Features

Cairo Inside Out

Trevor Naylor

Photos by Doriana Dimitrova

Cairo-New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 2016

Pp. 146

This book is not a travel guide but an exploration in text and photos of what makes Cairo such an alluring city despite its fully deserved reputation for being overcrowded, noisy and polluted. The author, Trevor Naylor, a frequent visitor and sometime resident of the city, hit upon the idea of producing such a book while sitting in the legendary Café Riche in downtown Cairo. Savouring the late-afternoon atmosphere, he wondered if it was possible to write a book that captured the mood and light so unique to Cairo. 

Turning the pages of “Cairo Inside Out”, one can only answer Naylor’s question with a resounding yes, but only because his engaging narrative is counterpoised to Doriana Dimitrova’s striking photos. No page of text is without a picture that literally/graphically illustrates the interplay of light and shadow that is at the heart of the mood that the book seeks to convey. Both Naylor and Dimitrova are experts in their field, but it is the combination of their crafts that creates the book’s aesthetic impact which is often breathtaking.

The book title is a play on words, but it does not so much reference the idea of turning something inside out in order to exhaust all possibilities — remember, this is not a comprehensive guidebook. Rather, “inside out” is a key concept in Naylor’s idea of how to fully enjoy Cairo. Sitting in the Café Riche, “it came to me that in the many hours I have spent sitting or wandering around Cairo, most of it is spent inside, looking at the world outside and observing the streets and people as though on a screen… feeling the soul of Cairo is generally an indoor experience”. (p. 11)

Looking out from an interior space has many advantages: Inside it is cooler, quieter and protected from jostling crowds, traffic and overly persistent sellers. Naylor compares many of the places covered in the book to sanctuaries, optimal places for recovering from the exhaustion of navigating the city, but also for observing the street life and shifting light and colours of the city, which appear most astonishing at dawn or dusk. 

There is another reason that this documentation of selected places is important, for Cairo is changing. “The Cairo you see here may well be coming to the end of its time… Cairo, like all cities, is about people… it is they, as much as the place itself, who make a certain business or a particular place so special to visit.” (p. 12)

Naylor expresses doubt as to whether coming generations will pursue the same trades and way of life as their parents. 

Not being a guide book, “Cairo Inside Out” does not cover the main monuments usually visited by tourists, but there are a few notable exceptions, such as the pyramids at Giza, which the book recommends viewing from a different angle in accordance with the “inside-out” approach. Also, a few tourist traps are billed as “worth falling into”.

Most of the book, however, suggests ways of exploring the city, often by foot, to discover charming off-the-beaten-track venues. It is organised in chapters by area: Nile and Zamalek, downtown Cairo, City Gates to the Muqattam Hills, Khan Al Khalili, old Cairo to Maadi, and Pyramids and Pharaohs. Moving from quarter to quarter, the type of places highlighted also changes from houseboats, mansions, hotels, café and bookshops, to markets, mosques, churches and mausoleums. 

Regardless of the venue, many of the photos show elegant staircases of different styles, some of them enhanced by light filtering in from a window. Another recurring theme is viewing a garden or other green area through the windows of a cafe or restaurant. In many pictures, the juxtaposition of past and present, ancient and modern, in a single site, is astonishing. 

There are many surprises even for those who have visited Cairo repeatedly. Some of the most beautiful pictures are of the inside of the Nilometer’s cone, views from the Sofitel Hotel, the Ibn Tulun and Blue Mosques, and the Manial Palace — “one of Cairo’s greatest yet least visited treasures”. (p. 114)

“Cairo Inside Out” is not a book to be read once only. One will want to return to it again and again. For those who have visited Cairo once or even many times, there are scenes that invite to a new visit. For first time visitors, it is inspiration to embark on a more personal and meaningful tour by adding lesser-known places to the usual tourist itinerary.

MIAMI — When children live through a contentious divorce or separation by their parents, the fallout appears to harm their health for decades, even into adulthood, researchers said on Monday.

The study involved 201 healthy adults who agreed to be quarantined, exposed to a virus that causes the common cold and monitored for five days.

