Month: June 2010

Bacteria Could Eat Oil Spills

- Adam Clare 5 Comments

In the future, oil spills could be partly cleaned up by bacteria that loves to eat all the dangerous goo in oil.

esearchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive “rhamnolipids,” and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs – environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills.

Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say.

More research to further reduce costs and scale up production would be needed before its commercial use, they added.

The findings on this new bacterial strain that degrades the PAHs in oil and other hydrocarbons were just published in a professional journal, Biotechnology Advances, by researchers from Oregon State University and two collaborating universities in China. OSU is filing for a patent on the discovery.

“PAHs are a widespread group of toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds, but also one of the biggest concerns about oil spills,” said Xihou Yin, a research assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy.

Read more here.

A Canadian Bookstore’s G20 Reading List

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

The arrival of the G8 and G20 later this month to Ontario has a lot of Canadians upset – and those who aren’t are welcome to read some books. Canada’s largest bookstore chain has a display of books to read to learn about the complexities of what the G20 is all about.

It’s a good list of books that you should take a look at. Are there books you’d like to see on the list?

The book chain has created a reading list and series of G20 tables in its stores across Canada to “promote dialogue,” said Bahram Olfati, Chapters’ vice president for adult trade.

“You see people such as Bono talking about giving aid to Africa. We have included the book Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo, which says this aid isn’t really helping,” said Olfati. “It is one of my favourite books on the tables.”

With subheads such as “Outlaw Literature,” the tables are the product of a series of roundtable discussions among Chapters executives and staff to cover G20 issues from the left, right and centre, said Olfati.

But each store has the leeway to add to the table. And the one Chapters store inside the yellow security perimeter in downtown Toronto for the summit of 20 world leaders this month has decided to include titles by Chomsky, a long-time outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, and a few on Guevara, including Che: A Memoir by Fidel Castro.

Keep reading at The Star.

New FIlter for Oil Spills

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

You most likely know about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is seemingly never-ending and assumed you’d never see it mentioned on a website about good news. Well, it turns out enterprising people from the University of Pittsburgh have used the spill to test out their new polymer-based filter that successfully cleans water.

Don’t forget that one way to prevent oil spills is to use less oil in your own life.

Here’s a video (might want to turn down you speakers):

And here’s a press release from the university:

Gao’s filter hinges on a polymer that is both hydrophilic-it bonds with the hydrogen molecules in water-and oleophobic, meaning that it repels oil. When the polymer is applied to an ordinary cotton filter, it allows water to pass through but not oil. The filter is produced by submerging the cotton in a liquid solution containing the polymer then drying it in an oven or in open air, Gao explained.

For the massive slick off the U.S. Gulf Coast, Gao envisions large, trough-shaped filters that could be dragged through the water to capture surface oil. The oil could be recovered and stored and the filter reused. Current cleanup methods range from giant containment booms and absorbent skimmers to controlled fires and chemical dispersants with questionable effects on human health and the environment.

Read more.

A Shrew Spit Solution

- Adam Clare

Shrew spit may help in the screening of prostate, ovarian, and breast cancers. I don’t understand this one, so here it is from the CBC:

The northern short-tailed shrew, a mouse-like mammal with a long snout, is one of the world’s few venomous mammal species. With one bite, its saliva can paralyze prey.

Biochemist Jack Stewart of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., set out to find out how.

Stewart spent several years luring the animals with pepperoni and trapping dozens of shrews in his rural backyard before he eventually identified the chemical in shrew saliva that causes paralysis. Researchers then purified and synthesized it.

At first, Stewart thought the chemical — called soricidin — might be a potential painkiller, because it blocked nerve transmission. When he tested it on a random cell culture that happened to be ovarian cancer cells, however, he found the cells died — which was initially a source of annoyance to him.

“Then a light bulb came on,” Stewart recalled. “Oh, they died,” he said with a laugh. “That’s a good thing in cancer.”

Read more at the CBC.

These Boots Are Made For Energy Generation

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

A small company has produced a boot that creates energy by walking. The boot has a battery that stores an electric charge from the energy spent by walking.

The ‘Power Wellies’, as Orange is calling them, convert heat from your feet into an electrical current. According to the blurb, twelve hours of stomping through the Glastonbury Festival will give you enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour – the hotter your feet get, the more energy you produce.

In case you’re wandering what the science behind them is… Inside the power generating sole there are thermoelectric modules constructed of pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials forming a thermocouple. These thermocouples are connected electrically forming an array of multiple thermocouples (thermopile). They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers. When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated. Simples.

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