Scientists just revealed a surprising new use for coffee
PsyPost••science
Key Points:
- Researchers have discovered that ordinary espresso coffee can serve as a safe, non-toxic, and effective staining agent for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), providing image contrast comparable to the radioactive standard uranyl acetate.
- The study, led by Claudia Mayrhofer and published in the journal Methods, demonstrated that coffee stains biological samples, such as zebrafish mitochondria, with high clarity, enabling detailed visualization of cellular membranes.
- Coffee offers significant practical advantages over uranyl acetate, including lower cost, lack of toxicity, and elimination of regulatory and safety burdens associated with radioactive materials.
- While coffee showed promising results, the researchers caution that further testing across diverse biological tissues is needed to confirm its broad applicability and to ensure it does not introduce imaging artifacts.
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