Those whose parents had separated and had not spoken to each other for years were three times as likely to get sick, compared to those whose parents had separated but had stayed in touch as the children grew.

Previous research has shown that adults whose parents separated during childhood have an increased risk for poorer health. 

The latest study showed that this higher risk of illness is due, at least in part, to heightened inflammation in response to a viral infection, the report said.

“Early life stressful experiences do something to our physiology and inflammatory processes that increase risk for poorer health and chronic illness,” said Michael Murphy, a psychology postdoctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University. 

“This work is a step forward in our understanding of how family stress during childhood may influence a child’s susceptibility to disease 20-40 years later.”

The study also showed that the adult children of parents who had separated but stayed in touch were no more likely to get sick than the adult children of intact families.

“Our results target the immune system as an important carrier of the long-term negative impact of early family conflict,” said Sheldon Cohen, a co-author and professor of psychology. 

“They also suggest that all divorces are not equal, with continued communication between parents buffering deleterious effects of separation on the health trajectories of the children.”

The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.

So many aspects of our life, so many tasks, operations and activities are being or have already been automated that analysts now predict the end of countless jobs and professions in the near future.

If computers can translate languages, generate clear speech, instantly look for information, provide medical diagnosis, and so forth, if cars and airplanes are going to operate unmanned soon, who then needs human beings? Or, to put the question in a more relevant manner, what type of human beings, what jobs will still be required?

Automation nowadays implies digitisation and connectivity, and consequently computer programming. It would then be reasonable to conclude that programmers are what the world needs and will still depend on for a very long time.

Many years ago one of our college teachers told us “if you take computer programming and are good at it, you can be sure always to find a job, for as long and as far as I can see”.

Programming has dramatically evolved over the last few years, not only in terms of languages used and syntax but also in terms of structure. Provided you learn and get to know the new languages, HTML5 for example, you can develop applications much faster than say 30 or 40 years ago.

The logic and the reasoning behind remain the same and are based on the same principles: statements, handling input-output, storage, loops, comparisons, Boolean algebra and control of external devices. It is like learning the basics of mathematics, you can then evolve and move upwards to any level you like, and keep learning new tricks.

It goes without saying that the overwhelming part of programming today goes into web and cloud applications. Still, “local” databases such as Microsoft Access and VBA (Visual Basic for Access Application) are much in demand and do not require web programming. Actually some businesses prefer this type of programming, adding to it SQL (Structured Query Language) to achieve wide compatibility and superior efficient. Such programming ensures higher safety of data, doing away with the “online” option.

All colleges and schools in Jordan teach the new ways of programming and the country remains one of the leaders when it comes to providing the entire region with programming know-how for businesses and governments.

If the technical part of modern programming is understood, the business part of it is trickier. You still have to write programmes and make money selling them, supporting them. It is not as easy as it sounds, for unless you do it on a large scale like the industry’s giants like Microsoft to name the biggest, the operation may prove not to be feasible.

Jordan has several great companies that have proved to be very successful with their software applications that are used every day not only in Jordan but also in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, mainly. To name a few of these Jordanian successful stories from the private sector: Sky Software, Blue Ray Web Solutions, IrisGuard, Progressoft…

Those who want to embrace computer programming but do not plan to do it on a big commercial scale can still develop and write small applications for Android or iOS mobile devices and sell them on the specific market for each: Google Play and App Store, respectively. The only investment they would need is their brain and essential programming skills.

What then makes the difference between a programme that just works and one that shines is where art, taste and extra grey cells come. It is a challenge, it is a game and it is often very rewarding, intellectually and financially. It is definitely the future.

Eating more red meat is associated with an increased risk of dying from eight common diseases including cancer, diabetes and heart disease, as well as “all other causes” of death, according to a recent US study. 

Researchers examined data on almost 537,000 adults aged 50 to 71 and found the people who consumed the most red meat had 26 per cent higher odds than those who ate the least of dying from a variety of causes.

But people who ate the most white meat, including poultry and fish, were 25 per cent less likely to die of all causes during the study period than people who consumed the least, researchers report in The BMJ. 

