Bio-Based Ideas

  I know we are right in the middle of a wave of rain storms but I think this rain storm just confirms the general pattern of more extreme water conditions that is: When it rains, it will rain more. But when it doesn't rain, it will be drier. Overall, these rain storms will only partially refill the already strained reservoirs. While every bit helps, it's important to keep the overall picture in mind. I did a bit of digging to find what will be expected over the course of this century. Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on water supplies in California, leading to reduced availability of water from various sources. One of the major sources of water in California that is expected to decrease is the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. These snowpacks provide a significant amount of water to the state through snowmelt during the summer months, but as temperatures continue to rise, the snowpack is expected to shrink, which will reduce the amo...

Have you ever wondered what other countries outside of the US are thinking about the biobased economy? Following is a word-for-word copy of what the "German Bioeconomy Council" thinks should be the road ahead. You can access the original document here: http://biooekonomierat.de/fileadmin/Publikationen/Englisch/Strategy_paper.pdf Decided at the 8th session of the Council, 14.5.2014 Preamble A sustainability-oriented bioeconomy can contribute vital solutions to the serious ecological and economic challenges of the future. However, such a bioeconomy will not develop automatically. Regulatory, social and technology policies are needed to move towards an ecologically sustainable economy that is based on innovation, renewable resources and efficient production processes. The Bioeconomy promotes process and product innovations with consumption and societal expectations in mind.

TED talks are ever so inspiring. Earlier in the year , Sylvia Earle was speaking about the need to protect our ocean's resources. It appears that ocean protection is getting more on the radar screen of the general public. Today's post features yet another talk with a very inspiring story on protecting our ocean's resources.

Recently, “Forschung Aktuell” , a science news radio show on Deutschland Radio, highlighted some interesting research by the German scientist Hauke Harms on his approach to affordable solutions to detect arsenic in drinking water which is a common problem in some parts of the world. I was interested to learn how arsenic is sometimes found in drinking water. According to the show, arsen naturally exists in the environment as arsenopyrite. Natural processes can erode these layers and transport them down the river. There, arsen can react with organic matter that is commonly dumped into the river in heavily populated areas without proper waste water treatment to form arsenic. These arsenite containing waters can sink all the way into the ground water. Arsenite is a big problem because it is a non-biodegradable toxin which can cause cancer and other serious diseases as it accumulates in our bodies. To address this problem, one needs to have means to measure the presence of arsenite. Usi...

As you all know, I have grown quite fond of TED talks. Today, I found Brian Skerry's tells a very visual story of the ocean - both good and bad. Although it's a bit long, I encourage everyone to watch and reflect on the talk. 

What was done? I came across an interesting article yesterday titled “Biodegradation of Physicochemically Treated Polycarbonate by Fungi” published in Biomacromolecules. What this group essentially did was to isolate fungi from the environment by exposing them to conditions in which plastics were the only source of food. The group basically identified three fungi ( Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Engyodontium album  and Pencillium spp. ) , and characterized some of the parameters by asking basic questions about: Efficacy changes when fungal isolates were exposed to certain pre-treatments (either heat or UV light). Growth of biomass (how much the fungi grew during this time) How much extracellular protein was secreted and a crude determination of the class proteins released Loss of mass of the piece of plastic Changes in physical, chemical and surface properties. Why is this important? I asked myself the same question until I realized what plastic they were working with: Bi...

Introduction: With some frequency, I want to introduce really good and inspirational videos without my own comments because the messages of these videos are much better than what I could say. Today's video posts without my comments comes from TED talk series. Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish is to protect our oceans. Without further ado:

The fact that our overreliance on fossil fuels is quickly draining easily accessible resources is becoming more known in the public. Now there is talk on several scientific and environmental radio shows that warn of declining phosphorus reserves. The concern over a possible phosphorus shortage may seem contradictory to observations of increased algal blooms and eutrophication of inner water streams – a phenomenon where increased chemical nutrients in the environment lead to algal blooms and suffocation of aquatic life with detrimental  consequences to the environment – which at least in part are caused by increased bio-available phosphorus. All this lead me to the question: Is there really a phosphorus shortage? Phosphorus is the 15th element on our periodic table. In nature phosphorus never exists in its elementary form due to its reactivity [1]. Phosphorus is one of the essential elements of life because it is part of many structures in living cells from simple bacteria to c...

After spending the last few blog posts on different aspects of dissimilatory bacteria , I want to switch the focus to a different class of organisms I have been interested in for a long time now. These are the algae. Algae comprise a large diversity of "sea weeds" and an even larger variety of single-celled organisms that mostly are capable of doing photosynthesis. They include the ordinary sea-weed, and make up a portion of the green slime found around the edges and the bottom of a pond. More exotic types of algae can live symbiotically - that is together with another organism in a mutually beneficial way. Lichens are an example of symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi. More information about the evolution and lineage of algae can be found in this wiki article . Image via Wikipedia Typically, these organisms are either not mentioned at all or only in conjunction with toxic algal blooms. But lately, algae, of course, have been in the news recently because of the p...