to make full professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the age of 35, she moved to Singapore in 2003 to become the founding director of A*Star's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), which has since been merged with a consortium to form the A*Star Institute of Bioengineering and Bioimaging. In 2018, Prof Ying and her team built A*Star's NanoBio Lab, a research incubator, from scratch. Prof Ying is a master of building materials thinner than a strand of hair which can be harnessed in areas as varied as medicine, chemistry and energy. She has helped to build more than 13 start-ups, invented and patented hundreds of technologies, and won numerous awards. Among her inventions are a device that can test for dengue within 20 minutes with just saliva, and tiny particles that automatically deliver insulin to diabetic patients when their blood glucose levels are high. One of her start-ups, Cellbae, developed the first made-in-Singapore antigen rapid test kits for Covid-19, which were subsequently exported to Europe. With her many awards and accolades, Prof Ying is a well-known figure in Singapore, and is often approached by strangers for photographs when she is in the country. But her last few years working in Singapore were not easy, she said, as leadership changes led to major changes that impacted various institutes under A*Star. Without divulging details, she said: 'We didn't have the same level of independence as what we used to have, and that really affected our smooth operations.' In mid-2023, Prof Ying was invited to become a visiting distinguished professor and senior adviser to the president of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, which had just formed a bioengineering department. The move took substantial courage Moving to a new environment was not an easy decision because of her strong ties with Singapore, admitted Prof Ying. She lived in Singapore as a child and studied at primary and secondary schools here when her father, who taught Chinese literature, was a faculty member at the former Nanyang University. But she took the leap, and moved to Saudi Arabia in 2023. 'I also looked at potentially returning to the US, but this possibility opened up in Saudi Arabia, and I think that was far more exciting... something different in another continent,' said Prof Ying. 'It was a very difficult decision to leave Singapore. Our lab was very nicely established, and blessed with excellent staff who have worked with me for many years. It was very painful to leave them; they are like family members,' she added. Now, while she is with King Fahd University, her main appointment is head of the bioengineering and nanomedicine department of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre (KFSHRC) in Riyadh. In less than two years , she has set up the foundations of her new office: a 1,500 sq m lab – the size of more than 10 four-room Housing Board flats. 'We have received major funding internally from KFSHRC to build a large, new lab with lots of state-of-the-art equipment. We have successfully recruited over a dozen research staff and students in a year, and will continue to grow in the coming years,' said Prof Ying. Professor Jackie Ying treats her researchers in Singapore like family, and in Saudi Arabia, she does the same. PHOTO: KING FAISAL SPECIALIST HOSPITAL AND RESEARCH CENTRE 'I find I'm just racing (against) time to get as much done as possible. In your 50s, to make a major change in your working environment, especially in one that has been so productive, took substantial courage,' she said. On a mission to tackle Arab world's genetic diseases The doors to Saudi Arabia opened wide for Prof Ying in 2023 when she became the first woman to receive what is known as the 'Arab Nobel prize' – the King Faisal Prize in Science for her work in nanomedicine. Some past laureates have gone on to win a Nobel Prize. At the same time, research received a boost as pursuing biotechnology and improving public health became a focus area under the Saudi Vision 2030 – a government push to diversify the Saudi Arabian economy beyond oil and gas. The kingdom had recently set out a strategy to advance its self-sufficiency in vaccines, biomanufacturing and genomics. Prof Ying is particularly interested in tackling genetic diseases. People in the Middle East and North Africa region have a malaise of inherited disorders – higher than the global average – a result of the cultural practice of marrying within tribes. Walking up to her lab in the hospital, she sees children in wheelchairs – afflicted with cancers such as leukaemia and neurological diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy, a rare disorder that causes muscle weakness and breathing problems. 