“Our findings confirm previous reports on the associations between red meat and premature death, and it is also large enough to show similar associations across nine different causes of death,” said lead study author Arash Etemadi of the National Cancer Institute.

“We also found that for the same total meat intake, people who reported a diet with a higher proportion of white meat had lower premature mortality rates,” Etemadi said by e-mail. 

For the study, researchers followed the health and eating habits of people from six US states and two metropolitan areas over about 16 years. They analysed survey data on total meat intake as well as consumption of processed and unprocessed red meat and white meat. Red meat included beef, lamb and pork, while white meat included chicken, turkey and fish. 

Then, researchers sorted people into five groups from lowest to highest intake of red and white meat to see how this influenced their odds of death during the study period. 

They looked at deaths from nine conditions, including cancer, heart diseases, stroke and cerebrovascular disease, respiratory diseases, diabetes, infections, Alzheimer’s disease, kidney disease and chronic liver disease, as well as all other causes. 

Overall, 128,524 people died, with cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease and stroke as the leading causes of death. Only Alzheimer’s disease risk was not linked to red meat consumption.

Certain ingredients in red meat, including compounds known as nitrates and a type of iron called heme iron, may help explain why it is linked to higher mortality rates for the other causes of death, the authors argue. 

The highest intake of heme iron was associated with 15 per cent higher odds of premature death than the lowest intake, the study found. 

Nitrates in processed meat were associated with a 15 per cent increased risk of death from all causes, while with unprocessed meat nitrates were linked to a 16 per cent greater mortality risk, the study also found. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove how the amount or type of certain meats might directly influence mortality. 

Other limitations include the reliance on survey participants to accurately recall and report on their eating habits and the lack of data on any changes in people’s diets over time, the authors note. 

Even so, the findings should reinforce the need for many adults to cut back on meat consumption, said Dr John Potter of the Centre for Public Health Research at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand. 

Processed meat can produce cancer-causing chemicals, while saturated fats in meats can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, Potter, author of an accompanying editorial, said by e-mail. Choosing organic meat may not change the risk of premature death, Potter added.

“Mortality is higher with higher meat intake for every major cause of death except Alzheimer’s,” Potter said.

“The really key issue in all this is that the current level of meat consumption, in most of the developed world and increasingly in low- and middle-income countries, is unprecedented in human history,” Potter said. “We need to reduce meat consumption back to about one-tenth of our current level.”

Bruce Lee knew a thing or two about black belts. He was a world-renowned martial artist who understood how the human mind could influence behaviour and famously said: “As you think, so shall you become”.

Being very enthusiastic about training the mind as well as the body, the black belt model of thinking originated from his beliefs and focused on learning the importance of living life from the inside out. It put strong emphasis on internal strength to develop a clear vision of the person one intended to become, very much like the “law of attraction” which stated that whether we realised it or not, we were responsible for bringing both positive and negative influences into our lives. It took the form of internal thoughts or spoken words, but could also be represented visually.

Regardless of how we chose to use our thoughts, we could mentally design them to reflect our vision of how we wanted your life to change. For example, when Jim Carrey was nineteen he headed to Hollywood but like many young actors trying to make it big, he found that success was elusive. In 1985, a broke and depressed Carrey daydreamed of fame and to make himself feel better, he wrote out a cheque for $10 million for “acting services rendered”. He then post-dated it, and kept it in his wallet. The cheque remained there until it deteriorated but Carrey eventually made it and earned millions for movies like Ace Ventura, and Dumb and Dumber. When his father passed away in 1994, he slipped the cheque in to the casket.

Speaking on the Oprah Winfrey Show later, he explained that there was more effort that goes into positive visualisation than simply spending a few minutes picturing our goals. The entire creation process manifests our desires and we have to consciously take action towards it. He had concluded by reiterating that we cannot just visualise and go eat a sandwich.

So, thoughts became action and actions became outcomes? Was it as simple as that said the voice in my head? Should I start thinking outside the box? Even though I was incapable of getting a black belt in karate at this late stage in my life, I could at least train my brain to think like a black belter, right?

