Researchers Discover the Key To Powering the Planet With Garbage

Who can forget the historical sci-fi moment when the Dr Emmet Brown of “Back to the Future” fame shoved some garbage into his time car to make it run? It was such a memorable moment in sci-fi history because it had a truthful ring to it—why can’t we power the world with garbage instead of expensive, polluting oil? We can, according to new research. In fact, a garbage-fueled society is a smart alternative. It’s like killing two birds with one stone. You can take common sources of organic waste products such as human sewage, animal waste, or agricultural runoff that isn’t being used for anything and convert it into cheap, renewable electricity.

“Performing double-duty of energy generation and pollution prevention is a huge advantage of an microbial fuel cell,” researcher Andrew Kato Marcus told The Daily Galaxy. He and his colleagues recently published a study featured in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering, which offers some key insights into the process. According to Marcus, in may ways “garbage power” is the ideal solution. And it’s already being done notes, “last year by a group in Harbin Institute, China actually used landfill leachate as the fuel for an MFC [microbial fuel cell].”

Bruce Rittmann, director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute explained to The Daily Galaxy that the impact could be huge. "If all the residual (waste) biomass from agriculture, the food-processing industry, and a number of industries could be collected and converted to electricity, we could displace up to 25% of the world’s energy demand today. Of course, we really cannot collect and convert all of it, but we can see that biomass conversion via MFCs or some other microbial systems can have a big impact on displacing fossil fuels.”

Bacteria have such a rich diversity that researchers can find a bacterium that can handle almost any waste compound in their daily diet. By linking bacterial metabolism directly with electricity production, the MFC eliminates the extra steps necessary in other fuel cell technologies.

How does it work? An anode respiring bacterium breaks down the organic waste to carbon dioxide and transfers the electrons released to the anode. Next, the electrons travel from the anode, through an external circuit to generate electrical energy. Finally, the electrons complete the circuit by traveling to the cathode, where they are taken up by oxygen and hydrogen ions to form water.
The bacteria depend on the anode for life. The bacteria at the anode breathe the anode, much like people breathe air, by transferring electrons to the anode. Because bacteria use the anode in their metabolism, they strategically position themselves on the anode surface to form a bacterial community called a biofilm.

Bacteria in the biofilm produce a matrix of material so that they stick to the anode. The biofilm matrix is rich with material that can potentially transport electrons. The sticky biofilm matrix is made up of a complex of extracellular proteins, sugars, and bacterial cells. The matrix also has been shown to contain tiny conductive nanowires that may help facilitate electron conduction.
Bacteria have evolved to utilize almost any chemical as a food source.

"Our numerical model develops and supports the idea that the bacterial matrix is conductive," said Marcus. In electronics, conductors are most commonly made of materials like copper that make it easier for a current to flow through. "In a conductive matrix, the movement of electrons is driven by the change in the electrical potential." Like a waterfall, the resulting voltage drop in the electrical potential pushes the flow of electrons.

Within the MFC is a complex ecosystem where bacteria are living within a self-generated matrix that conducts the electrons. "The whole biofilm is acting like the anode itself, a living electrode," said Marcus. "This is why we call it the 'biofilm anode.'"

Bacteria will grow as long as there is an abundant supply of nutrients. Jacques Monod, one of the founding fathers of molecular biology, developed an equation to describe this relationship. While the team recognized the importance of the Monod equation for bacteria bathed in a rich nutrient broth, the challenge was to apply the Monod equation to the anode, a solid. The team recognized that the electrical potential is equivalent to the concentration of electrons; and the electrons are precisely what the bacteria transfer to the anode.

Equipped with this key insight, the team developed a new model, the Nernst-Monod equation, to describe the rate of bacterial metabolism in response to the "concentration of electrons" or the electrical potential.

In their model, the team identified three crucial variables to controlling an MFC: the amount of waste material (fuel), the accumulation of biomass on the anode, and the electrical potential in the biofilm anode. The third factor is a totally novel concept in MFC research.

But how practical is this technology? Could this replace conventional forms of generating electricity in most parts of the world?