'The doctors will be knocking on your door; they are anxious to do research. We see the frustrations some clinicians have when it comes to genetic diseases. They know what their patients are suffering, but there's a lack of therapies that are effective and affordable,' said Prof Ying. Her team is working on identifying genetic clues called biomarkers that indicate the presence of a disease. New gene therapies can then be developed to attack the disease-causing biomarkers. For example, her team is developing man-made patches of DNA that attach to molecules that produce disease-causing proteins and block their production. This is a form of RNA (ribonucleic acid) therapy. 'Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, we hope to accelerate the creation of effective RNA therapies that could be much less expensive than the available DNA therapies, which can cost over $2 million for a patient with spinal muscular atrophy,' said Prof Ying. She added: 'KFSHRC specialises in the most challenging diseases. In the region, patients with complicated diseases will flock to the hospital. Access to the patients really helps with biomarker discovery and clinical trials.' She is also keen on tracking emerging infectious diseases, and her lab is collaborating with Cellbae to monitor wastewater for traces of viruses at hospitals, farms and religious sites. 'A citizen of the world' In early 2025, Prof Ying was appointed to lead research and innovation at KFSHRC, which has three main hospitals in the kingdom. 'I'm really trying my best because I'm at a certain age. I really want to see this happen. But more importantly, I want to train the students, those doing their PhD, and the more senior people, so that they can front a lot of things.' Prof Ying, who has a 23-year-old daughter pursuing a dual doctorate in medicine and scientific research at Texas A&M University, said she takes pride in nurturing many young researchers who pass through the doors of her labs. Several of her former A*Star colleagues from IBN and her NanoBio Lab have followed her to Saudi Arabia. The move was not easy for some, who have young families in tow, added Prof Ying. One of them is Dr Muhammad Nadjad Abdul Rahim, who was Prof Ying's PhD student back in the NanoBio Lab, which has since closed down. Prof Jackie Ying and her Cellbae colleagues Muhammad Nadjad Abdul Rahim (looking through microscope) and Kian Ping Chan, both of whom recently moved to Riyadh. PHOTO: KING FAISAL SPECIALIST HOSPITAL AND RESEARCH CENTRE Dr Nadjad, 37, is now operations and product development director of Cellbae, which expanded to Saudi Arabia in 2024. It was founded in Singapore with another branch in the US. In addition to producing Covid-19 test kits, Cellbae creates test kits for various pathogens, and for food and environmental monitoring, and other medical devices. The company is looking at improving diagnostics for genetic diseases and cancers that are more pronounced in the kingdom, like Hodgkin's lymphoma – an aggressive form of blood cancer that is increasingly afflicting young people there. It is also developing a method to amplify signatures of virus families so that scientists can keep an eye on circulating diseases in wastewater. Said Dr Nadjad: 'Prof Ying doesn't sleep enough. Our team has no idea how she finds that energy. But I think this is encapsulated in her belief of how hard we must work to solve problems in the world.' Commenting on Prof Ying's move to Saudi Arabia, he added: 'A scientist is a citizen of the world. She is always rolling up her sleeves to solve difficult problems and not one who would be comfortable sitting down collecting salary.' Prof Ying, a devout Muslim who has been to Mecca in Saudi Arabia more than 15 times to perform the haj and umrah pilgrimages, said she has fit in well in her new home. Born into a Christian family, she converted to Islam in her 30s. 'There is this notion that Saudi Arabia has issues with human rights. I have told others: 'Please come and see for yourself.' Over the last few years, I would say people are very well treated – women or men, it doesn't matter. It's a very safe, very secure, very peaceful place,' she said. 'I love living here. Riyadh is a dynamic and rapidly growing city, with lots of great restaurants.' Working harder as a minority In the light of her many achievements, it can be hard to remember that the odds were stacked against Prof Ying, who has been known to call herself a 'minority of minorities', as a Chinese Muslim female in the male-centric world of science. In the early 1990s, she was the first female Asian American professor at the MIT School of Engineering, and the lecture hall blackboards were not built for those with a smaller stature. 'I could only reach the bottom half of the lowest blackboard. After writing just a few equations, I had to erase them because I couldn't reach the higher blackboards,' she said with a laugh. In the locker room of her New York high school – famous for being where folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel first started performing together as students – a couple of taller teenage girls would stare her down to intimidate her. 'I wouldn't say it was bullying, but there are people who are not particularly friendly. You go to high school through metal detectors. I wouldn't say students were carrying guns, but some of them certainly had knives,' she said. Those moments helped her build grit. 'As a minority, I told myself I've got to work twice as hard.' And she did. In 2017, she received the highest accolade for academic inventors as a fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors. And each year since 2012, she has been listed among the world's 500 most influential Muslims. 'It's important to speak up despite being a minority. I am not a yes-man and don't expect my staff to be yes-men,' she said. Looking ahead towards the next phase of her career in the kingdom, Prof Ying said: 'It's a lifetime of work ahead. We always pray hard and wish for good health and abundant resources.'

Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
As the world warms, extreme rain is becoming even more extreme
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Colossal bursts of rain like the ones that caused the deadly flooding in Texas are becoming more frequent and intense around the globe as the burning of fossil fuels heats the planet, scientists say. Warm air holds more moisture than cool air, and as temperatures rise, storms can produce bigger downpours. When met on the ground with outdated infrastructure or inadequate warning systems, the results can be catastrophic. These were the ingredients for tragedy in Texas, a state that is well acquainted with weather extremes of all kinds: high heat and deep cold, deluges and droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes, hail and snow. Indeed, the Hill Country, the part of the state where the Guadalupe River swelled on July 4, is sometimes called 'flash flood alley' for how at risk it is to seemingly out-of-nowhere surges of water. Humid air blows into the area from two main sources, the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical Pacific Ocean. When this air collides with cool air drifting down across the Great Plains, severe storms can erupt. The hilly terrain and steep canyons quickly funnel the rain into river valleys, transforming lazy streams into roaring cascades. In parts of Texas that were flooded on July 4, the quantities of rain that poured down in a six-hour stretch were so great that they had less than a tenth of 1 per cent chance of falling there in any given year, according to data analysed by Dr Russ Schumacher, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University. The Guadalupe River rose from 3 feet to 34 feet in about 90 minutes, according to data from a river gauge near the town of Comfort, Texas. The volume of water exploded from 95 cubic feet per second to 166,000 cubic feet per second. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July launch Singapore TTSH to demolish century-old pavilion wards, keeping one as heritage marker World 'Formed to give you back your freedom': Elon Musk says he has created a new US political party Singapore Tank collides into traffic light during National Day Parade national education show Singapore His world crashed when he got F9 in O-level Tamil but PropNex co-founder Ismail Gafoor beat the odds Asia HIV surge in the Philippines amid poor sex education, policy gaps Tech Graduates are not screwed if they study engineering: James Dyson in response to Economist article Business When a foreign wife failed to turn up for a $10m divorce And the warming climate is creating the conditions in Texas for more of these sharp, deadly deluges. In the eastern part of the state, the number of days per year with at least 2 inches of rain or snow has increased by 20 per cent since 1900, according to the most recent National Climate Assessment, the federal government's flagship report on how global warming is affecting the United States. Across Texas, the intensity of extreme rain could increase another 10 per cent by 2036, according to a report last year by Dr John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist. To understand patterns of heavy rain at a more local level, communities and officials rely on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency has for decades published nationwide estimates of the probabilities of various precipitation events – that is, a certain number of inches falling in a particular location over a given amount of time, from five minutes to 24 hours to 60 days. Engineers use NOAA's estimates to design storm drains and culverts. City planners use them to guide development and regulations in flood-prone areas. NOAA's next updates to the estimates are scheduled to be released from 2026. For the first time, they are expected to include projections of how extreme precipitation will evolve as the climate changes, in order to help officials plan further ahead. But in recent months, the Trump administration has cut staff at the agency and at the National Weather Service, which sits within NOAA. The administration has also dismissed the hundreds of experts who had been compiling the next edition of the National Climate Assessment, which was scheduled to come out in 2028. And it is proposing deep cuts to NOAA's 2026 budget, including eliminating the office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which conducts and coordinates climate research. NYTIMES