To begin with, I decided to let go of all fear, including fear of failure. I mean, if I was not harming anyone, what was wrong in trying out new things? There was nothing that stopped me from becoming an accomplished singer, poet or a marathon runner if I put my mind to it. Or even a stand up comic! Were there any slots open for fifty plus non-resident Indian women in that field I wondered?

Experimentally, I visualised myself in an auditorium full of lively people while I was waiting behind the stage for my comic act to begin. In my imagination I could also feel the knot in my stomach and the trembling in my feet but I focused on the witty anecdotes I had prepared for the show.

“I am new to black belt thinking,” I started.

My audience in the amphitheatre kept on talking.

“It is different from thinking about a designer black belt,” I continued.

Spontaneous laughter erupted around me.

“Sorry?” my husband asked and I realised I had spoken aloud. 

“If you carry on like this, we will progress to tighten-our-belts thinking,” he predicted. 

A more upmarket successor to Volkswagen’s first compact crossover SUV – or CUV – endeavour, the second generation Tiguan is a classier design, more refined drive and technologically advanced effort.

Competes with both mainstream and premium ends of an ever more popular family car segment the new Tiguan launched globally in 2016 and early this year in the Middle East.

Offered regionally in five trim levels and three driveline options, Variations include 148BHP 1.4-litre front-wheel-drive with 6-speed dual clutch DSG gearbox and 2-litre four-wheel-drive 7-speed DSG versions developing 177BHP or 217BHP Tiguan Sport 2.0 specification, as driven.

Distinct and defined

Built on a larger CUV version of the same MQB platform underpinning its superbly well rounded Golf family hatchback sister, the new Tiguan similarly reaps the benefits from increased lightweight aluminium content. Though a little longer and wider — and shorter — the new Tiguan nonetheless sheds 50kg over its predecessor for improved efficiency, performance and driving dynamic.

A distinctly sharper edged, mature and evolved design, the new Tiguan has a more contiguous, classy and sporting style than the model it replaces, with a particular emphasis on straight and level lines, from fascia, waistline and side ridged character line.

With a greater sense of the dramatic, including more muscular and chiselled surfacing, the new Tiguan’s more lines and broad fascia also emphasise a perception of width. Its level grille and headlights seem moodier, with deep-set lamps browed by LED strips. 

And with lower, descending roofline, justting spoiler, deeper lower front intakes, more defined sills and ridged character line extending to boomerang style rear lights, the latest Tiguan sits on the road with more presence and a sense of urgency. Driven in top Sport guise, the Tiguan features bumper integrated dual exhaust tips and larger more purposeful 19-inch alloys with 235/50R19 tyres.

Hot hatch heart

Powered by a turbocharged direct injection 2-litre four-cylinder engine the Sport 2.0 is the range-topping petrol version Tiguan, and comes with standard four-wheel-drive and 7-speed automated dual clutch gearbox. Borrowed from the Golf GTI hot hatch, it develops 217BHP at a broad 4500-620rpm band and muscular 258/b/ft torque throughout a wide and accessibly versatile 1500-4400rpm range. Refined and developed with efficient thermal management in mind, the Tiguan Sport’s engine spools up swiftly with only turbo lag from idling. More confident and noticeably quicker than 177BHP Tiguan models, the Sport is smoothly responsiveness, with flexibly confident mid-range and eager top-end.

Driving all four wheels and developing more traction from standstill, and with 7-speed DSG gearbox allowing for more aggressive lower gears, the larger heavier Tiguan Sport overcomes a 267kg weight disadvantage to match its nimble and more eager Golf GTI sister’s brisk 6.5-second 0-100km/h acceleration. 

And while this does not translate into similar performance or economy across the board, the Tiguan Sport’s 220km/h top speed and 7.8l/100km combined fuel efficiency are however impressive for its class. With progress underwritten by a broad and generous torque band, the Sport’s DSG gearbox delivers seamlessly swift and smooth shifts when operating in a sequence, whether in auto or manual mode.

