
Chemists find a way to unboil eggs - lelf
http://phys.org/news/2015-01-chemists-unboil-eggs.html
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jjoonathan
To clarify: chemical processes that "unboil eggs" have been around for a long
time [1]. The invention here is a technique that does it faster with
applications in the pharma industry.

[1]
[http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/raven6b/graphics/raven06b/...](http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/raven6b/graphics/raven06b/howscientiststhink/01-lab.pdf)

~~~
jere
Somewhat off topic: you know, in the comments section of almost every science
article I read there is a disclaimer similar to yours. For example, I was
reading about scientists lengthening telomeres and several people had to step
in to say "no this has been done several times but this is slightly cheaper."
I guess that's the nature of research, but it's a bizarre feeling when it
seems you never hear about the origination of some technology and yet every
time you read about it it's still years away from practical application.

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logfromblammo
The likely application for this technology is to enable mass production of
specific engineered proteins to become cheaper.

When you have a method to rapidly untangle misfolded or otherwise undesirable
proteins from a tangled mass of denatured protein, that enables you to use
vats of monocellular organisms to create your desired end-product, crack the
cell wall or cell membrane in a manner that would denature the proteins, then
use the described process to un-denature and separate the proteins. Then it
re-folds.

Using such a process, you might be able to produce spider silk using modified
yeast instead of modified goat milk--or actual spiders.

~~~
stefantalpalaru
Don't get your hopes up, the procedure is patented.

~~~
MichaelApproved
So? Why is it bad that the procedure is patented? That's not automatically a
bad thing. People invest money and time into R&D and the patent allows them to
protect the invention while they make a return on that investment.

Patent trolls (organizations that patent something inane, never make the
product and pray on businesses who can't afford to fight you) are the
problems. I don't see an indication that these guys are trolls.

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jawns
Reminds me of that old headline, "Percy Spencer finds a way to melt a candy
bar in his pocket."

Seriously, people, this discovery is not really about being able to unboil
eggs. It's about a way to quickly and efficiently restore common proteins that
have been misformed through heat or other processes.

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jackweirdy
I think I’m lacking context - what’s the non-literal meaning behind that
headline?

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atrus
He walked in front of a radar system with a chocolate bar in his pocket, it
melted, and the microwave was born.

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moron4hire
The first half of this sounds like it would make an excellent kitchen cleaner,
too. My wife's bread experiments--while a freaking delicious treat--are also a
freaking bear to clean up. The stretched and kneaded dough gets everywhere and
refuses to budge from any slightly-porous surface it may contact.

~~~
pavel_lishin
My wife made bread last night, and while I sympathize - the parchment paper we
baked it on stuck to the bottom of the bread - we didn't have any other porous
surfaces anywhere near the dough.

~~~
moron4hire
I'm specifically thinking of the wooden spoon used to mix the dough.

~~~
poulsbohemian
not sure of your exact circumstances but I find it important to not let
anything sit in the sink. If you can get your spoons and bowls washed as soon
as you are done using them, then the dough remnants won't dry out become a
cleaning issue.

~~~
moron4hire
Yes, that is absolutely a factor. But apparently my wife doesn't believe in
cleaning up after herself. Only after me.

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csdrane
But can he help us when we burn eggs to the bottom of the pan?

~~~
stouset
Cook with more fat and/or more heat. Don't put anything into a cold pan.

~~~
Fargren
The best way I've found to make fried eggs is to put them over a thin layer of
vegetable oil over a cold teflon pan, and turn the heat on medium-low.

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cowsandmilk
> make cancer treatments more affordable

Cute that this article believes the price of biologics for cancer treatment is
in any way related to the price of manufacture.

~~~
ars
Not the price of manufacture, the cost of research is what this will reduce.

And the research cost is definitely correlated with the final price.

~~~
cowsandmilk
From the article:

> For example, pharmaceutical companies currently create cancer antibodies in
> expensive hamster ovary cells that do not often misfold proteins. The
> ability to quickly and cheaply re-form common proteins from yeast or E. coli
> bacteria could potentially streamline protein manufacturing and make cancer
> treatments more affordable.

That is not saying research. That is quite explicitly claiming lower price of
manufacture will result in cheaper cancer treatments.

~~~
manicdee
It will result in cancer treatments that are cheaper to produce.

This does not mean the treatments will be more widely available, not that they
will be cheaper.

Remember that drugs useful for cancer treatment in the USA are already orders
of magnitude more expensive than non-US products simply because they can be.

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mulletbum
What would this do for the storage of eggs if it could be made into a easy at
home process some day? For example, my brother has chickens, which he gives
the eggs out to the family. However, they lay more eggs than the family needs.
He doesn't want to sell these eggs, but just wants them to be available for a
much longer time. Would this process allow for the eggs to be stored for a
much longer amount of time?

~~~
dooptroop
Besides, refrigerated eggs keep for months. And you instantly recognize a bad
egg from the pugnant smell - if you have doubts the egg is fine and edible.

