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POPSWheat stubble could power a greener future When considering alternate energy sources, all stages of the process needs to be taken into account. To translate energy from one media to another, energy needs to be used to allow the conversion. Very often however, rather than direct input a catalyst can be used, to both streamline the conversion, or use a form of energy such as solar, or latent chemical energy. via a catalytic converter, or an organic process. Photosynthesis, and Yeast, metabolism, are examples that involve both. Some of the best catalysts are Enzymes, chemical 'messengers' which can co-ordinate the operation of proteins which are used like an organic 'toolkit'
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POPSSolar Energy To clarify, solar energy is what the sun sends our way, while solar power is what we’re able to harness as electricity using CSP, Photovoltaics and other technologies.
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POPSA satellite eye on the Earth last 2 pictures: a) Kasatochi volcano, Aleutian Islands, August 8: Dormant for 200 years this small volcano in the Pacific erupted without warning on August 7. The volcano’s plume is seen here as a brown streak in the cloud b) Phytoplankton bloom in the Barents Sea, Norway, August 12 2008. Phytoplankton are tiny plant-like organisms that are the foundation of the ocean food web. Like plants, they contain chlorophyll that they use to harvest sunlight for photosynthesis. In northern waters, these organisms are starved for sunlight much of the year, but during the summer months, they explode in colourful blooms such as this one
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POPSFuture for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates. Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
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POPSArsenic-eating bacteria rewrite evolutionary history Oremland's team isolated and bred these bacteria in the lab. By growing them with with arsenite as the only possible food source, the researchers showed that the bacteria can indeed thrive. The results suggest that arsenic photosynthesis evolved at the same time, or even before, "normal" photosynthesis. Oremland says a similar mechanism might once have fuelled life on Mars or on Jupiter's moon Europa.
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POPSNew 'arsenic-breathing' bacteria found While arsenic may be toxic because of the way it substitutes phosphorous in the process of burning energy, I don't recall boiling water being too healthy either. When life on earth was just kicking off, there was little free oxygen, and plenty of boiling water. Arsenic based photosynthesis is likely to have been working long before the green/chlorophyll based photosynthesis evolved.
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POPSMars toxin doesn't rule out life NASA The seas early in the history of the planet Earth were thought by NASA to be toxic to oxygen breathing organisms http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/oct/HQ_05338_toxic_seas.html Oxygen was also thought to be toxic to the majority of organisms existing at the time. The introduction of oxygen through photosynthesis when it evolved in plants, being the basis for one of the first Mass-extinction events. Nature has managed to squeeze energy from more toxic chemicals than perchlorate. Toxicity can be relative. Chlorine can be toxic in bleach, but can assist the conductivity of electricity ( when combined with sodium-salt) in non conductive organic materials. Still I thought it was funny this time scientists weren't just 'surprised', they were 'stunned' Beats me why they're still determined to find life on Mars, when life on Earth is getting such little respect.
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POPSBreakthrough in Solar Energy: Scientists mimic plants' energy storage system 'GIANT LEAP' FOR CLEAN ENERGY Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year. James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
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POPSJohann Hari: Science is thrilling – except in our schools At Primary School level, often teachers teach little science as this is often hands on, and they keep the messy lesson for art. Also, some teachers at this level just are not science people, forcing themselves to be proficient at maths in stead. I pushed early on for teachers to move from class to class teaching from their area of expertise. Attitudes became more positive.
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POPSEarth From Space: A Blooming North Sea MERIS acquired this image on 7 May 2008, working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m. Globally, phytoplankton are a major influence on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, and hence need to be modelled into calculations of future climate change. Just like land-based plants, they accumulate carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and store it in their tissues, making them potentially important carbon sinks. To support ocean carbon cycle research, ESA's GlobColour project has merged 55 terabytes of data from three state-of-the-art instruments aboard different satellites, including MERIS, MODIS aboard NASA's Aqua and SeaWiFS aboard GeoEye's Orbview-2, to produce a 10-year dataset of global ocean colour stretching from 1997 to 2007. The ocean colour datasets are freely available to the public via the GlobColour website.
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POPSWeather Or Not, We're Still Doomed.....Whatever James Overland of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claims that an ozone hole over the Antarctic is masking conditions there, keeping temperatures low. Later the ozone hole will close up, so we're still doomed. Gareth Marshall of the British Antarctic Survey floats this one: climate change causes Antarctic winds to blow harder, trapping colder air. But this will decrease at an undisclosed future date, so we're still doomed. Gabbles Marshall: The tea leaves point to a minimal amount of sea ice next September, that would be the same as we had last summer, 40 percent loss compared to 20 years ago. At least tea leaves are an improvement over the phony computer models they've been using to find their predetermined results. On a tip from hiram13pm. Posted by Van Helsing
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