Utah State University researchers are using an innovative approach that takes oil from algae and converts it to bio-diesel fuel. USU is currently conducting research on algae and plans to produce an algae-bio-diesel that is cost-competitive by 2009. Algae, plainly referred to as pond scum, can produce up to 10,000 gallons of oil per acre and can be grown virtually anywhere.
The world today relies on fossil fuels to supply much of its energy, and there are currently 13 terawatts of energy used per year, a number that is expected to double by the middle of this century. Bio-diesel is a clean and carbon-dioxide-neutral fuel that is becoming more popular, but most of the current product comes from soybean and corn oil. As supply and demand grows, so does the price of soybeans and corn. People and animals rely on soybean and corn as a food commodity, eventually causing competition between commodities and growing enough product. Meeting this demand would require the world to use virtually all of its arable land.
Creating bio-diesel from algae would be a huge step forward toward a renewable energy source, and would greatly improve environmental output compared to today's petroleum-based gasoline engines. Algae grows just about everywhere (whether you want it to or not), so it would be readily available in many parts of the world, creating a more dispersed source of fuel than we have currently.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Monday, January 29, 2007
New Technique Developed for Gene Activation
Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed a new technique that employs RNA, a tiny chemical cousin of DNA, for activation of genes. The new technique demonstrate the most effective and consistent method to date for coaxing genes into making the proteins that carry out all of life’s functions – a process formally called gene expression.
In its experiments, the UT Southwestern team used strands of RNA that were tailor-made to complement the DNA sequence of a specific gene in isolated breast cancer cells. Once the RNA was introduced into the protein mix, the gene was activated, ultimately resulting in a reduced rate of growth in the cancer cells.
Current methods to block gene expression, such as RNA interference, rely on using RNA strands to intercept and bind with messenger RNA. While RNA interference is an effective tool for studying gene expression, Dr. Janowski said, it’s more efficient to use RNA to control both activation and de-activation at the level of the chromosome.
This research is important because it could result in better methods for genetic therapies, allowing better treatment of cancers, as well as various genetic disorders. As I know several people who suffer from genetic disorders, so I view anything that can improve treatments for them to be a good thing.
In its experiments, the UT Southwestern team used strands of RNA that were tailor-made to complement the DNA sequence of a specific gene in isolated breast cancer cells. Once the RNA was introduced into the protein mix, the gene was activated, ultimately resulting in a reduced rate of growth in the cancer cells.
Current methods to block gene expression, such as RNA interference, rely on using RNA strands to intercept and bind with messenger RNA. While RNA interference is an effective tool for studying gene expression, Dr. Janowski said, it’s more efficient to use RNA to control both activation and de-activation at the level of the chromosome.
This research is important because it could result in better methods for genetic therapies, allowing better treatment of cancers, as well as various genetic disorders. As I know several people who suffer from genetic disorders, so I view anything that can improve treatments for them to be a good thing.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A Test for String Theory?
Researchers at University of California, San Diego, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Texas at Austin have developed what they believe will be a means of testing String Theory, the leading candidate for unifying the laws of physics into a single theory.
The process involves testing one of the three underlying mathematical assumptions used by String Theory, that there is a smoothness criteria for the scattering of high-energy particles after a collision. They propose to test this assumption by using the Large Hadron Collider to investigate the scattering of W bosons. If the W bosons do not scatter according to the predictions made by String Theory, physicists will know that there is a flaw in the theory.
“If the bounds are satisfied, we would still not know that string theory is correct,” said Jacques Distler, a professor of physics at The University of Texas at Austin.
One of the main criticisms of String Theory has been that it is largely untestable. And while this test is not a perfect test, it will allow researchers to test at least a part of the theory, and that's at least progress toward a better understanding of our universe.
The process involves testing one of the three underlying mathematical assumptions used by String Theory, that there is a smoothness criteria for the scattering of high-energy particles after a collision. They propose to test this assumption by using the Large Hadron Collider to investigate the scattering of W bosons. If the W bosons do not scatter according to the predictions made by String Theory, physicists will know that there is a flaw in the theory.
“If the bounds are satisfied, we would still not know that string theory is correct,” said Jacques Distler, a professor of physics at The University of Texas at Austin.
