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...

This is just a quick note on my way to work. I just listened to a news podcast from DW. I have to give it to the German press: Today's podcast covered a topic that I think is very forward thinking. It discussed the importance of soil. The main points were very simple: 1.) Fertile soil is an important resource. 2.) It takes a long time to build up fertile soil (upwards of a generation or so). 3.) The demands on soil are increasing because of in large parts increasing populations and decreasing availability of fertile soil (due to different forms of erosion, and unsustainable agricultural practices). Interestingly the news podcast also discussed that a future in which the biobased economy takes root will by necessity also contribute to increased demands on the limited soil that we have.  Given the above, and the fact that making, managing fertile soil is never in the farmer's short term interest as the farmer usually just thinks about the next few harvesting seasons, the arti...

I listened to an interesting podcast a few weeks ago and just wanted to share what I learned by listening to "Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt" which translates into "Science in Focus". Today's topic: What is forest agronomy? Following is a partial transcript and summary of this podcast.

This is still from the SD-CAP Symposium. Another talk I wanted to summarize was Professor Stephen Mayfield's talk titled "Where we are - where we are going" The presentation slides can be found at the following location for anyone interested: http://algae.ucsd.edu/documents/SD-CABsymposiumMayfield.pdf Professor Mayfield’s talk was more of an overview talk meant to introduce the audience to the topic of algal biofuels. It could be divided into 2 parts: the problem, and the solution. The Problem Professor Mayfield started by making the point that between 1900 and today energy has been a rapidly growing market reaching $5.8 trillion today from just $ 0.4 billion. The future energy market is predicted to double in value within just ten years. There is an interesting correlation between energy use and wealth of a nation. The United States according this chart is one of the wealthiest nations in the world while also using proportionally more resources. The future growt...

I found these news rather intriguing: According to "Forschung Aktuel" [1],  a German-based science radio news show, there is a research group in Germany that is trying to develop an integrated 2-step biogas reactor. Normally, this would not be really that big of a news but what they use as a source for biogas generation and how they do it is very intriguing. In the quest for renewable non-fossil-based resources, cellulose, the sturdy sugar based plant material, is often considered the holy grail for energy generation as it is in this case. The question is how to generate energy efficiently from cellulosic containing material because as mentioned in a previous post , it is difficult to break down cellulose into usable sugar molecules using traditional mechanical and chemical processes. For this reason, research scientists have looked to nature like the gut of termites and other wood-eating insects, and in this case the stomach of the cow for inspiration on how to break down ...

Introduction I was recently asked why this site is called "Bio-Based Ideas". So I thought I would give a brief answer before leading into today's post. There are several reasons for naming this site the way it is. For one, having been trained as a biologist, I write what I know and am interested in. Naturally, many of the posts discussing ideas come with a biological slant. I wanted to make that clear in the title of the blog. But "bio" also comes from Greek meaning "life". And just as life organically grows and evolves, the posts here are meant to capture the richness of diversity of ideas. Lastly, it is my personal belief that the richness of biological ideas will have an increasing impact on our societies especially in this century. And so today with the last post on directed evolution in mind , I want to discuss: What is the bio-based economy? There are two basic ideas the bio-based economy relies on. 1.) Transition to biobased, renewable r...

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...

Introduction With prices for crude oil spiking in the recent past, and an unstable Middle East and intensifying effects of climate disruptions, the Obama administration and governments around the world have been promoting the development, and deployment of newer, more sustainable forms of energy generation, amongst which are biofuels . What are Biofuels? At the heart of every hydrocarbon based fuel (gasoline, diesel, kerosene, coal) are anaerobic degradation processes of organic material. For fossil fuels , the source of organic material comes from planctonic life, plants, and animals that lived and died millions of years ago. For biofuels, the source of organic material comes from planctonic life, plants or other sources of much more recent origin. The important concepts to note are: 1.) Building up organic matter removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 2.) Burning hydrocarbon based fuels releases the carbon originally tied up in the form of carbon dioxide. So when we pump up t...