“I imagine MFCs becoming a competitive, renewable energy not too far in the future,” Markus told The Daily Galaxy. “The field is gaining momentum and some of our colleagues in Australia are building pilot plants for energy generation to answer that very question. Challenges are lowering the capital cost and improving process efficiencies. For the latter, our model will be useful for making improvements.”

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Mars Exploration: Secrets of the Soil

Is there life on Mars today? This question has been fiercely debated by scientists for the past thirty years.

The evidence sent back from Mars by two Viking Landers in 1976 and 1977 was inconclusive. In fact, NASA's first press release about the Viking tests announced that the results were positive. The "labeled Release" (LR) experiments had given positive results. But after lengthy discussions in which Carl Sagan participated, NASA reversed its position, mainly because another experiment detected no organics in the soil.

Yet to this day, Gilbert Levin, the principal designer of the LR experiment, believes the tests pointed to life on Mars (7). When the same two experiments were run on soil from Antarctica, the same conflicting results were obtained (LR - positive; organics - negative.) Soil and ice from Antarctica certainly contains life. The test for organics was negative because it is far less sensitive than the LR experiment. The same problem could have caused the organics test on Mars to give a false negative.

Before oxygen could accumulate in Earth's atmosphere, all the exposed iron had to rust. During that process, lasting hundreds of millions of years, Earth was also a red planet. In the current issue of the journal Nature, Corinna Wu asks: Could the oxygen that rusted the iron on Mars have been produced biologically? Could life on Mars have simply "run out of steam" after that stage of its development?

The answers to these profound questions will hopefully be made by the Phoenix Probe's Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) built by the University of Arizona and University of Texas, is a combination high-temperature furnace and mass spectrometer instrument that scientists will use to analyze Martian ice and soil samples. The robotic arm will deliver samples to a hopper designed to feed a small amount of soil and ice into eight tiny ovens about the size of an ink cartridge in a ballpoint pen. Each of these ovens will be used only once to analyze eight unique samples.

Once a sample is successfully received and sealed in an oven, the temperature is slowly increased at a constant rate, and the power required for heating is carefully and continuously monitored. This process, called scanning calorimetry, shows the transitions from solid to liquid to gas of the different materials in the sample: important information needed by scientists to understand the chemical character of the soil and ice.

As the temperature of the furnace increases up to 1000°C (1800°F), the ice and other volatile materials in the sample are vaporized into a stream of gases. These are called evolved gases and are transported via an inert carrier to a mass spectrometer, a device used to measure the mass and concentrations of specific molecules and atoms in a sample. The mass spectrometer is sensitive to detection levels down to 10 parts per billion, a level that may detect minute quantities of organic molecules potentially existing in the ice and soil.

With these precise measurement capabilities, scientists will be able to determine ratios of various isotopes of hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, providing clues to origin of the volatile molecules, and possibly, biological processes that occurred in the past.

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Insects, not meteor, killed dinosaurs: study

Dinosaurs were killed off by disease-ridden insects and changing plant life rather than a cataclysmic single event, a new book claims.

The US-based study claims mosquitoes, ticks and termites forced the dinosaurs into extinction between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods 65 million years ago.

According to the most widely accepted theories, animal life was killed off either by a massive meteor that hurtled into the sea near Mexico, or large volcanic eruptions in India which triggered extreme climate change.

But Oregon State University's George and Roberta Poinar say that does not explain why the dinosaurs died off over a long period — which would be unlikely in both cases.

"By themselves, such events do not explain a process that in reality took a very, very long time, perhaps millions of years," George Poinar said in a statement.

"Insects and diseases do provide that explanation."

He argues that fatal diseases including leishmaniasis and malaria, which have been extracted by scientists from the bodies of ancient insects, could hold the clue to the extinction of dinosaurs.

These diseases could have found their way into the bloodstream of the prehistoric mammals through a simple bite.

Hungry insect intruders would also have competed for food with herbivorous dinosaurs.

As the herbivorous animals began to die out, their predators in turn would have no way of surviving.