One of the main criticisms of String Theory has been that it is largely untestable. And while this test is not a perfect test, it will allow researchers to test at least a part of the theory, and that's at least progress toward a better understanding of our universe.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Hey Buddy, Wanna Be an Ornithology Researcher?
Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology has a program to which amateurs can contribute called Citizen Science. I'm going to be lazy and re-post some information from their webpage describing the program.
What is citizen science?
It is a partnership between the public and professional scientists. People across the continent are gathering data to better understand and conserve birds.
Who can participate?
EVERYONE is invited to participate! No matter your location, age, or experience we have a project for you.
How do I participate?
Each project has easy-to-follow instructions describing how to count the birds and record additional information. Once you have submitted your data to the Lab you have succeeded as a citizen scientist and contributed valuable data to bird conservation and population monitoring efforts.
They also have programs for Winter, Spring/Summer, and Year-Round research. Take a look and contribute to the study of birds!
What is citizen science?
It is a partnership between the public and professional scientists. People across the continent are gathering data to better understand and conserve birds.
Who can participate?
EVERYONE is invited to participate! No matter your location, age, or experience we have a project for you.
How do I participate?
Each project has easy-to-follow instructions describing how to count the birds and record additional information. Once you have submitted your data to the Lab you have succeeded as a citizen scientist and contributed valuable data to bird conservation and population monitoring efforts.
They also have programs for Winter, Spring/Summer, and Year-Round research. Take a look and contribute to the study of birds!
Grand Challenges
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has officially launched what they call a "worldwide brainstorming session" called Grand Challenges for Engineering. The purpose is to identify the major engineering challenges to be addressed during the 21st Century.
The project grew out of a brainstorming session to determine the greatest, highest-impact engineering feats of the 20th Century. Anyone can submit ideas (this means you) to the list, and many people already have. The list will be reviewed by a panel of experts including J. Craig Venter, Larry Page, Dean Kamen, Ray Kurzweil, and William Perry, among others. If you don't know who these people are, you should... go to the website and read their bios.
I haven't submitted my ideas to the list yet, but I will. First, I'm going to list some thoughts here:
These are just some of the (many) ideas I have for engineering challenges to be addressed in the 21st Century. In a way, it makes me sad that I'm not an engineer.
The project grew out of a brainstorming session to determine the greatest, highest-impact engineering feats of the 20th Century. Anyone can submit ideas (this means you) to the list, and many people already have. The list will be reviewed by a panel of experts including J. Craig Venter, Larry Page, Dean Kamen, Ray Kurzweil, and William Perry, among others. If you don't know who these people are, you should... go to the website and read their bios.
I haven't submitted my ideas to the list yet, but I will. First, I'm going to list some thoughts here:
- Mind-Machine Interface - Our knowledge and understanding of the human brain and the human mind have advanced more in the past 15 years than they had in all the time leading up to that time. We now have systems that can detect a person's thought patterns and behave according to a prescribed set of rules, systems that have allowed paralyzed people to operate machinery. Improvements in this technology will result in true cybernetics, replacement limbs, paralysis cures, and eventually devices that help the blind to see and the deaf to hear.
- Low-Cost Orbital Access - And by "low-cost" I mean around the current price of an airline ticket. Rockets are never going to reach that pricing level, and it's time to stop pretending that they will. There are, however, some means that will work. A space elevator, while massively expensive to design and build, would lower cost-to-orbit dramatically. And gravity control, while firmly in the realm of science fiction for now, would be an enabler of so many things I can't even list them in this post. The hurdles in both cases are mainly engineering challenges (though in the case of gravity control, there is some basic science yet to be done), and they are hurdles that can be overcome.
- Anti-Senescence - There are a limited number of causes of cell death, and we are close to understanding many of them. The challenges remaining are in both the realms of science and engineering, but they are no insurmountable. Understanding and being able to control cell death could lead to cures for cancer, Alzheimer's disease and many other diseases as well as rejuvenation therapies. Some people believe it may even be possible to eliminate aging as a cause of death.
- Clean, Reliable Power Generation - Most of our current means of generating electricity are destructive--coal, natural gas, and oil all create pollution in various amounts, and nuclear energy leaves us with large amounts of waste that will take eons to decay. Only renewable, non-polluting sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal will ease our energy demands without irreparable damaging the planet we live on. Solar power satellites beaming power as microwaves to ground receiver stations, supplemented by huge geothermal projects, could supply all of the energy we need to grow in the 21st Century.
