This year’s Future of Freight Festival takes place Nov. 19-21 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. But it’s not your average conference. Sure, there are wonderful speakers and fireside chats. But that’s only half the fun. F3 is set up with half-days of speakers and amazing content. The other half we take over downtown Chattanooga, and there are events, networking and a lot of fun to be had by all. This year, subscribers to Running on Ice get a promo code exclusive to us! You can register with this link or use the code F3ROI24 at checkout for a discount.
All thawed out
The moon has entered the cold chain chat. The moon’s permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen, according to the researchers at the Smithsonian. This discovery has led researchers to propose a plan to safeguard endangered parts of Earth’s biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon.
According to the paper published, “Initially, a lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but our ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth,” said Mary Hagedorn, a research cryobiologist at NZCBI and lead author of the paper. “We hope that by sharing our vision, our group can find additional partners to expand the conversation, discuss threats and opportunities and conduct the necessary research and testing to make this biorepository a reality.”
The proposal took heavy inspiration from the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway which has more than 1 million frozen seed varieties and acts as a backup to the world’s crop biodiversity. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon’s surface can be −410 degrees Fahrenheit (−246 degrees Celsius) — more than cold enough for passive cryopreservation storage.
Temperature checks
A possible huge development for temperature-sensitive drugs and vaccines has been announced. A stiff hydrogel could end the need for vaccines and gene therapies to be refrigerated. This hydrogel acts as a sort of cryopreservation tool to hold proteins in place. The difference between the stiff gel versus current gels is that the stiff hydrogel was found to stabilize proteins even at 50 degrees celsius.
Matthew Gibson from the University of Manchester pointed out, “That proteins don’t just fall apart or unfold at room temperature. The issue is that they clump together and stop functioning. But to aggregate, proteins need to find and interact with one another – something easily done in a room temperature solution where they are free to move.”
By keeping the proteins frozen in a certain state it stops them from being able to move and aggregate and therefore degrade in transit.
Food and drug
College football makes the headlines once again and it’s not in regards to the new video game, College Football 25 taking over the internet. The new announcement of Razorback nuggets actually could pair nicely with a night of playing the Razorbacks on College Football 25.
In reality though, Tyson, which is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas 8 miles away from Fayetteville, Arkansas, the home of the University of Arkansas, wanted to show its team spirit. According to a news release, “Tyson Foods is in Razorback Country, most of our team members are huge Razorback fans and our consumers have been calling for a way to celebrate their team. We’ve listened and are excited to deliver Tyson Razorback Nuggets to Arkansas fans in time for the football season,” said Kristina Lambert, SVP & GM Retail Value Added Poultry, Tyson Foods.
The Razorback Nuggets join the collection of Tyson Foods fun nuggets that also includes Spooky Nuggets shaped like ghosts, bats and pumpkins, and my personal favorite Dino Nugget. Highly recommend air-fryers for nuggets to get maximum crispy. The new nugs can be found in select Walmart stores in early August and select Sam’s Club locations in September.
Cold chain lanes
This week’s SONAR chart heads up North to Buffalo, New York. It seems that the beginning of produce season has arrived as reefer outbound tender rejections trend upwards despite the slight dip to start the month. Week-over-week reefer rejections are up 386 basis points to come in at a 11.43% rejection rate. Also on the rise indicating that produce season has arrived is reefer outbound tender volumes, a 13.84% increase w/w.
It’s still early days for produce season in the Northeast and spot rates might not have caught up yet. Shippers and brokers should expect rates to jump and carrier compliance to slip closer to 80% for the next few weeks. Carriers however, extra reefer capacity would do well to make the northern trek to take advantage of the excess demand.
Is SONAR for you? Check it out with a demo!
Shelf life
Lineage to share $100M from IPO proceeds with employees
Obtain Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) compliance ahead of deadline
Laredo to require carriers using border bridge to have $100 in account
Crackdown on BQE with WIM technology slashed overweight trucks by two-thirds
Wanna chat in the cooler? Shoot me an email with comments, questions or story ideas at moconnell@freightwaves.com.
See you on the internet.
Mary
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