University of Helsinki
The Food Materials Science Research Group, reinforced with Prof. Maija Tenkanen and her Carbohydrate Enzymology and Chemistry Group, spent three days at the Lammi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki.
The classroom was reserved for quiet and calm working, where a good flow was achieved with a number of new articles, grants, and reports developed. Many interactive scientific discussions were held outside of the classroom, whether that be in the sauna, over lunch and dinner, or into the evening. Our team was fed with delicious meals: breakfast, lunch, coffee, and dinners. The food was again wonderful, and we could focus all of our energy on writing and data handling.
We picked mushrooms in the Evo forest area and our master mushroom cook, Hongbo fried these up with plenty of vegan margarine over a live fire as an evening snack. Evening sauna and swimming in the fresh cold water in the Pääjärvi lake was very relaxing. Our trip was most enjoyable, after this heavy covid-closure period, as we readjusted to sitting together and having long evening discussions about science and more with real, living people.
A couple of highlights:
In the writing retreat of 2019, Fabio introduced to the group a modern idea about writing an article together in 24 hours. Unbelievably, the outcome was not quite as easy and fast. Thanks to Fabio’s ongoing dedication to the 24-hour paper, now, after 24 months, we finally celebrated publishing our review article:
Valoppi, F., Agustin, M., Abik, F., Morais de Carvalho, D., Sithole, J., Bhattarai, M., Varis, JJ, Arzami, A., Pulkkinen, EE, & Mikkonen, KS. Insight on current advances in food science and technology for feeding the world population. Frontiers in sustainable food systems.
We got also joyful news from other accepted articles:
Kuribayashi, T., Lankinen, P., Hietala, S., Mikkonen, K.S. Dense and continuous networks of aerial hyphae improve flexibility and shape retention of mycelium composite in the wet state. Composites Part A, accepted.
Hagel, S., Lüssenhop, P., Walk, S., Kirjoranta, S., Ritter, A., Bastidas Jurado, C., Mikkonen, K.S., Tenkanen, M., Körner, I., Saake, B. Valorization of urban street tree pruning residues in biorefineries by steam refining: conversion into fibers, emulsifiers and biogas. Frontiers in Chemistry, accepted.