sugars from biomass

Study finds way to catalyze more sugars from biomass

(Phys.org) —Catalysis may initiate almost all modern industrial manufacturing processes, but catalytic activity on solid surfaces is poorly understood. This is especially true for the cellulase enzymes used to release fermentable sugars from cellulosic biomass for the production of advanced biofuels. Now, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) through support from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have literally shed new light on cellulase catalysis.

 

The Article 

 This article will explain it better than I can, but the idea is that using a precise visible light microscopy technique called PALM – for Photo-Activated Localization Microscopy, researchers have found a way to increase the yield of sugars used to make fuel. 

This new technology could make bio-fuel a viable source of energy. It will increase the number of plants that can be used in the process as well as increasing the yield of each plant. 

Slums

The disparity between slums and mansions is most obvious in places like South Korea. There they have huge shantytowns and within the same picture can include high rise condos, penthouses, and mansions along with skyscrapers. Guryong is a shantytown in downtown Seoul.


 


 The residents moved there more than thirty years ago after they were evicted in the 1980s as Seoul started development for the Olympic games. Fires cause problems in the shantytowns as they spread rapidly and there is a lot of fuel for the fire to keep itself alive.

Gangnam is a luxurious downtown neighborhood near to Guryong. Recently a song came out called Gangnam Style, perforemed by Psy, which parodies the rich lifestyle of people in South Korea. Many people enjoy this song, but most are unaware of the true meaning behind the "wackiness" in the music video. In fact the video is an over the top exaggeration of the extremely rich in South Korea.

Hemp vs. Trees

Hemp has been proven to be a much more efficient plant to produce than trees in multiple aspects. Firstly, hemp reaches maturity after 100 days while trees can take multiple years. One acre of hemp produces as much as up to five acres of trees. Hemp paper can also be recycled up to seven times while paper from trees can only be recycled four times. Not only would production of hemp limit the amount of trees we cut down annually, if not eliminating the need entirely, hemp also has a multitude of uses beyond that of trees. The entire hemp plant can be used in the production of goods. This picture below gives several examples of what specific parts of a hemp plant can be used for, but this is not a complete list. 

Graphene cuts costs of desalination process

Article on discovery.

A new filtration system utilizing graphene, a single atom wide sheet of carbon molecules, is expected to severely reduce the cost of removing salt from water.

"It's 500 times thinner than the best filter on the market today and a thousand times stronger," said John Stetson, the engineer who has been working on the idea. "The energy that's required and the pressure that's required to filter salt is approximately 100 times less."

Producing the graphene efficiently is the biggest setback in this process, but should this be achieved water will become much more available to places that previously had no access to fresh water. 

This is definitely not the first time I've heard of graphene, but it is one of the better uses I have seen it applied to. I look forward to seeing what other advancements in technology may have a resounding effect on our lives. 

Passive Protest Not So Peaceful

Do you believe in anything so strongly that you'd be willing to lay down your life for that belief? Would you be willing to cause yourself pain and suffering to see that belief stay alive? Is your life worth the continuation of your belief?

 

Many of you may have seen this picture. This is Thich Quang Duc. In protest to the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government, Thich Quang Duc lit himself on fire to create awareness. This photo and others like it circulated the globe and gathered the attentions of many onto the Diệm government.

Today there are over one hundred documented cases of self-immolation within Tibet to protest the Chinese government's heavy handed control over Tibet. 

“They claim we are free to practice our religion but in fact they keep pulling the reins tighter and tighter so we can hardly breathe,” said a 22-year-old monk from Qinghai Province

New York Times article on 100th case of self-immolation

Like Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thich Quang Duc did not use violence against his suppressors. Instead he used violence against himself to increase the awareness of the situation globally. Like Ghandi being hit by soldiers or this police officer being arrested in full uniform, Thich Quang Duc and the Tibetan monks make people want to fight for the underdog.

 

 

thyroid problems

Reading Toxic Bodies reminded me a lot of the government testing that was done on nuclear bombs as well as radiation.

The bombs they detonated in the Bikini Islands as well as the deserts of Nevada had a devastating effect on not only the surrounding communities, but also on the people who lived thousands of miles away.





 "Above are the per capita thyroid doses (in rads) in the continental United States resulting from all exposure routes from all atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site from 1951–1962."

My concern was if fallout from tests was reaching as far east as Vermont, what kind of exposure remained in the bodies of everyone who was alive at the time the tests took place. Not only was I concerned about the exposure that people had from this time, but also what effects this exposure had to have had on their children. I grew up in the same place as Maria from the preface of Toxic Bodies, and I was unaware that breastfeeding could cause the harmful substances in the rivers to be transferred to the child. If toxins such as these could move through breastfeeding, does this mean the radiation may have also been passed along to the child?

eco-colonization of sub-sahara Africa

JSTOR Article

This article I found brings up the same points I had mentioned during discussion on Friday. The main point the article is trying to get across is that first world nations spend huge sums of money to preserve the environment as well as the biodiversity. At the same time, the needs of those living in these areas are completely disregarded.