Reassuring and refined

Underpinned by a shared platform and engine, the Tiguan Sport 2.0 drives with a tidy and adept manner, however it is not exactly a CUV version of the agile and eager Golf GTI. A different sort of driving experience, the larger and heavier and four-wheel-drive Tiguan has a heavier and perhaps slightly more comfortable and settled ride. If not as nimble, eager, adjustable and connected to winding roads and corners as the GTI, the Tiguan is however smooth, precise and reassuringly benign in its handling. Well controlling weight shifts through corners, the Tiguan Sport, however, remains taller and more comfortably setup than a hot hatch, and expectedly leans more when pushed.

Smooth and composed with terrific ride refinement and stability, the Tiguan is settled on rebound and comfortable over long distances and over imperfections, feeling slightly only firm over jagged bumps in the road, as driven with larger alloys and lower profile tyres.

With light yet direct steering, high and alert driving position and good visibility aided by optional parking assistance and rear and around view cameras, the Tiguan is easy to drive and manoeuvre on road. Meanwhile, its front-biased four-wheel-drive system reallocates power rearwards when additional grip is needed through corners or on low tractions surfaces.

Classy quarters

A refined and comfortable car-like CUV with MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear independent suspension, the Tiguan is very much designed to be driven on road. However, it is nonetheless equipped with a brake based electronic differential lock and Active Control driving modes, which utilise stability and traction control systems, and alter throttle and gearbox responses to maintain loose surfaces.

It also features Hill Descent Control to aid driving off-road, while standard safety systems are comprehensive and optional driver assistance systems include adaptive cruise control with Front Assist system, which includes Pedestrian Monitoring and automatic braking to prevent or mitigate collision severity.

Well-equipped with electronic stability control suite with electronic brakeforce distribution, brake disc wiper and brake assistance, the Sport model can optionally be equipped with knee and side airbags, and includes heads-up display, digital instrument cluster.

Standard equipment also includes ISOFIX child seat latches, rain sensing wipers, ambient lighting, panoramic sunroof and folding rear tables. Uncluttered, user-friendly and classy inside, the Tiguan’s cabin features quality materials and construction. Instrumentation is clear and seating well adjustable, supportive and comfortable, with good space and access front and rear to accommodate taller passengers in a row or increase luggage capacity.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, four-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 217 (220) [162] @4500-6200rpm

Specific power: 109.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 130BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 258 (350) @1500-4400rpm

Specific torque: 176.4Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 209.7Nm/tonne

0-80km/h: 4.3-seconds

0-100km/h: 6.5-seconds

Top speed: 220km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 9.7-/6.7-/7.8-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 180g/km

Fuel capacity: 60-litres

Length: 4486mm

Width: 1839mm

Height: 1646mm

Wheelbase: 2681mm

Overhang, F/R: 896/909mm

Track, F/R: 1576/1566mm

Headroom, F/R (w/sunroof): 1004/967mm

Minimum ground clearance: 180mm

Cabin width, F/R: 1503/1491mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 615/1655-litres

Unladen weight, minimum: 1669kg 

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.5-metres

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/Multi-link

Tyres: 235/50R19

Middle East Studies for the New Millennium: Infrastructures of Knowledge

Edited by Seteney Shami and Cynthia Miller-Idriss

New York: The Social Science Research Council and NYU Press, 2016

Pp. 488

The result of a ten-year research project, this book explores the relationship between knowledge and power as it plays out in the field of Middle East Studies (MES) in the US. This might sound theoretical, but the book is very concrete; 17 scholars address a range of issues that often overstep the bounds of academia.

Due to the US’s fraught relations with the Middle East, and the region’s geopolitical importance, US foreign and domestic policies impact directly on MES, via legislation and funding, as do prevailing ideologies and the ways in which research, teaching and learning are organized at universities. 

Obviously, 9/11 was a turning point for MES (as for so much else), but it had a dual effect. While increasing interest in the area and government funding for relevant language programs, it also shone a critical spotlight on MES scholars who were taken to task by some for not having anticipated the escalation of militant Islamism. Attacks on academic freedom rose, as did demands that MES better serve “national security”.