- Asteroid Mining - Earth has a finite number of resources, and they're difficult to get to. A typical asteroid, meanwhile, has trillions of (2007) dollars worth of precious metals, and we could mine them without polluting our water sources here on Earth. The first organization that does so will truly open up the space market by making massive profits and will create a "gold rush" in space.
- Artificial Intelligence - True artificial intelligence is not that far away (although it's also not as close as some people would like to believe). There will be varying levels of it, ranging from slow-thinking, distributed neural network-based systems to very limited, task-specific (but portable) devices to handle your day-to-day chores, such as driving. Autonomous vehicles would virtually remove the human-error element from automobile and airplane travel, surgery, and commerce. Artificial intelligence will be used (even in the near term) to aid in product design, by means of evolving designs using genetic algorithms, allowing the rapid design of improved products.
These are just some of the (many) ideas I have for engineering challenges to be addressed in the 21st Century. In a way, it makes me sad that I'm not an engineer.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Hey Buddy, Wanna Be a NASA Researcher?
In 2001, NASA started a pilot program called Clickworkers to allow the general public to participate in their research. Through the program, you can analyze data returned from NASA's Mars missions, such as the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to help NASA identify landmarks and surface details on Mars.
You can also analyze data from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) to help identify the landmarks that NASA should be pointing HiRISE at for further study.
If Mars isn't your cup of tea, they also have data returned from the Dawn mission that you can analyze to mark crater impacts on asteroids (starting with the NEAR asteroid). Doing so will help NASA determine some of the history of the asteroid and our solar system.
With the recent cuts to NASA's science budget, they're going to need all the help they can get, and this is a perfect opportunity to help keep NASA science going in these tough times.
Get started by visiting the Clickworkers website.
You can also analyze data from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) to help identify the landmarks that NASA should be pointing HiRISE at for further study.
If Mars isn't your cup of tea, they also have data returned from the Dawn mission that you can analyze to mark crater impacts on asteroids (starting with the NEAR asteroid). Doing so will help NASA determine some of the history of the asteroid and our solar system.
With the recent cuts to NASA's science budget, they're going to need all the help they can get, and this is a perfect opportunity to help keep NASA science going in these tough times.
Get started by visiting the Clickworkers website.
Project Profile: ClimatePrediction.Net
This week's project profile is for ClimatePrediction.net, a massive project to model and forecast weather in the 21st Century.
The software, like the other projects profiled so far, operates on the BOINC platform for distributed computing. The ClimatePrediction.net system uses the unused background cycles of its members' computers to simulate a large number of possible climate scenarios to determine how each individual variable affects the overall climate picture.
These simulations are then studied individually and merged together into one and tweaked as additional data becomes available. The more data runs that are performed, the more accurate the models will become.
Accurate prediction of climate change could be vital on both the short- and long-term scales. For example, more precise climate modeling could have shown that Hurricane Katrina would strike New Orleans, rather than the predicted path that showed it striking Texas. Advanced warning could have led to better evacuation and preparation and given people an expectation of the damage before it happened.
Similarly, in the long-term time scale, climate change predictions can give us better understanding of potential warming effects such as rising ocean levels, increased storm activity, etc.
If you're interested in participating in this type of science project, you can download the software here.
The software, like the other projects profiled so far, operates on the BOINC platform for distributed computing. The ClimatePrediction.net system uses the unused background cycles of its members' computers to simulate a large number of possible climate scenarios to determine how each individual variable affects the overall climate picture.
These simulations are then studied individually and merged together into one and tweaked as additional data becomes available. The more data runs that are performed, the more accurate the models will become.
Accurate prediction of climate change could be vital on both the short- and long-term scales. For example, more precise climate modeling could have shown that Hurricane Katrina would strike New Orleans, rather than the predicted path that showed it striking Texas. Advanced warning could have led to better evacuation and preparation and given people an expectation of the damage before it happened.
Similarly, in the long-term time scale, climate change predictions can give us better understanding of potential warming effects such as rising ocean levels, increased storm activity, etc.
If you're interested in participating in this type of science project, you can download the software here.
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