~~~
ars
Unrefrigerated eggs also keep for months it's not necessary to refrigerate
eggs.

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Tenhundfeld
_Be careful doing this._

Eggs don't need to be refrigerated BUT only if they have _never been
refrigerated._ So, if you take an egg straight from the nest, for example, you
don't need to refrigerate it, and it will keep for a long time – definitely
weeks, maybe even months, I don't know.

However, once an egg has been refrigerated, their natural protective coating,
the cuticle, starts drying out. Also, most commercial egg processors wash
eggs, mostly to make them look cleaner but also, in theory, to remove
salmonella. So, between the washing and the dry refrigerator environment, that
cuticle is mostly gone by the time it gets to the supermarket. When you take a
cold egg and leave it out at room temperature, it begins to sweat, which
facilitates the growth of bacteria that could contaminate the egg.

In summary, yes, fresh from the farm eggs, can be left out at room
temperature. Refrigerated supermarket eggs should be kept in the fridge or
used the same day they are taken out of the fridge – ideally within 2 hours.

~~~
ars
I've been doing this for years and had absolutely no problems. I buy eggs and
leave them out with no problem at all. In one case I bought a case and left it
out for a full month - not a single spoiled egg.

~~~
DanBC
What country are you in? Eggs are handled differently in the EU and US meaning
safe handling at home is different.

Eggs last maybe 5 weeks after sell by date. It's great that you haven't had
any problems, but don't forget that salmonella will be more severe for
children or old people. Salmonella can, rarely, kill vulnerable people.
"salmonellosis continues to be an important cause of preventable death [...]"
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20617938/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20617938/)

CDC estimated in 2005 that there were maybe 1.4m to 4m infections in the US,
with about 500 to 600 deaths.

[http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/nontyphoidal_sa...](http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/nontyphoidal_salmonellosis.pdf)

~~~
ars
US.

> Eggs are handled differently in the EU and US meaning safe handling at home
> is different.

Not exactly. The _chickens_ are handled differently. In the EU they immunize
them from salmonella. (But in most other countries in the world they don't,
and they don't refrigerate either.)

The whole washing the egg part is a red herring in a very nice article - but
it actually makes no difference.

To deal with salmonella just cook the eggs. And I would not use a raw egg even
if it was refrigerated. If I wanted raw egg for a dish I would get pasteurized
eggs.

> Eggs last maybe 5 weeks after sell by date.

No, they last for several months. As in they don't spoil. The egg is lower
quality though, but that only matter for some dishes.

~~~
jpp
My understanding is that it's both -- the egg laying hen population in the US
has some amount of salmonella infection, plus washing the cuticle off does
something to promote salmonella growth in the egg (contamination from the
feces on the shell able to get into the egg?). I don't have citations for
this, though, and would be curious to learn more, if anyone has a good
authoritative source.

USDA statistics from 1996 on salmonella in eggs put it at 1:10,000 to 1:20,000
chance of an egg being infected. It's a case of odds, and how you cook the
eggs. If you're taking a dozen eggs and making mayo from scratch, then making
100 sandwiches in a cafeteria, the odds are sufficiently high that once a year
you're going to make everyone sick. If you're making sunny-side up eggs, the
yolk won't get heated enough to pasteurize it, but the impact is at least
greatly reduced. If you're properly scrambling the eggs, then yes, they get
hot enough to reduce the pathogen count to be a non-issue.

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sbate1987
In case you accidentally boiled some eggs.. Science give us hope.

~~~
IanCal
If only there was further information available that shows how important this
process could be in a variety of areas including the production of cancer
treatments.

Why, we could even see if we can set things up so when you click on the words
in the title you're taking to this "Additional Relevant Templated Information
Containing Lists of Examples" or "ARTICLE" for short.

~~~
pixelbath
Interesting idea. Then if someone didn't understand that they had to click the
words, you could describe this Relevant Templating From Archives, or "RTFA"
for short.

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konceptz
"To re-create a clear protein known as lysozyme once an egg has been boiled,
he and his colleagues add a urea substance that chews away at the whites,
liquefying the solid material."

Another interesting use for human waste however I'm not sure I would like to
eat an egg that was treated with urea.

~~~
DanBC
Urea is used as a food additive:

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16422263/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16422263/)

> Urea is generally recognized as safe by FDA for the following uses: side-
> seam cements for food contact; an inhibitor or stabilizer in pesticide
> formulations and formulations applied to animals; internal sizing for paper
> and paperboard and surface sizing and coating of paper and paper board that
> contact water-in-oil dairy emulsions, low-moisture fats and oils, moist
> bakery products, dry solids with surface containing no free fats or oil, and
> dry solids with the surface of fat or oil; and to facilitate fermentation of
> wine.

It's a natural component of food:

[http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SC...](http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/GRAS/SCOGS/ucm261338.htm)

It can be a synthetic compound.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea)

Carbamide (another name for urea) is used in some chewing gums.

