Bio-Based Ideas

This is an important topic and so I want to get the most important things out of the way first: Chemical sunscreens containing the following ingredients contribute to coral bleaching:  Oxybenzone Octinoxate Octocrylene (used to also stabilize avobenzone) 4-methylbenzylidine camphor Anything containing Parabens Don't be part of the problem and avoid using them! It's important to note that claims on sunscreens are not regulated and therefore, companies can put the wording "coral reef safe" on the packaging even though they contain the above chemicals. This is misleading if not outright false. Instead use "physical" sun screens that contain non-nanoparticle zink oxide. Physical sun screens differ from chemical sunscreens in that the sit ontop of the skin to reflect or scatter UVA/B rays away from the skin before it reaches it. Chemical sunscreens absorb the UVA/B rays instead to neutralize them. To be clear, I am not proposing not using sunscreen! I

In today's post, I want to just get on paper thoughts I have had around e-mobility. Please forgive the wordy rambling. I don't know about you, but to me 2018 has been the year where I have seen a lot more movement around e-mobility lately. GM, Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Honda...you name it...every major car manufacturer has at least on paper a hybrid, plugin hybrid or EV on offer. Some of you probably will say that I forgot to mention Tesla at this point. I have not forgotten about that company at all. I am actually rooting for that company the most because all other car manufacturers are more or less tepidly entering the market. Only Tesla is in it full-force. I really do hope that Tesla succeeds for so many reasons because their success will light a fire below every other car manufacturers. The question would arise why it is that traditional car manufacturers were not the first one to go full force producing and selling ALL EVs...but I digress.

It's 2018! In search for more ways to be more sustainable, I thought that I want to reduce the trash output this year. These are 3 things I think I can easily implement this year: 1.) Zero-Waste Cleaning Products If you look around, ALL personal care products found in any supermarket use plastic containers. Method's line of products (and similar companies like 7th Generation etc.) are better because they use 100% recycled plastic, and are themselves recyclable. Method also offers refillable bags on some of the products which also reduces plastic waste generated. Just yesterday, I came across a company that goes a step further, named Plaine Products . This company like the above makes responsibly sourced, paraben-free, sulfate-free, cruelty-free cleansing products. However, a big plus is that the products get shipped in reusable aluminum bottles with reusable pumps. When you run low on the products, the company sends you another bottle with a return shipping label for the

Yes, this!

Last month an interesting article got posted at CBinsights about the current state of synthetic biology that I didn't have time to write about until now. What I really like: Even the superficial overview teaser article is much more comprehensive than my review of companies in the field which actually had a slightly different focus. It is also more up-to-date. Reading the article, I am very excited because there are so many interesting companies to be excited about like for example: Benchling - a company that builds dna managing, and editing software. GAE Enzymes - a company that wants to make enzymes more rapidly Glowee -  a company that wants to make biological lighting Gincko Bioworks -  a microbe design company Twist - a DNA synthesis company One interesting thing was who was not mentioned in the public article: Amyris. I guess this has to do with the fact that Amyris is no longer new and "exciting", but a known quantity. I think this is positive b

One man's trash is another one's shoe! Since Earth Week is starting tomorrow, I wanted share with you some concrete ways of how individuals like you and me can make an impact on a wider scale. I then also wanted to use this example to challenge everyone to think creatively about the larger context. So you know how the saying goes: "One man's trash is another one's treasure." Today, I want to talk to you about garbage. Plastic garbage specifically. Plastic is quite a wondrous material. Made from oil by man with just a few additives can turn this polymer into so many different sorts of plastics with so many different properties from thin and flimsy plastic bags, to the carpet on which I am standing, to this plastic bottle from which I am drinking.

I just read this article on the Great Barrier Reef suffering irreversible damage from climate disruption . It moved me so much that I just had to quickly post an appeal to anyone who happened to be reading this blog: The changes happening to our environment are real, massive, and definitely caused in very large parts by human action (e.g. burning of fossil fuels for transportation, and energy, deforestation etc.) and made worse by inaction (e.g.: governments twiddling their thumbs and ignoring the problem, or afraid of shaking up the status quo). There is some good news to all of this too though: Since it is humans causing this problem, it is also up to us to do everything in our power to fix these problems. And since Earth Week is also coming up, I would like to appeal to everyone to move to action.