Bio-Based Ideas

In light of the current drought in California, I have revisited this issue since the last time I wrote about it . Water conservation must be one of the easiest things we can do. According to an article posted by the Sierra Club, the three biggest sources of water consumption are:  The toilet (26.7 %) The clothes washer (21.7%) The shower (16.8%) The article mentions that there is huge variability of course, and it is not clear what is used as a base line here (a 1.6 gal/flush toilet or something with higher consumption, what kind of clothes washer, and what showerhead etc.). At any rate, changing out a toilet can cost anywhere between $200-$500. Changing out a decent clothes washer can run anywhere from $700-$2000 for high-end clothes washers. A showerhead, however, will at most cost about $80 for which you will get a luxury showerhead while having the potential of cutting the water usage more than half! So they are affordable compared to replacing a toilet or washing m...

I want to apologize to my readers for not having posted anything in a long time. Ironically, working within the sustainable chemicals field sometimes makes posting about new topics even harder. I have become even more busy over the last couple of months. But my determination to keep this page going has strengthened even more since I have become a father. And the reason for this is simply that preserving the environment or at least helping to setup a frame-work that makes sustainable living possible in the future has become even more important to me now that my son was born.

Example of how ciliates look (Source: http://www.woodrow.org) This week, DW Radio covered an interesting topic in their science news radio show. In light of the recent EHEC outbreak in Germany, experts have been trying to trace the source of this deadly outbreak. For those who do not know what EHEC is, it stands for Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli. In other words, these special strains of E. coli are very tough bugs that can cause intestinal bleeding - obviously not desirable and potentially dangerous. The search for possible sources has lead back to water treatment plants because the majority of water treatment plants treat water according to ecological aspects only, that is to say, they ensure that nutrients and waste in the water do not exceed certain levels. Many German water-treatment plants do not specifically try to reduce the number of bacteria in the water. That part is left to water companies that produce drinking water. The result is that high concentrations of...

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:

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...