Assessing champagne quality

If you are not an expert in wines for the New Year celebrations, fear not. Scientists from ITMO University have proposed a machine learning-based method for assessing the quality of champagne by studying its bubbles. To do that, they used ultrasound to create bubbles in the liquid, recorded them on camera, and analyzed it with the help of computer vision and machine learning. During the experiment, the AI helped identify the type of sparkling wine (rose or white) with 84% accuracy, and the material of the wine glass (glass or plastic) with 82% accuracy. As opposed to “natural” bubbles, which affect only the appearance and taste of the drink, artificially created bubbles define the entirety of the product’s properties. The invention will be of use for quick, affordable and automated quality control of drinks produced at wineries and in labs.

Bubbles aren’t the only thing in champagne that’s worth studying. What is it that happens when you open a bottle of champagne with a loud bang? Scientists from France and India modelled this phenomenon with the help of computational hydrodynamics. It turned out that the flows of gases that burst out of the bottle move faster than the speed of sound and create shockwaves. Combined, those create the Mach disks – patterns that can be seen when jet engines operate. Scientists believe that such experiments with sparkling wines can help in the development of rockets and wind power generators.

Recycling citrus peels

During the winter holidays, you see oranges and tangerines on almost every New Year's table. Now, it has become possible to get twice the benefit out of these fruits: not just from eating them but also from recycling what’s left. Brazilian scientists from the State University of Campinas proposed using citrus peel to create biodegradable packaging. The film material is made from limonene (found in citrus peel) combined with chitosan (derived from the chitin of crustaceans). Such film is not just safe, ecology-wise, but is also better at conserving a product’s food qualities as well as their color, taste, texture and smell.

Growing the ideal Christmas tree

The Christmas tree is one of the winter holidays’ main symbols. Unfortunately, a tree that’s been cut down doesn’t stay green for long: quite soon, especially after it’s brought inside a warm room, the needles start falling. In order to solve this issue, scientists from the University of North Carolina decided to grow the ideal tree. They used the Fraser fir, the most popular Christmas tree for the winter holidays in the USA, which grows on the slopes of the Appalachians in the east of North America. The geneticists picked the best trees of this species, grew more, and have already gotten the seeds of the genetically improved fir trees. They anticipate that the new species will grow faster, have an ideal conical shape, and retain their needles for much longer: no more than 1-2% needles lost, even when in a warm space.

But then again, you don’t necessarily have to have a real tree – you can always improvise. For one, physicists from the University of Amsterdam printed a tiny Christmas tree from ice particles on a 3D printer. To do that, they replaced the device’s muzzle with a water jet and made use of evaporative cooling – a process in which the external temperature turns liquid into vapor (something you can see when steam rises over a cup with a hot drink). The experiment showed that printing with ice particles is possible without the use of special ingredients – in the future, this will allow us to not just create beautiful ice sculptures, but also apply such methods in tissue engineering for surgery.

Lab-grown string lights

Even a common garland can be improved – for example, using a new method for producing LEDs that’s been proposed by ITMO scientists. The method is based on the use of carbon dots – non-toxic, biocompatible, and easy-to-manufacture nanoparticles made out of cheap ingredients, including citric acid and chlorophyll. Under normal conditions, their brightness is too low to be used for proper lighting, but ITMO researchers have found a way to increase it by treating them with polyethylene glycol while “cooking” them in a sealed autoclave for six hours. Thanks to that, it is now possible to use carbon dots to produce stable LEDS that are as bright as their more expensive and harder-to-manufacture counterparts.

Building a snow fortress

Have you ever built snow fortresses when you were a kid? Scientists from Perm National Research Polytechnic University have proposed a new method of building from snow that makes it possible to create robust buildings within a short time. In short, they  created a machine for condensing snow into snow blocks by using an electric cable embedded into the machine’s plywood walls. Such blocks are quite sturdy – in fact, they are comparable to the honeycomb concrete used in construction. The new technology makes it possible to create structures up to 3 meters high: for example, temporary structures for cold regions.

Breaching the Arctic ice

Which place is more closely associated with winter than the Arctic? But getting there can be very hard: in Russia, most of this region is enclosed in ice throughout the entire year. In order to pass through that natural obstacle, it is essential to study the structure and properties of ice and know the shape of the ice floes’ underwater sections. Such information can be learned by using radars and ultrasonic scanning systems, but this calls for a keen understanding of how waves propagate in different layers of ice. Scientists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology have developed an algorithm that identifies how these oscillations behave with regard to the ice’s porosity, temperature, saltiness, and so on. Based on the use of matrices and chimera grids, the new method will help produce precise information on the structure and properties of icebergs and ice reefs, making navigation and oil extraction in the Arctic safer.