Outlining the crises affecting MES, the editors contend that global events of the 21st century overturned previous thinking: “As the world sees increased militarism, deepened suspicions, swelled refugee flows, and renewed obstacles to the circulation of ideas and people, the happy assumptions of global flows and creative hybridities seem a thing of the past. These trends have implications for the field of MES and the ways in which knowledge about the region is produced.” (p. 2)

More than ever, MES became an embattled paradigm.

Successive chapters trace how MES developed past Oriental departments into area studies, how it is related to other disciplines, particularly the social sciences and humanities, how it has been affected by the restructuring of universities, and how it compares to other area studies. There is critical inquiry into the meaning of scientific

objectivity, and how US intervention in the areas under study impinges on how they are viewed. Although Orientalism was seriously challenged and often discarded, other intellectual trends, such as American exceptionalism, Cold War thinking, modernisation theory, liberal values and neoliberalism, have moulded MES into boxes not necessarily conducive to actually discovering the diverse reality of the region. 

The first section of the book examines the role of various disciplines in furthering or diverting MES. Taking examples from political science, sociology and economy, scholars note that the adoption of quantitative methodology has obscured the real issues and often made the social sciences complicit in US imperial strategy, especially after the revival of cultural essentialism which paints the region as backward and thus in need of intervention. “In the context of political science’s commitments to scientific objectivity and to the production, or at least protection, of the US liberal order, studying the Middle East has always been a vexed enterprise.” (p. 31)

“For area studies, the price of being admitted to mainstream sociology… was to concede that in-depth knowledge of world regions was of secondary importance to methodological rigor.” (p. 96)

As a counterweight, there is a survey of the history of sociology in the Middle East itself. 

Many of the contributors argue for breaking out of narrow disciplinary confines, noting that “our collective interdisciplinary research on the ‘Middle East’ has helped complicate assumed universal phenomena, thus enabling a richer understanding of how spaces of all shapes and scales are situated products of particular connections between people, things, and ideas”. (p. 170)

The second section of the book covers how MES evolved and has been structured at various universities, and includes a very interesting survey of PhD dissertations on the Middle East in the years 2000-2010, to show what is actually being studied.

The final section is the most politically charged, as the contributors evaluate the consequences of the 21st century’s shift towards a global rather than regional focus, and the new priority assigned to studying neoliberal economies, political Islam and terrorism. While public knowledge and debate were skewed by government deception and its echoes in the media in the aftermath of 9/11, affecting the public’s view of the Iraq War, Palestine, the wars on Lebanon, etc., on the positive side, more scholars have engaged in public debates on academic freedom and the purpose of MES. The book wraps up with a challenge to MES scholars to focus their work on really meaningful topics, despite prevailing trends in other directions: “In part because of the remarkably constricted horizons of American political and social life and because of the imperial past of the region, we must confront the technical limits of our disciplines and the urgent need to address morally significant and momentous issues.” (p. 439)

AMSTERDAM — What is nicer after a long day than sinking your feet into comfortable slippers? But one Italian designer is hoping to show that shoes made from mushrooms can be just as cosy.

A pair of light brown slippers, bowls, lampshades and even a chair are also among the everyday objects that artist Maurizio Montalti has been fashioning from various fungi, such as the “mushrooms that you find in the forest when you take a walk”.

Montalti, 36, hopes one day his new, sustainable material could even replace plastic, made from diminishing fossil fuels and difficult to recycle.

“I started working with fungi as part of my design practice a few years ago,” he told AFP, saying he was seeking a “different vision” on the benefits of humans engaging “with species, which are usually disregarded, such as fungal organisms”.

His prime material is mycelium, the white, organic and underground part of a mushroom composed of a network of tiny threads. At first invisible to the human eye, the network can become so dense that it grows into a visible, furry mass. 

“Mycelium is a very interesting product because it is able to break down all leaves for instance, or all kinds of products that we don’t use anymore,” said Ilja Dekker, technician at the world’s only microbe museum, Micropia, in Amsterdam.

This means it can be used to make different products. 

“It can be used to build all types of things like vases, things that we can put inside our houses. But also to build our houses, as a building material to actually make a house,” she said.

Micropia, an interactive museum housed next to Artis, Amsterdam’s zoo, is hosting a small permanent exhibition of Montalti’s work as part of its mission to highlight how useful microbes are.

