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Category: food

Summary: The Hygiene Hypothesis persuades people to consume parasitic worms as a way to treat chronic autoimmune disorders. As well, people eat tapeworms as a way to lose weight. Learn more about two closely related scientific beliefs called the “Hygiene Hypothesis” and the “Old Freinds Hypothesis.” Part 1 of a 2-part series. Cover photo: 3drenderings / Getty Images.

It’s difficult to believe, but thousands of people eat worms as a way to lose weight or cure diseases.

People don’t just eat worms on TV shows, like the Fear Factor. Some extreme dieters consume tapeworms as a way to lose weight. Another group of people ingests parasitic worms known as helminths to ward-off the debilitating symptoms of autoimmune diseases.

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Summary: Helminthic therapy is the intentional consumption of parasites as a treatment for autoimmune disease. Out of the 7000 people who practice helminthic therapy each year, this report tells the story of a young woman who purchases black market worms and then treats herself at a high cost. Part 2 of a 2-part series. Cover photo: Eraxion / Getty Images.

Would you eat worms to boost your overall health or cure what ails you?

Over 7,000 people intentionally self-infect with parasites, and the practice is growing in popularity.

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Modern Meadow believes leather is a “co-product of the meat industry.” You can’t get cattle hide without stripping it from meat. Rather than configuring new ways to utilize polymers, the Brooklyn-based company genetically creates proteins similar to bovine collagen. As Inventionr reports :

Modern Meadow has formulated a method of activating the building blocks of proteins to form fibres without using natural fibroblasts. Once the fibres form, they can as well be assembled, according to its intended purposes, into fine sheets of leather. Once the process reaches this point, other processes like tanning and dyeing can proceed in the normal way.

Environmental impact is only aspect of this story. Natural leather is notoriously finicky. Now it can be produced in straight sheets, making production easier for whoever is going to work the leather. Engineers can even alter the composition within each sheet, making one part coarse and another soft, for example.

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How can we tell if a drink is beer or wine? Machine learning, of course! In this episode of Cloud AI Adventures, Yufeng walks through the 7 steps involved in applied machine learning…

The world is filled with data. Lots and lots of data. Everything from pictures, music, words, spreadsheets, videos and more. It doesn’t look like it’s going to to slow down anytime soon. Machine learning brings the promise of deriving meaning from all of that data.

From detecting skin cancer, to sorting cucumbers, to detecting escalators in need of repairs, machine learning has granted computer systems entirely new abilities.

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