New Atlas

Science Audio available

"Chicken bioreactors" lay medicinal eggs

Ben Coxworth January 28, 2019

Ordinarily, when scientists want to produce proteins for use in medicine, they have to utilize techniques that are costly and complex. Recently, however, Scottish researchers have created genetically-modified hens that simply lay eggs containing significant quantities of such proteins.

The hens have so far been used to produce two therapeutic proteins

Science Audio available

Are we living in the age of the chicken?

David Szondy December 12, 2018

Move over humans, there's a new dominant species on Earth – the chicken. According to researchers from the UK and South Africa, the most prominent marker of our age will not be our great monuments or industrial pollution, but the fossilized bones of hundreds of billions of domestic chickens.

A new study suggests the chicken is the most obvious evidence of the Anthropocene

Environment

New biofuel recipe mixes chicken poop and weeds

Michael Irving May 3, 2017

They may give us an almost endless supply of eggs and nuggets, but industrial chicken farming comes with a tradeoff: it produces a lot of poop. To turn a con into a pro, researchers have developed a process that mixes chicken manure with an invasive weed to create a feedstock for making biofuel.

Researchers in Nigeria have developed a process that mixes chicken manure and an invasive weed together ...

Biology

How medieval Christian monks helped make the modern chicken

Rich Haridy May 2, 2017

Our modern domesticated chicken is remarkably passive, can lay many eggs quickly, and has little fear of humans. But these traits were not always common, and a team of scientists recently managed to pinpoint the time when chickens went through their major evolutionary shift.

A new study suggests that Christian religious practices influenced the evolution of our modern chicken

Environment

Lab-grown chicken on the menu for the first time

Michael Irving March 15, 2017

For those who find themselves torn between cravings and ethical concerns every time they tuck into a chicken nugget, Memphis Meats has just served up chicken and duck meat cultivated in a lab from poultry cells, meaning no animals were harmed in the making of the meal.

Memphis Meats has served up the first chicken and duck made from lab-grown meat

Science

Genetically-engineered hens produce birds of a different feather

Eric Mack February 20, 2017

Rare breeds of chickens could soon come from entirely different types of hens. The University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute used gene editing techniques to create surrogate hens that grow up to produce eggs with all the genetic information of different breeds.

Researchers edited chicken genes to develop hens that produce eggs from different breeds

Robotics

"Gribbot" is designed to robotically pull off chicken breasts

Ben Coxworth December 9, 2014

Pulling chicken breasts off the bone can be a fiddly process, and often results in flesh being wasted by getting left behind. In a factory setting, that means slower processing times, and less meat to sell. That's why the Norwegian CYCLE project is developing an industrial robot to do the job.

SINTEF researchers Elling Ruud Øye, Ekrem Misimi and Aleksander Eilertsen (left to right) with Gribbot

VR

Second Livestock – virtual reality for chickens

Loz Blain May 27, 2014

Battery hens live pretty grim lives – but can that be improved with the use of virtual reality? Second Livestock envisions caged hens being fitted with VR goggles and movement sensors to give them the impression that they're out in the barnyard doing ... whatever it is chickens prefer to do all day.

Second Livestock: 'Cockulus Rift' project aims to improve the lives of battery hens using Virtual Reality

Health & Wellbeing

Beyond Meat puts real flavor into plant-based protein

Antonio Pasolini June 12, 2012

A new brand of plant-based protein food called Beyond Meat that promises to look, feel, taste and act like chicken meat has hit the stores in the US with a promise to offer a tasty alternative to animal-based food.

Beyond Meat has launched plant-based protein strips that emulate the flavor and texture of chicken meat

Robotics

GTRI develops prototype chicken-deboning robot

David Szondy June 10, 2012

Roboticists at Gerogia Tech develop a robot that can debone a chicken automatically.

Gary McMurray, chief of GTRI's Food Processing Technology Division, with the Intelligent Cutting and Deboning System