There is a belief that third world nations are unable to preserve the environment, and so outside intervention from other nations carry out their "superior" preservation techniques. This is called ethnocentrism, and it happens when one believes their own opinions and actions to be superior to others.

The ethnocentric view of Africa is turning it into something it is not. Media portrays the African jungle as this incredibly dangerous place with a plethora of wild creatures around every corner. Unfortunately, this view, however false, is what visitors want to see when they are in Africa. So companies with lucrative backers manufacture their own "African Safari". This in the long run will have an adverse affect on not only the environment, but also those who live within these areas.

Mercury Biomagnification

Mercury in fish is a huge health threat to anyone, but people who rely upon fish for their main source of protein nearly everyday, not eating fish simply isn't an option. The image shows the increasing levels of mercury as the food chain moves up. As can be noted, the larger the fish, the more mercury it will have accumulated in its body. The same is true for the age of the fish. They call this biomagnification.







While not eating the fish is so far the best strategy that has been made to counter the levels of mercury, this is not a viable option for everyone. There are many who, although they have access to grocery stores and other food markets, depend massively upon the food that they can gather and prepare themselves. For people who live near water, fish becomes an enormous staple in their diet. With the new knowledge of biomagnification and its health detriments, the general public has been told the safe levels of fish to eat per week. While most people are used to not relying upon fish for a lot of meals, this advice is very easy to follow, but those who consume fish daily do not have many other options available. Even with the knowledge of biomagnification, many people who relied on fish before decide to still do so now.

Telling people to not eat fish is not a solution to the problem of mercury. Instead more research must be done to determine ways to reduce the total levels of mercury entering the water, as well as a way to remove the already present mercury.

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Mining and Resources

Mining introduces some bad chemicals to the environment, and with the loopholes in the Clean Water Act still being taken advantage of, these wastes are being dumped directly into water ways. After enough of these wastes are dumped into a body of water or river, the fish are no longer edible and the water no longer safe to swim in or drink.

EPA's link on Torch Lake

Torch Lake is an example of the insidious nature of the mine tailings and stamp sands. The lake was used as a dump for the wastes of the mine, and the results were terrible. Fish with large tumors were being found, and after several tests were found unsafe to eat. The water was also corrupted.

Not everyone was harmed equally from this act. Those who lived on the lake or obtained sustenance from it were at a severe disadvantage when they were told that the fish is no longer safe to eat. Eating some fish was ok, but nowhere near the levels that the people in this area were used to.

This disadvantage for those who subsist off of the water and its bounties is much greater than for those who do not rely upon the water as much. This is true in many other places besides Torch Lake, with Native Americans receiving the short end of the stick anywhere mines have been allowed to dump their tailings and other wastes directly into the water. The loopholes in the Clean Water Act much be taken care of to ensure the protection of both the water and the people who live on the water. 

Nuclear Energy Plants Raise Concern for Safety in Iran

Nuclear power plant stokes worries

This article I found covers a number of topics we discussed last week in class. First and foremost is local, and global, concern about safety precautions being carried out to prevent contamination. Several residents live within 6 meters from the nuclear plant, but the recommended distance is one kilometer.

There is also a notable lack of communication being shared with the public, and this is increasing the concern of local residents.

"Iran has repeatedly maintained there are no grounds for concern, a position backed up by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, whose subsidiary Atomstroyexport built the plant and plans its formal handover to Iran this year."

I question the authority with which this corporation Rosatom states there are no grounds for concern without any hard proof. The fact that they are selling the plant to Iran doesn't help settle my suspicions either. I would like to see what empirical proof they can offer to attest to the plants safety.

Near the end of the article the topic of communicating the risks to the public is raised again. The public has no idea what is happening most of the time, and concerns that something may be, or will, mess(ed) up, even if from an emergency official, are removed from public view and denied to ever exist.

While the people in Bushehr may want to leave as soon as possible, many do not have the necessary funds to do so. There is talk of moving everyone, but the government is not applying the required funds to do so. Only about ten percent of the people of Bushehr have left so far. 

Week One Entry

I feel that invasive species are some of the greatest threats to the great lakes and the rivers in the surrounding areas. Not many people are aware of the dangers of invasive species because they do not see the effects every day. Zebra mussels have been more personal to me as they have affected the environment and businesses of my hometown, but others like the Asian Carp make their threat more visible.

Epigenetics In Invasive Species

I found an interesting article on epigenetics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics "the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence". Essentially it is saying that invasive species adapt to their new environments not by evolving and changing their genetic DNA, but through expressions of different traits brought about by environmental factors. While some genes of a species may lie dormant for its entire life, the area a species is living in can change which genes are expressed and which are suppressed. An example from the article includes the invasive plant the Japanese knotweed, of which genetically identical plants can have different leaf shapes and varying heights depending upon where they are growing.

Not all believe that epigenetics and invasive species' success are related. I am not totally convinced either, but it raises an interesting point of how invasive species can thrive in an area vastly different from their origin.