These factors "could all have provided a lingering, debilitating condition that dinosaurs were ultimately unable to overcome", the authors wrote.

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Blondes drive men stupid

Blonde women really do make men lose their heads, according to scientists.

Tests showed that men performed worse after they were shown pictures of fair-haired women, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Researchers concluded that rather than simply being distracted, the men were subconsciously copying the stereotype of the "blonde bimbo".

Academics at the University of Paris X-Nanterre examined men's ability to complete general knowledge tests after exposure to women with different hair colours.

Throughout both trials, those participants exposed to blondes recorded the lowest scores.

"This proves that people confronted with stereotypes generally behave in line with them," said Thierry Meyer, joint author of the study and professor of social psychology at the university.

"In this case blondes have the potential to make people act in a dumber way, because they mimic the unconscious stereotype of the dumb blonde."

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Side effects of food you didn't know

Here is a list of 10 common side effects caused by the food we eat:

Weight gain aside, I would rarely think of any other complications or side effects the food may cause. Side effects are attributed to medications or medical procedures, but not food, right? Well, guess again. Turns out, the food we eat may also cause side effects. Some side effects are serious, some are disturbing, and some may put you into embarrassing situation.

1. Body Odor. Researchers found that red meat consumption negatively influences on body odor [1].
   


2. Acne. Foods that are high in saturated fat and trans fatty acids increase the sebum production in the body, which in turn increases acne. Researchers suggest that there is a positive association between milk consumption and acne.


3. Allergy. Allergy is a number one foods side effect. In theory, any food can cause an allergy. But in fact there are 8 foods to blame for 90% of allergic reactions to food: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (including Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts), fish, shellfish, soy and wheat.


4. Candidiasis (Yeast infection). Yeast infections are caused by an overgrowth of the normal yeast in the body, so foods that affect the yeast levels may contribute to a yeast infection. These foods are: sugars, vinegar, starches, refined carbohydrates, yeast and yeast containing products.


5. Heartburn and Acid Reflux. There is a relatively long list of foods that cause heartburn. Some foods cause the lower esophageal sphincter - a muscle that helps to keep stomach contents out of the esophagus - to become weaker, and some cause the stomach to produce more acid than usual. Both of these problems can increase acid reflux. Most common food triggers for heartburn are citrus fruits, fried and fatty foods, vinegar, tomatoes, chocolate.


6. High Cholesterol (Hyperlipidemia). Cholesterol is found mostly in animal foods. Consumption of cholesterol-rich foods can elevate blood cholesterol level, which may increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. High cholesterol foods are: brains (beef, pork, lamb), eggs, organ meat (liver, kidneys, spleen).
   


7. Kidney stones. People whose diets are high in animal protein and low in fiber and fluids may be at higher risk for stones. Several studies have shown that increasing dietary calcium and restricting salt, animal protein, and foods rich in oxalate, such as rhubarb, spinach, cocoa, nuts, pepper, and tea, can help prevent calcium oxalate stones from returning [2].


8. Memory and Cognition Impairment. Among older adults whose diets are high in saturated fats and trans fats, a high intake of foods containing copper may cause a fast decline in their ability to think, learn, and remember, according to the study from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago [3]. The research studies have linked fat intake, especially that of saturated and trans fats, to Alzheimer's disease and other forms of cognitive difficulties.


9. Edema and Water Retention. Foods high in salt, sodium or sugar may cause the body to retain considerable fluids and worsen edema. The body needs a constant concentration of salt in its tissues. When excess salt is taken in, the body dilutes it by retaining fluid.
   


10. Migraine and Headache. Foods may trigger not only migraine but also tension type headache, which feels like tightening of a band around the head, making the whole head ache. Foods cause headaches by affecting the brain chemistry or changing the size of blood vessels. Certain foods cause headache in most vulnerable people because of their high content of the amino acids tyramine and phenyethyamine. The tyramine increases blood flow to the brain, which can lead to a headache. Common headache food triggers are aged cheese, beer, red wine, chocolate, nitrite-containing foods.

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