Solar Power

Thin-Film Solar Cells.

From the article:

Thin-film solar cells may be the answer: One recently converted 19.9 percent of the sunlight that hit it into electricity, surpassing the amount converted into power by mass-produced traditional silicon photovoltaics and offering the potential to unleash this renewable energy source.

A link to a NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) report is also provided here.

From what I've read, the typical conversion rate for solar panels today hovers around 6%, so this shows a 300% increase, with reduced costs for the units as well. If we can "go solar", then the need for liquid fuel for vehicles decreases. An electric recharge unit outside of your house, powered by the sun, which is then used to power your car would be an ideal situation in my mind. Plus, if these thin-film solar cells can be placed onto the roof of a car for additional recharge power of the battery, that would extend the battery charge of the vehicle allowing it to travel further. Question is, how long until things like this go into production for consumer use?

One in the hand ...

According to these two articles:

A couch potato lifestyle may cut your life short.

Except ...

If you're watching a lot of pornography.

Crazy Eddie!

Must have been infected.

A New Treatment for Diabetes?

The following article talks about a new gel which shows resistance to stomach acid, allowing the insulin to escape into the intestine where it can be released. This is, IMO, an improvement over current treatments, and I'm sure quite a few others might agree.

Here is a link to the actual article, though not everyone may have access to it, so I'll quote a portion of the conclusions.

A novel class of pH-sensitive complexation hydrogels composed of methacrylic acid and functionalized poly(ethylene glycol) tethers, referred to as P(MAA-g-EG) WGA, was investigated as an oral protein delivery system. The PEG tethers were functionalized with wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), a lectin that can bind to carbohydrates in the intestinal mucosa, to improve residence time of the carrier and absorption of the drug at the delivery site. Insulin was effectively entrapped within the polymer network with a loading efficiency of 74%. Release studies with insulin-loaded P(MAA-g-EG) WGA showed that the carrier released less than 10% of the insulin at pH 3.2 after 60 min and 70% of the insulin at pH 7.0 after 60 min. Therefore, P(MAA-g-EG) WGA can protect insulin in the low pH of the stomach and that the pH change between the stomach and the small intestine can be used as a physiologic trigger to quickly release insulin.

A fact that only I might find interesting.

Did you know that the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the in-house scientific agency of the USDA, was responsible for the Roma tomato? Crop improvement research by ARS led to the release of the Roma tomato in 1955. To this day, it is the main tomato used to make tomato paste throughout the world.

Biofuels leading to hunger crisis?

The article from CNN.

Those battling global warming by promoting biofuels may unintentionally be adding to skyrocketing world food prices, creating what one expert calls "a silent tsunami" in developing nations.

Also in the article ...

"The drive for more biofuels means more investment is going into those crops, meaning less land and less investment going in for food crops, causing a massive conflict and resulting in rising prices, which is having a huge negative impact, especially on developing countries," Clare Oxborrow, food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, told CNN.

That's not entirely true. There are a variety of efforts looking at non-crop biofuels, such as algae. Or synthetic bacteria to make hydrocarbons. There are also efforts to look at non-agricultural lands to grow energy crops. Imagine using land on the side of highways to grow switchgrass for eventual use in cellulosic ethanol production, as an example. I think a balance can be, and will be, struck between the essential needs for fiber, food, and fuel.

An interesting concept ...

... for dissemination of scientific information.

Thankfully ....

... the place I work at does not have any elevators.

Terra Preta

The terra preta are some seriously fertile soils in the Amazon Basin. They are a man-made agricultural wonder, made even more amazing by the fact that these soils were created about 9 to 10 thousand years ago.

There is a great BBC documentary called The Secret of El Dorado which discusses the terra preta soils. If you can find the video online, via YouTube or Google Video, it's worth the watch.

Another amazing thing is that we have no idea how they actually did it. Todays scientists are trying to replicate the terra preta using biochar.

Aquaculture

I found this article to be very interesting. Not sure what the fish actually tastes like, but it's obvious (at least to me) that current practices will not result in long term options for the fishing industry (while saving the environment).

This is one list ...

... you don't want to be on.

The worst offender: Houston. Followed closely by Los Angeles. I was quite frankly amazed that the New York Metro area ranks 19th.

Switchgrass to EtOH - Costs

Article here.

Based on the $50-per-ton figure, and assuming a conversion efficiency of 80 to 90 gallons per ton, the farmgate production cost of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass would be about $0.55 to $0.62 per gallon.

Those numbers aren't bad. They also feel that they'll be able to improve on those numbers given enough time to breed cultivars which will be more favorable for the cellulosic conversion process. It's pretty obvious at this point that corn is not going to be the silver bullet for the bioenergy movement, but switchgrass may possibly play a very significant role.

Remember what I said back in June of 2007 ...

... about flushing your antibiotics down the toilet?

Told you so!

Commercial fishing ...

... wreaks havoc on the environment. The victim this time around? Loggerhead turtles.

Lady in Red

Sorry babe, but that red dress probably catches your man's eye because he's hungry.

Instead it may have evolved for its benefits in foraging - picking out ripe fruit - and was retained for mate selection, say André Fernandez and Molly Morris of Ohio University, Athens. Most primates have three colour receptors, so see a richer visual spectrum than other mammals, which have only two.

A Biodiesel Primer

Courtesy of the Methanol Institute (PDF)

On a related note, I've begun reading Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy, and it looks like a very good read. I'll relate more when I've gotten a bit further into the text.

Don't ...

... flush your unused drugs down the toilet.

I doubt it comes as any surprise that these drugs eventually find their way into a water source, in this case a Florida river. And there is no excuse, short of a doctors instruction, to ever stop an antibiotic regimen.

Ode to the Microbe

The Microbe by Hilaire Belloc

The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen--
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so....
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!

A tribute to bugs

Common Cold by Ogden Nash

Go hang yourself, you old M.D.!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
In not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

Give ear, you scientific fossil!
Here is the genuine Cold Colossal;
The Cold of which researchers dream,
The Perfect Cold, the Cold Supreme.
This honored system humbly holds
The Super-cold to end all colds;
The Cold Crusading for Democracy;
The Führer of the Streptococcracy.

Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!
Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;
Don Juan was a budding gallant,
And Shakespeare's plays show signs of talent;
The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,
And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.
Oh what a derision history holds
For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

I'm a Geneious!

... user that is.

Geneious - Developed by Biomatters

Possibly one of the best genomic utilities out on the market today. Their staff are excellent about responding to user wishes, and their product is of excellent quality. Things are made even better by the inexpensive price tag (under $200 for a years license). I liked Sequencher (when I had access to it and it's $3000+ price tag), but I love Geneious. If you do research, you need to try this software suite out.