Cooking fungi

His concept of “growing design” allows objects to grow naturally with no external shaping, cutting or sculpting, much as plants do in the wild.

Placed into moulds made from wood, clay, plastic or plaster, the mushroom is left to gorge on organic matter like wood chips, straw, hay or linen. 

“They feed on such plant matter and while degrading it, they also extend their microscopic filamentous threads and they create this very interconnected network of threads which works as a binding glue, you could say as a natural glue,” said Montalti.

At some point the process has to be halted otherwise the ravenous fungi would just continue to grow, completely breaking down the organic matter.

So the mould is placed into a low-heat oven, which, in effect, cooks the fungus inside.

The fungi culture is “fully deactivated” leaving behind an “inert material, but still fully natural and fully compostable”, he said.

In this way, in 10 days a sand-coloured vase was created, or a whitish, rough chair which took 20 days to make.

“Every object is unique,” said Montalti, highlighting how the kind of fungus used, the organic food source or environmental conditions can all change the object’s look, colour and feel.

Natural resources

At the start of his research Montalti had been looking at using fungi to help break down materials, such as to stop pollution.

But it was when he “stumbled” upon the creation of a new material that he took a different turn.

Depending on what kind of fungi is used, the material it produces can be stiff or elastic, porous to water, brittle or resistant to heat.

The shoe industry is interested now in his work, hoping to replace traditional rubbers for instance.

There is also interest in it as “victimless leather”, which involves finding materials that resemble traditional animal leather but “do not involve any killing”.

“The ecological aspect and the ecological responsibility is rather paramount” to the whole project, Montalti said.

And he outlined a grand vision. “I foresee a future in the next 10 or 20 years where such materials will strongly impact our way of life.”

You know the drill: You haven’t had a good night’s sleep for a few days and now you don’t like what you see in the mirror — puffy eyelids, dark circles, sallow skin.

You splash some water on your face and hope no one notices. Besides, it doesn’t really matter if you look tired, you tell yourself. It’s not like anyone is going to notice, right?

Wrong.

It turns out that just two consecutive nights of restricted sleep can make you appear less attractive to others and, even worse, make them less interested in hanging out with you, according to a study in Royal Society Open Science.

“People seem to be able to tell when someone needs more sleep, and are more inclined to leave them alone in that case,” the authors wrote in the new work.

To come to this conclusion the researchers recruited 25 volunteers who agreed to deliberately limit their sleep for the good of science.

Member of this group, referred to as “subjects” in the paper, had their photo taken twice — once after two consecutive nights of normal sleep (about 7 1/2 hours) and again after two consecutive nights of poor sleep (about 4 1/4 hours).

In both sets of pictures the subjects were photographed in a grey T-shirt, with their hair pulled away from their faces, and were told not to wear makeup.

Next, the researchers showed the photos to a different set of 122 volunteers they called “raters”. These people were asked to rate the subjects on attractiveness, health, sleepiness and trustworthiness.

They also were asked how much they would like to socialise with the person in the photo.

The study authors found that overall, raters were less willing to socialise with tired-looking subjects compared with those who were well rested.

In addition, they also deemed the poorly rested subjects to be less attractive, less healthy and more sleepy compared with when they were well rested.

“Telling someone they look tired says more about your perception of them than you might think,” the authors wrote.

The study did not address the reason that a lack of sleep makes others want to avoid you, but the authors have a hypothesis. They explain that blood flow to the skin is strongly promoted by sleep. Perhaps when we don’t get enough sleep, that results in restricted blood flow to the skin, which in turn would make us look more pale and tired.

“We’re still not sure about this,” said Tina Sundelin, a post-doctoral student in psychology at both the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and New York University who led the work. “Hanging and swollen eyelids is probably due to something other than blood flow, but we haven’t looked into that yet.”

She added that not everyone looks worse after a few nights of bad sleeping.

“For some participants, it was very clear which condition the photo belonged to, and for others, there was virtually no difference between the two,” Sundelin said. “A couple of participants were even rated as more attractive after sleep restriction.”